Last week after we looked at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, several people said to me that they had never heard a sermon on that passage. I’m willing to bet that is even more true in hearing about the story of Hagar. But, we ignore these stories, and Hagar in particular, at our own loss, because, to name just a few things, Hagar is the first woman that God talks to, she is the first woman that God makes a proclamation to about a pregnancy, she is the only person, not just the only woman, but the only person who names God, who gives a name to God, in the Bible, and she is the only woman to arrange a marriage for her son in scripture, and those are certainly not insignificant events.
We don’t really know all that much about Hagar, except that she is a slave, she is Egyptian and she is owned by Sarah. And just an editorial note, although in chapter 16 they are still named Abram and Sarai, for simplicity sake, and to make it easier on me, I am going to refer to them as Abraham and Sarah regardless of which chapter I am referring. While there are some translations that try and soften the reality of Hagar by calling her a maiden, or a handmaid, like my title today, the Hebrew words used to describe her all mean slave. We know that there are many slaves in the family, and presumably most of them are owned by Abraham, but Hagar belongs to Sarah. It’s possible that they received Hagar as a gift from the Pharaoh, but that’s just a guess.
But, what we do know is that Sarah has never gotten pregnant, even though God has promised both Sarah and Abraham descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky, which is hard to do when you don’t have any children. And the other thing we know is that in the ancient world, and really up till fairly recently, women were blamed if they did not have any children, as it was seen as being their fault, and there was great shame in this. Of course in some ways this hasn’t changed much as men tend not to be judged if they don’t have children, but women still are. But in the ancient world, while women got their identity and their power from their husbands, it was even more important to be identified as the mother of sons. And so this is a very troubling situation for Sarah to be in.
We also know that in these situations, it was fairly common for a wife, meaning the primary wife, to bring another wife into the house, or for a man to take at second, or more, wives in order to try and have children. These secondary wives are often referred to as concubines, but that word tends to mean wife, and there are more concubines listed in genealogies as mothers than first wives. And it should be noted that technically this is not polygamy, which is either partner having more than one wife, but instead polygyny, which is a man having more than one wife. But, Abraham is not the one pushing for this to happen. It is Sarah who is the primary actor. Now this does set up a theme of women in Genesis who will be the instigators as well as family dysfunction which runs through most of the rest of the stories. And so Sarah takes the initiative and gives Hagar to Abraham as another wife, and yet she also still remains a slave.
Hagar’s vulnerability and lack of control over her life and her body needs to be highlighted here. As a slave she has no say in what happens to her. Her life is totally at the whim of her owners, but, unlike Sarah, she quickly becomes pregnant. And with that change, she also perceives her change in the household, in that she is bringing the thing that has been desperately wanted, and that Sarah could not bring, and so she suddenly has some power that she has never had before and we are told that she smirks at Sarah. The Hebrew here in other places is translated as had contempt, which the smirk probably represents. In seeing this, Sarah, in return blows her top, and says to Abraham, basically, “This is your fault, I gave you this young girl, and now she thinks she’s all that, and you better do something about it.” And Abraham takes the easy way out, by choosing to do nothing and taking no responsibility. He simply tells Sarah that she’s her slave, so she can do whatever she wants, and Sarah then proceeds to abuse Hagar. The Hebrew word here is the same one used to describe how the Egyptians treat the Israelites when they are slaves in Egypt that forces them to cry out to God for assistance. And so while I think we can rightly judge Sarah in this situation, I do wonder about Abraham’s culpability in this. I mean he argued with God to protect people in Sodom and Gomorrah, but allows this behavior in his own household.
Rather than taking this treatment, Hagar decides to flee from Sarah and she runs into the wilderness, and there she encounters an angel, although we are to find out that it is God, and something remarkable happens in that God calls Hagar by her name. Neither Abraham or Sarah ever use her name, even in the later story, her name is never used. Now names are important things. They give identity and personhood. By refusing to ever call her by her name, Sarah and Hagar have dehumanized Hagar, made her less than, even more of an outsider than she is by being a slave and a foreigner. But God calls her by name and saves her, and tells her that through her son she will have many descendants, the same promise that has been made to Abraham.
She is to name him Ishmael, which means God hears or God listens. Theologian Paul Tillich says “The first duty of love is to listen,” and God certainly does that here. But, then God tells Hagar to go back to Sarah and to submit to her. This too is a troubling statement. Is God really okay with Hagar being abused? Is God sending her back knowing that she will be abused? Is this passage condoning physical violence against others, especially household members, or those we have power over? I don’t think so, and here is the reason.
In fleeing into the desert, as a single woman, and as a pregnant single woman, someone who already has little power, Hagar was setting herself up for probable death, either by the elements, as we see in the later story, or more likely by others. God is trying to save Hagar’s life and protecting her son yet to be born. God is not establishing a universal rule, but a situation specific rule, and that God does not condone violence, especially domestic violence, and that that is not part of a God given or supported relationship, and our reality is very different today and if you are being abused it’s not okay. But, God saves Hagar here, and then she does something that no one else ever does, and she names God. She names God El-Roi, which means God sees, or God sees me. When no one else sees Hagar, or names Hagar, or listen to Hagar, God does. She may be insignificant in the eyes of others, merely a tool to be used for their own ends, a nameless figure, merely a slave. But Hagar is not insignificant in the eyes of God. She is someone important. Seeing and hearing are important elements in these stories, and here God both sees and hears Hagar. And so Hagar follows God’s instruction and goes back to the household, and Abraham names the child Ishmael, just as God has commanded, which means that Hagar had to have told Abraham this story, which may indicate that they have a closer relationship than the story tells us, which may also give us another indication of why Sarah is so upset. Because although we have a reality show called sister wives about polygynous relationships, in scripture they are not called sister wives or seen as such, but rivals.
Then we jump forward about sixteen years following the birth of Isaac to both Sarah and Abraham, the promised child through whom God has said the covenant will be fulfilled, and yet Ishmael is still around. As the first born son, he has special rights granted to him, even though he is born to a secondary wife, and will be granted his part of the inheritance. And this has to be grating at Sarah, and then something happens, although it’s not quite clear what it is. Abraham has thrown a party for the weaning of Isaac, which probably happened around three years old, and this celebration means that he has survived infancy, certainly not a given, and as I always imagine this story, which is totally putting it in a modern context, Sarah is at the kitchen sink and she looks out the window, and she sees Isaac and Ishmael doing something together in the backyard that makes her furious. The translation we heard this morning says that they were playing together, which sounds innocent enough, so there must be something more. The problem there is getting the translation right. What is literally being said is that she saw Ishmael Isaacing with Isaac. Now Isaac means laughing, or he laughs, as both Abraham and Sarah laughed when God told them they were going to have a child. So was Ishmael laughing in derision at Isaac, taunting him? More than likely, it’s simply the laugh alone, regardless of context, that reminds Sarah that Ishmael is there and he represents a threat to her son, at the very least he too will inherit things, which is why she tells Abraham to cast them out. She doesn’t want any more reminders of them being around. Does she know the promise that was made to Hagar as well? We don’t know, but she wants the promise to be all to herself. No one else can share. It belongs to her and Abraham and Isaac alone. And so she commands Abraham to get rid of them. Sarah is doing what many still do in trying to possess God and the blessings of God. They belong to her alone, and if anyone else receives blessing it must mean less for her, and so no one else can belong to God, because God belongs to her and she gets to control and say who is worthy or not. And in telling Abraham to banish them, she uses exactly the same phrase that the Pharaoh will use in sending the Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus, which leads to their freedom. Is Hagar being ultimately freed in this story?
We are told that Abraham is concerned about this request, although he didn’t seem concerned about the abuse, and turned his back on that, but God reassures him and tells him that he should listen to the voice of his wife, to do what she tells him to do. Now we’ve heard that phrase before when the punishment is laid on Adam, because he listened to the voice of his wife and disobeyed God. Here it seems to be saying something different, or it could be God saying that this is not the plan, it’s not what God wants, but that God will redeem it and Abraham has to do what he has to do in order to keep Sarah at peace. It’s not the best of the situation, but God will help, because God will use imperfect people and imperfect circumstances to try and bring about the ends that God desires.
Abraham does as he is commanded by his wife, and once again Hagar finds herself in the wilderness with her son, but this time it’s not of her own accord. In fact, she seems like a very different person. In the first story she is defiant and active and self-determined. Here she is more passive and submissive and vulnerable. Is this because of the years of abuse she has been subject to? With our modern understanding of the psychology of abuse, and what happens to victims, it certainly makes sense and fits the pattern of what we know happens. Learned helplessness has become part of her actions to protect herself, and possibly her son. And so Hagar, with the food and water gone, falls down in despair and again cries out to God.
And once again, God responds, although what we are told is that God heard the cry of the boy, which is probably a reminder of Ishmael’s name. And once again God calls Hagar by her name. The only person in the story he sees Hagar as a person, not just some outsider, is God, and God reminds her of the promise that will go through Ishmael, and it does appear that saying he will be a wild ass of a man, which seems like a curse to us, was probably not at the time and we just have lost the original meaning. And then God opens Hagar’s eyes, and she sees a well of water, and she and Ishmael are saved.
I’ve always wondered what these stories would be like if they were written from the perspective of the matriarchs, rather than the patriarchs. Would there be a big difference? Would Sarah allow Hagar to have her own voice in that story, or would it still be silenced? How would Sarah justify the abuse? How would they understand their actions and their positions of power and authority? Would they think they had any power or agency at all? There was an article that came out a few weeks ago written by psychologists that were seeking to explain the phenomenon of women who are being stereotypically called Karen, which is mainly white, middle and upper class women behaving badly. And what the psychologists were talking about was that even in patriarchal systems, that there are women who participate in these systems, and who either use the power they have, or who resist seeing the power structure challenged or changed, because it threatens their own power or the power of the men in their lives, and so they act out.
I think we can see that with Sarah. She doesn’t have a lot of power, but she does have power over Hagar, and so she uses it and abuses it, with little repercussion, as far as we can tell. Which was also part of the role for Karens. And yet, we also know the expectations and limitations placed on Sarah. That doesn’t excuse her behavior. But what about Abraham? He has the most power and so his behavior shouldn’t be overlooked, and in some ways it isn’t because we have this story. Ishmael is not written out, or covered up or marginalized. His life and reality are there, which is one of the things that makes the Bible great. These stories don’t cover up things that others would probably want to cover up, just think of the arguments we are currently having about how we tell our history. We see these characters, warts and all, and in that we find our own story, because we can identify in all these spaces.
When have we been Sarah or Abraham in sending someone out into the wilderness? And when have we been Hagar and Ishmael crying out to God because we are lost in the wilderness? This is a story about power. Power used and power abused. It’s about attempts to marginalize and dehumanize another, to pretend that they aren’t even important because they never even use Hagar, or Ishmael’s names. And that power plays itself out in hearing and seeing. They don’t see Hagar as being worthy, or at least Sarah doesn’t, and therefore never even hears her voice. But God does. God not only hears Hagar, but God sees her, and in doing so, we also see Hagar and hear her, and God helps her to see and to hear. And I think that’s our call in this story is to learn to not just see others, but to hear them. to listen to them. to understand them. to say their names. and then to give voice to them in the world. I think we should find ourselves, our own story, in these stories, that we are both Sarah or Abraham and we are also Hagar and Ishmael, and what we also see in the midst of all of that is that God is faithful. God is faithful and God is present to all of God’s people. I pray that it is so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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