Genesis Chapter 16: “You Are the God Who Sees Me”
1. The Crisis of Delay
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, ‘Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.’” (Genesis 16:1–2)
The chapter opens with the ache of delay.
Ten years have passed since the promise of Genesis 12 — and still no child.
Faith waits; flesh grows restless.
Sarai’s plan is culturally logical but spiritually misguided.
She tries to help God fulfill His word — a temptation that recurs in every generation.
St. Ambrose writes:
“The desire to hasten the promise is the mother of error. Faith waits; unbelief hastens.” (On Abraham II.4.65)
The human heart, even when devout, finds it hard to trust divine timing. Yet what seems barrenness may be God’s hidden preparation for grace.
2. The Failure of Faith’s Substitute
“Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.” (Genesis 16:2)
This deliberate echo of Genesis 3:17 (“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife”) is no accident.
The same pattern repeats: a good man, a good woman, but faith misplaced and human counsel replacing divine command.
St. John Chrysostom comments:
“The patriarch was not condemned for weakness, but warned that even pious counsel can err when it forgets the promise of God.” (Homilies on Genesis XXXVII.2)
What begins as a practical plan becomes a wound of division.
Faith’s counterfeit always carries consequences.
3. The Birth of Strife
“When she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.” (Genesis 16:4)
Pride enters where patience fails.
Hagar’s conception becomes the seed of conflict — not because she sinned in motherhood, but because pride and resentment destroy peace.
St. Augustine writes:
“Hagar’s pride against her mistress is the image of the flesh exalting itself against the spirit.” (City of God XVI.25)
The human attempt to fulfill divine promise without grace always gives birth to strife.
Whereas faith produces Isaac (joy), human effort produces Ishmael (conflict).
4. Sarai’s Complaint and Abram’s Resignation
“Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the wrong done to me be on you! …’ But Abram said, ‘Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.’” (Genesis 16:5–6)
Abraham, the man of faith, here becomes passive — avoiding conflict rather than guiding in charity.
The husband who listened too easily now withdraws too quickly.
Thus, Hagar flees into the wilderness — the fruit of everyone’s failure.
St. Ambrose observes:
“When faith grows weak, the household loses order; for the just man must lead in faith, not yield to fear.” (On Abraham II.4.67)
Yet even in this brokenness, God’s mercy will find the outcast.
5. The Angel of the Lord Appears
“The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness.” (Genesis 16:7)
This is the first appearance of an angel in Scripture — and it is to a foreign, pregnant, runaway slave.
The divine messenger seeks not the powerful, but the forgotten.
The Fathers saw in this angel a manifestation of the Word Himself, the pre-incarnate Christ.
St. Ambrose writes:
“It was not a created angel but the Lord Himself under angelic form, for He promises with divine authority.” (On Abraham II.4.69)
The God of Abraham is already the God of compassion — He sees, He hears, He pursues the lost.
Grace goes out into the desert to find the one cast aside by sin and sorrow.
6. The God Who Sees and Hears
“The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress, and submit to her.’ … The Lord has given heed to your affliction.’” (Genesis 16:9–11)
The divine message holds both justice and mercy:
Hagar must return (obedience and humility), but she returns under divine protection and promise.
She learns God’s personal name in her own experience:
“So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are El-Roi’ (the God who sees me).” (Genesis 16:13)
This is the first time in Scripture that a human being gives a name to God.
A slave woman becomes a theologian — not by learning, but by encounter.
St. Augustine marvels:
“She who fled from man was found by God. He who sees all sees especially the humble.” (City of God XVI.25)
Hagar discovers what every soul must learn:
In the wilderness of sin or rejection, God sees you. His gaze is not condemnation but compassion.
7. The Prophecy of Ishmael
“Behold, you shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael (‘God hears’), because the Lord has listened to your affliction.” (Genesis 16:11)
The child of human impatience still becomes the object of divine mercy.
God does not revoke compassion because of human folly.
St. Irenaeus writes:
“Even when man acts by his own will, God brings forth good; He turns even the erring womb into a witness of His providence.” (Against Heresies IV.21.2)
Yet Ishmael will live “against every man” — a life of conflict, not covenant (v.12).
His story reminds us that every attempt to take God’s promise into our own hands breeds unrest.
8. The Well of the Living One Who Sees
“Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi (‘the well of the Living One who sees me’).” (Genesis 16:14)
The desert becomes a sanctuary.
The place of exile becomes a place of revelation.
The well — symbol of life and encounter — marks the spot where mercy reached the abandoned.
St. Ambrose sees in this a foreshadowing of Baptism:
“The well of the Living One is the fountain of grace, where the outcast finds sight, the sinner finds life, and the slave becomes free.” (On Abraham II.4.71)
So the geography of failure becomes the geography of grace — as the Cross will one day transform death itself into salvation.
9. The Birth of Ishmael
“And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.” (Genesis 16:15)
Abraham names the child according to the word of the angel — acknowledging that even in his misstep, God has spoken.
The mercy of God sanctifies what man mishandles.
St. John Chrysostom remarks:
“Even the fruit of impatience becomes a testimony of mercy, for God writes His compassion where man writes his folly.” (Homilies on Genesis XXXVIII.1)
Abraham learns that divine promise cannot be achieved by human effort; only by faith.
10. The Theology of the Chapter
| Theme | Revelation |
| Delay of promise | Faith must learn to wait upon God |
| Human scheme | Impatience breeds conflict |
| Hagar’s flight | God seeks the lowly and forgotten |
| The angel of the Lord | The Word Himself comforts and commands |
| El-Roi — God who sees | Divine compassion for every soul in affliction |
| Ishmael’s name | God hears even when we err |
| Beer-lahai-roi | The fountain of mercy and vision |
St. Augustine sums it up:
“In Abraham’s house were born both the son of the bondwoman and the son of the free; the one by the flesh, the other by promise. So too in the Church are both — until the promise be fulfilled in glory.” (City of God XVI.25)
11. Allegory and Fulfillment in Christ
St. Paul, guided by the Spirit, will later read this episode allegorically (Galatians 4:21–31):
Hagar = the old covenant, born according to the flesh.
Sarah = the new covenant, born through promise.
Ishmael = the law’s bondage; Isaac = the liberty of faith.
But this allegory is not rejection — it is transformation.
Christ, born of a woman, enters both worlds: He redeems those under the law and opens freedom to those of faith.
St. Ambrose concludes:
“In Hagar is prefigured the Synagogue; in Sarah, the Church; in Ishmael, the letter that kills; in Isaac, the Spirit that gives life.” (On Abraham II.5.75)
Thus, the story of human failure becomes prophecy of divine grace.
12. Moral and Spiritual Application
Be patient in faith. Delay is not denial. The waiting soul becomes the faithful soul.
Beware of “helping” God. His promise needs trust, not interference.
Listen to the afflicted. The God who sees sends us to see and comfort others.
Find your well. Every believer has a “Beer-lahai-roi” — a place where God found you and gave you sight.
Name your Ishmael. Acknowledge your missteps honestly, and let even your mistakes glorify God’s mercy.
13. Christ the God Who Sees
In Hagar’s story, the Fathers saw Christ, the Divine Word, who meets the outcast at the well:
The same Lord who met the Samaritan woman (John 4).
The same God who sees Zacchaeus in the tree and Mary in the garden.
The same mercy that calls sinners by name and turns exile into encounter.
St. Augustine writes:
“He who appeared to Hagar as the Angel of the Lord appears to the world as the Word made flesh. The God who saw her sees us still.” (City of God XVI.25)
Thus, the wilderness of Genesis 16 becomes a prophecy of the Gospel — the God who seeks the lost, hears the cry of the oppressed, and transforms the slave into a child.
14. Closing Prayer
God who sees and hears,
You looked upon Hagar in the wilderness and called her by name.
Look upon us when we stray in impatience or sorrow.
Teach us to trust Your timing, to wait for Your promise,
and to recognize Your mercy in every trial.
May the well of Your grace refresh all who are weary,
until we behold You face to face in the land of promise,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 