I wonder if resentment and anger like this is what fuels racism and nationalism both of which are sins of idolatry and ideology. Hurt pride, disdain, and disgust of someone you consider inferior. Hagar is pregnant, sluggish, and craving. She leaves and walks south. How desperate must she be to walk back to Egypt, the one place that didn't want her? Sometimes the unknown is better than the known. The Tenderness of God. Whereas Sarah only thinks about herself, Hagar is thinking of her and her baby.
What will happen if I give birth to a girl? If they treat me thus, how will my daughter be treated? And who is to say if I have a son that he will be welcomed? She goes and drinks water and the Angel of the Lord comes and mentions her by name Abraham and Sarah never call her by name , "Hagar, servant of Sarai.
God hears the lamenting. Then the unlikely and unbearable? You have conceived a son, but when he grows up he will be a wild ass of a man. A wild ass is like a mustang. Hagar's son will be free. No one will be able to tame him. He will not dwell in captivity like his mother. It must be that Hagar's prayer was this, "I just want my kids to avoid experiencing what I experienced. She experienes the callousness of people, but the tenderness of God.
This world is unfair in many ways and I wonder if you could find it in yourself to look out for Hagar or her children.
To see how the deck was tilted against them and then come alongside and prayer for and serve, to befriend those who are weeping by the streams of water hoping in the unknown. Slavery and sexual exploitation exists in this world of wifi, incredible culinary delights, wireless recharging, binge watching Netflix shows, and flights to other planets. The question the Scriptures raise in Genesis 16 and the question facing us in the midst of cultural chaos and tempted unraveling is this: Who will you side with and speak for?
Time and again the Scriptures state that God takes side with the exploited, harassed, and marginalized. JESUS tells us and shows us this. The child grew and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac. But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.
And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of my child.
And God heard the voice of the boy; the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
Sarah is depicted in these expositions as a noble woman who is well aware of her station, and has no intention of descending to the level of her handmaiden. The fact that she does not argue with Hagar accentuates the moral and class difference between them. In Gen. Schechter], chap. Consequently, when she encountered the angel of the Lord, he informed her Gen. Abraham heard what Sarah said and told her Gen. Deal with her as you think right. The Torah seeks to protect these women, who have already experienced humiliation and slavery; if their master no longer desires them, he may not sell them, but must emancipate them.
The series of arguments that he unfolds discloses that, in contrast to his explicit statements, he is concerned about Hagar. He no longer relates to her as a handmaiden but as a lady, and he supports his stance with the laws of the Torah. Sarah, in contrast, is determined to put Hagar in her place and therefore mistreats her. According to one Rabbinic interpretation of this harsh treatment, Sarah prevented Hagar from engaging in sexual relations.
And in a third view, she had Hagar bring to the bathhouse pails and binariot clothes used in the bathhouse Gen. In the first interpretation, Sarah wanted to give Hagar and Abraham the message that she was the real wife in the house.
Just as the shoes are lower than any other part of the body, so, too, Hagar is not on the same standing as her mistress; she still serves the family as a handmaiden and Sarah can demean her if she so wishes.
But if two people tell you the same thing, prepare a bridle for yourself. Thus, Hagar understood her real standing only when she heard it described, time and again, by those around her. The comparison of Hagar to a donkey is not coincidental. Rabbah ; BT Kiddushin 68a , in order to emphasize their inferior status in comparison to the Israelites.
According to the midrash, many angels, and not just a single one, were revealed to Hagar. From this, we can learn of the difference between the early generations and the later ones. Manoah saw a single angel and told his wife Jud. It is said of the latter Prov. Consequently, Hagar was accustomed to seeing angels Gen. Its message is that she was a handmaiden like any other, but lived among the righteous, and therefore merited seeing angels.
Some add to this list, from among the nations of the world, Ishmael, for the angel tells Hagar v. Rabbah ; Sarah was the only woman to whom God spoke directly.
Another school of thought, however, maintains that this verse is to be understood literally Gen. Hagar further says v. It was not enough that I saw angels when I was with my mistress, but I also saw angels when I was alone. She did so, while being supported by her maidservant. The noblewoman covered her face [because of the honor she gave to the king]; the maidservant saw the king, but the noblewoman did not.
Thus, Sarah is the noblewoman, and Hagar the maidservant. Hagar dared to look, and so she saw the angel of the Lord, while Sarah acted with awe and respect, and therefore did not see him Gen.
Although the former boasts of having spoken with the Lord, she actually spoke with His angel. Sarah, in contrast, will indeed speak with God Himself [when He will inform her of the birth of Isaac]. Hagar proclaims her superiority to her mistress, because she saw the angel of the Lord face-to-face, while her mistress Sarah had not yet seen the angel.
Hagar thereby reveals her incomprehension of her true standing. The above parable explains that the king wanted to see the noblewoman, and the maidservant was present only to aid her mistress. Accordingly, Hagar saw the angel of the Lord only by merit of Sarah. Hagar acted in a simple, straightforward manner, as is the way of handmaidens. She looked directly at the angel and did not realize that she should properly have covered her face. Sarah is spiritually superior to Hagar, and therefore her descendants will be worthier spiritually than the progeny of Hagar, whom they will rule.
Hagar returned to the house of Abraham and bore him Ishmael. Since Ishmael was fourteen years older than Isaac, Abraham was eighty-six years old when he begat him Gen. In one view, Ishmael engaged in idolatry and Sarah saw him building pagan altars and trapping locusts, which he offered as sacrifices. In yet a third exegetical notion, Ishmael engaged in bloodshed.
Sarah saw him take a bow and arrows and shoot at Isaac [i. Tosefta Suspected adulteress Sotah [ed. Lieberman] There is also, however, a dissenting opinion that asks: Is it conceivable, Heaven forbid, that such would happen in the home of that righteous one [Abraham]?
Why, it is said of Abraham Gen. I am the firstborn, and I will take two portions. Sotah Let this not be evil in your eyes.
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