Commentary - Genesis 16:15-16

Bird's-eye view

In these closing verses of Genesis 16, we see the tangible result of Abram and Sarai's fleshly attempt to fulfill God's promise. This is not a chapter that ends with a triumphant "amen" from heaven, but rather with the quiet, factual record of a birth. Ishmael is born, and Abram is old. The narrative here is sparse, almost clinical, yet it is laden with theological weight. It chronicles the outcome of impatience, the birth of a son outside the direct line of promise, and sets the stage for the conflict and grace that will follow. God's plan was not thwarted, but the path forward was just made more complicated by human meddling. This is a story of God's faithfulness in the midst of man's faithlessness, a theme that echoes all the way to the cross.

The naming of the son and the noting of Abram's age are not incidental details. They mark a significant point in redemptive history. Ishmael, "God hears," is a testimony to God's mercy on Hagar in the wilderness, yet he is Abram's son, the fruit of a human scheme. Abram is eighty-six, a full decade after he first received the promise in Canaan. This long wait, followed by this misstep, serves to magnify the miracle that is to come in the birth of Isaac. God is writing a story of salvation, and He is doing it with crooked lines, using the folly of men to display the wisdom of God.

Outline

Context In Genesis

Genesis 16 stands as a painful detour in the life of Abram. After receiving the glorious covenant promises from God in chapter 15, where God Himself walked through the pieces, Abram and Sarai take matters into their own hands. Sarai's barrenness, a source of deep shame in that culture, becomes the catalyst for a plan that is culturally understandable but covenantally faithless. They resort to a common custom of surrogacy through a handmaiden, Hagar.

The result is strife, jealousy, and cruelty. Hagar flees, encounters the Angel of the Lord, and receives a promise of her own concerning her son. These final two verses bring that sub-narrative to its conclusion. Ishmael is born. This event creates a central tension that will run through the rest of the patriarchal narratives and, in a typological sense, through the rest of Scripture. It establishes the conflict between the son of the flesh and the son of the promise, a theme the apostle Paul will pick up with tremendous force in his letter to the Galatians.

Verse by Verse Commentary

Genesis 16:15

So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

So Hagar bore Abram a son... The text states the biological reality plainly. The plan worked, after a fashion. A child was conceived and born. Abram has a son, his firstborn. On a purely natural level, this is a success. But we who have the rest of the story know that this is a hollow victory. This is the kind of success the flesh can manufacture. It can produce results, it can build things, it can have sons. But the flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This son, born of Abram's strength and Sarai's scheme, is a product of human effort trying to "help" God along. Whenever we try to help God, we should expect complications.

and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram is the one who names the child. As the patriarch, this is his right and responsibility. He formally accepts the boy as his own. The name itself, Ishmael, means "God hears." This is a direct callback to Hagar's encounter with the Angel of the Lord in the wilderness. God told her to name him this because the Lord had heard her affliction. So, even in this messy situation, born of sin and impatience, God's mercy is memorialized. Abram, in naming the boy, is obedient to the word that came to Hagar. He acknowledges God's hand in the preservation of Hagar and the child. This is a fascinating mixture. The whole enterprise was an act of unbelief, yet it is punctuated by an act of piety. This is how tangled our lives get. We sin, and then we pray over the results of our sin. God, in His mercy, hears even then.

Genesis 16:16

Now Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Now Abram was eighty-six years old... Scripture is not sentimental. It is a book of hard facts. And one of those facts is time. Abram is eighty-six. He had left Haran at seventy-five. Eleven years have passed. For over a decade, he has been waiting for the promise of an heir to begin to be fulfilled. This is a long time to wait when you are already old. The notation of his age does two things. First, it underscores the reason for his impatience. The biological clock was not just ticking; by all natural accounts, it had long since stopped. This is the pressure cooker of circumstance that led to the folly with Hagar.

when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. But second, and more importantly, it sets the stage for the greater miracle to come. Abram is eighty-six when the son of the flesh is born. He will be one hundred years old when the son of promise is born. God is going to wait another fourteen years. Why? He is waiting until Abram and Sarah are not just old, but as good as dead. He is waiting until all possibility of human effort is exhausted. The birth of Isaac cannot be attributed to some lingering virility in Abram or some fluke of nature in Sarah. It must be, and will be, a clear act of resurrection power. God's glory is the point. He allows the birth of Ishmael at eighty-six to show what man can do. He brings forth Isaac at one hundred to show what only God can do. The gospel is not about what we can produce for God, but about the life God gives to the dead.

Application

The story of Ishmael's birth is a standing warning against the subtle temptation to accomplish God's will through man's means. Abram and Sarai had a promise from God, but they grew tired of waiting for God's timing and God's method. So they cooked up a plan that made sense to them, a plan that was in accordance with the customs of their day. And it "worked." They got a son. But this son was not the promised son, and his arrival brought generations of strife.

We face the same temptation every day. We know what God wants, holy lives, faithful families, a flourishing church, a Christian culture. But we get impatient. We see the slow pace of sanctification, the difficulty of raising children in the fear of the Lord, the opposition of the world. And so we are tempted to cut corners. We are tempted to adopt the world's methods to achieve God's ends. We might try to build a big church through marketing gimmicks instead of faithful preaching. We might try to enforce morality through raw political power disconnected from gospel proclamation. We get an Ishmael, a result that looks like success but is born of the flesh.

The lesson here is the hard lesson of faith, which is the lesson of waiting. God is never late. His promises are sure. Our task is to trust Him, to obey His revealed will, and to wait for Him to act in His time. The fourteen years of silence between the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next are a testament to this. Abram had to live with the consequences of his fleshly solution, and wait. It is in the waiting, not in the scheming, that faith is strengthened and God is glorified. We must learn to be content with God's promises, and not rush ahead to build our own monuments to our own impatience.