Have you ever had to wait on God? You trust His good provision yet it seems like forever goes by and nothing happens. It is difficult to keep our faith during these times. Often, we may see the wicked prosper or it may even seem like God has forgotten us or is far away. We can see from the first verse of Gen 16 that Abram and Sarai were in one of these times.
We can also see from verse 1 that this story will involve Sarai’s Egyptian slave woman, Hagar. Gal 4:22-26 interprets for us what is represented by the two women in this story. Hagar will represent God’s covenant with the Arab nations, descended from Abram. Sarai represents God’s covenant with His people, the Israelites.
We know from verse 16 of this chapter that Abram was in his mid-80s which would have put Sarai in her mid-70s. Since Sarai had not yet given Abram a child, she came up with a plan. Read her plan in verse 2. This plan may seem absurd to us in our modern culture, and even more so when Abram easily agrees to it. But again, this was an ancient Middle Eastern culture. Back in that time, it was customary, when a wife was unable to produce an heir, that she would provide her slave woman to bear a child on her behalf. The child would then become the child of the wife. This was a solution that could even be forced upon the wife in order to provide an heir.
Let’s think about this for a moment. Since the birth mother was a slave woman, no one thought twice about forcing her to sleep with the husband and then taking away her baby and giving it to the wife. It was a perfectly acceptable custom of the time. Notice here in this story that Abram and Sarai will never, even once, refer to her by her name. They will call her only “my servant” and “your servant”. She has been dehumanized to the point of being just another tool which they use to accomplish things. She may just as well have been a broom. Do we have customs in our culture today that are somewhat universally considered acceptable which, through the eyes of history may be seen as equally inhumane? As Christians, should we accept certain practices just because the general culture tends to see them as acceptable? As your mother would say, “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it?” But we can see here that Abram and Sarai accepted these practices as normal and usual.
Read verses 3-4 to see what happened. What were the consequences? This is a complicated home situation. First, you have a slave woman who is forced to sleep with the master. In our culture, that is considered sexual assault, but in theirs, it was a normal, acceptable practice. Then, you end up with two women married to the same man. That can’t turn out well. And when the slave woman realizes she is pregnant, she suddenly goes from slave status to having the upper hand. Stop for a moment and imagine what life in this household must have felt like (Prov 30:21-23). Remember, sin always has consequences and just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t mean it’s okay or that it will turn out well.
Here we see Abram and Sarai not waiting for God to fulfill His wonderful promise of a family. Instead, they felt the need to help God fulfill His promise. Apparently, they had come to the conclusion that God wasn’t going to get there on His own. Have you ever been there? You wait and wait for God and then suddenly you decide to take matters into your own hands. We can forget, sometimes, that God is able, and we feel like we need to help Him out. At those times in our life, we need to call upon the Holy Spirit to help us with our faith.
Notice how Sarai responds to this situation in verse 5. She reminds me of Adam and Eve in the way she wants to put the blame on someone else. She blames Abram for the situation even though it was her idea from the beginning. How many of us have ever been there? And what about Abram in verse 6? Even though he was just as culpable, he refuses to lift a hand in the resolution. He tells Sarai to do whatever she wants about the problem.
Sarai, angry at both Hagar and Abram, takes it all out on Hagar and mistreats her. The Bible doesn’t really tell us what she did to her, but it was bad enough to make Hagar run away. Have you ever been guilty of that? Finding one person to blame for all that is wrong in life? Or lashing out at another person when you can’t lash out at the person with whom you are angry? Yet we know that this wasn’t Sarai’s usual nature (I Pet 3:4-6).
In verse 7, we find Hagar resting near a spring in the desert. She is on her way back to Egypt. Who appears to her there? Notice that she has not gone looking for God, but rather, God has come looking for her. In verse 8, what does He ask her? Do you suppose he already knew the answer? Why would He ask this?
In verse 9, God tells Hagar what she must do. He compels her to do the right thing. Returning to Egypt as a runaway slave who is carrying the master’s child is probably not going to be a good option for her. She must return to face her problems. But now He makes a promise to Hagar in verse 10. What does He promise her? Notice that this promise is similar to the one God gave to Abram concerning the Israelites as far as the number of offspring but without the promise of a homeland.
Read verses 11-12. The words in these verses are not a curse from God. They are simply prophecy. A statement of fact concerning what will happen in the future. And God tells Hagar to name the child ‘Ishmael’, which means, ‘God hears’, because God has heard of her affliction.
Verse 13 gives us another Hebrew name for God that we can enter into our journals. Unlike every other Hebrew name for God, which has been given to God by Himself, this one is given to Him by Hagar. It is El Roi… God who sees me. Is this name meaningful to you also? Does it help you to feel that you are not alone in this universe?
It is somewhat difficult to pick out the meaning of verse 13 here in the English translations, but what she was actually saying was, “I have seen the back of the God who sees me”. Why is this distinction important (Ex 33:20-23)? We can see in verse 14 that Hagar also named the well ‘Beer Lahai Roi’, which means ‘well of the Living One who sees me’.
From the remaining verses, we can see that Hagar did, in fact, obey God and return to the household of Abram. The child, born when Abram was 86 years old, was named Ishmael as God had instructed. And we know, from history, that he was the father of the Arab nations, with descendants which were ‘too numerous to count’, just as God had prophesied. Add this birth to the genealogical tree you are building.
The Muslim nations today believe that they are the recipients of God’s covenant with Abraham and therefore, rightful heirs to the real estate known today as Israel (Palestine). As the first born, Ishmael would have been the one to inherit the promises from God rather than Sarai’s child. However, if you remember our reading from Gal 4:24-26, there are two covenants passing through two different women. One, given to Abram, belongs to the children of Sarai, and the other, belongs to the children of Hagar. Gal 4:21-23, 4:28-30 tell us that the children of Isaac (Sarai’s son) are the ones of the promise.
Responding to God: Spend some time talking to God about times you have made some very serious mistakes concerning your treatment of others. Ask His strength and wisdom to face those problems and resolve them appropriately. Ask His forgiveness and take responsibility for those mistakes rather than placing the blame on others. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give you discernment to not accept unholy practices just because they are considered acceptable by society at large. Pray for guidance that you will not be tempted to dehumanize particular groups of people. Ask for His strength to turn to Him when you are rejected by others.
Further Research: Use the internet to research dehumanizing practices employed throughout the world as a means to make human suffering palatable to those who would oppress others.
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