Few would dispute that Abram (later Abraham) was a man of great faith. He enjoyed a personal and close relationship with God. There were times during which Abram demonstrated amazing faith, and then other times, as in Genesis 16 , when we may find ourselves asking… “Why did he do that?” while we read the scriptures.
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)
4 So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”
6 Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”
11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”
13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”[a] She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.
We must observe that Abram and Sarai’s choice to try to fulfill God’s plan rather than waiting on God resulted in much trouble and sorrow for them and for generations to follow. It is a great reminder to us in our journey with God not to be discouraged and quit when we make mistakes, but rather to pick ourselves up and resume our journey with God as best we can, asking forgiveness and trying to learn from our mistakes.
One aspect we can learn from Abram’s actions in this passage is how to wait on God and how to discern if a solution someone proposes lines up with the word of God. The idea that Abram should have a child through Hagar, who was not his wife, to help God accomplish His promise to Abram is clearly not an idea from God. It does not line up with God’s instruction as to marriage being between one man and one woman and sexual relations being reserved only for a husband and wife in marriage. He commanded this at the beginning with Adam and Eve.
We must challenge ourselves not to try to hurry God’s timing by finding our own solutions to speed things up. We must wait on God to enjoy the fullness of what He has in store for us.
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