Abram is promised his children will number as the stars—a big family. No children in the making, so his wife, Sarai, pushed her maid Hagar on Abram and sure enough she gets pregnant. Sarai gets jealous and abuses her until she flees - she returns when an angel comes to her and tells her to a)name her child Ishmael and b)she’ll have a big family.

The chapter ends with Abram naming Hagar’s son Ishmael, so I’m left wondering if Hagar related the whole story of the angel to Abram. If she did, and she told him that she was told the same thing he was—that she would have a “big family”—were Abram and Hagar both thinking the promise God made each of them realized together? Abram’s promises didn’t mention Sarai, and here they already had one child together.
It’s also fascinating that Hagar is told she’d have a big family, but that Ishmael would be at odds with his family. And what was her plea that God heard and responded to? Salvation in the desert? The hope for a child?

Thoughts of your own on chapter 16? Comment away.