Why ...

[Scott Husted]

Why was Hagar the first person to give God a name?

 

[public hermit]

Isn't God the only one in that account who calls Hagar by name? Maybe there's something to that?

 

[Scott Husted]

I think God hearing the voice of her son is as well ...

 

[Tolworth John]

Isn't God the only one in that account who calls Hagar by name? Maybe there's something to that?

So what did Adam use when he spoke with God? Or his descendants who began to call on the name of God.gen 4:26.

 

[public hermit]

So what did Adam use when he spoke with God? Or his descendants who began to call on the name of God.gen 4:26.

That's a fair question. What name was it that they used? Moreover, did they give God the name upon which they called, or did they call on the name they were given? That also is a fair question. I'm open to correction on this, but Hagar is the first one I am aware of who we are explicitly told gives God a name, i.e. El Roi. She is cast out, with no one on her side, and God visits her. Her response is to name God, "God who sees" (or, "God who sees me").

I think it is pretty clear from the qal form of the verb used that Hagar is calling/proclaiming God as "God who sees." Again, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first instance in the scriptures. And, even if we allow for the few other similar instances, the significance of what is happening in this passage is noteworthy and resists reduction to just another instance of "calling on the name of the Lord." Her case is especially unique given her "outside" status.

 

[Scott Husted]

There is a very practical application of in the beginning was the word ... it never says Adam named God, but that Adam named everything God brought to him.

 

[Noxot]

I still stand with Hagar in that going as much as I can into the grace of God, there is something very blessed about her. So it was prophesied that her son shall be free and her son was put in the form of a donkey. So by her naming God and it being in the 13th verse which is a Most Holy number, I find that we can view Hagar in the same light that we View the name of those who god named as not his, and yet who he says are his. there is nothing more affectionate than being given a name and to return it by giving a name to your own beloved it could in my eyes be nothing but holy and good. I am not a isrealite like Paul was, I do not favor an Earthly tribe. God is the God of all. Pay well attention that God's greatest are often those that are rejected, jesus being the chief of rejects.

what better way to hide something than by revealing a truth of it so that it seems to have been fully manifest? Then those that can only accept the authority of what is plainly revealed will have been shown that they may have been called but that they still must be chosen. Because it is one thing to be royalty but it is quite another to be a person that was simply not an arbitrary victim of Fortune and favor. And it is those people that you will see Jesus marvel at. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

 

[Noxot]

If God gives me a name but I can't even give God a name I would be as those who believe that with God there is only a one-sided relationship. By their very nature all authoritarians are like this. That's why there is such a lopsided view of the Trinity. The fall created Authority. The very moment Satan wished to be above God was truth not only turned into a lie, it was turned into Authority. Wicked devil that you are, having fallen and making yourself inferior you could only view the truth as absolute power and authority and that is what you craved in your madness. Since you died all God did was come and die with you. That is God's loving Devotion to his beloved.