MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Genesis 16
In our society, we have surrogate mothers who have agreed to legally bear a child for someone else. Once born, the child will be handed over to the new parent(s), usually for a fee. Sometimes surrogacy is because of infertility. Sometimes it is done because of vanity. But in Old Testament times also, surrogacy happened. Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale tells of a future dystopian society in which “handmaids” are fertile women who have been imprisoned & forced to bear children for the higher-ranking members of their society. The justification for that practice comes from Genesis 30 where Abraham’s grandson Jacob was convinced by his childless wife Rachel to have sexual relations with her maidservant Bilhah for the purpose of procreation. Rachel tells Jacob, “Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I can build a family.” (G. 30:3) That’s disturbing for us moderns to read! But today’s Genesis 16 passage will tell us of a similar, earlier situation.
25 years before the events of Genesis 16, God had instructed Abram to move from his homeland in Ur of the Chaldeans to a Promised Land (which turned out to be Canaan) where God would bless him, and through him make a great nation, and then through his seed bless all the world. Though the Bible does not precisely give the age of Abram at that time, it does say that after moving from Ur northwards to the city of Harran, Abram left Harran at age 75 to go south to Canaan, which would mean that he would have been around age 60 when God first spoke to him back in Ur. His wife Sarai was ten years younger than him, so she would have been around 50. Now, those ages aren’t outrageously old to start a family but by the time of the Genesis 16 passage we will read today, Abram would have been around 85 and Sarai 75 and her patience had worn thin. They were not spring chickens anymore, so Sarai hatched a plan to get that promised son born: Abram would have sex with Sarai’s maidservant Hagar who would hopefully become pregnant and be their surrogate. People look at this situation and wonder, “Why did Abram and Sarai not trust God? After all, God promised Abram that he would have a son.” But God had not specified that the son would be born through Sarai. Now, many marriage contracts archaeologists have dug up from the Ancient Near East settlements at that time have included a provision that if a wife was not able to deliver a son after ten years, she must supply a handmaid to give him a son. We can’t say for sure that Abram and Sarai had that kind of contract, but it was a common-enough practice back then that everyone went along with Sarai’s plan.
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 16:1-4a)
Who is Hagar? She is a foreigner, an Egyptian separated against her will from her homeland & her family. Abram and Sarai had earlier been in Egypt where they acquired animals as well as “menservants and maidservants”, presumably from Pharaoh’s household. Slavery was an unfortunate reality in that world. Slavery happened either through a people group being defeated in warfare and its citizens taken away into slavery, or when a poverty-stricken person sold themselves as an indentured slave to the person they owed money to, with the understanding that they would regain their freedom once their debt was paid off. Hagar’s is a sorry life, taken against her will from her homeland, living as a maidservant, doing whatever is ordered of her by her masters, Sarai and Abram. God loved her, though, as we will see.
The verses we just read say that Sarai gave Hagar to Abram to be his “wife”. In the O.T., when two people had sex, they were considered to have become married, but in the case of Hagar she was regarded more as a “concubine” than a wife. Elsewhere in her story, only Sarai is referred to as Abram’s “wife”. What could possibly go wrong with Sarai’s plan to make Hagar the surrogate mother for them? Plenty.
When Hagar 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. (Genesis 16:4b-6)
Three people are blamed in this story: Sarai for not having a child, Hagar for enjoying her pregnancy a little too much in from of Sarai, and poor old Abram who, when Sarai angrily confronted him, must have been thinking, “Oh, it’s all my fault? And whose idea was this in the first place?” It’s almost funny!
Sarai claims that she has had a “wrong” or, in the Hebrew, a “violence”, done to her, seemingly never considering the wrong she has done to Hagar. Quite likely, those two women had a hatred for each other. But Hagar, in Sarai’s eyes, was a product to be used. That was all. She couldn’t negotiate with her masters. Sarai had told her, “My husband needs to have a son. The Lord has not given me a child, so you’re going to have to do it in my place, but your child will belong to me and be seen by others as being mine.” That was the negotiation. Abram and Sarai saw nothing wrong with this. That was a problem. Hagar obeyed out of self-preservation but when she conceived, she now had a leg up on Sarai and it seems she finally had the chance to let out the resentment she had kept inside. In the days and weeks that followed, her mistress Sarai did everything she could do to make Hagar’s life unbearable. Finally, Hagar decided she could no longer bear it, and she fled, going on the road to Shur – which was the road that lead back to her homeland, to Egypt. She stopped by a spring of water, but she had brought no food or water and was in real trouble. Pregnant, exhausted, and lonely, Hagar stopped to rest.
The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 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.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” (Genesis 16:7-10)
Going back to Egypt would have resolved nothing for Hagar. What did she have back in Egypt? Most likely, nothing and no one. There was another problem with Hagar going back to Egypt in that if she had succeeded in going back to Egypt, that action would have gotten in the way of God blessing her and her son. God cared about Hagar and the son growing within her! The angel of the Lord promised Hagar that her son will form a great nation and through their bloodline, she would have descendants too numerous to count, which turned out to be the case. But, as to the angels’ words, Hagar needed to fix her relationship with Saria as she had not acted as she should have with her.
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.” (Genesis 16:11)
Now, the Hebrew meaning of the word Ishmael is revealing:
Ishmael (El Shama) means, “God hears” (Genesis 16:11)
Ishmael is a combination of El (a shortened form of “Elohim”) a Hebrew word for God. Specifically, Elohim means “Supreme One” or “Mighty One”. As for shama; it means “to hear” or “to listen”. So, the name Ishmael means, “God hears us”. In other words, God cares about us. We have a superlative God, one who is fully kind, loving and compassionate. Then, the angel explains to Hagar about her son.
“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.” (Genesis 16:12)
A life of battling others was ahead for Ishmael, the angel prophesied.
This is a “descriptive” prophecy, not a “prescriptive” prophecy.
The difference between descriptive and prescriptive prophecies is that a descriptive prophecy is simply a description of what will take place, whereas a prescriptive prophecy is a command, a prescription that the stated thing must happen because God has ordained it to be so. So, stating a “descriptive” prophecy, a description of what would happen, the angel told Hagar, Ishmael would be a “wild donkey of a man”. He turned out to be exactly that, and then he would have 12 sons who would follow his lead. They would be a clan of fighters.
When I was a boy, the Johnston brothers were a family of fighters. Five of them, and all brawlers. Much to my mother’s shame, in one hockey game I beat up one of the Johnston brothers, on the command of my coach who had told me to “Do something about that kid.” So, I did. Afterwards, in the kitchen of our house my mom demanded to know who had instructed me to do that. As she was asking that question, and behind her back, my dad – my hockey team coach – entered the kitchen, heard the question, and silently walked backwards out of the kitchen! I will never forget that moment. Afterwards, the Johnston brothers treated me as if I was their new best friend. So weird!
In any case, Ishmael and his sons were brawlers and fighters. They all acted like a “wild donkey of a man”. The descendants of Ishmael’s sons would later divide into twelve tribes who would become powerful, but their problem would be with the sons and descendants of Ishmael’s future brother, Isaac; they would forever be at enmity with them. Consider this: Abraham and Isaac and their descendants became the Israelites/Jews who would take over the Promised Land of Canaan. Ishmael and his descendants became the forerunners of the non-Jewish people groups of the Middle East, including those who had been expelled from Canaan when the Israelites eventually took over that “Promised Land”. Those people groups, in the 7th century largely embraced Islam.
This became a lasting problem for the relations between the Jews and Muslims because the Muslim holy book, the Quran, teaches that Ishmael, not Isaac, was the promised son who Abram, in Genesis 22, took to be sacrificed in Genesis 22. That near-sacrifice event happened on a large rock located on a hill claim, and that happened in Jerusalem, Muslim scholars claim though such information is not found in the Quran. Later Muslims built the “Dome of the Rock” edifice overtop of that supposed rock where Ishmael was almost sacrificed. Of course, the Bible states that Isaac was that son, not Ishmael, thus the explanation of the origins of the conflict in the Middle East. Muslims teach that Ishmael, being the first-born son of Abram, was the rightful heir to all the promises God made to Abram. They teach that Isaac was not the rightful heir to the Promised Land — he was a usurper. Consequently, Muslims contend that they have the God-given right to live in the land of Israel. I don’t want to get into all of that today. Indeed, I simply want to point out that Sarai and Abram not fully trusting God produced huge problems! That is a lesson for us. Let us fully trust God and stop trying to force His hand with our own planning. In any case, back to Genesis 16, Hagar understands God’s care for her and her son. God heard her.
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. (Genesis 16:13,14)
Remember that Hagar has learned that God is the “God who hears”. That encounter with God gave her insight into God’s all-knowing, fully-caring ways and so she gave him a name that reflects that attribute of God: El-Roi, “the God who sees me”.
El Roi means, “the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13a)
When we are feeling the most vulnerable, invisible, by ourselves, lonely, despondent, let us remember that God, El Roi, sees us. Not only does God hear us; He also sees us. We sang about this fact earlier in the songs “His Eye is on the Sparrow” and “He Knows My Name”. After all, if he hears and sees and takes care of sparrows (as Jesus reassures us in Matthew 6:26), how much more does He care for us? God will not abandon or ignore us. This fact should give us strength.
If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31a)
What does it matter if the Sarai’s of the world are against us? God is for us. God was for Hagar. Assured by God’s love and care, Hagar went back. Sarai had been willing to have a child through Hagar, but Hagar’s attitude when she realized she was pregnant with the master’s heir had made the situation unbearable until Hagar went back & submitted. Then, things changed for the better for her and her son.
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 16:15,16)
Of what importance is Hagar’s story? One negative item of importance and five positive items showing its importance.
- Negatively, Hagar is important because her story shows the consequences of not fully trusting God or believing His promises. Sarai’s solution and Abram’s agreement to her proposed solution regarding the problem of her not bearing a child had immediate bad results, as well as ongoing issues which have resulted in lasting violence, anger, and plenty of ill will. Looking at it, we need to fully trust God.
- On the positive side, Hagar was the first person in the Bible to be visited by a divine messenger.
- Also positively, Hagar was the first woman to hear the announcement that she will bear a child, a forerunner of Mary who would later have an angel tell her that she will bear a child, who turned out to be the Messiah, Jesus.
- Then, positively, Hagar was the only woman in the Bible who received a word of promise from God about later having descendants.
- As well, positively, Hagar is important because her story provides hope for all the people who feel exploited and powerless, alone and helpless, or who have been abused and rejected.
- Finally, Hagar is important positively because her story is a strong and timely reminder that God hears us and sees us, no matter where we are or what we are going through, in both the good times and the bad. Thank you, Loving and Almighty Lord! To God be the glory. Amen!
