Week 31, Day 1: Hagar conceives

Today’s Reading:  Genesis 16:1-15

Some thoughts from the reading…

I appologize for not having done the post yesterday.  So there will be two posts today.

Poor Sarai.  She has been unable to bare any children for so long.  In an act of desperation she talks Abram into taking her maid for a wife.  Abram does so and Hagar conceives a child.  But everything is not well.  Hagar despises Sarai after she is able to conceive.  It appears to me that Hagar now wants to be more highly regarded than Sarai since she has conceived a child for Abram.  It is seen several times in the scriptures that multiple wives would try to out do each other and gain the love and approval of their husband by bearing more children to him than the other wife.  I believe here we have another situation such as that.  But instead of being able to rise above Sarai and gain more favor from Abram, Sarai is given permission to treat her how she deems fit – harshly. 

This situation makes me think of what happens when man decides he is going to “take things into his own hands” and chooses some course of action that disregards God’s instruction.  How many times do we come across a situation where a person appears to have good intentions but they have decided to do something that is clearly so unwise.  When man makes these hasty decisions or decides to compromise his morals to try and gain something, the result is often catastrophy.  Sarai took things into her own hands and ended up causing a big mess of things.  I would hope that we could learn from such examples that God’s way is always the best way and we need to trust that God will take care of things, wait upon the Lord. 

Ishmael, Hagar’s son, was born when Abram was 86 years old.  Abram had now been in Canaan for 10 years.  Ishmael’s descendants would indeed be too many to count.  The area of nothern Arabia would become home to nomadic tribes who were descendants of Ishmael.  Later we will see Joseph sold to a band of Ishmaelites (Gen 37:25-28).  Ishmael was to be a “wild donkey of a man” and everyone’s hand would be against him.  It is interesting that many Arabs today claim to be descendants of Ishmael.  Many adherants of Islam claim a connection to Abraham through Ishmael.  Islamic tradition claims that Abram built a house with Ishmael, the Kaaba, in Mecca.  This is now a shrine that many Muslims make a pilgrimage to see.  I find this interesting because of the statement that everyone’s hand will be against Ishmael and his against theirs and to see the conflict between those who claim to be descendants of Ishmael and those around them.  Interesting.

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