Lent 2009 #9

Genesis 16:1-6 

1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2 and Sarai said to Abram, "You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!" 6 But Abram said to Sarai, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her. 

THOUGHTS:

Um...whoa.  This is one of those stories that I don't get at first.  Let's start with some quick background info:

1. Back in Genesis 12 , God basically told Abram at age 75: "Trust me.  Leave your family and the only home you've ever known behind and follow me, I'll tell you when you reach your destination, and you'll have more descendants than you can possibly imagine or count."

2. Abram followed, and he and Sarai have now been in Canaan for 10 years.  He's now 85 and he and Sarai are pretty old to be having kids.  

My Bible commentaries also tell me:

3. In the ancient middle east, it was an acceptable practice for a wife who could not conceive to give her slave-girl to her husband as a concubine.  Any offspring of this union were legally children of the wife.  In this case, that means that the child that Hagar bears will belong to Sarai after birth.  

4. Motherhood is highly respected at the time.

     So looking back to the passage above, we see that Sarai got impatient waiting for God to deliver on the promises that caused them to uproot and leave everything behind.  Sarai takes their destiny into her own hands and has her husband sleep with Hagar.  Her plan works, but it somehow backfires, too.  Hagar's loses respect for Sarai (because Sarai couldn't conceive) and this led to the slave-girl usurping the rightful place of the wife.  To combat this role reversal, Sarai complains to Abram that her slave-girl is getting uppity.  Abram effectively responds: "Not my problem, this was all your idea."  

     Phew, that's a lot of back story to explain that this brief passage may be saying: Trust God.  Don't try to take destiny into your own hands.  This doesn't mean to be complacent or apathetic: God works through people like you.  I think it means that we should always be listening for God's direction before we act.  It's OK if you never feel like you hear any direction, just keep doing what you think is right.  I think God communicates subtly and we don't always know when we are hearing.  It's when we stop listening that we tend to wander into traps of our own making...  

 

PRAYER:

God, thank you for your subtle whispers, and for your spirit moving in our community as we journey together.  Keep our hearts and minds firmly focused on you, and guide us in humble service of all those that we meet.  Use us in ways that we might not even notice to do your will on earth.  For the sake of Christ Jesus, AMEN.

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