I honestly believe that Hagar is the hero in the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. As I discussed previously, it was Abraham and Sarah’s lack of faith and patience that caused them to request Hagar’s help in getting Abraham a son. However, they actually did not request it, did they? They ordered it. Hagar was a maid-servant, a slave. She did not have much choice in the situation. However, the fact that Sarah ordered her to do it did not stop Sarah from becoming jealous and hating Hagar and treating her harshly, so much so that Hagar felt the need to run away (for her life? I don’t know).

Now according to the Bible, what happened next shows that Hagar was not perfect, either. According to Genesis 16:4 Hagar began to , “despise” Sarah. One wonders why she did not despise her prior to that, considering that Sarah essentially forced her to have sex with her old husband and then was thinking that Hagar was going to give the child to her. I have read some interpretations that have written “despised” as Hagar became prideful and haughty over Sarah. I don’t know if that is what happened or not. If that was the case, I guess that would have given more credence to what Sarah did. However, Sarah still did throw out a mother and her child without any means while Abraham buried his head in the sand.

The thing that makes me believe so much that Hagar was the true hero in this story was the fact that Hagar obeyed the Lord and returned to Sarah as instructed. This showed incredible faith. Also, the Lord appeared to her, not once, but twice. When she was beyond hope, the Lord rescued her. The first time:

Genesis 16: 7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” 13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi[d]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

Now we can analyze the sin of slavery in this passage. Slavery is definitely a sin. But I think right now we need to discuss the idea that Hagar had faith in the Lord enough to submit herself to Sarai again. And it was not just for a short time. The next time that she ran away was after Isaac was born. That was actually in Genesis 21, 5 chapters later. I am not sure how many years it was. It is clear that it was a while. But she kept a measure of faith in the Lord that she was in the “right place”.

How often are we in what seems the “wrong place” but the Lord wants us in it? This is a tough place. We want to change the place we are in but the Lord wants us to change first. In those situations we can be like Abraham and do things our way, the wrong way or we can be like Hagar and endure and learn and see the Lord do something amazing.

However, eventually it was her time to move on, again due to Sarah wanting to get rid of her. At least this time Abraham was kind enough to give her some bread and water before she left. But then she became discouraged on her trip and the Lord came to her again.

Genesis 21 17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

The Word came to Hagar and she had some faith in it. So she got up and took her son and helped him to become the father of another great nation. The Lord took care of her, despite the fact that the father of her child could not wait for the Lord to give him his own son with his own wife and then his own wife hated Hagar for something she herself had put on Hagar. Maybe that is the real lesson from this story.

God can take a mess and make a message.

———————————————————————————W.