Why It Matters //
Jesus can be found everywhere in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament books. Often we miss some of His most significant appearances in pre-incarnate forms such as "The Angel of The Lord" (often called a Christophany). These encounters help us understand the nature and attributes of God the Son, pre-existing before time and present throughout the entire biblical narrative. In order to fully understand the divinity of Jesus Christ it’s important that we know how to see Him as a member of a Triune God who humbled Himself to the boundaries of humanity in order to redeem us. In this passage, Christ appears as the Angel of the Lord by the stream placing value on basically the lowest of the low in society.
What It's Talking About //
Genesis is the first book in the Bible, and it records the beginning of time, life, sin, salvation, the human race, and the Hebrew nation. Most scholars believe that Moses wrote the Torah (the Hebrew scriptures), which are the first five books of the Bible. Genesis narrates the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and in this passage we read about Abram, his wife Sarai and Sarai’s Egyptian servant Hagar, who encounters the Angle of the Lord in the desert.
Genesis 16:3-14 NIV
3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.