Genesis 16: when faith breaks down, but grace remains

 

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant 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!” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the Lord said to her,


“Behold, you are pregnant
   and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
   because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
   his hand against everyone
   and everyone's hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Genesis 16

Having seen an example of faith worth following in the previous chapter, and the wonderful relationship Abraham have with the creator God, what we see now in Chapter 16 could not be more different, as we learn of how Abraham and Sarah (or Abram and Sarai, as they were at this point) took matters into their own hands.

Now it may seem especially strange to us that Sarah would suggest that Abraham sleeps with her servant, but this was not an unusual custom of the time and in the surrounding cultures.  However, it was not God's way.  God had given the pattern of marriage in Genesis 2, and Abraham could have understood that God had the power to give life.  However, the social pressure of being childless would have been compounded with Abraham and Sarah's worry that God's promise would not be fulfilled - they obviously decided that God needed a little help.

It is challenging and yet comforting.  I expect very few people in my culture have resorted to the particular measures that Abraham and Sarah took, but there may be other ways.  Essentially, this is about putting our eggs in multiple baskets.  Now there are many instances in life where this is a useful proverb, but not when it comes to spiritual matters.  There is one God, and no other has power over life and death, over creation.  As Moses preaches in Deuteronomy: Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other (Deuteronomy 4:39).

Furthermore, there is only one way to God, and that is through Jesus Christ - i.e. it is through the way that God provides: for Abraham the true identity of this way was not fully revealed, but as we discussed in the previous Genesis post, Jesus was there, and it was only faith in God that saved - not our own actions.  Abraham thought he could help speed God's promises along, and so too might we think we can meet God half way in terms of our own righteousness.  Maybe you do things to try and make yourself look more acceptable to God, or believe that your own good works will help get you out of sin?  Or maybe you find it hard to give something that is hindering your walk and calling because you want to keep part of your heart there, just in case God lets you down?

Abraham and Sarah may have thought that they were doing something fairly innocuous just to help the covenant along, or maybe it was quite a desperate step: whatever it was, it all 'ended in tears', as the saying goes.  Hagar 'looked with contempt' on Sarah - i.e. she felt her elevated presence being favoured with pregnancy and possibly lorded it over Sarah.  Abraham remains uselessly passive, and Sarah is jealous and mistreats Hagar.  None of these reactions are good, but all are understandable.  Sin leads to a tangled web of victimhood and persecution.

However, I mention that this is also comforting, and that is because God's grace is evident.   First we see God sending his angel to comfort Hagar.  Hagar - the Egyptian slave girl who was not part of the Abraham lineage, who did not respond with decorum when she experienced a change in status but was nonetheless only there as caught in the crossfires of two people not trusting in God, and who then had to flee her home out of fear; this girl was cared for by the almighty God.  No one is too unimportant for him or beyond his love.  She expresses her faith in this possibly (to her) unknown God, and before this he promises her that her descendants will also uncountable.

We will learn in later chapters that God is gracious with Abraham too.  When we remember that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39) - that includes our sin.  When he made his covenant with Abraham, the flaming torch passed through the sacrifices alone.  When Jesus died on the cross, he did so alone, with all his friends having deserted him.  God's grace is not dependant on us - but wholly his, and that is the most comforting and yet humbling thought in the world.

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