Damariscotta Baptist Church

 

 

Genesis 16:1-6

Last week we read how the vocabulary and imagery of Eden permeated through chapter 15. God presented Abram with a great promise and a provision of blessing and abundance. If we look at the literary design of Genesis, which I have provided in your bulletin, we can easily guess what is about to happen in chapter 16. As we read through the beginning, look for the words that you think might be coming. 

Verse 1 – “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.”

The first time Sarai was mentioned was back in chapter 11. The first thing we learned about her was that she was not able to give birth to a child. This fact is now being presented again. 

We are not learning anything new, it is something that is being brought up to the foreground. Why? Because Sarai may not have had the ability to give birth, but she did have a slave girl, who could give birth and Sarai had a plan. Sarai’s slave girl was an Egyptian, and her name was Hagar. Hagar is the transliteration, or the spelling in English letters of her name in Hebrew. “Ha” means “the” and “gar” means immigrant. This same word was used in the previous chapter where God told Abram, “Your seed will become immigrants in a land not their own.” 

Do you recall the story where Abram and Sarai ended up with this female slave? It was back in Genesis 12, when Abram and Sarai went down to Egypt and through deceit and treachery they acquired a lot of possessions. One of those possessions was this female slave. 

Sarai has come up with a plan and it goes something like this. “Look, you know that Yahweh has restrained me from giving birth,” As if to say that if Yahweh wanted to give us a child, He would, but He hasn’t. It’s as though Sarai blames Yahweh for her infertility. So, Sarai has been thinking and tells Abram, 

“Here’s my plan, Abram, you go into my slave girl. Perhaps I can be built up by means of her.” Notice the word “perhaps.”

The word “build” used here is an architectural word. We have seen this word in some previous building projects. There was Cain’s city, Babylon and the story of Nimrod. But the first building project even before that, it was in Genesis 2. Back in the beginning when God split Adam, and He took from the human’s side to make a partner for him. The word “made” is actually this word “build.” 

God built the woman from man. In fact, God is in the habit of building families. However, Sarai’s way of building a family doesn’t fit in God’s theme of things. 

Then notice the language, 

“Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.” 

Here we have Sarai, who thinks God has been holding out on her and Abram, and not giving them a child. In her mind, God was withholding a blessing. So she takes matters into her own hands and comes up with a plan. All along she was probably thinking,  “Well, God said He really wanted to bless us. And if He really wanted to, He would give us the thing that we think He should give us. He did say He would give it and since He hasn’t and I can come up with a way for it to happen, it must be right? 

So she took and she gave. 

Sound familiar? Back to Eve and the tree.

Abram has no problem with the plan, verse 4, 

“He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.”

However, the verse continues with, 

“When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.”

At this point we need to take ourselves back to a different cultural setting. In a polygamous culture, that was patriarchal, it’s male, -land, – possession-centered. Men were able to have one wife or many wives and through them they could build a family and obtain wealth, but all along these wives were considered his possessions. This idea of multiple wives is significant to this story. 

Let’s go back to the Eden story, where the image of God was presented, when the one was made into two, so that the two could become one flesh, male and female. That is the Eden ideal. 

But when we got to Genesis 4, after seven generations through Cain’s line we met a guy named Lemek, remember him? In verse 19 we are told,

“Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.”

This wasn’t the Eden ideal, it was a guy who liked collecting women as property. He was creating his own little Eden. One wife was named “Adah” meaning “Jewel” and the other named “Zillah” meaning “shelter,” complete with his own shelter and jewels. 

Today’s Scripture is our next picture of polygamy in the Hebrew Bible, Abram and Sarai’s building project. In the process, Hagar, the slave girl, has been given a status increase as the wife of the patriarch, as one who will produce his seed. 

With this promotion up the social ladder and with the knowledge of being pregnant with the patriarch’s child, Hagar now looks at Sarai, her female master, as cursed. She decides to use her new promotion to her own advantage and tries to elevate herself over Sarai. 

Oh! Oh! The plot thickens!

Notice the language used. Hagar, the once oppressed immigrant, was trying to use her position to gain power and exert an oppression over Sarai, one of the chosen couple. It’s not that Hagar’s bad. She sees her opportunity and seeks security, what every human wants. She too is seeking her Eden blessing. 

On the other hand, we have a couple who were willing to treat somebody as expendable in order for them to get their Eden blessing. What a mess!

This is an ugly picture. This is also a picture of predictable human behavior. 

Although Hagar is a victim, she was not completely innocent, she does contribute to the mess. She uses the opportunity to also become a victimizer. However, she did not start the situation and her response is totally understandable. 

Let’s continue with the story. Sarai’s response? Verse 5, 

“Then Sarai said to Abram,  “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.”

Blame game – as if Sarai had nothing to do with what had happened. Although she does admit to putting the slave into Abram’s arms. But Abram was the one who made her pregnant. Wasn’t that Sarai’s plan all along? But it backfires on her when Hagar turns around and despises her. Sarai’s final defense? 

“May the Lord judge between you and me.”

Now Sarai is using Yahweh to underwrite her twisted plan that treated Hagar like she was expendable. 

After all, Yahweh would definitely be on their side, they were the chosen ones, Hagar was just a slave girl. 

Abram’s response? 

“Your slave is in your hands,” “Do with her whatever you think best.” 

Wimped out! 

What does Sarai do? 

“Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; 

What does The Immigrant do? Like anyone would…

so she fled from her.”

Ugh! Human nature. 

We are right back in Genesis 3, did you notice? 

Sarai, like Eve, “takes and gives.” 

We have the guilty couple who are blame shifting. 

We have the object of desire. 

Remember, in the Egypt story, Sarai was the object of desire, the beautiful, forbidden thing that should not be taken. Now, Hagar is the thing that should not have been taken and violated when someone did what was good in their eyes, so now Hagar represents the tree. 

Although the tempter, or snake isn’t in the foreground in this narrative it is clear that Sarai has some story in her head that, “Yahweh was holding out on them.” Which compels her to do what she does. 

The next step in the Genesis 3 story is the rivaling of the brothers over who is the chosen one. In this story we have rivaling wives, over their status. 

Then there is passive Abram, much like passive Adam. Think about it, previously in chapter 15 we read how Abram and God had come to an agreement on both the seed and the land. 

When Sarai came to Abram with her bright idea to solve their problem of having no children, Abram should have spoken up with, “No, I just talked with God and He has a plan. We will wait for Him.” But oh no, Abram hears his wife offer him another sexual partner, why would he say no to that? 

This is another story of how humans behave. We are always trying to build our own version of Eden. We read that God wants to bless us, we convince ourselves that God is somehow holding out on us when we don’t feel blessed and then we concoct a scheme that “looks good in our own eyes.” When we follow what we think is best, it often ends badly, but for some reason we still continue to do it. 

Abram tells Sarai to do what she thinks is best and for whatever reason Sarai chooses to oppress Hagar. 

How can being evil to someone else be good? 

This is the portrait of the human condition. Where me or you or even whole communities can be convinced that something is the right thing to do, even that it can be the will of God, but in fact, we are making ourselves an enemy of God. 

How does this happen? 

When self deception is so prevalent that one gets so lost in the narrative that they lose their sense of what is right and what is wrong. So much so, that they can no longer discern what is truly the will of God. 

Look around, this happens every day. 

This story reveals to us that it’s been happening since the beginning. This is part of the Bible’s depiction of our human condition. We can become so alienated from God’s values that we begin to redefine what is good and bad on our own terms. 

Stop and think about it, this is a story about God’s people here. Abram and Sarai were chosen to be a blessing to the nations. They weren’t the Babylonians. Yet, at this point, they are the primary obstacle to God’s blessing coming to the nations. 

Because we are not continuing with this narrative until next week, I want us to quickly look at where we are in the literary design cycle. We are at the point where there is a conflict between the chosen and the non-chosen. That means we should get ready for some sort of crisis and then God is going to have to get involved. 

Next week we will read the next scene where this immigrant tries to go home and ends up in the desert, crying and weeping and wondering if anyone hears her. Like Cain and Abel, God hears the cry of the innocent blood and comes to meet the oppressed one. 

This time, rather than a flood, we find the opposite, God provides water and a promise of seed in a place where there was no water and no hope for a seed. Hagar experiences a de-creation in the desert and a re-creation from God of a family and life on the other side of this tragedy. 

Chapters 15-17 provide us with a complete sweep of the Literary design of Genesis. These Old Testament characters are so real to life. When we get to the New Testament we find the same human condition described when Jesus encountered the religious leaders of His day. 

When we get to 2025, it still exists. When will we learn?

May those who have ears, hear. 

Let’s pray.