Ahh, Baggage!

I've often wondered how Abram and Sarai could have been so impatient.  They heard directly from God that He would cause their descendants to be more numerous than the dust particles of the earth.  Having heard directly from God, yet being barren, Sarai is sure the issue is with her.  After all, she isn't pregnant and she isn't getting any younger!  Ten years have passed since Abram & Sarai came to dwell in Canaan, since the promise of Genesis 13:  "I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.  Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

In their human thinking, Abram and Sarai just couldn't wrap their minds around the idea that their offspring would be as numerous as the dust of the earth.  How on earth could this happen if Sarai, at her age, remained barren?    Rather than patiently trusting in God's promise to give Abram and Sarai a son, Sarai takes matters into her own hands and gives over Hagar, her Egyptian maid, to stand in as a "surrogate."  Remember yesterday's reference to "baggage"?  Could it be that she was a part of Pharaoh's "get out of my land" peace offering (AKA the baggage Abram and Sarai carried out of Egypt following the fiasco of Abram's not-so-brilliant plan to have Sarai pose as his sister).  Hagar does indeed become a surrogate and winds up pregnant with Abram's son.  But Sarai, who planned this in the first place, becomes hostile toward Hagar and kicks her out of the house.  Why the hostility?  Personally, I can't imagine giving my husband permission to go sleep with someone...inviting another woman to share in intimate relations with my man.  At the root of this hostility must be regret, right?  And a whole lot of jealousy...both because the woman had slept with her husband but also because Hagar had gotten pregnant very easily, therefore making Hagar "more of a woman" in the eyes of those around them.  After all, Sarai had been married to Abram for years and was still barren.  Hagar's pregnancy pointed out that the problem of infertility was with Sarai.

What was Abram thinking?  Why didn't he stand up and act like a man, like the spiritual head of the household, reminding Sarai of God's promise to give them a son?  Where was he when Sarai opted to kick Hagar and his son out of the house (talk about a dead-beat dad)? I know hindsight is always 20/20.  How differently things would have turned out had Abram stood firmly upon God's promises!

What about Hagar?  Did she perish in the wilderness?  Quite the opposite, actually.  In Genesis 16: 7-12, we see the Lord's loving hand reach out to Hagar:
"The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 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.
The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”And the angel also said, "You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael,  for the LORD has heard about your misery. This son of yours will be a wild one—free and untamed as a wild donkey! He will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live at odds with the rest of his brothers."


Hagar must have been a courageous woman...having been told to go back and submit to Sarai's authority. That took some serious willpower! It seems Hagar had faith that the God who found and cared for her in the wilderness would sustain her in the household she'd been kicked out of.  


I've heard it proposed that Ishmael's descendants become the enemies of the Jews, God's chosen people.  If that's true, think of the truckloads of baggage Abram and Sarai created...and not just for themselves!  Does today's conflict between the Arabs and the Jews have its roots in the "worldly" decisions Abram and Sarai made as they tried to help God out?  Our decisions have long-lasting consequences...for years and ofttimes generations to come.  Ahh, baggage...the more we take out of God's hands to carry ourselves, the more baggage we create.