Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.
GENESIS 16:3 NKJV
REFLECTION
Think of a time when you acted out of frustration. What was the situation? What was the result of your actions? If you could do it over, what would you change?
[Your Response Here]
SITUATION
Abram’s faith in God caused him to leave his homeland and journey to the land of Canaan—much as the Israelites under Moses were doing as they made their way through the wilderness. For Abram, the road was not always easy. At one point, he was forced to separate with his nephew Lot and allowed him to take the fertile plains of the Jordan valley. Another time, he took his family to Egypt to avoid a famine, and while he was there he claimed his wife was his sister in order to win favor with the Pharaoh. But perhaps his greatest misstep took place when he and his wife grew impatient while waiting for God’s promise of a son to come to pass. Abram and Sarai, much like us today, felt the need to “help” God’s plans along by coming up with their own plan of rescue. It would prove to be a decision with lasting implications.
OBSERVATION
Read Genesis 16:1-12. The Voice
1 Despite God’s promise, years went by. Still Abram’s wife Sarai remained childless. But she did have an Egyptian servant girl whose name was Hagar. Sarai had an idea so she approached her husband.
Sarai (to Abram): 2 You can see that the Eternal One has still not allowed me to have any children. Why don’t you sleep with my servant girl? Maybe I could use her as a surrogate and have a child through her!
Abram listened to Sarai and agreed to follow her plan. 3 After they had lived 10 years in Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took her servant girl Hagar, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4 So Abram slept with Hagar. It was not long before she conceived. But as soon as she knew she was pregnant with Abram’s child, Hagar’s attitude changed and she became haughty toward Sarai. 5 Sarai would not tolerate her servant looking down on her, so she approached Abram again.
Sarai (to Abram): This is all your fault. I allowed my servant girl to be intimate with you, and as soon as she saw she was pregnant with your child, she started behaving arrogantly and disrespectfully toward me! I have done nothing to deserve this. Let the Eternal One judge who is in the wrong here—you or me!
Abram (to Sarai): 6 Sarai—look, she’s still your servant girl. Do whatever you want with her. She’s under your control.
So Sarai clamped down on Hagar severely, and Hagar ran away. 7 The Special Messenger of the Eternal One found Hagar alone by a spring of water out in the desert. It was the spring of water along the road that went to Shur.
Special Messenger: 8 Hagar, Sarai’s servant girl? Where have you come from, and where are you planning to go?
Hagar: I am running away from my mistress, Sarai!
Special Messenger: 9 Hagar, go back to your mistress, and change your attitude. Be respectful, and listen to her instructions. You’re pregnant, and you need to go home. 10 Trust me: I am going to give you many children and many descendants, so many you won’t be able to count them!
11
Look, you are pregnant,
and you’re going to have a son.
I want you to call him Ishmael
because the Eternal One has heard your anguished cries.
12
Just to warn you, though:
Ishmael, your son, is going to be a wild and rowdy man;
he’ll put his fist in every face,
And everyone will turn against him,
and he will live at odds with all of his relatives.
The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved
EXPLORATION & DISCUSSION
1. What prompted Sarai to come up with this plan for Abram to have an heir?
2. Abram knew that God had promised he would have a son who was his “own flesh and blood” (Genesis 15:4). How might this have affected his decision to go along with Sarai’s plan?
3. What caused the plan to deteriorate? Why do you think this occurred?
4. In what ways did Sarai’s plan for having children demonstrate a lack of faith in God’s plan? In what ways was she trying to “help” God’s plans along?
5. Why do you think the angel of the Lord told Hagar to go back to Sarai and “submit to her” (16:9)? What other promise did God provide to Hagar?
6. Tradition holds that Hagar’s child, Ishmael, became the father of the Arab people, while Sarai’s child, Isaac, became the father of the Israeli people. Assuming this is true, what were the long-term results from Sarai’s taking the situation into her own hands?
INSPIRATION
“So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived” (Genesis 16:3–4). Abram and Sarai now have an heir, but it isn’t the heir God intended. They have gone outside of God’s plan, and soon things begin to unravel. Hagar starts to despise Sarai. Sarai starts to despise Hagar. Abram is caught in the middle. The situation gets so bad that Abram finally gives up trying to work it out. “Indeed your maid is in your hand,” he says to his wife. “Do to her as you please” (verse 6 NKJV).
In many ways, strange as it may seem, Sarai’s humanness is refreshing. Should you ever need a reminder of God’s tolerance, you’d find it in her story. If you ever wonder how in the world God could use you to change the world, just look at this couple. They made a lot of bad decisions. But Abram also made one for his family that changed everything: “He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own” (Romans 4:3 MSG). Because of this, God offered grace to both Sarai and Abram in spite of their faults and missteps. He credited their charge account and covered their debts. - (Taken from Ten Women of the Bible by Max Lucado )
*DTPHX Church = Small groups in Open Spaces
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