Introduction
We continue our look at “how did we get here”; focusing our attention on the Genesis accounts of God’s early steps in his redemption of humankind through Jesus Christ. More than two millennia (two thousand years) before the birth of Christ, God was putting the pieces in place.
We began our look in Genesis 12 of God’s call to Abram to leave his home and everything he knew for a land that God would show him. Abram obeyed and the adventure began. Famine, wars, rescues, and promises were all a part of the adventure. Through these chapters, the focus has been on Abram. Today, Abram is more of a background player and the attention turns to two women in his life: Sarai, his wife; and Hagar, his wife’s slave.
This text is thick. There is a lot going on here and we are only going to scratch the surface. There are two scenes here: the first is the dysfunctional home scene with Sarai, Abram, and Hagar. The second scene is Hagar’s flight and encounter with the angel of the LORD. In order to make sense of it, it may be helpful to see these two scenes as two sides of the same coin: patience and suffering.
Scene 1: Sarai and Patience
The first scene is about patience; or, more accurately, Sarai’s lack of patience. Patience is all about expectation. It is waiting for what is expected. It is waiting for what is supposed to happen. The thing about patience: patience is uncomfortable. Patience requires faith. Patience deals with things that are out of our control.
Abram and Sarai were expecting a child. Sarai was not pregnant – had never been pregnant – but God had repeated a promise to Abram that he would have an heir of his own.
They had been in the land for ten years. Sarai was not young when they arrived and she was not getting any younger as the time went on. Sarai got tired of being patient. She blamed God for not doing what God had promised to do. In her judgment, God was not acting in a timely fashion; so she came up with a plan to fix that: she would follow the pattern of the ancient world and have her maid conceive a child.
Now, before we jump to judgment on Sarai for this solution, it is important to know that this was a fairly common practice to remedy a socially difficult problem. In the ancient world, it was a serious matter for a man to be without an heir. For a woman, it was devastating. The mark of success was the number of children; and, the inability to conceive children was considered an ignominious character flaw.
We do not know whether Hagar became Sarai’s slave during the journey to Egypt a few chapters ago or whether she was Sarai’s possession as part of her original dowry for Abram. Either way, in the ancient world, Sarai had the authority to give her maid to her husband in order to generate children. Abram could not take initiative by going into one of his own slaves for the purpose of procreation; but it was possible for Sarai’s to direct her own possession to serve this function on Sarai’s behalf.
[As an aside here, what happens is the root cause of so much of the turmoil we see in the Middle East even today. The language we have translated here, “Sarai …took Hagar the Egyptian and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife” is sufficiently ambiguous to support contradictory readings. Did Abram marry Hagar as a wife, thus making Ishmael a primary descendant? The text supports that reading. Did Abram go into Hagar as a “surrogate wife” – that is, as an extension of Sarai, his wife – thus, her offspring remained secondary to any offspring that would be born of Sarai herself? The text supports that reading, too.]
The upshot was that Sarai took Hagar to Abram to serve as a surrogate wife. Here, we have to see the parallel to Fall, when Eve gave the fruit of the forbidden tree to Adam. There is an identical sequence of key nouns and verbs in 3:6: “The woman [wife] . . . took . . . gave it to her husband.” It is not merely the terminology that is close here; it also is the actions involved.
The actors correspond: in Gen 16:3 the woman takes the initiative as she does in 3:6b. The recipient of the gift is in both texts the man, in Gen 16:3 the husband, in Gen 3:6b the man for whom the woman was created as partner. In both stories the man reacts appropriately to the woman’s action. In 3:6b he eats the proffered fruit: in 16:4a he goes in to the offered Hagar. The means (of sin), the fruit/Hagar, is accepted by the man. The sequence of events is similar in both cases: the woman takes something and gives it to her husband, who accepts it. This leads to the conclusion. By employing quite similar formulations and an identical sequence of events in Gen 3:6b and 16:3–4a, the author makes it clear that for him both narratives describe comparable events, that they are both accounts of a fall.”[1]
Sarai offered. Abram accepted. Hagar got pregnant.
Unbelievably – and yet fully believably – Sarai got mad when her plan worked. When Hagar was aware that she was pregnant, she looked with contempt on Sarai. It did not have to be overt, it may have been a simple look, “What is wrong with you? I got pregnant the first time.” Given Sarai’s state of mind about the whole situation, that would have been sufficient.
Sarai went to Abram and was mad at him. “May the wrong done to me be on you!” Can you imagine the look on Abram’s face? Can you see the wheels turning inside his head, “Wait a minute: this was your idea. How did this get to be my fault?”
Abram must have seen his eyes flash before his eyes. It is a times like this that a husband must speak carefully. Abram had been married a long time and recognized that this was not the situation for a rookie mistake. The thought must have crossed his mind like the guy who tweeted, “Before I got married I didn’t even know there was a wrong way to put milk back in the fridge.” Over the course of a long relationship you learn there are some comments so loaded that you are better not to respond directly. Abram had enough savvy to not say what he was thinking. Instead, he simply takes no position. “She’s your servant; you deal with it.”
Sarai reacted badly and treated Hagar harshly. “Sarai humiliated her.” The same term is used to describe the suffering endured by the Israelites in Egypt. So intolerable was her suffering that she ran away; another term used of the Israelites leaving Egypt.
What do we make of this first scene?
Certainly Sarai does not come out of this story looking very good. She got impatient, she tried to manipulate the situation, got mad at everyone when things went exactly as she planned (but not exactly like she wanted), and treated Hagar oppressively. Yet before we go too far in being critical, how different are we today?
One of the hardest lessons we have to learn – over and over again – is that God does not work for us. God is God and we are not. He is not our employee. He is not bound to follow our direction. He works in his own time, in his own way, in his own fashion – and expects us to adapt to him rather than his adapting to us.
We look at the world around us and see that things are not how we would like them to be. We look around and wonder what the Bible means when Jesus proclaims, “The Kingdom of God is near.” If it is near, why is there crime? Why is there illness? Why is there hunger and poverty? If the Kingdom of God is near, why isn’t there more evidence of it? Why is God waiting? Here we are in the middle of May and – maybe it is just me – but does anyone even remember that Christmas spirit? Where are the fulfillment of the promises of “peace on earth” and “good will toward men?”
Patience.
Whether we are conscious of it or not, we live and think in the expectation that everything will be resolved in our lifetime – if not in the 22 minutes it takes to figure everything out on television. When we get sick, we go to the doctor for medicine to get better. When we have a problem with our home, we call the repairman and get it taken care of. When we have questions, we go to our phone and Google for information.
We need to get used to the idea that God may have plans in store for our children and our children’s grandchildren. God’s redemptive activity has been going on for thousands of years. God promised that the kingdom would be fully realized like a thief in the night, in a flash, but that we would not know the time. God’s plan would happen in God’s time, not ours. God’s plan will happen in God’s time, not ours.
Our call is to live in the expectation that God will fulfill his promises. Whether it is today, tomorrow, or generations from now, we are called to live in the confidence of the eternal hope of God we have in Jesus Christ. We know the end of the story, we just do not know all the chapters in between here and there.
Can you be patient with God? It is hard. I struggle with it. I want to be the one in control. I am not. Often, I want God to obey my decisions. He does not. I want God to act now, or at least in a time frame I can understand. God works in an instant and across the generations. Patience means trusting that God will be God – even if we will not see his faithfulness. Of course, sometimes we do. Sarai did. We know that Sarai does have a son later on.
Scene 2: Hagar and Suffering
Then, we get to the second half of the story. Suffering. Where patience is a statement of frustration waiting in expectation, suffering is a word of consolation in the midst of now. Hagar discovered that God is with us, even when we are suffering.
Hagar fled Sarai’s wrath, fearing for her life. She was headed back to Egypt. On her way she stopped by a spring of water. A stranger approached her. We know – because the narrator has told us – that this stranger was the angel of the LORD; but she must have been surprised when he addressed her by name and status, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”
In today’s world we would call this a “Come to Jesus” moment. A “Come to Jesus” moment is when we are confronted by the unvarnished, un-nuanced truth and have to make a choice.
The truth must have penetrated her to the core. Unlike the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Hagar did not try to dodge responsibility for her situation. She owned up to it completely, “I am running away from my mistress, Sarai.” Good for her.
Normally, we would expect the LORD’s response to be, “I understand. It is hard. Don’t worry about it – I know you were not happy there.” But that is not what happened.
The stranger ordered Hagar to return to Sarai. It was not a suggestion, it was an order. It also was a guarantee of suffering; unjust suffering at that. We can understand how suffering takes place after a natural disaster; but for God to order us to suffer injustice at the hands of another is difficult to accept.
Hagar could have objected. Why? What is in it for me? I am pregnant and she could very well kill this baby. Why?
Hagar’s experience speaks against the new agers and the prosperity preachers. God’s favor is not attached to the wealthy, the powerful, the secure, those at ease. Faithfulness to God does not mean a free pass from suffering. It does not mean that all your earthly problems will go away. It does not mean that you will be happy.
When I served in Escondido, I had a friend who showed me real faithfulness. She was a prayer person – interceding on behalf of others, teaching others how to pray, and modeling what it meant to submit to God’s will. I wish I could tell you I would be so strong. After growing up, getting married and raising a family here in southern California, she and her husband discerned a call to move to North Carolina to work in a prayer ministry. They sold everything they had, made the move, and began working in that ministry.
Soon after they arrived, her husband began having severe neck issues and debilitating headaches. He was unable to go to work. She served the ministry selflessly for several years. They became members of a small congregation that was struggling to survive. Then, they were called to another place, and then another. Everywhere they have gone, they have been called to minister alongside people who have been suffering. They have themselves experienced significant losses: personally, physically and financially. From the outside and from all human perspective, the indications are that these steps were not in their best interest. The worldly view is that they made a series of disastrous choices.
But here’s the thing: throughout it all, they have seen God’s hand at work. Even through the suffering they have experienced, they have seen their needs met, their way clear, and their prayers answered. Their testimony of God’s faithfulness does not make the physical pain any easier to bear, it does not make the financial stress any less burdensome, and it does not minimize their suffering. In many ways it heightens their suffering and their longing for that day to come.
The presence of the LORD was a comfort to Hagar. Paul would say it this way,
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5 NRSV)
The angel of the LORD spoke to Hagar and gave her a promise, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” He would make her great. But notice this: the promise was hope. It was hope for the great things that would be for her descendants. Hagar was not promised a life of ease. God promised to bless her, and told her what the blessing would be. However, he also ordered her to return to where she knew she would suffer.
Suffering often does not include the answer to “why?”
Often we do not know the reason why we suffer. Why does one person get cancer and another not? Why does one person suffer financially and another prosper? Why do bad things happen to good people? There are plenty of things we cannot answer. What Hagar experiences is the presence of the LORD in the midst of her suffering. She is instructed to name her child “Ishmael,” or God hears; and she names this God “El-Roi”, God of seeing or the God who sees.
Hagar was blessed because she experienced God’s presence. It was sufficient to convict her, to cause her to return to Sarai and certain abuse.
I want to be careful here: Scripture does not teach that God wants us to be unhappy and not all suffering is acceptable in God’s eyes. God desires righteousness and justice. What Scripture teaches is that God is present with those who are suffering. The promise of God is our hope. There are times when God leads us out of suffering and there are times when God simply is with us in the midst of our suffering. There are times when the point of our suffering is clear, there are times when suffering for his names’ sake will not be clear in our lifetime. The point of this scene is that God hears and God sees.
Conclusion
What should you take with you this morning?
God is God. We are not. God’s plans do not happen in our time; but God is faithful and trustworthy. Patience in God is justified.
Further, controversy, impatience and suffering have been with us for a long time. We cannot force God’s hand or thwart his plan. He knows our frame, he sees our situation, he hears our cries. Take comfort and know that the Lord is with you wherever you go, even to the end of the ages.
You are not forgotten. You are not alone. God is with you. Amen.
Prayer
Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
Questions
- How well do you do with patience? How do you react when you have to wait longer than the time you feel things promised should have happened?
- What would you have done if you had been in Hagar’s shoes? Could you go back to Sarai?
- If you look at the world around us – the violence in the Middle East, the ravages of the pandemic throughout the world, and the ongoing social unrest – do you still live in the expectation and hope of the kingdom of God? How? How do you share that hope with others?
[1] Gordon J. Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary, Genesis, Vol. 2, p. 8.