Sarai and Hagar

Story: Sarai and Hagar

Passage: Genesis 16

Characters: Sarai, Abram, Hagar, the Lord

Summary: Sarai had no children so she gave her servant Hagar to Abram as a wife. Hagar got pregnant and looked on Sarai with contempt. Sarai treated Hagar harshly and Hagar fled. The Lord stopped her and gave her a promise concerning her son. So she returned and gave birth to Ishmael.

Notes: Abram and Sarai had a weird marriage! Earlier, Abram gave his wife to an Egyptian pharaoh and now Sarai is giving Abram and Egyptian servant as a wife! They had something for Egypt apparently! Egypt is generally used to represent sin in the Bible. So it might be significant that when Abram and Sarai make decisions that don't involve God, they end up marrying Egypt. This was Sarai and Abram's attempt to keep God's promise with their own efforts. Abram wanted a son and the more wives he had, the more likely it would be that he would have one. When Hagar had a son though, things went south. I'm not sure if Hagar was trying to pridefully rub it in her mistresses face that she had had a son while Sarai was barren. Hagar also might have been mad and felt like she was used. Either way, Hagar was a burden to Sarai and Abram gave Sarai permission to treat her harshly. This indifference on Abram's part shows that he didn't care so much for Hagar as he did for the son she gave him. The Lord stopped Hagar in her tracks though. I am amazed at this exchange. The Lord asked where she came from and where she was going. But He addressed her as the servant of Sarai so He knew very well where she came from and where she was going! She answered very honestly that she was fleeing from Sarai. The Lord told her to return to Sarai and submit to her. Even though she was being mistreated, the Lord wanted her to respect the authority which He had given her. If she was worried about her son's fate, God covered that next. He told her that her son's offspring would not be countable. This mirrors God's promise to Abram. In fact, Ishmael was Abram's firstborn and would be covered in the covenant God gave Abram. God then prophesied that Ishmael would basically be a loner. He would fight everyone and everyone would fight him. Interestingly, Islam traces its roots to Ishmael. This prophesy appears to hold true even today in the modern world. Muslims are sterotyped as being militant and basically loners. It is interesting that Abram received a blessing and then his two sons became the fathers of the two biggest religions in the world. Hagar obeyed God and returned to Sarai. She bore a son and Abram named him Ishmael. This tells me that Hagar had told Abram about her encounter and Abram believed her and obeyed God's command to name the boy Ishmael.

Questions: How did Sarai receive Hagar once she had returned? How did she feel about Ishmael? How did Abram view Hagar? How does Islam fulfill God's prophecy? Why did Hagar treat Sarai with contempt?

Lessons: God keeps his promises in ways we would not expect. For example, we would not expect Him to let His promise apply to Ishmael, but it is obvious that God's covenant with Abram covered Ishmael as well as Isaac. Submission to authority is important. God recognized that Sarai had authority over Hagar. Even though Sarai was abusive, He wanted Hagar to return and submit to her. This matches up with the New Testament command to love our enemies and to submit to authority. Even when it doesn't make sense, we have to understand that God places authority over us and we must respect that.