Genesis 16

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:26utc

This chapter is another of the low points in Abraham's life. If in chapter 15 we saw Abraham living by the Spirit, to use Paul's expression in Gal.5: 16, here he walks according to the flesh. The moments of defeat seem to be all connected together. We read in vs.1 - "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar..." If Abraham had not lied to Pharaoh about Sarah, as we saw in chapter 13, there would have been no Hagar in his household. Sin has a way of creeping underground and popping up. There is no mention of faith in God's promise, that Abraham would have a child. It is true that God did not mention Sarah in Ch. 15:4 when He said: "a son coming from your own body will be your heir." But both Sarah and Abraham feel that they should help God to fulfill His promise, since the situation has come to the point where fulfillment would be impossible from a human viewpoint. Abraham is 85 at this time, which means that Sarah had turned 75.

The chapter is an object lesson in human psychology. The first feature emphasized is impatience. God's promise is taking too long. The factor of "waiting upon the Lord" is completely absent. Yet this is one of the basics of faith. Isaiah 28:16 says: "He that believeth shall not make haste." (KJV)

Secondly, there is a complete absence of the glory of the Lord. The arrangement Sarah proposes is 'make-shift.' It is based upon human customs, that are highly objectionable, if not in the light of that time, then in the light of eternity. Sarah admits that the child of promise should come from her. She does not give Hagar to Abraham as a wife, but as a slave, as an extension of herself. And if and when Hagar gives birth to a son, Sarah plans to claim the child as her own. She understood more about God's promise than meets the eye!

There is a world of reproach in Sarah's words: "The LORD has kept me from having children." This puts the blame for all that follows on God, and it gives a pious excuse for the arrangement Sarah proposes to her husband. We do not know how much nagging Abraham had to endure before he consented. Let's hope he did not give in immediately. But even if he agrees after some arguments and struggle, he remains ultimately responsible for what happens. From this moment of weakness comes the Arab-Israelian confrontation and the Islamic religion. Not waiting on the LORD can have consequences that reach from time into eternity. Vs.2 says clearly "Abram agreed to what Sarai said."

Sarah gave the order to Hagar, and Hagar obeyed as a slave girl obeys her mistress. But as soon as Hagar becomes pregnant the roles are reversed. All of a sudden Hagar becomes conscious of her own importance and that of her unborn child. She realizes that Sarah did not just "borrow her womb" to use a modern expression. Her pregnancy awakens her female instinct to the full. She starts to claim the child as her own - and probably Abraham as her husband. Most of all she lets Sarah know that she is pregnant and Sarah isn't. Evidently the shame hidden in barrenness was already prevalent at that time. This is more than Sarah can bear. Not only has her scheme collapsed completely, but she comes out as the loser!

We said that borrowing a womb was a modern expression. There are in fact interesting parallels between this story and the cases in which a fertilized egg was implanted in another woman's womb, for a price, and where the mother decided after the birth of her baby to break the contract and keep the child. The legal implication of those cases still has not been ironed out. The plan that Sarah and Abraham worked out was not less unethical than the modern, more sophisticated cases of our time.

We do not read what shape Hagar's despising of Sarah took. It showed itself probably in an attitude of insolence and some remarks. Sarah uses strong language in Ch. 16:5, putting all the blame on her husband. We read: "Then Sarai said to Abram, 'You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.'"

What amazes me is that we do not read that she was ever that upset when Abraham put his scheme in action and forced Sarah into prostitution to save his own hide. But Hagar's reaction to her pregnancy hurt her to the quick. She conveniently forgets that it was she who conceived the plan to start with. There were probably several factors that contributed to the hurt. Sarah must have suffered because she was barren herself. As we saw already, she actually blames that LORD for that. The fact that Hagar rubs this in means putting salt on an open wound. But also Sarah discovers the limit of her power over her slave girl. She had taken it for granted that Hagar belonged to her soul and body. She may even have had doubts about the existence of a slave's soul. That seems to be an error common to slave traders and slave owners. Sarah discovers that Hagar is a human being! She may have understood that this discovery condemned her, since she had never treated the girl as a human being.

"May the LORD judge between you and me"is harsh language indeed. Sarah first blames God and then Abraham, conveniently taking no responsibility herself. There is obviously more behind the story than we are told. Abraham may have started to pay more attention to the woman who was bearing his child than Sarah anticipated. That was not part of the deal. She had meant for Abraham to have intercourse with her slave girl a few times and then leave her alone. Abraham may have started to treat Hagar as his wife. So jealousy was added to hurt. We do not read this, but this may be implied in Sarah's calling upon the LORD for judgment. In saying: "Your servant is in your hands,"Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best," Abraham simply turned the girl back over to Sarah, washing his hands of the whole affair as if he was not responsible for anything that happened. The whole affair illustrates what happens to human relations when God is left out. And yet God's promise was the starting point for it all!

"Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her." The KJV and RSV say "And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face." (KJV) "Then Sar'ai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her." (RSV) The Bible does not go into detail, telling us how Sarah took out her anger and frustration on the poor girl. It was probably physical and verbal abuse. Sarah was no pussycat.

So Hagar runs away, but the LORD finds her. Vs.7 through the end of this chapter is one of the warm and precious passages of the Bible. We see God's love and compassion for this girl. He speaks to her tenderly and Hagar realizes that God knows her and loves her. She returns to her mistress as Onesimus returned to Philemon centuries later after the Lord finds him in prison. Hagar was the victim of a family feud, based on religion. How ironic that the promise God gave to Abraham should cause so much havoc in human lives! Of course it wasn't the promise, it was what human beings did with it. What Christians do with the Word of God has chased more people away from than drawn to salvation. Both Abraham and Sarah would have been responsible for the lostness of Hagar, had it not been for the fact that God found her.

In Ch. 16:8 we read that the Lord says to Hagar: "'Hagar, servant 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.' "God addresses her as "Hagar, servant of Sarai." He wants her to accept what she is. God abhors slavery, but that does not mean that He allows slaves to run away from their masters. He wants every human being to be free, but in a much deeper sense than we often understand it. Paul understood this clearly, as we read in 1 Cor 7:20-23 - ("Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it trouble you; although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.") and in the epistle to Philemon.

The question "where have you come from, and where are you going?" is asked for the benefit of Hagar herself. The omniscient God does not have to ask questions to gain information. But in the same vein as God called Adam after he fall into sin (Gen 3:9 - "And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" (KJV)), so God wants Hagar to know where she came from, where she is going and where she is. These basic points of orientation are often lacking in a person's life and therefore many lives are lived aimlessly. The Gospel of John puts into perspective the acts of Jesus, when he says in John 13:3 - "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God."

When Hagar answers the question to herself and she realizes what she is doing, God tells her to go back and submit. There is no explanation and no apology; it is enough that God found her. Now as she has met Him submission does no longer seem impossible. Only after she has made up her mind to obey does the LORD give her the promise regarding Ishmael. We do not read in so many words that she had made up her mind to obey, but this seems to be implied in the fact that the promise is given. God usually does not give promises to those who are disobedient.

The promise is a mixed blessing. First, God permits Hagar to look beyond the present to see the multitude of people that would come from the baby she is carrying. From there He brings her back to the present. It is a boy! (Had it ever dawned on Sarah that Hagar's baby could be a girl?) The boy is to be called Ishmael, which means "God shall hear," or, "Whom God hears," according to The Pulpit Commentary . The same commentary also remarks that this is the first instance mentioned in the Bible of the naming of a child before his birth. The dark side of the promise is the description of Ishmael's character. The KJV calls him "a wild man," the RSV "a wild ass of a man," which is Americanized by the NIV as "a wild donkey of a man." He will be unruly and quarrelsome, fighting with everybody and loving it.

Four or five thousand years ago the LORD knew about the Palestinian question, all that has led up to it and all that is to follow. Abraham paid a price for his deviating from the path of pure trust in the LORD's leading. Sarah was more right than she knew, when she said in vs.5 - "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."

But for the moment Hagar is blessed. She recognizes the experience by calling the place where she is "Beer Lahai Roi"; meaning "the well of Him that liveth and seeth me." Vs.14 also tell us: "it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered."Evidently when Hagar fled she meant to go back to Egypt.

More importantly, she recognizes the LORD as the One who sees her. In human relations to be known personally by a high placed person can be a great advantage. How much more important is it to be known by God. There is a great difference between acknowledging that God is omniscient and the recognition that there is a personal relationship between God and you. We read in Gen 16:13 "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.' "The Apostle Paul says in I Cor.8:3 - "But the man who loves God is known by God."Hagar's recognition is more than the acquisition of a certain knowledge about God. She has been touched by Him and this changed her. Love has started to grow in her heart. This means that in spite of Sarah's unreasonable and probably cruel attitude towards her, she can now submit, because she knows they have certain things in common. This incident illustrates vividly the imperfection and the perfection of human relations.

We do not read what happens when Hagar returns. Obviously, she is received back. How Sarah received her, we do not know. I am not optimistic on this point. Life will have been hard for Hagar. She does confide in Abraham though, because Abraham gives his son the name that the angel of the LORD mentioned to Hagar. The old man must have been puzzled, but he accepted the experience of Hagar as coming from the LORD. Hagar's changed attitude must have given credibility to her story.

Whether Abraham really believed that Ishmael was the son that God had promised is doubtful. At one point Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!," but that was fourteen year later. (Ch. 17:18). He must have loved and enjoyed the boy, and it must have been very hard for him to send him and his mother away fifteen or sixteen years later.