The angel tells Hagar to return to Sarai and submit to her. The instruction is not comfortable and not what Hagar wants to hear. Return to the mistress who mistreated you; submit to the one who drove you out. The angel does not validate Hagar's flight or endorse the direction of 'nowhere in particular.' But the instruction to return is followed immediately in the next two verses by extraordinary promises — the hard instruction is accompanied by divine commitment. Romans 13:1–5 grounds submission to authority in God's governance of human structures; the submission required here is not slavish acceptance of abuse but a return to the context where God's purposes will be worked out. The application: the instruction to return — to a difficult marriage, a hard community, a painful circumstance — is only meaningful when accompanied by the promises that make the return bearable. The angel does not just say 'go back'; he says 'go back, and here is what I will do.'

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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