| Hagar was the Egyption servant of Sarah, who was barren for many years, and mistakenly assumed that God had meant to birth His promised nation through her servant. Having this responsibility thrust upon her was a little more that she could deal with alone. When Sarah's husband, Abraham, got Hagar pregnant, Hagar began to despise Sarah, who in turn mistreated Hagar. We can only imagine the weight of this imposed decision. Hagar was afraid and ran away, but after a visit from an angel chose to return to have Abraham's child, Ishmael, who would later become the father of the entire Arab nations. When Sarah finally did concieve a child of her own, Hagar must have known that her and her son's days with this family were numbered. When Ishmael mocked Isaac one day, Sarah told Abraham to get rid of her and her son. Running away from Sarah and Abraham was not what God had in mind for her, but her feelings of pride and haughtyness were wrong. And then later, left to her own devices to fend for her and Ishmael, out of water, and feeling she had no where to turn, out in the desert, she couldn't bear the thought of watching her son die, she left him beneath a bush. Hagar was a servant, who probably had been a servant most of her life. This of course means that she does what she is told, and in that time it was customary for servants to have children for their masters to carry on the master's family line. So when she had started to dispise Sarah, knowing that bearing children for the family she worked for was part of her job description, those feelings were wrong. It is important that we submit to the authorities put over us, it is the natural order of things. We all know what happens when we break the law. 'Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,' {Titus 3:1} When Hagar had set herself up to be mistreated by Sarah, she didn't know what to do, so she followed her impulse which was to run. When we feel like hiding/running away, God wants us to look to Him to be our hiding place, 'You are my hiding place, you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.' {Psalms 32:7} God had a wonderful plan, but there are times we are not looking to Him to see where and how He is working, so we inadvert-antly make things more complex, but Praise God!, He knows how to work it out so that plan is still carried out. But by doing this we end up having to perservere through some things that we would not have had deal with if we had kept our fingers out of God's things, so God uses these things to build our character. 'Blessed is the man who perserveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will recieve the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.' {James 1:12} |
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| Hagar |
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