Genesis 16: 8-16

And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” (vs.8-9)

Whoa! Go back and submit to someone who is mistreating her??? I would not want to draw generalizations about staying in an abusive relationship here, but why on earth is God asking Hagar to do such a thing? Talk about a hard choice to obey! She would have to completely swallow her pride and go back to face the one who was tormenting her - with an attitude of submission - and not just to God through obedience, but to Sarai herself. God tells Hagar specifically to submit “to her.”

Have you ever worked with or for someone who was truly a difficult person in your life? Are you related to a difficult person and you feel justified in NOT going back? OUCH! Been there! I don’t know what difficult thing God might be asking you to do, but I do know that He never asks us to do something without also providing us with the ability and means to do it. Look at what He promises Hagar:

The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” (vs.10)

Okay, that should soften the blow of having to face humiliation and possible harassment. That’s a pretty exciting promise! Then God gets very personal and specific:

The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael or the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” (vs. 11-12)

Now, as an expectant mom, wouldn’t you want to hear that your son is going to be loved by all and wildly successful? Would you want to hear that he is going to be a rebellious, stubborn, angry kid, always ready for a fight?? Well, hidden in there, as a word of great comfort, is the name of her son, Ishmael, which means God hears or, as Beth Moore puts it, Yahweh has been attentive to your humiliation. Beth points to the prophecy of Ishmael’s destiny not as a curse, but as a matter of fact. And, surely, the legacy of the Ishmaelites is one of continual fighting and upheaval. Boy! Are we seeing it in today’s headlines!

Beth Moore also points out that after God has given Hagar a name, Hagar turns around and gives God a name, El Roi, the God who sees me, for she responds to his promise, saying, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (vs. 13)

God sees this pathetic servant girl who had despised her mistress and then run away to the desert. He sees her anger, her desperation, her humiliation, and her fear. He knows all about the ugly attitudes within her heart. Yet He very intentionally and compassionately seeks her out to let her know that He sees and still loves her deeply. Hagar finally had what she needed to go back and submit to Sarai, for she knew for certain that God would be with her and that He had a plan for her and for her son.

Isn’t this just the most exciting chapter? God sees us and He has a plan. Whatever difficult thing He calls us to, He will also walk us through. He has our futures laid out on His drawing board and He will deliver us through it all. What are you facing today? A scary medical procedure? A future without a loved one? A financial disaster? The loss of your job or home? Are you being asked to submit to a difficult boss - or even a difficult husband? Trust that situation or person with God. He is the God who sees us!
 

Genesis 16:3-6

Back to Sarai and Abram! Oh, and now we get to add the third party: Hagar!

So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. 


Oh boy! We talked about Sarai’s problem with manipulation last week, but I just wanted to quote Beth Moore on this passage, from her study, The Patriarchs. First, she reminds us that women by “nature tend to be nurturers, straighteners, fixers,” and that God wired us to be “suitable helper[s]” for our husbands . (Gen 2) However, Beth says, “Satan prides himself on tangling our wiring until the outcome is a knotted counterfeit of God’s wiring. Help tangles into manipulation with the slightest rerouting.” What Sarai did was in keeping with the cultural custom of the day, but it was not within God’s standard for marriage.

We don’t know if Hagar was beautiful, but we are certain she was younger than Sarai. And when she became pregnant, she began to disrespect Sarai, for, after all, SHE was providing Abram with a child. It was finally dawning on Sarai just exactly how badly this had turned out. Adding a pregnant, younger woman to this household was NOT a good thing! In fact, Beth Moore point to Proverbs 30:21-23 to prove that this would have been a disaster for all:

“Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king, a godless fool who gets plenty to eat, a contemptible woman who gets married, and a servant who displaces her mistress.”


There must have been fireworks in this tent! And then came the blame game! Sarai says, “May the LORD judge between you and me,” obviously thinking Abram bore the responsibility. And she was correct that, as the spiritual leader of the household, and as the one who so eagerly accepted Sarai’s plan over God’s, he was ultimately responsible. However, there was certainly enough blame to go around here, eh?

Note the nasty attitude, though, that both Sarai and Abraham adopted. They didn’t even call her by name, but referred to Hagar as Sarai’s “slave.” In fact, the callousness with which Abram dismissed Hagar is pretty shocking: “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Abram very passisvely gave Sarai license to oppress Hagar, and that’s just what she did! YIKES! How did our two spiritual parents get to this point? By NOT trusting God to do the job! Oh, that we would learn to give Him the reins and relax as His plan unfolds, instead of stepping in to help Him along! And the ramifications? They are still being felt to this day with the tension between the Jews from Isaac’s lineage and the Arabs from Ishmael’s. More about that later...

Off to work!

 

Genesis 16:1-4

How gracious our God is! I just want to thank you all for your words of sympathy and for all of the prayers that have gone up on behalf of our family and for sweet Stephanie and my sister, Jodi. Bless you all!!! Keep ‘em coming, please!!

In the midst of this surreal time, you shake your head at how life just moves on - just like the images of that unrelenting tsunami that swept everything in its path away. While you feel your life stand still, everything and everyone rushes on - and you have to as well, because the meals need to be prepared, the lessons need to be planned, the papers still need to be graded. So, how grateful I am for the “need” to be back in His Word this morning!  And, goodness, we are at one of the most amazing stories in the Bible! Poor Sarai! She goes down here as one of the worst “helpers” of God! Her decision to further God’s plan still has ramifications to this very day! !

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” (vs 1-2)

We know that Abram had received God’s promise of an heir - and that he had believed God that it would happen. It would seem that Sarai had not had the same personal encounters with God, so she apparently did not know His character as well. She has heard about these promises, but not seeing any way that she could be involved, since she was clearly barren and way too old, she assumes she can help God along with this one. What jumped out at me this morning was the phrase perhaps I can build a family through her [Hagar]. Sarai would build the family, not God. How subtle that one pronoun is, and yet it is the heart of the problem, isn’t it?

This is such a hard passage to read - I cringe when I read these verses, because I know how often I, too, have tried to “help” God. Just one of MANY examples was how I thought I knew best what my daughter, Emmy, needed best in a mate - and I tried to pray away Nathan when they were dating! I had my friends praying for a more “godly” match, because I didn’t think Nathan was quite the spiritual leader I wanted for Emmy!!! I always tell people that Nathan is the best “NO!” I ever received from God!! He is the most adoring, fun, and GODLY husband and father to Emmy and Beau - and I could not love him more if I had given birth to him myself. The LORD graciously ignored my attempts to manipulate that circumstance, and now I always tell younger mothers, let God be God in the lives of your children. He can do such a better job. We think they have to have certain experiences (go to prom, be in student government, go to a certain college, marry a particular type) because of our own experiences, yet God’s plan is so much better. He is building His faith walk with each of our children individually, and we need to let it go!! What would I ever do without my wonderful Nathan???

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. (vs 2b-4)

When I read Abram agreed to what Sarai said I thought of the pattern of faith we’ve seen: Abram believed God. I’m thinking that he certainly is agreeable! Agreeing with Sarai about taking another woman? Well, of course he did! DUH! Oh my goodness, what a disaster awaits him! He will be so sorry he ever agreed to this one!! Sarai will be so very sorry that she did not wait on God, but took matters into her own hands.

When Emmy was in college, she was visiting the home of her dear friend, Megan. Megan’s mom, Chris, was counseling the girls about dating and men. She very wisely told them, “Wait for your Isaac - don’t settle for Ishmael!” What perfect advice! I have repeated it over and over to others! And we will see here that Sarai will so wish she had waited on God instead of rushing in with a solution.

More about that next week! Have a blessed weekend. I’ll be working on report cards - Oh, help me dear LORD!!! :)