Genesis 16:1 – 6 “Now Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne a child to him, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.”
Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife. And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
“Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.”
The curse of being a barren woman! Few things are more difficult for wives than to be unable to bear children! In many parts of the world, a childless wife has no status or very low status. It is not unusual for husbands to divorce a barren wife and marry someone who can give them offspring. For whatever reason, Sarai, Abraham’s wife had never been pregnant. After that amazing covenant ceremony with God, did Abraham share any details with Sarai? After all, God had promised to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens.
At any rate, Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands. If she could not become pregnant, she would use her Egyptian maid as a stand – in. But Sarai’s scheme backfired, as schemes frequently do. When Hagar became pregnant, she despised Sarai and made no effort to hide her disdain. Sarai goes back to Abraham and blames him! (One might ask why Abraham didn’t go to God to ask if Sarai was the one to bear the promised heir; evidently, he failed to do so.) And Abraham wimps out on the whole thing, throwing the matter back to Sarai. Sarai promptly drives Hagar out of the camp.
The story continues with God preserving Hagar’s life and with Hagar bearing Ishmael to Abraham. But our focus here is on Sarai.
1. Sarai didn’t really trust God and had lost all hope. She was old and she had been married to Abraham for a long time; surely by now, she would already have gotten pregnant. Many times, we have such a small view of God that we only think of Him in human terms.
2. There is nothing to suggest that Sarai herself had any kind of a relationship with God. Sarai never prayed and asked God for guidance. God doesn’t play favorites; if Sarai had asked God for information or for confirmation, God would have told her.
3. Sarai failed to think the situation through before suggesting Abraham have sex with Hagar. We can make the same mistake – forcing a situation before we have thought it through.
4. Once the predictable happened, Sarai became offended and drove Hagar away; meanwhile, Sarai was the one who had created the problem in the first place. Sarai refused to acknowledge her mistake and refused to forgive either herself or Hagar.
APPLICATION: Have you ever forced a situation and then blamed others when it turned into a disaster? When that happened, did you refuse to acknowledge your role in the situation? If you cannot admit your fault, you will be unable to forgive anyone else. And you will also be unable to forgive yourself for creating the problem in the first place.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help us to look to you and to trust you for guidance and for hope. Help us to realize that when we force and manipulate, things never end well. And help us to confess our sins of manipulation to you, to others, and to ourselves. Help us to forgive those whom we have entrapped in our schemes and to forgive ourselves for creating the problem to begin with. Thank you for loving us so much that you forgive us completely. Amen.
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