Seder 14: Gen 16---Sarai and Hagar

As Genesis 16 opens, Abram and Sarai have lived in Canaan for 10 years. Abram is 85 years old, Sarai is 75, and they have not been able to have children.  God has promised that Abram will have many descendants, and they have faith in this promise (Gen 15:3-6).  But God has not told them who the mother of Abram's children will be.

The wait is difficult.  In that culture, a woman who could not have children was seen as a failure, and a woman of means would sometimes decide to have children through a surrogate wife.  Abram and Sarai eventually decide to try to have a child through Sarai's servant Hagar (Gen 16:1-3).

Their plan succeeds, but success comes with some consequences, beginning with strife between Sarai and Hagar.  Polygamy always ends up causing problems, as we see in several examples in Genesis.

The book of Genesis reports what happened, with the narrator casting no explicit judgments upon the actions of Abram and Sarai.  Some commentators have noted possible implicit judgment in the parallels in language between Abram and Sarai in Gen 16 and Adam and Eve in Gen 3.

Gen 16:2--"...And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai."

Gen 3:17--"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife...."

Gen 3:6--"...she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband..."

Gen 16:3-- "Sarai...took Hagar...and gave her to her husband..."

In general, God tends to give us a lot of opportunity to try things and learn from the consequences of our actions.  This is one example.

Overall, God was committed to working through Abram and Sarai in his plan to restore blessing to the world.  The choices Abram and Sarai made could be incorporated into that plan.  In particular, Hagar could be a part of that plan if she was willing to submit to Sarai (v 9).