Abram had just had a significant encounter with God. God had renewed his covenant in a solemn ceremony, and it seemed that Abram was comforted and content. God had hardly stopped reaffirming his promise, though, before Sarai came up with an idea to help God fulfill this divine plan. After all she was far too old to have a baby at this stage, so why shouldn’t Abram do what everyone else in that culture would do—have a child through Sarai’s maidservant, Hagar.
I would think that Abram’s faith, for which he had been commended so recently, would have been strong enough to resist this temptation. But the text tells us, “Abram agreed to what Sarai said.” Hagar, the servant, became pregnant by Abram, and she began to taunt her mistress for her barren state. Sarai, who had dreamed up this brilliant idea in the first place now blamed Abram for the hostility in family relations. (This blame game has been seen before in the story of Adam and Eve’s fall, and has been characteristic of the human race ever since!)
Admirable Abram was not very admirable in this tale. Conflict was not something that energized him, and it was much easier to wash his hands of the situation. “Do whatever you want with Hagar,” he told Sarai. Sarai put her resentment into action, making things so bad that Hagar ran away.
Hagar may have removed herself from the persecution of Sarai and the disinterest of Abram, but she had not removed herself from the presence of the Lord. We read that “the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert”. He exhorted her to go back to her mistress, but not before he had ministered to her and comforted her with a promise concerning her son. (Genesis 16:10-12)
Somehow this promise would not comfort me—I would not want my son to live in “hostility with his brothers” nor “with everyone’s hand against him”, but in spite of the predictions of future of difficulty for her son and in spite of the exhortation to return to Sarai, Hagar was comforted. The name the angel gave her son, Ishmael—“God hears”, would be a constant reminder to her of this angelic meeting in the desert. And as the text goes on, we realize what Hagar realized. This was no mere angel who ministered to her, but the Lord himself. She was amazed to “ have now seen the One who sees me” and survived. Rather than being destroyed she had, in fact, experienced spiritual healing. So strengthened in spirit she returned home, bearing the son, Ishmael, to Abram.
The short term results of trying to fulfill God’s promise themselves caused a rift in the relationship between Sarai and Abram and a rift in the relationship of employer and employee. The long term results go on in incessant conflict in the Middle East. I wonder in what ways I may have prolonged the fulfilling of God’s will in my life by too often trying to take matters into my own hands?
This story is a sad one, but it also comforts. God was not too lofty to care about the needs and hurts of a lowly slave. He compassionately dealt with Hagar and was aware of her hurt, as well as her responsibilities. Hagar discovered the truth of Job 31:4: “Does he not see my ways and count my every step?” Knowing that God knew her through and through and having experienced his loving care, she was fortified for the future.
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