Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and babies

By mmayer
Pastor Michael Mayer
Genesis 15:1-7; 16:1-6; 21:1-13

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

‘Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.’

But Abram said, ‘Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.’

Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

 

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.

When she 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 ill-treated Hagar; so she fled from her.

 

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

 Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’ And she added, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’

Hagar and Ishmael sent away

The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was playing, and she said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, ‘Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.  I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.

Video

Sarah, Abraham, Hagar, and Laughing Boy. Genesis 15-21.

Looking at a lot of complicated hurts, plus a happy ending (of sorts).

Abraham and Sarah received three great promises from God: land, their own child and that the whole earth would be blessed through them. All those promises took a long time to work out. Looking at everything that happened before Isaac was born, it is so easy at a distance to think, ‘They had God’s promise, why couldn’t they just trust it.’ But as the years went by, Sarah gave up, went for surrogacy (a legal option then, as now) and that caused more issues.

I came across this very helpful suggestion from Marina Hofman – look at the pain that each person is experiencing https://theotherjournal.com/2015/12/03/retelling-hagars-story-reading-trauma-in-genesis-16/. Sarah is childless, and over the years has come to give up hope. Using her slave Hagar as a surrogate mother works. Except that the successful pregnancy heightens her feelings of worthlessness.  Her pain takes over, and she pushes that onto Hagar. Hagar meanwhile has her own hurt – she is an Egyptian slave. She has no control over where she lives, or what her owners are like. She has no choice about her sexual activity. Suddenly, she has power, carrying Abraham’s baby. The victim becomes the victimizer, and when Sarah lashes out at her. Hagar’s unsorted pain leads her to run away and isolate. There an angel of God meets her, calls her by name, and promises that she will have a good birth. Her pain has been heard and recognized.

Finally, Sarah is miraculously pregnant. Her laughter changes from cynical to healthy. Isaac’s name means laughter. Later, she can’t cope with seeing the two brothers happily playing together, so she gets Hagar sent away, but Hagar goes knowing that God sees her, and will also bless her and her son.

Helping others who have had painful experiences.

We all have pain that we carry, including experiences that haven’t been worked through in a healing way. As a congregation, we do vital work supporting each other. These accounts of Sarah and Hagar remind us to listen caringly, and to affirm the worth of people in their pain. As we are able, we provide a place of hearing, safety, understanding and healing.

Blessing – even over our wrong moves.

Abraham and Sarah both had times when their actions put God’s promises at risk. That did not stop God continuing to bless them and work through them, even their mistakes. God just expands to include the wrong moves. That is a great comfort for us. When we do get things wrong that does not change God’s heart about us. He doesn’t suddenly choose to hate us. We are always in God’s love, no matter what we are feeling. The things we have got wrong do not define us, certainly not for ever.

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