Hagar Meets the Messenger of Yahweh (#4 in Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh)

I had an experience of God’s presence that I did not deserve nor expect. I was teaching in a church in India in 2012, and at the end of the teaching time the pastor came and told me there were several people in his congregation who wanted me to pray for them. I didn’t feel panic, but I didn’t really relish the opportunity because I knew these folks were probably going to ask for healings and I didn’t have much confidence that my prayers would garner those healings for them. Perhaps just to show me not to sell Him short, as my translator talked with the first person in line to tell me what she wanted prayer for, before she told me I knew what her issue was, God made me know she was being bothered by a demon. Sure enough, it was an older woman who was being wakened each morning at 1 a.m. by a demon. I was astonished that God had revealed this to me and took it as a sign that I needed to pay attention to what He brought to my mind as I prayed for these folks. I prayed for the woman and instructed her how make the demon flee, and a word the next day with the pastor told me she had received God’s help.

Hagar, the servant of Sarah, also had an unexpected experience of God’s presence. We first meet the Messenger of Yahweh in Genesis 16, when Sarah harshly mistreats Hagar, her servant, who has become pregnant with a child on her behalf as a concubine of Abraham.  The pregnant Hagar flees into the wilderness in despair.  The Messenger of Yahweh finds Hagar seeking shelter at a spring and initially asks her questions about what is going on.  We may assume from what Hagar says later, that the Messenger of Yahweh appears to her in human form, because it is not until He begins prophesying to her about her child and commanding her to return to Sarah that she realizes it is Yahweh who is speaking to her.

⁷ The Messenger of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”  She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”  ⁹ Then the Messenger of Yahweh said to her, “You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment.” ¹⁰ The Messenger of Yahweh also said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.” ¹¹ Then the Messenger of Yahweh said to her: You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for Yahweh has heard your cry of affliction. ¹² This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will live at odds with all his brothers. (Genesis 16:7-12)

In fact, though throughout it keeps describing this man who is speaking to her as the Messenger of Yahweh, in verse 13 a shift occurs:

So she called Yahweh who spoke to her: The God Who Sees, for she said, “In this place, I have actually seen the One who sees me” (Genesis 16:13)

Some translations make this a question, “Have I actually seen the One who sees me?” suggesting that Hagar is unsure if she has seen Yahweh or not, though she suspects she has. But regardless, Moses says she “called Yahweh who spoke to her: The God Who Sees.” Moses identifies the Messenger of Yahweh as Yahweh who spoke to her.

This makes it clear that the Angel or Messenger of Yahweh who appears to Hagar is not a created angel, but is Yahweh Himself.  How can that be? Rashi, a famous medieval French Jewish rabbi (1040-1105), and the author of comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible, says of this verse that Hagar was speaking in wonderment, “Would I have thought that even here in the desert I would see the emissary of the Omnipresent after I had seen them in the house of Abraham, where I was accustomed to seeing angels?” Rashi completely ignores Moses’ comment that Hagar was speaking to Yahweh and calls the Messenger of Yahweh merely an “emissary of the Omnipresent.” We would suspect that he envisions Yahweh speaking through the emissary or messenger, and therefore that Yahweh is speaking to her. But we will see that this cannot be what Moses means.