Trust

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maid-servant who

was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid, perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.  The Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. Se he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she (Hagar) saw that she had conceived, her mistress (Sarai) became despised in her eyes. – Genesis 16:1-4

It’s a disturbing passage. Sarai has a slave. Sarai gives her slave to her husband to have sex with so she can claim the baby as her own. Abram agrees with the plan. He does the deed. THEN he marries her, goes and has sex with her again, and then Hagar conceives. And Hagar hates her mistress and looks down on her. Which frankly, I don’t really blame her for.  

We’re talking about really nasty stuff here, slavery, rape, stealing babies, adultery, and hate. And it all begins with Sarai’s lack of trust in God.

Now Sarai lived in a time when her worth as a person was based on her motherhood. Society taught her that. She deeply felt it. Although there is no mention of Abram mistreating her for it, she probably felt like she had let him down.

There were no doctors at the time who understood the problem and could find ways to fix it. Infertility is heart-breaking now even though generally women’s worth isn’t tied so strongly to having children. Although there are many religions that still do this.

So feeling worthless, and not trusting God, led Sarai to make a decision that affected three adult lives – one who had no authority to choose.

As it turns out, God had plans all along for Sarai, and it didn’t involve another woman. If Sarai had trusted and been patient it would have all worked out for her without the heartache that her actions caused. Do we do this? Do we give up on God, lose our patience, and make a plan that is in opposition to God’s plans? How do we know they are in opposition?

We have the gift of prayer to know, and the scriptures. In this type of case, we can see that even though many of the prophets had more than one wife at a time, IT WAS NEVER GOD’S COMMAND. Not once did God command His people to have more than one wife. If He were going to do it He would have set that up in the Garden of Eden. But he didn’t do that there. Or, he would have done that at the flood. He would have told Noah and his sons to take several women to repopulate the earth. But He didn’t do it there either. It was four men and four women.

The keeping of slaves, having more than one wife at a time, taking babies away from mothers to claim as your own, was man’s invention, not God’s. God does not break the hearts of His daughters! He does not expect them to be voiceless and assaulted. He doesn’t expect them to hand over their children to another, more powerful woman. He does not expect women to share their husbands with other women.

But Sarai did not trust in God, and neither did Abram since he went along with this plan, likely wondering how else he would have a son.

Of course when we desire something, there is nothing wrong with making plans and carrying them out. God wants us to be pro-active. But we need to do it with the spirit. We need to trust that whatever God decides will be for the best, even if it means we don’t get what we want.

Sarai didn’t have the benefit of the scriptures or even the Holy Spirit. But she had prayer. She had a good brain to think beyond her yearning to see what would happen. She could have used her heart to tell her that forcing the woman who she was responsible for, to have a baby for her, was wrong. She could have chosen to honour the covenants of her marriage instead of breaking that bond.

She had enough tools to make the right choices. But she didn’t. And Abram didn’t (I’m not letting him off the hook for this fiasco). And people suffered, including her.

Trust. Patience. Long-suffering. And joy comes with the morning.

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. – Psalms 30:5