Sarah and Hagar Part 2

Passages: 18: 1-15 and 21:8-21

My last post left Hagar and Sarah back living together. Hagar with Abraham’s son and Sarah still without any children born to her and Abraham from her own body. We have one woman trusting God and his word and another acting out of her own will to make God’s word happen.

In chapter 18 we see that God sends his angels to Abraham and Sarah with a message.

Then the Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.

(Genesis 18:10)

We then see Sarah’s response in a laugh “After I am worn out and my master old, will I now have this pleasure?” (Genesis 18:13). Sarah’s laughter comes across as if she believes God to be joking. Her reaction is one of disbelief. But when faced up to God she lies about her reaction. However, God see’s right through her laughter and doubt.

In chapter 21, Sarah and Hagar re-enter the story. This time, Sarah has had the son that God promised. He is named Isaac which means “he laughs”. It’s interesting that he is named after the exact reaction Sarah had when God told her she would have a son. Her laugh of disbelief has been turned into a laugh of joy.

Hagar on the other hand is later thrown out by the Jealous Sarah. When Sarah see’s the son Hagar bore to Abraham first she rejects this child as his. Even though it was Sarah who wanted the child to be conceived through Hagar, now that she has a child of her own; Hagar is once again pushed out of the picture. Hagar ends up in the desert with her son, they are both struggling to survive and knowing she can’t care for her son, Hagar hides him under a bush and leaves so she doesn’t have to watch him die. However, God sends an angel to Hagar to remind her that God is looking after them, just as he did a few chapters before when she escaped from Sarah into the desert. This time Hagar is not told to go back but instead God provides some water for Hagar and her son and they live and survive in the desert now. Hagar is again reminded by God that her son Ishmael are now included into the promise of being a great nation that come through Abraham. Even though Sarah and Abraham dismiss Hagar and Ishmael from their lives, God still knows that Ishmael is from Abraham and graciously still involves him in the promise. Though God assured Sarah that the blessings will be received through her son Isaac’s line, God still enables Ishmael to take part in the promises.

Here we see two different attitudes to God again.

Sarah – laughing at God but then rejoicing in his works and the keeping of his promises.

Hagar – Listening and trusting God to look after her and Ishmael in the desert.

It’s interesting the way that God responds to the different attitudes of the women. Particularly with Sarah. Sarah, going against God’s wishes enables Ishmael to come into being. Obviously God also allowed this to happen because he is in control. Sarah’s actions were to take Gods promises into her own hands and this greatly affected the life of Hagar and Ishmael. But Hagar, she remained faithful to God. She ran away and returned once God told her to, them when she was cast out from her home she trusted God to look after and provide for her and Ishmael.

God’s response to both women is to keep his promises. Both women are included in the promises made to Abraham, particularly around the great nation. Sarah is still included because she is Abraham’s wife and though she doesn’t respond rightly to God he still acts to give her the child he promised. Hagar is included in the promises now because she had Abraham’s first son Ishmael. God still cares for her and look after her and ensures that Ishmael also gets his share of the promises that he inherits from his father.

God is consistent throughout the whole ordeal. He still acts around his people and in their lives. He ensures his word is kept and cares for Hagar even though she is a slave to Sarah. God treatment of both women is the same even though they have different social positions.

It’s pretty great to know that even though Hagar wasn’t a Jew (she was an Egyptian slave remember), that God is still working in her life. She gets to take part in the blessing to Abraham and becomes mother to a son who will become a great nation. She also, being Egyptian, gets to take part in the blessing to all nations. This just shows us that not only is God consistent, keeps his word and loves us, he also has a mind for all the nations and that is shown here.

So I guess the big question to ask after looking at these two women and how they respond to God is… how then should we respond to God? Is God true to his word? Does he do what he says?

I can conclude that God is true to his word in this passage and he does exactly what he said he plans and promises. God is consistent and we see this consistency filled through the Cross when Jesus Christ was crucified. God kept his promises to Abraham and Sarah by bringing Jesus through their line. He also included all the nations, and one way of seeing that happens with Hagar the Egyptian slave.

So what do you think of God now? Isn’t it great that he used such ordinary and messy people to bring about Jesus? How should we respond knowing these things?

Those are some questions ask yourself during this week.

Keep your noses in your bibles!

Many Blessings!

Sarah and Hagar (Part 1)

Passages: Genesis 15, 16. (https://www.biblegateway.com/)

Sarah (Sarai) is Wife to Abraham (Abram) who in Genesis chapter 12 is told by God to leave his land and his people and to take his family to a land that God has set aside for him. Abraham goes and is told he will become a great nation, have a great land and be a blessing to all people on the earth. In the part about the great nation Abraham is told he will be the father of as many children as the stars in the sky. (Think about what the sky looks like out in the country, where there is no light pollution from the cities, this is what Abraham would have seen).

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.
    I am your shield,
    your very great reward.”

But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”  And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”  He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

(Genesis 15: 1-6)

Abraham is remembered to be a man of great faith in God. This is something he is admired for. Leaving your home land to go somewhere else without knowledge of where it is takes a lot of guts.

Now here’s the tricky bit. Sarah can’t have kids. They’ve tried but it just won’t happen. They are both really old (past child bearing age) and don’t have a single child yet.

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.”

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.

(Genesis 16: 1-6)

Here we introduce Hagar. And Egyptian slave owned by Sarah. Hagar, being a slave obviously has to obey Sarah. (Yes the bible doesn’t seem to be against slavery. It was a common institution at the time. I will make a post on slavery in the bible at a later time). Hagar would not have had a choice about moving away from Egypt and we don’t get any clues as to her feelings about the move or hear anything about her apart from this section of Genesis.

Sarah doesn’t believe that she will be able to have children and so she says to her husband “the LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”(Genesis 16:2). Hagar doesn’t seem to have a voice in this. She has no choice but to sleep with Abraham, which she might not have wanted to do at all. And once she conceived “she began to despise her mistress.” (Genesis 16:4).

Sarah tries to deal with the issue by going to Abraham but his response is to tell her “Your servant is in your hands… do with her whatever you think best,”(Genesis 16:6). Then Sarah mistreats Hagar and Hagar leaves. We don’t know what sort of behaviour Sarah showed toward Hagar but if it was bad enough for Hagar to flee from them, then it must have been bad.

Hagar is found by an angel of the LORD and is told.

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

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,
    for 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.”

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”  That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

(Genesis 16:9-16)

So after all that Hagar goes home and gives birth to Abraham’s son. That’s all the focus this passage will take. We will look at the rest of the story next time. But for now let’s look at the different characteristics Hagar and Sarah have displayed in these sections of scripture.

Attitudes
Sarah	Hagar
·         Sarah has come with Abraham to the Promised Land and she shares in the promises God makes to Abraham. Particularly the one about being father to many nations and being a blessing. ·         Sarah doesn’t believe she will be the biological mother of any children God will give her and Abraham at this point. Sarah does not respond to God with the same faith her husband has when they moved to Canaan and when he was given the promises that Sarah also shares. ·         Sarah mistreats Hagar to the point that Hagar runs away.	·         Hagar has come along to the Promised Land as well but she isn’t given a voice about what she thinks because she is a slave in this situation. ·         Hagar is told to sleep with Sarah’s husband and to give birth to a child on Sarah’s behalf. Hagar isn’t seen to complain here. She seems compliant. ·         Hagar despises Sarah once she has fallen pregnant. Perhaps she was hoping she wouldn’t conceive. ·         Hagar is mistreated by Sarah and runs away. ·         Hagar told by an Angel of the LORD that she is to return to Abraham and Sarah and give birth to the child. ·         Hagar responds in faith (similarly to Abraham earlier) and returns back to Abraham and Sarah. ·         Hagar expresses her appreciation to God for seeing her and caring. She says “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13) Perhaps Hagar didn’t feel seen before, being a slave she may have felt isolated and she wouldn’t have been listened to.

Here we see two women. One who shares in the promises God has given to her husband and an Egyptian slave who ends up sharing in the promises of a great nation through the unfaithful actions of Sarah. Who may even have been to lead her husband away from God by telling him to conceive with Hagar. Sarah is Abraham’s wife and Abraham may well have told Sarah to have faith instead of sleeping with Hagar. But Hagar in the end of all this trouble is looked after by the LORD and also included in the promises of a great nation. (Genesis 16:10).

One should have responded in Faith and the other did respond in faith. One now has to share a promises that is rightfully hers and the other is included into a promise because the first was not faithful to God.

In the next post we will see what happens with Abraham, Sarah and Hagar. We will see what happens to Hagar now that she’s returned to Abraham and Sarah. We will find out if Sarah does get the child God promised.

We will be looking at Genesis 18:1-15 and 21:8-21.

For now, have a think about how you would react if you were in Sarah or Hagar’s place.

·         Did one react better than the other do you think?

·         Which one would you rather be if you could choose?

·         Who got the better deal? How has God acted in this story so far?

·         How can we see the promises to Abraham being fulfilled?

 (Read Genesis chapter 12:1-9 for more on the promises).

Many Blessings!

A study of Women in the Bible

So it's been a long while since I've posted here.
I'm not here to update on my life or to write any random posts about things right now.
Instead I am choosing this year to go back to how this blog started. As a place for Bible exploration and comments.

So I will be writing up a series of my thoughts as I read through the major stories of Women in the bible.
Being a Woman, I feel it's sometimes good to read, learn and reflect on how the Bible depicts Women and how God has created them/us to be.

This can be quite a controversial topic in our modern western culture. Many people see the Bible as suppressing Women under the authority of men. My aim isn't to debunk anyone's thoughts but simply to add mine into the mix.

So, to begin this blog post will now look at Genesis Chapter 2. If you don't have a bible on hand then you can read the chapter here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2&version=NIV

So in this Chapter we have the creation account written for the second time, following the ending of the first chapter. It written almost like a speedy commentary on the first chapter, but including some more geographical information about the locations of rivers and such (found in verses 11 to 14). Once we see everything has been created the chapter moves to focus on Adam.

We see Adam's purpose in the garden (verse 15: to work it and take care of it). He has received his rules around what food he can eat and what he can't and his boundaries around the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil (verse 17). Then the focus moves to the fact that Adam, even though he is surrounded by God's creation is 'alone.' We see this in verse 18: 'it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a suitable helper for him.' Here we see Adam is created to be in relationship with another creature. And it can't be any creature because God specifies that he has to 'make a suitable helper.' This is also interesting because at this point God has created everything.

To deal with this problem (of Adam being alone) God brings to Adam all the animals and creatures he has created and has Adam name them. (This is an interesting idea because God hasn't seemed to name of the animals yet, he has created them and now Adam is naming them). The end result of this is that 'no suitable helper was found' (verse 20) out of all the creatures existing at this point. Here we see the phrase 'I will make' come into play. God causes Adam to fall asleep and takes one of his ribs to make the woman. This is an action that hasn't been documented yet either. God is creating life out of something he's already created. The language of creating in Genesis 1 isn't used here either, 'and God said.' Here it says made, not spoke. So this creation is slightly different. After this creation is complete Adam is woken up and he see's Eve and there's an instant knowledge that she is the helper suitable for him. This is seen specifically in verse 23, 'This is now bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man.' Then they were united as one flesh, they were naked and unashamed. The explanation of our modern term of marriage is also seen here. The man leaving his Father and Mother to be united to his wife in verse 24.

Thoughts on Eve:

She's the last creature documented to be created here. She is created unlike other creatures that she was made and not spoken and she was taken from Adam. She is to be his helper and companion, they are both created to be relational with one another and are therefore united as one.

Eve isn't like the animals that Adam sorted through to find a helper from. She is special in that she was made after finding nothing else created was suitable. She was made specially for a specific purpose which is pretty amazing if you really think about it.

To end my thoughts on the passage I guess I can say I've learnt that Women are pretty special in the slight difference that we have been created. I will be continuing next time with Sarah in Genesis 18.

Many Blessings!