The God Who Sees
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Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.
At this point Abram received a promise 10 years ago that he would have descendants. And Sarai was his only wife at the time so Its assuming she would be the one to start this line of descendants.
So ten years pass by. So thats 120 months. So 120 times they tried to have a kid and it wasn’t happening thats 120 no’s.
After 10 years if a wife was not able to bear and child that was grounds for divorce.
We have a problem, the problem is that Sarai couldn’t bear children.
In the legal custom of that day a barren woman could give her maid to her husband as a wife, and the child born of that union was regarded as the first wife’s child.
Though this kind of practice was according to the social customs of the day but God often repudiates social customs.
God often rejects the social norms of our days.
The Egyptian maidservant was possibly a concubine or a slave. She possibly was a gift from Pharoah when they where in Egypt. Gen 12:16. Speaks about how Pharoah gave Abram female and male servants.
Its interesting that Abram recieved these servants because Pharoah wanted to treat him nicely because Abram lied to the Egyptians saying, “Sarai is my sister and not my wife.”
So this Egyptian maidservant was given to them based on a lie.
But you have two women here who are uncomfortable and distraught over there position is life.
Sarai is embarrassed by her barrenness ( she can’t get pregnant), and Hagar faces the life of an outcast.
Hagar is a young slave woman and fertile; Sarai is old, free, and barren.
Sarah has the prestigious role as a “wife”, Hagar has a subordinate role as a maidservant.
Hagar wasn’t a common slave but servant of the mistress.
A hateful woman when she is married, And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.
A maidservant who takes the place of her mistress. What disharmony it brings to the order of ones house.
What ills and what strife it brings when this order is disrupted.
So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.
First Sarai blamed God for her not being able to bear a child.
Second Sarai never even mentions Hagar’s name, she just called Hagar “Her”
Hagar was a tool to relieve Sarai from a social embarrassment.
This can happen today we use people in order to prevent social embarrassments.
Like I’m gonna hang out with these kind of people because they fit the imagine I want to project to the world.
I want to hang out with those who look like this and feel like this.
I want to get married because thats the status all my friends socially.
Abram heeded the voice of his wife. That means he listened to obey.
He responded with conformity.
He responded with the idea that he was going to do what Sarai said.
these verses are an allusion or reminiscent to the Garden of EDEN
Genesis 3:17 (NKJV)
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
Abram and Sarai is repeating Adams sin of doubting the Word of God.
So Abram was caught weakly in the middle of this great conflict.
Genesis 16:3 (NKJV)
Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.
sarai took Hagar and gave her to Abram
This is reminiscent of the matriarch as another eve.
Genesis 3:6 (NKJV)
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.
So it took possibly Hagar 1 month to conceive a child. It took Sarai 120 months and still she had no child, imagine the death blow. The hurt Sarai must’ve felt .
Hagar is looking at Sarai as if I did something you can only dream of doing.
When it says she despised her mistress. - Essentially what its saying is that her mistress became small in eyes.
Hagar felt as if she was more important more prominent then Sarai.
Now Sarai is already grieved about her being barren and on top of that now she's despised by her maidservant.
Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.”
So now Sarai is playing the blame game. She is saying shes been wrong by Hagar and blames the matter on Abram.
Sarai is being a Karen right now.
She is saying Abram is responible for her pain and he is to blame for all of this.
“I gave my maid into your embrace” promotes intimacy essentially saying Abram enjoyed it.
So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
Dealt harshly - is the word anah which is the same Hebrew word that dealt with Israel oppression in Egypt.
Some say she dealt violently to Hagar.
Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”
Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”
And the Angel of the Lord said to her: “Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction.
He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
“When the way of faith (which involves patient waiting) was abandoned and the way of human calculation was taken, Abram was caught up in a chain of causes and effects that would trouble him for years to come. (Ishmael became the ancestor of the Arabs, who are still hostile to the Jews.)”
Genesis 16:13 (NKJV)
Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”
He perceives me
He doesn’t just here you but He’s listening to me
He’s concerned with the
The outcome is the birth of Ishmael, whose descendants will prove to be a threat to Sarai’s own son’s (Isaac) lineage (Gen. 21:9–10; 37:25–28; Judg 8:24; Ps 83:6).
The son of the slave will not be submissive