HAGAR THE HANDMAID

BOOK OF GENESIS

CHAPTERS 15 AND 16

          It’s been ten years now that Abram has been living in Canaan and the last time he talked to God, he told Sarai that the Lord told him that if he could look up to heaven and count the stars, that’s how many descendants he would have.  Well, the promises that Abram keeps talking about seems to be getting a little old to Sarai. 

            Sarai’s impatience and lack of faith gets the best of her.  You see, she had an Egyptian handmaid whose name was Hagar.  So, Sarai said to Abram, Look now, the Lord has kept me from having children.  Take Hagar and maybe we can have a child by her.

            Oh, what a can of worms that opened.  Does that remind you that this isn’t the first time a woman’s advice has been a man’s heartache? 

            Once Hagar had conceived, she despised Sarai and vice versa.  When she told Abram about the animosity, he told Sarai to deal with it however she saw fit. 

            Sarai demonstrated her regret of her idea by dealing harshly with Hagar, and Hagar ran away.  The angel of the Lord found her by a fountain in the wilderness and asked her where she was going.  Hagar said that she was running away from her mistress.  The angel told Hagar to go back and obey Sarai, and told her that she would have so many descendants that they can’t be counted.  Does that ring a bell?      

            Then the angel told her that she was going to have a son and that she should call him Ishmael because the Lord heard her affliction.  And he will be a wild man and he will be in conflict with every man and every man will be in conflict against him and he’ll live with all his brothers. 

            So Hagar returned, and gave birth to a son and Abram named him Ishmael.  Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.

            As this story unfolds it will make you look at things in a different light when you find out how something so very long ago, is not just a simple story, but in fact is still affecting the world now, more than ever.  More exciting Bible stories ahead in Daily Bread!

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