Abraham took YHWH to task somewhat in Genesis 15:2-3, for not coming through with his promise to provide him with children. The years were passing too, and “Sarai, Abram’s wife, (still) had borne him no children,” Genesis 16:1.
It was a bit much for Sarai too: “The Lord has kept me from having children,” she told her husband (2), as though it was YHWH’s fault. It was in this frame of mind, then, that she came up with a ‘brilliant’ idea of her own as to how to sort out this ‘unfortunate lack’ on YHWH’s part.
“Go sleep with my maidservant,” she told Abraham, “perhaps I can build a family through her.” Understandable, perhaps, in the culture of the day, and it would still fulfill YHWH’s promise to Abraham to provide “a son from your own body” (15:4) – because YHWH hadn’t mentioned Sarai’s body, just Abraham’s.
And it worked, Hagar the maidservant became pregnant. But in her triumph at being able to bear a child when Sarai couldn’t, Hagar “began to despise her mistress” (16:4). Which only escalated how Sarai felt. She’d already blamed YHWH for keeping her from having children, and now she blamed Abraham for Hagar’s boasting: “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering,” she told him in verse 5, and she even pressed YHWH to “judge between you and me.” Tough words. She was clearly very upset.
Abraham didn’t help the situation either, because he told his wife to “Do with Hagar whatever you think best” (6), a rather unwise move knowing his wife’s fragile state of mind. Not surprisingly, “Sarai mistreated Hagar,” and so badly that Hagar ran off into the desert (7).
And none of it had been Hagar’s fault. It had all started with Sarai, and made worse by Abraham. But YHWH was fully aware of the situation, because in verse 7, “The angel of the Lord (YHWH) found Hagar” and asked her in verse 8, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” – which enabled Hagar to pour out her woe to a listening ear, the very thing she needed.
Such was YHWH’s care for the one who’d been hurt. Abraham and Sarai, meanwhile, had no idea YHWH had done this. Which made me think back to those I may have hurt too – and to wonder what YHWH, being YHWH, did in his care for them that I didn’t know about either.
It certainly got Hagar thinking too, as we see in “Hagar’s amazing reply to YHWH”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 