Bible Study

This year's Assembly Bible Studies were led by the Revd Dr Janet Tollington. They appear daily in Hotline on the day they are given to Assembly. Choose the study you would like to read from the menu below:

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Sunday


Genesis 16:1-13; 21:1-8 - Hagar and Ishmael.


The story of Hagar, Abraham and Sarah’s slave-girl, how she bears a son, Ishmael, to Abraham, how they are then both banished after Isaac has been born to Sarah, is probably fairly well known. I wonder, though, what we make of this story of abuse and rejection; and how we understand God’s role in it all. This morning I want us to look at some of the detail and to wrestle in our hearts and minds with the text, to see what God is saying. Let’s listen to the opening part of the story:

Read Gen.16:1-6
 

The problem is that God has promised Abraham that he will have a child of his own, through whom will come countless descendants, but he and Sarah remain childless after many years of marriage and she is getting old! Hagar is Sarah’s slave-girl, an Egyptian, a black woman, who was probably acquired when Abraham was ‘paid’ for Sarah by the Egyptian king, Gen.12:16.

Sarah blames God for her failure to conceive, the birth of a child was always seen as a sign of divine favour; and so she comes up with a novel idea. Sarah suggests that Hagar is used as a surrogate and gives her slave to Abraham as a secondary wife. The idea is that any child Hagar bears will be understood as Sarah’s, because she is the true wife - this is what happens later in the story of Rachel (Bilhah) and Leah (Zilpah), Gen 30 and 35, without any raised eyebrows about the irregularity of the arrangement, all those children are understood as legitimately being Rachel’s and Leah’s. Abraham agrees to Sarah’s suggestion; but neither of them check it out with God - it is a totally human solution, to a problem which they both acknowledge has come about by the will of God (God thus far has prevented Sarah from conceiving – so presumably God has a reason and a way of resolving it in due course). Needless to say no-one bothers to consult Hagar the slave, either.

The outcome is that Hagar becomes pregnant and the text suggests that she acts in a superior way to Sarah, almost flouting her fertility before her. Then Sarah becomes jealous - perhaps her maternal desire blots out the remembrance that this outcome was precisely what she planned in the first place. She has got what she wanted – but now she doesn’t like it. Human emotions are often stronger than reasoned theoretical ideas. So Sarah now blames Abraham for bringing about this wrong she is suffering; and only now does she call upon God - in the hope that God will sort out the matrimonial argument. Abraham’s having none of this, though, and immediately passes responsibility back to Sarah, returning Hagar under Sarah’s control and telling her to do what she wants. Neither of them asks God for a solution, nor waits to see if God will intervene anyway. Human decisions once again and in consequence the pregnant Hagar is treated so harshly by Sarah that she flees into the wilderness. Effectively Abraham and Sarah are back where they started, childless; but their relationship has been soured too by what has occurred and they have not taken any of this to God. So what happens next?

Read Gen.16:7-13
 

The ‘angel of the Lord’ is an OT way of referring to the manner in which the invisible God is encountered by human beings. Abstract concepts were not part of the thought processes in the ancient world, and in Israelite thought people were unified bodies, not tripartite beings made up of body, mind and spirit/soul. Therefore the idea of communication between humans and the divine at a spiritual level was alien to them and they needed some physical way in which to describe how God’s will was made known and discerned by humans. The Hebrew word translated ‘angel’ is simply ‘messenger’, and such messengers are usually portrayed in the OT in human form (cf. Gen.18 the three visitors to Abraham by the oaks at Mamre), speaking God’s word into a situation in a personal, direct way. Here, having been ignored by the chosen couple, God appears directly to the abused, foreign, refugee slave-girl, beside a spring of water. God the source of life, it is implied, has guided Hagar to a place where she can be sustained by water. God addresses her by name, and with full knowledge of her ownership by Sarah. God, the ‘all-knowing’, nonetheless invites Hagar to explain where she has come from and where she is going. (One of God’s questions, that Sheila was telling us of yesterday.) In other words God challenges her as to whether there is any purpose and direction in her life, or whether her spontaneous reaction has led her from one situation of despair into another, which of itself offers her no more hope. Hagar doesn’t actually answer God’s question, she responds by saying why she is where she is, and takes responsibility for her own current, purposeless, situation, making no accusations against either Abraham or Sarah. The abused almost blames herself for her predicament.

The harsh element of the story comes now, as God offers no comfort but instructs Hagar to return and submit to Sarah. No easy way out is offered, not even to a powerless victim of human cruelty. Then comes a promise, a divine promise that mirrors that given to Abraham, Gen.15:5, about countless descendants. Here the promise is given to a foreign, enslaved, abused, woman, about the son she has already conceived, in itself a sign of divine blessing. He is to be named Ishmael, which means ‘God hears’, because the Lord has heeded Hagar’s affliction. Her son will always be a reminder that Israel’s God came to her in her time of need and promised her a future and an inheritance. Ishmael’s life is not to be an easy one and a future of perpetual conflict between him and his kin is foretold. His mother represents Egypt (and thereby Africa), his father Abraham represents Israel, and Ishmael is regarded as the first of the Arab peoples. Sadly we see the conflict persists to this day in the hearts and minds of those descendants. However, to Hagar, in the story, the encounter with God is one of promise and blessing and she names God ‘El-roi’, meaning something like ‘God who sees’ or ‘God who sees me’; and she expresses her amazement that she has actually seen God and yet still lives (cf. Ex.33:20). The text goes on to explain that this is why a particular well in the wilderness was given a name relating to ‘seeing’; but the more striking point to note is that Hagar is the first person in the Bible to give God a name, implying a personal relationship had been established, (something not yet acknowledged by Abraham or Sarah).

Apparently Hagar obeys God, believes the promise, goes back, bears her son, and Abraham gives him the name decreed by God, Ishmael, affirming his paternity in respect of the boy. We need to recognise that the story is silent about any kind of reconciliation between Sarah, Hagar and Abraham, the narrator simply asserts that God’s will was fulfilled. Nothing is said either about the status of the child; 16:2 would imply that Sarah would assume the role of mother, but all the references here are to Hagar as the birth mother. The text leaps forward 13 years at this point and then after telling of how Sarah eventually bears a son, Isaac, the child promised by God to her and Abraham, the narrator invites us to attend the party to celebrate Isaac’s weaning. Isaac would probably be 3 to 5 years old and the danger of infant mortality would be thought to have passed when weaning was achieved. By now, chronologically, Ishmael would be at least 17 yrs old but as we will see Gen.21 presents him as still being a young child. This story may actually be an alternative version of that in chapter 16, it contains many similar features; but used by the narrator for a different purpose here, in this context.

Read Genesis 21:8-21.
 

All we are told is that Sarah sees Hagar’s son playing - the Hebrew verb is almost ‘isaacing’ - the text does not include the words ‘with her son Isaac’. There is only one child in the scene, whose actions somehow prompt Sarah to view him as a rival, and a threat, to her own son Isaac’s inheritance. It is clear that Sarah has not ‘adopted’ Ishmael as her own, since she perpetually refers to him as the son of this slave-woman. Sarah instructs Abraham to banish both Hagar and Ishmael so that neither of them can share in Isaac’s inheritance; as before Sarah acts without any recourse to God, it is a totally human decision. The text is ambiguous here and simply records that Abraham had concern for his son - but which one? - and is distressed at this suggestion but doesn’t argue with Sarah about the injustice of it. Now God intervenes and gives a divine perspective on what should have been Abraham’s concern. God tells Abraham not to worry about Ishmael, or Hagar his slave-woman, but to follow Sarah’s instructions. God reiterates the promise made to Hagar about Ishmael’s future descendants, to Abraham; a promise that arises because Ishmael, like Isaac, is a son of Abraham and thereby blessed by God.

Early in the morning (cf Gen.22:3 when Abraham will again set off early to ‘sacrifice’ Isaac) Abraham banishes Hagar and Ishmael giving them nothing but bread and water, and they set off into the wilderness going south, back towards Egypt (similar location to that in 16:7ff).

When the water has run out, and with it all hope of reaching safety, Hagar hides Ishmael under a bush (like a baby), and moves away so that she won’t have to watch him die. There she sits down and weeps - there is nothing else she can do as a loving mother - she and her son have been abandoned by his father and the rest of humanity. They are going to die. However God hasn’t abandoned them! God hears the boy’s voice (picks up on the meaning of his name ‘God hears’) and the ‘angel of God’ calls from heaven to Hagar. Note this time a more transcendent description is given. God’s question ‘What troubles you?’ seems bizarre; but it immediately implies that whenever God comes into a situation it is transformed. Hagar isn’t given any answers, not told precisely what to do; but is called to trust God. Hagar is told not to fear, for God has heard the boy. Again the implication is that God responds when someone cries out from a situation of hopelessness. Hagar is told to get up and take up her maternal responsibilities towards the boy; and the promise about his future descendants becoming a nation is again expressed.

As she obeys the word of God, God opens Hagar’s eyes, and she sees a well from which she can draw water to sustain them both. In ch.16 the emphasis was on God seeing, here it is Hagar who sees. She sees God’s provision for them, she catches the ‘vision’, she sees God’s blessing made evident in a real way, and she gives her son a drink of life giving water. The story ends by indicating that God’s promise has been fulfilled, Ishmael is grown, ready for conflict, married and about to produce descendants of his own. Nothing more need be said about Hagar, her role in life is accomplished and she has witnessed the faithfulness of God.

So what does the story say to us, as God’s people. It was God’s people who used, abused, alienated, rejected and abandoned Hagar and Ishmael when they got in the way of their own aspirations. Abraham and Sarah were trying to bring about God’s purposes - but in their own way, in their own time, at the expense of others and without any attempt to discover God’s ways. They weren’t alert to the presence of God in the unfolding situation. On the other hand the story shows that God blessed Hagar, gave her promises and fulfilled them in Ishmael. God sought her out, watched over her, provided for her and her son, and Hagar, in her need, was able to discern God’s presence, whereby she discovered the reality of God’s love and care, God’s faithfulness.

Are we, God’s people, behaving like Abraham and Sarah? If so, who is our Hagar? - and what can we do to seek forgiveness and make amends? Or do you identify more with Hagar? In which case who are Abraham and Sarah in your life? Is God comforting or challenging us as God’s people, through the bible today? Are our eyes open, like Hagar’s, to ‘catch the vision’ and see/discern what God is saying?

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