Genesis 21:8-21
Mothers – In a newsletter from another church, the pastor wrote of encountering a man in Las Vegas handing out pamplets showing unclad women with phone numbers and graphic suggestions for date activities. The man had given this pamphlet to the pastor’s teenage daughter! He did not understand the pastor’s unhappiness over this, but did have some reaction to Pastor Bill’s question whether his mother knew what he did for a living.
Biblical mothers are a mixed crew, some good, some less so. We don’t know what kind of mother Eve was. One son killed the other, but that may have had nothing to do with parenting. Sarah was a beautiful and strong woman. She loved her son and wanted to protect his heritage, so she nagged her husband to cast out his older son, Ishmael, by the servant, Hagar. Ishmael was a child whom Sarah herself had brought about, giving Hagar to her husband. This was a strategm of ancient times, whereupon the child of the servant can be legally considered the child of the wife. Hagar’s wishes were not consulted on the subject, nor was she apparently considered to have any rights.
One would hope that loving your own children would not blind you to the needs and welfare of other people’s children. Unfortunately, that can’t be said for Sarah.
Ishamael nearly died, but Hagar and her son were saved in the wilderness by God, who promised them an inheritance of their own. Ishmael is considered the traditional progenitor of the Arab peoples. Abraham’s younger son became the link in the traditional creation of the Jewish people.
It is interesting that Hagar, rather than Sarah or Abraham, comes out as the more admirable person in this story. She has been victimized, but still chooses to love her child. She had been driven away from Sarah once before, in the wilderness, and was saved by God, promised that her son would begin a great nation. (Genesis 16:1-16).
In the time afterw this, Sarai and Abram get their names changed to Sarah and Abraham. Circumcision becomes a new practice. Sodom and Gomorrah get their comeuppance. Sarah laughs when she hears that she’ll have a son at her advanced age. There’s a really strange family event with Abraham’s brother (his wife dies and his daughters conceive children with him). Abraham and Sarah lie about her being his wife, and Sarah spends some time in a king’s harem. When Sarah and Abraham are reunited, she finally conceives and bears a son.
But one day, the older Ishmael is playing with his half-brother and Sarah is suddenly fearful that Hagar’s son might get a share of Abraham’s property. Never mind that he is, in some sense, also Sarah’s son. Never mind that he is at least her husband’s son. Never mind that he’s her son’s half-brother. Never mind that he is a child with a mother who has been victimized by Sarah and her husband. No, cast him out to protect Isaac.
Hagar goes as far as she can into the wilderness, but runs out of water. She can’t bear to leave Ishmael, but she also can’t stand the thought of watching him suffer. She puts him into the shade of bush and goes off the distance of a bowshot, and waits. But God hears and Hagar is helped and promised once again that her child and grandchildren will become a great nation. (Genesis 21:8-21)
The Bible tells of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac. An Arab-Moslem story tells that the same happened with Ishmael. (I have not read the actual account of it, so can’t give details). Then Ishmael is in fact sacrificed on the pyre of fear and jealousy. The only time we know of that the two brothers came together again was to bury their father.
One Islamic tradition says that Abraham did not expel Hagar, but sought to resettle her in the area surrounding what is now known as Mecca, and that he was told to leave her in the wilderness there as a test of his faith, and that Hagar respected his decision. Both Moslem and Jewish traditions includes stories that Hagar was the daughter of a king, although there are several possibilities given as to which king. But they agree mostly in the idea that Pharoah gave Hagar to Sarah, either because he thought she was Abraham’s sister (and had designs on her himself), or out of respect to Sarah. At first, the stories mainly say, Sarah treated Hagar respectfully, but became jealous when Hagar was able to conceive when Sarah could not.
One story that is told in Islamic tradition is of Hagaar runing bwetween two hills in a desperate attempt to find water for her son in the wilderness. Apparently, during two Mustlin pilgrimages, the pilgrims are supposed to walk between the hills seven times in memory of Hagar. The rite is symbol for the celebration of motherhood in Islam, and for the leadership of the women.
Little more is known about Hagar from the Bible story. We know she found a wife for her son in Egypt. By inference, we can believe she was a very strong woman. Perhaps she was not as canny about human nature as she could have been. Upon becoming pregnant, she seems to have become a bit smug (Sarah interpreted it that way). While understandable, it probably wasn’t wise to push Sarah’s buttons that way. But Hagar rose above adversity and victimization. God must have found her worthy, for promises are twice made to her. She chose to love her son despite the challenges against loving him.
Some Jewish traditions identify Hagar as the same Keturah whom Abraham married after Sarah’s death. Other traditions deny this possibility, but it’s a pleasant thought that he might have tried to make up for his earlier behavior.
Hagar’s story has inspired some modern Israelis to name their daughters for her. It is, (again according to Wikipedia), frowned upon by nationalists and seen as marking sympathy for reconciliation with Palestine and the Arab world. Women in Black (an inter-religious peace group that has roots in many places, including the Christian settlement houses in America) hold vigils every Friday in Jerusalem’s Paris Square since 1988. They have unofficially re-named it "Hagar Square". This is in honor of Hagar Roublev, an Israeli peace activist who helped found the Friday vigils.
Hagar could provide a figure for looking at an incredible number of issues. She is profiled here this week because she was a loving mother.
How do we treat the powerless members of today’s world?
What kind of strength can we learn from Hagar?
