Continuing my chronological Bible study, I begin this post in Genesis 16, with the continuing story of Abraham.
(Genesis 16:1) Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children; and she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.
Biblical scholar Adam Clarke writes a ponderance about Hagar. Since she is Egyptian, it is very likely that she was one of the maidservants that Pharaoh gave Abram for Sarai's sake, when they sojourned in Egypt. The name Hagar is a Hebrew name, and it means "foreigner" or "stranger", so Abram (or someone in his household) probably gave her the name.
(2) And Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children; please go in to my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her." And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Wow! Here begins the trouble with impatience with respect to waiting upon the Lord, and when one gets too focused on the "thing" promised, rather than just trusting the Lord to accomplish it. Sarai apparently believes that the Lord will give them an heir, but she fails by limiting God to the bounds of human nature. Oh, how often we do that! We try to put God in our little human box and try to limit Him to what we know and think best! Adam Clarke points out that female slaves were the property of the mistress of the household, so Sarai had the absolute right to dispose of her servant as she saw fit, with her husband having no authority in this case. Abram was just a willing participant in this crazy mixed-up scheme! Sarai's female servant being her personal property, she also had absolute right to the possession of her servant's children.
(3) And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.
Talk about patience! Sarai had waited 10 years in the land of Canaan for the fulfillment of the promise that they would have a child! She was now 75 years old! We know this because of a combination of scriptures that indicate Abram was 85 years old at this time, and Sarai was 10 years younger than he was. I get tickled to think how we can be so impatient in this day and age that we think God has forsaken us if things don't happen our way in a week or a month or even a year. My husband and I have an inside joke about his lack of patience, actually mine, too, but it started with regard to his patience. He always says, "I've already done that", meaning he has had patience already and now looks to the fruit of that patience. Oh, but the patience demonstrated in the Bible often meant decades! Another word for "patience" used in the Bible is "longsuffering", meaning "LONG (emphasis on LONG) suffering"!
(4) And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
While it may be that Hagar acted scornfully insolent toward her mistress, I wonder if it may just be she despised her because she knew she had the absolute right to take her baby from her.
(5) And Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you! I have given my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me."
Sarai tries to blame Abram for what has happened. Indeed, he apparently did take Hagar willingly, but as pointed out before, it was totally Sarai's right to give her maid as she wished. It was never Abram's right to take her.
(6) But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
Abram pointed out that Hagar was Sarai's property and that she could do with her what she wished. Hagar ran away when Sarai dealt harshly with her.
(7) And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur. (8) And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where will you go?" And she said, "I flee from the presence of my mistress Sarai." (9) And the angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand."
God told Hagar to return to her mistress, even though she may be mistreated. God has asked Hagar to do her part, her best, if you will, to do what she has been called to do in her life at this time, and that is to submit to her authority. That is what we must all do. I think about this when there is conflict between two parties, especially in the case of a husband and wife. The wife may think that it is unfair that she has to endure certain behaviors from her husband, but she is called by God to submit to her husband, and let God deal with her husband. Likewise with a husband who has a disrespectful and unloving wife, he is called to love her as Christ loved the church, and he must let God deal with her heart. All we can do is what we are called to do; we have no power over the other party. If we are obedient to God, He takes care of the rest. When we fight for our "rights", we make a bigger mess of things.
(10) And the angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." (11) And the angel of the LORD said to her, "Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your affliction."
The angel of the Lord prophesies to Hagar that she will have a son named Ishmael, and his descendants will be too numerous to count. "Ishmael" means "God will hear". God did hear Hagar's distress, but His answer to her is that she do her best part by going back and submitting to her mistress, and let God deal with Sarai.
(12) "And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he will dwell in the presence of all his brethren."
The angel of the Lord further prophesies that Hagar's son will be a wild man, untamed and fearing no man. He will be a fighter, fighting against all others and them against him. His people will be a separate people. Indeed, the Ishmaelites were a wild and wandering people.
(13) And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You God see me", for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?"
The meaning here is a little unclear. The NKJV translators supposed that Hagar actually gave the Lord a name, "You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees", but this may mean that Hagar called upon the name of the Lord, realizing that she had just seen and heard from God Almighty, the One who sees all and saw her in her distress.
(14) Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
The name of the well literally meant “well of the Living One seeing me”.
(15) And Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called his son's name, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. (16) And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
I find it interesting to ponder if Abram's wife's slave would dare to tell Abram what the name of the child should be according to the word of the Lord. I don't find that likely at all. Therefore, it was purely prophetic that Hagar should know the name of her son before Abram gave him the name. How awesome is that?
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