January 19th, 2013
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

The Surrogate Mother

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Lord God, I praise You for burdens lifted, sins forgiven, hope restored. I’m glad to be with You now.

Read Genesis 16:1-16

[1] Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; [2] so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. [3] 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. [4] He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. [5] Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” [6] “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. [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; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. [15] So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. [16] Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“We are an impatient people. Our particular idolatry is the idolatry of the immediate, short cuts, quick results, right now success” (John N. Gladstone).

Think Further

After reading this chapter, I engage with the rising and cascading feelings of the women who dominate the story. Ten years of living in the land have passed, but still no son, despite the renewed promise in 15:4. Sarah’s stratagem is somewhat similar to Abram’s in ch. 12, with resonances from Genesis 3: she follows a common-sense course rather than pursuing the promise. The triangle of what Derek Kidner calls “false pride (4), false blame (5), false neutrality (6)” quickly follows. Reflect on the “seeing” that takes place in this chapter: the pregnant maid’s ruthless gaze in v. 4: “her mistress became contemptible in her eyes.” The angel of the Lord (who turns out to be the Lord himself, v. 13) does not lose sight of Hagar in the wilderness. Hagar, in amazement asks, “Have I caught sight of the back of the One who sees me?” and names the place, “Well of the Living One who sees me.” I pause to refresh my heart with the knowledge of God’s watchful care, of his roving, caring eyes upon me everywhere, always.

I think about the questions the angel asked Hagar in v. 8 as if they were asked to me. She knew the answer to the first but not the answer to the second. The angel’s daunting answer to the second question has a promise of uncountable descendants attached. Am I facing an unpalatable course of action which I must take and for which I need a promise? Finally, think about Ishmael (meaning “God hears”), still a favorite son of Abram 13 years later (17:18), and the father of the Arab nations which surround Israel to this day. Following the ousting of Egypt’s President Mubarak, there were many riots taking place in Arab cities, together with stories of Muslims and Christians protecting each other.

Apply

Pray for Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Middle East, especially those who are oriented towards diminishing the pain and animosity that has divided them for centuries.

Closing prayer

Father, You see my going out, my coming in, my lying down, my rising up. Thank You for Your all-seeing care.

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