HAGAR: a Woman Done Wrong ... but GOD!

 

“Hagar” received attention at a recent Tuesday morning Bible study at Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC.

 

“A younger woman was brought into the situation,” Pastor Raymond D. Burrows said, talking about Hagar and Abraham.

 

Abram (meaning “exalted father”) did not come from a God-fearing family but formed a relationship with God. At age 75, he received from God a promise that he would see a son born to Sarai, his wife, who was then 65 years old and past child-bearing age.

 

Years sped by, and Sarai took things into her own hands, the Bible says.

 

“Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

 

“And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai” (Genesis 16:1-2).

 

Abram “went in unto Hagar” and she conceived.

 

“Hagar was used,” Pastor Burrows said. “Sarai and Abraham did her wrong. No prayer was made about ‘going in unto Hagar’ and Abraham could have said ‘no.’”

 

Writer Alice Bach says the taking of secondary wives was common practice in ancient Israel. “What Abraham did to [Hagar] was completely legal,” she says. “If your wife cannot have children, you can have children by your wife's slaves, and the child becomes yours.”

 

“On one level, this is the first example of surrogate motherhood,” says Naomi Steinberg, associate professor of religious studies at DePaul University. “Hagar, a slave, is never asked to consent to bearing a child.” Steinberg says this raises the timeless issue of “upper classes exploiting those with fewer options.”

 

“May God help us always to be defensive of people who are defenseless,” Pastor Burrows said, “May God help us to never take advantage of someone because we can.”

 

When Hagar realized she was pregnant, “her mistress was despised in her eyes.”

 

“Hagar may have wondered what she and Abram even needed Sarai for,” someone said.

 

Sarai blamed Abram for Hagar’s resentment, and he “watched Sarai drive Hagar out of the tent and did nothing about it,” Pastor Burrows said.

Sarai “dealt hardly with” (perhaps beat) the pregnant Hagar, and she ran away.

 

“The angel of the Lord [probably Christ himself] found her by a spring of water in the wilderness. … And he said, ‘Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.’ The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress and submit to her. … I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude’” (Gen. 16:7-10 ESV).

 

He told her to call her expected son “Ismael,” meaning “God will hear,” because the Lord had listened to her affliction.

 

The angel of the Lord said about Ismael:

 

“He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen” (Gen. 16:11-12 ESV).

 

Hagar “called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.’”

 

“Somehow she knew of the God of Abram,” Pastor Burrows said. “God knew Hagar’s name. He knows your name.”

Hagar could return to Sarai’s tent because she had received “a word from God,” he said.

 

“If you are able to stand, my friend, it’s because of what you’re standing on,” Pastor Burrows said. “She was able to go back into that setting because of what the Lord said. If you can stand, it’s all contingent on the foundation. When we have the Lord’s word, we can stand and not be shaken.”

 

Hagar enhanced Abram’s faith.

 

“I think Hagar told Abram the story,” Pastor Burrows said, adding that he felt Abram believed Hagar and took her word for what happened in the wilderness. “Abram was reminded that she heard from God.”

Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael was born; Sarai was 76.

 

When Abram was 99, God visited him, affirmed his covenant with him, and changed his name to “Abraham,” meaning “a father of many nations.” God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah. God said to Abraham, “And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; … I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year” (Gen. 17:20-21).

 

Sarah conceived and bore Issac at age 90, when Abraham was 100 years old.