The God of Hagar, Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

TW mention of infertility and abuse

Hagar could be called a prophet, and she’s central to understanding the Abraham story arc, but I’m glad I even managed to find Hagar’s story. If I had done only the student readings for my “Women in the Scriptures” Institute class, she wouldn’t have been mentioned at all. Yup. If you want to know the story of a woman who saw an angel of the Lord, you better hope the teacher brings her up or make sure to do extra reading. Other religious traditions talk about her more. I have some serious holy envy about the place of honor Hagar holds in the Islamic faith.

When we teach this story in church, we tend to focus on Sarah’s infertility: how having a baby is a righteous desire and how God will perform miracles in his own time. This year’s curriculum is no exception. There are plenty of other aspects of this story we could talk about: how Hagar talks with god, the abuse Abraham perpetuated against Sarah, or how we might see ourselves in Sarah’s own abusive actions.

Hagar talks with the Angel of the Lord

The angel of the Lord addresses Hagar by name and asks her what’s going on. She says she’s running away. Each of the verses in Genesis 16:9-11 begin with the phrase “And the angel of the Lord said unto her”. Perhaps there was a pause in the conversation as he awaits Hagar’s response. He tells her to return to Sarai. She doesn’t answer, but I imagine her thinking very loudly “Oh heck no!” He tells her she’ll have a whole bunch of posterity. Again, she doesn’t reply, but I’d imagine she’s thinking “What? So Sarai can steal my baby and claim all the grandkids as her own? Not good enough.” He tells her that she will have a son, that she should call him Ishmael (meaning God hears), that Ishmael will be a wild, fighting man, and (depending on the translation) that he will either fight with or live near his brothers. This prophecy brought enough of a chance of freedom for Hagar that she decided to go back. I love that Hagar’s decision doesn’t seem to be made out of blind obedience to God. She didn’t instantly follow the command to return to her mistress. She waited for the angel to offer promises that made returning a hopeful course of action. Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her “El-roi” meaning God of seeing or God who sees. She named the well “Beer-lahai-roi” meaning the Well of the Living One who sees me.

I wonder how Ishmael’s name affected both Hagar and Sarai. I imagine that the name may have often been painful to Sarai, who probably felt that God did not hear her own desire for a son. I can imagine that the name “God hears” would serve as a gentle rebuke to Hagar when she got frustrated with her child. I also imagine that the name was often a comforting reminder of God’s willingness to sit with her.

Abraham abused Sarah

We tend to gloss over the parts where Abraham tries to pass Sarah off as his sister, not just once, but twice! Treating your wife like property and selling her sex appeal is a totally messed up thing for a husband to do. Pulling off this trick led to gifts from pharaoh and gain for Abraham. Even though God sent plagues because of this behavior, Abraham was greedy and tried it again with King Abimelech. He was rewarded with wealth again.

My heart aches for Sarah. It would be hard to be a childless woman in a society that placed so much of a woman’s worth on her ability to produce children. I wondered if, in a time before artificial insemination and IVF, it was baby-hungry Sarah that came up with the idea. There is absolutely no textual support for this. Even if it had been Sarah’s idea, it was the God of Abraham that made it clear that it was unacceptable for Sarah to have multiple sexual partners. I wish I knew what the God of Sarah said about the situation. Either way, Abraham was abusing Sarah. Despite this, Sarah cannot be excused for perpetuating the cycle of abuse in her actions towards Hagar.

Recognizing our own abusive actions

Being able to identify with a variety of people in all types of different life circumstances is an important part of spiritual development. I could identify with Hagar, but I also realized how much more difficult her ordeal was compared to mine. That didn’t mean I wasn’t struggling, but I had a roof over my head, financial security, and a supportive family. In this, I was more like Sarai: she had a tent over her head, flocks of animals to eat, and servants to protect her. In contrast, Hagar was alone in the wilderness with very limited resources and no one to help her. Being able to connect with Hagar’s story despite the differences in our life circumstances has helped me to better recognize my own privileges.

I don’t want to see myself in the way Sarai treated Hagar, but I do. Some of the people who help feed and clothe me are in bondage. Honestly, I don’t do all I can with my privilege to make sure that the people who help care for me are paid a fair and living wage. I’m continually trying to take baby steps in the right direction. Last week I finally sourced Fairtrade chocolate chips. Last autumn I explored my privilege as it relates to the clothing industry: I had bought a pair of denim shorts from a big box store for $6. They weren’t on the clearance rack. That was their regular price. I thought about the time and costs associated with harvesting, spinning, weaving, dying, cutting, sewing, and shipping the materials for those shorts. My shorts had crossed an ocean at least once. I know industrialization and globalization has helped reduce costs of manufacturing, and I’m not an expert in economics, but I have a hard time believing that there was no exploitation involved somewhere in this system. Somehow the entire process of making a pair of shorts was valued at less than one hour’s worth of United States minimum wage work. I ended up returning the shorts. I paid more than ten times as much for a pair of pants from a local store that stocks clothing brands whose marketing at least acknowledges my concerns. Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked is the moral imperative. My needs are met, and I can pay more so that those who labor for me can meet their needs as well. Changing chocolate chip brands or returning a pair of shorts seem like laughably small and imperfect actions compared to the enormity of problems like wage theft and trafficking. These are global problems, and one person alone cannot fix them. If we as a society don’t want to perpetuate oppression in the same way Sarai oppressed Hagar, we need to be more like the God of Hagar. We need to see the suffering, hear the stories, and care for the lives of those whose labor we benefit from.

Both the Old and New Testaments teach that it’s important to care for the well-being of others. Hagar’s story is referenced in the ten commandments. Exodus 23:12 says that “on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that…the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.” The Hebrew word for “stranger” (wə·hag·gêr) plays off of Hagar’s name. The Sabbath should be a day of rest, particularly for those who labor for you. Christ’s ministry modeled how we need to see and connect with those who are “the least of these”. Our curriculum does not examine how high-status individuals in the scriptures treat “the least of these”. It needs to.