TW: Infertility, Sexual Abuse
Read Genesis 16
The wait for the promised child has gone on forever. And finally, Sarai decides she can’t take it any longer. She doesn’t believe she’ll ever bear a child and so taking things into her own hands seems an attractive option. Hagar enters the scene. As Sarai’s Egyptian slave, she is looked down on both for her status and her race. She has no rights and no power and is given to Abram in marriage and to bear a child for Sarai with no option of refusal. She hates Sarai for it, and in a second instance of abject failure to protect the women in his care, Abram allows Sarai to mistreat Hagar in return.
It’s a very dark moment in the history of God’s people. How can God allow Hagar to be so treated? To be abused purely because of her gender, economic status and race. Is God misogynistic, elitist and racist? Do you think gender, class and race dynamics affect how people perceive Christianity?
God is not misogynistic, elitist or racist, but these dynamics surely affect our feelings towards God if we have experienced abuse on these grounds. Abuse on grounds of gender, finance and race is sadly frequent, but that does not mean God is OK with it. Again, we must remember that abusive behaviour recorded in the Bible is a historical account, not divine endorsement. The Bible shows a God who chooses uneducated followers, welcomes members of all races, and who gives women dignity and significance. So we can’t conclude God is happy with this extremely dark moment. It is Abram and Sarai’s unbelief, and their subsequent actions, which are responsible for Hagar’s abuse. Abram was clearly promised descendants, and God did not endorse polygamy, so the clear inference was that these should come through his wife Sarai. But the couple took matters into their own hands – and God is not on their side. He is on the side of the oppressed.
Hagar runs away and is met by the angel of the Lord who tells her:
To return to Sarai
That her descendants will be increased until they are too many to count
That the Lord has heard of her misery
To name her son ‘Ishmael’ meaning ‘God hears’
Hagar responds by naming God. As a woman mistreated because of her racial and economic status, its notable that she is permitted to name the Almighty. She calls him ‘God who sees me’. Because he does.
Sometimes in the midst of mistreatment, the most important thing to do for another is to stand witness. To say ‘I see you. I see what is happening is wrong.’ Hagar has grown up in a world with no autonomy, where her life is dictated by her mistress, and her very survival placed in the hands of another. She has been given an identity of insignificance from birth. She needs someone to see on her behalf, to tell her she does not deserve to be treated like this purely because of the circumstances of her birth. And she finds that voice in the Almighty. God demonstrates his grace and care towards the abused and vulnerable. Ishmael is not the descendant God promised Abram, but God still sees, cares and provides for his mother, promising her also a multitude of descendants. That’s who he is.
Reflect
Have you experienced mistreatment which you need to know God sees?
Are there places where you’ve experienced Christianity as harmful to you? If not, are there places you are blind to mistreatment because it doesn’t affect you? What does this passage tell you about God’s feelings about that?
Do you need to stand witness for someone today?
Susie lives in NE Fife and works in ministry. She loves being with friends, feeding people and half finished creative projects.
