Tag: Hagar

Our Customs

Posted on by jovial_cynic

So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
Genesis 16:3 (NIV)

The reason I’m not convinced that Abram was meant to kill the animals that God told him to bring in Genesis 15 is because of what we read in Genesis 16.

The Midrash and Jewish commentary say that the “10 years” in Genesis 16 refers to the time after which a man may leave his wife who bears no children. If a man could not “be fruitful and multiply” with his wife, he could divorce her and find another woman.

“This was the custom” is the explanation. And while that explains the actions, it doesn’t tell us that this is what God demands. Sarai’s offer of her concubine was to appease the custom.

God can bless us, but He does so in spite of our customs, not because of them.

Pharaoh Loved Sarai

Posted on by jovial_cynic

[Pharaoh] treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
Genesis 12:16 (NIV)

The rabbis suggest that Pharaoh fell in love with Sarai so hard that not only did he give her the animals and servants, he gave her one of his daughters (from a concubine), which is how Hagar enters the story in Genesis 16.

They also suggest that he gave her the deed to Goshen.

Driven Out

Posted on by jovial_cynic
We read in Genesis 3 that after disobedience, God “drove out” the man from the garden. It feels like we’ve been kicked out. Banished. Hell?

The word is used again later in a story linked to something important: it’s the word used when Sarah drives out Hagar.

And she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
Genesis 21:10 (NIV)

While we wrestle with Sarah’s unkindness and Abe’s foolishness and Hagar’s slave-status, there’s something that Paul says later about this story that we have to understand. These characters represent something.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
Galations 4:22-23 (NIV)

There’s so much talk about “works” and “faith,” and Paul links these concepts to slavery and freedom as it relates to God’s promise to us.

When Sarah demands that Abe “get rid of” Hagar and the boy, she is using this same word of “banishing” as Genesis 3.

The link should be viewed through an eternal lens: God is banishing the slavery of works and our own attempts at attaining status and relationship from the garden. The Garden is Holy.

He’s not kicking US out. He’s kicking out the works of the flesh.

How do we know this?

Because if you read the text closely, God only banishes Adam from the garden, and not Eve, who represents Life. The spirit. The one through whom God promises to bring redemption. Not through through One born of the flesh, but born of the spirit.

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:22-24 (NIV)

Burdened with Riches

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Genesis 13 tells us that Abram was “very rich” in material possessions, but remember where he got those possessions: from Egypt. Empire.

Look:

Therefore [Pharaoh] treated Abram well for her sake; and he gave him sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
Genesis 12:16 (NASB)

The Hebrew writers want you to know something. This word “rich” in v2 is “kabad.” It can mean “rich,” but it also carries the connotation of “heavy.” Burdened. Slowed. It’s not entirely good.

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.
Genesis 13:2 (NASB)

Later, we’ll read about Hagar, who is one of those possessions. I think we’d agree that a concubine leads to trouble.

But also, this passage in Genesis 13 is almost immediately followed by the land being unable to “bear the weight” of Lot and Abe’s posessions. Again – “heavy.” Burdened. This leads to another problem in the story.

And yet… it seems that God blesses, despite our possessions.