Genesis 16 Devotional
By Pastor Lawrence

Ten years have passed since the Lord made the promise to Abram that he would be the father of many nations but Sarai still has not been able to bring even one child to term. Abram is now 85 years old and his wife is 75, which was a little late in life, even back then, to bear children. Interestingly, Sarai acknowledges that it is the Lord himself who has not allowed her to have children, but then immediately makes plans of her own to bear a child for Abram. Thus, if the delay of God’s promise was designed to test their faith, clearly, Sarai failed the test—and so too did Abram. Perhaps in her mind, though, she was merely helping God to bring about His promise.

Nevertheless, in the midst of her doubt, idolatry and bitterness, Sarai encourages her husband to sleep with her maidservant in order to build up the family. Now that might seem like a very strange and unusual request to us, one that most American women wouldn’t even consider today. But back in ancient times, not only was it common, it was legal. In the Code of Hammurabi, one of the first ancient law codes, it is stated that the barren wife may present one of her slave girls to her husband to bear a son for the family. So, what Sarai was suggesting was not anything uncommon at that time; nevertheless, it was immoral and, more importantly, doubting the promise of God.

What Sarai was suggesting was a polygamous relationship between Abram, Hagar and herself. Surely, this was not acceptable in God’s sight. The Lord originally created marriage to be between one man and one woman in the Garden of Eden. But men have chosen to ignore God’s laws and to go their own way instead. And Sarai too decided to follow the ways of men rather than the way of God. In fact, notice the language that Moses uses to describe Sarai’s sin in v.3 and how similar it is to Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Just as Eve took the fruit from the tree and gave it to Adam. So, Sarai took Hagar, the forbidden fruit, and gave her to Abram for a wife to sleep with her. And she conceived.

How should Abram have responded to this request? What he should have done was to listen to his wife and empathize with her in her weakness. And then he should have led her to the Lord in prayer helping her express her desires and fears unto the Lord, leaving it in his hands. Of course, that’s not what Abram does. Instead, he seeks to fix the problem himself. Listening to voice of his wife rather than the voice of the Lord, he consents to take Sarai’s handmaid as his second wife and to sleep with Hagar. Just as Adam passively received the forbidden fruit from Eve’s hand, so Abram passively received Hagar into the marriage bed.

But polygamy was not the sum total of their sin. Sin usually begets more sin and there are normally a multitude of consequences because of sin. When Sarai came up with this great idea, she wasn’t thinking through all the ramifications, but only of the immediate benefits of having a child. She didn’t consider Hagar’s feelings in the matter nor how their relationship would change once they both shared the same husband.

In v.4 Moses tells us that when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Why did she despise her? Possibly for making her sleep with Abram in the first place, but now for the first time Hagar has an advantage over her mistress. She has something that Sarai only wished she had. And not only that, it appears at this time that the promised son would come through the lowly maidservant instead of the matriarch Sarai. So, Hagar begins to lift up her head in pride and to look down upon Sarai as the third wheel in the marriage, the fruitless one, the less than capable wife.

Then check out Sarai’s reaction in v.5 and how she shifts the blame to her husband saying that he is the reason for her suffering. That also seems to hearken back to the initial blame game in the Fall of the Garden of Eden. But she wasn’t completely wrong, for Abram was partly to blame. And in this particular situation he was the authority and should have spoken to Hagar and corrected her in order to defend his wife, Sarai. He should have tried to bring reconciliation and peace between his two wives. But again, Abram is passive. In addition to Hagar’s false pride, and Sarai’s false blame, Abram exhibits a false sense of neutrality. He responds to Sarai’s blame in v.6 leaving matters in her hands to do with her servant whatever she wants.

Now that’s the last thing he should have said to Sarai, for he knew already that Sarai wasn’t thinking rationally at this point. And consequently, Sarai mistreated Hagar. The Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly what she did, but we can only imagine what hardship she put her maidservant through. It was probably a combination of verbal and physical abuse along with ridiculous expectations placed upon her despised maidservant. So again, Sarai sins against her maidservant and her husband by mistreating her husband’s wife as well as her own slave.

And how does Hagar respond? She flees from Sarai. In fact, her desire is to go back to Egypt, for when the angel of the Lord finds her in the next scene, she is on the road to Shur which is in the outer regions of Egypt. But she is not only leaving her mistress. She is also leaving her husband. So even though Hagar has been sinned against, she too is sinning herself by breaking her covenant vows. And again, notice Abram’s sin of passivity. He doesn’t go after his wife to help her or console her, but he allows his pregnant wife to fend for herself. Abram is now responsible for Hagar, but he doesn’t lift a finger on her behalf. Instead, he probably is secretly content that he no longer has to put up with the fighting between his two wives. And he thinks perhaps things will get back to normal now that Hagar is not around. After all, she’s not a part of God’s plan anyway, or is she? What a mess they’ve gotten themselves into all because they didn’t trust and obey the Lord. And these are only the immediate consequences of their sin; as we continue to read through the Biblical narrative, we will find that this one act of faithlessness leads to many years of misery and even many generational conflicts for years to come.

It is a very sobering account of the consequences of sin. As the writer of Hebrews says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to Him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Clearly, the author had in mind here the Lord’s words to Abram in Genesis 15, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Somehow, Abram had forgotten this truth and his wife was full of fear, both of which would lead to this unexpected misery. Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t leave them in their misery but continues to give them grace and even open their mouths with laughter by allowing Sarai to bear a son named Isaac, whose name means laughter. Indeed, God’s grace comes at unexpected times and in unexpected ways, and the man or woman who trusts in the Lord will testify to this great truth again and again.