Have you ever felt unseen — like your prayers rise to the ceiling but never seem to get through? Hagar knew that feeling. Cast out, mistreated, and alone in the wilderness, she did not encounter silence — but the living God himself. Her story in Genesis 16 reminds us that even in our darkest moments, God is not distant. He both hears and sees:
“The angel of the LORD also said to her, ‘I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.’ And the angel of the LORD said to her, ‘Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.’”
(Genesis 16:10-12 ESV)
Something extraordinary is happening in the wilderness. Hagar, the Egyptian servant of Sarah, is met by the Angel of the LORD — in Hebrew, Malak YHWH. This is no ordinary angelic messenger.
Notice what he says: “I will surely multiply your offspring.” That is not a promise that an ordinary angel can make. No created being can speak like that — only God himself can make such a covenantal declaration. And yet this same figure distinguishes himself from “the LORD” by saying that the LORD has heard Hagar’s affliction.
Who is this Malak YHWH?
So who is this mysterious figure, this Malak YHWH?
When we look at Hagar’s response, the mystery deepens — and we can find an answer:
“So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.’” (Genesis 16:13)
Hagar recognizes that she has encountered God himself — yet in a form that her human senses could bear. The “Angel of the LORD” is not a created angel at all, but the LORD appearing in visible form.
Throughout the Tanakh (the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible), this same Malak YHWH appears again and again: to Abraham, to Moses in the burning bush, to Gideon, to Manoah and his wife. Each time, this Messenger speaks as God, receives worship, and acts with divine authority.
Then, when we turn to the Gospel of John, the pieces come together. John introduces Jesus as “the Word who was with God, and who was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1,14).1
The Word who appeared to the patriarchs and the prophets is the same divine Person who became human in Jesus of Nazareth (see Gen.15:1; 1 Kings 19:9; Jeremiah 1:4,9; Ezek.1:3; Zech.4:8; Jonah 1:1). He is not a New Testament invention. He has been there from the beginning, revealing the Father’s heart, rescuing his people, and showing mercy to those in distress.
That means the one who met Hagar in the wilderness is the same Jesus who meets us in ours. He is the God who hears and the God who sees.
No matter where you find yourself today, whether in affliction, confusion, or loneliness, remember this: Jesus hears you! Jesus sees you!
He is not distant. He is near. The same God who saw Hagar still sees you.
1 Scholars such as Michael S. Heiser (The Unseen Realm, ch. 17) and Douglas Van Dorn (The Angel of the LORD, ch. 2) note that the “Angel of YHWH” and the “Word of YHWH” often appear as visible, personal manifestations of God—foreshadowing the incarnation of Christ.
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