Understanding God (7 of a series)

In blog post 6 of this series I mention how God appears to comfort Hagar, the mother of Ismael. Since I think that some of the readers of my blog may not have easy access to a Bible, or would feel uncomfortable looking up this section online, I'd like to copy that chapter here in this post for your convenience. It is a very beautiful moment and after you read it we will discuss how this event gives you more perspective about the attributes that we have discussed of God, specifically is all-knowing and his love.

Genesis 16

Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no children. She had, however, an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram: "The Lord has kept me from bearing children. Have intercourse, then, with my maid; perhaps I shall have sons through her." Abram heeded Sarai's request. Thus, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, his wife Sarai took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abraham to be his concubine. He had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant. When she became aware of her pregnancy, she looked on her mistress with distain.

[Let me pause here and point out a few important insights. Here is another example where the desire for children, both for love of children and also for the status, is one of the key drivers to not only human reproductive survival but also events that shake the world. Think about this. If Sarai had not been a normal woman of her time, desperate to have a child, she would never have thought of giving Hagar to Abram and Ishmael, the patriarch of the future Muslims, would never have been born. This is why God has given to all true men and women a burning desire for children. Those who stifle and deny that urge, not individually, but as a societal set of values, have no idea of how much goodness they have inadvertently truncated. Thus God did not intervene here, he did not have to, since Sarai's burning desire for a child did what it naturally was supposed to do.

This is why Hagar was able to, once pregnant, even though a slave, look with disdain upon Sarai. It's not that she was being mean or prideful, far from it. And she had no way of knowing that her child would be the patriarch of his own people of the faith. She was simply "walking tall," in a way, of having been an Egyptian slave, and now being pregnant with the child who would be the first born of Abraham. Sarai, of course, being human, finds the reality of her plan working out, and Hagar being pregnant-and proud of it-harder to bear than she anticipated!]

So Sarai said to Abram: "You are responsible for this outrage against me. I myself gave my maid to your embrace; but ever since she became aware of her pregnancy, she has been looking on me with disdain. May the Lord decide between you and me! Abram told Sarai: "Your maid is in your power. Do to her whatever you please." Sarai then abused her so much that Hagar ran away from her.

[Poor Abram, for Sarai was indeed a handful! Sarai now blames Abram because her servant, Hagar, is now abloom with pregnancy and has status, even though that was what Sarai wanted. This biblical history, by the way, if read carefully helps humans who live today to understand that these were real people with real events and real foibles, not, as determined non-believers like to accuse, quaint mythologies and folktales. This is because, as the footnotes in this copy of the Bible that I am using, confirms that the reaction and behavior of Sarai is actually consistent with "the laws of the time, as known from ancient extra-biblical sources." In other words, Biblical scholars can find outside of the Bible instances of ancient custom and law that confirm that Sarai would have reacted exactly as she did, and not because it is some folktale drama.

Notice that Hagar is showing quite a bit of spunk in running away, as I don't need to remind people, this was harsh desert land. As a woman of Egypt she is already showing some of what one will many generations later understand as the hardiness of Arabic women!]

The Lord's messenger found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur, and he asked, "Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She answered, "I am running away from my mistress, Sarai."

[Just as later in Genesis we read, as I commented upon in 6 of this series, angels who appear as travelers, one of whom is the Lord, appeared to Abraham and Sarah, here the Lord appears as an average man, hence he is called a messenger. Even though the Lord addresses Hagar in a way to let her know that he knows who she is, in her distress she does not notice this knowledge, and just assumes that this is a man who just happens to know who she is, even though she has never met him.]

But the Lord's messenger told her: "Go back to your mistress and submit to her abusive treatment. I will make your descendants so numerous," added the Lord's messenger, "that they will be too many to count."

[Notice that Hagar must be realizing that this is the Lord himself, first as he states the reason that she is running away even before Hagar had said so, but more importantly as the Lord prophecies to her in the "I will" mode of speech.]

"Besides," the Lord's messenger said to her:

"You are now pregnant and shall bear a son;
you shall name him Ishmael,
For the Lord has heard you,
God has answered you.

He shall be a wild ass of a man,
his hand against everyone,
and everyone's hand against him;
In opposition to all his kin
shall he encamp."

To the Lord who spoke to her she gave a name, saying, "You are the God of Vision"' she meant, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after my vision?" That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered.

Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named the son whom Hagar bore him Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Now, the prophecy the Lord gives Hagar and the act of the Lord naming Ishmael himself is such an illumination of God's all-knowing-ness and his love that everyone should know about this event and ponder its meaning. Also, Hagar's response is also commendable for several reasons. Let's look at each of these points in turn.

The Lord first of all indicates that he knows that she is pregnant, so he opens his extended discourse by confirming that he is indeed the all-knowing. The Lord then immediately tells her, now that she knows that he is the all-knowing, what she cannot yet know on her own, which is that the child that she bears is a son. This is the way that the Lord typically dialogues his all-knowing with humans, first by telling them something they already know, but he would not know if he was an average person passing by. Jesus many centuries later will be known for doing exactly that. The second step is then to tell the person the essence of the prophecy, in this case that she bears a son (and thus an heir).

Then the Lord names the child. This is a sign of God's approval and acceptance of Ishmael. If God had not approved of Ishmael himself, and was only "stopping by to comfort Hagar," the Lord God would never have named the child for her and Abram! The Lord would have just let Abram name the child whoever he chose. So God is affirming the birthright and heritage of Ishmael, but with the earlier prophecy about his descendants being numerous, God does not become specific in Ishmael's role because much of God's work with Abraham had not yet taken place. So God indicates to Hagar that her son will have a great legacy and many heirs.

When God, by the way, uses the image of heirs being as numerous as the stars, God is referring to not only biological progeny but spiritual descendants. This is the same as recognizing that Abraham is the patriarch of the three faiths without actually passing on his biological genes. Abraham passes on his spiritual genes in the sense that those who belong to the faiths that he founded (Jewish, Christian and Muslim) can call Abraham their spiritual father.

Speaking of this, Bible readers know that God also told Abraham, when he renamed him from Abram to Abraham that "I am making you the father of a host of nations." I will include here that entire passage but first I want to make this point. God does not rename Abram and give him the prophecy and his covenant until Abram is ninety-nine years old, a full thirteen years after Ishmael was born!

So you see, the Lord God is telling Hagar that he is reserving for her son, Ishmael, a great legacy, even before God establishes the covenant with Abraham and announces that Abraham and Sarah will conceive Isaac. God is thus demonstrating his all-knowing when he tells Hagar what to name Ishmael and that Ishmael will make his descendants so numerous that they are too many to count. Carefully reading and comprehension of the order of these events allow one to understand that God is giving Ishmael his own promise and his own legacy, for if it was to be the normal legacy of oldest (and at the time only) heir to Abram, God would have spoken these words directly to Abram.

Instead, we infer that obviously Hagar upon her return told Abram what God said, so that Abram obeyed and named the born boy Ishmael. Abram would have probably assumed that this consolation by God of Hagar was affirmation that Ishmael was going to be his spiritual heir, without realizing that God was intentionally speaking of something quite different, which would be the Muslim people.

We know this because as I said, it is thirteen years later (the traditional age when a boy is becoming an adult in the sense of having heir and family responsibility) that God makes clear the renaming of Abram, his calling, and the covenant. Further, God then tells Abraham that God blesses Ishmael and will make him the father of a great nation, but that the covenant with Abraham will be via Isaac, the son the Lord promises Abraham that he will have by Sarah in a year.

Regular reading of the Bible and/or the Qur'an, whichever is your book of faith, reveals to you that God always knows what will happen, and that all that happens is his will yet God allows events to unfold in a natural pace filled with human beings exercising free will. Like I said, God did not impel Sarai to select Hagar to bear a child; it was human nature and free will that motivated Sarai to want a child so desperately that she conceived of the idea to have Hagar conceive. The normal urge for a child resulted in a decision that blessed by God results in the family of Islam, some 1.6 billion living adherents today!

Imagine what it is like to be God and to combine the all-knowing with the love. As he decided to comfort Hagar, an Egyptian slave girl, and console her as she has been abused, God indeed shows that no one's suffering escapes his notice and pity. At the same time, God being the all-knowing, as I described in my analogy of the subatomic particles of all time and their future being constantly and totally known by God, as God gazed on Hagar, imagine how God was looking at the future descendants of Ishmael, not yet born, and seeing how someday they will be the people who heed the Prophet (PBUH) and return to the knowing of the one God becoming indeed "descendants so numerous that they will be too many to count."

But God allows people to live with his encouragement, and his peace of mind (that is what is truly meant by the expression "the peace of God") without providing a robotic type of road map that crushes hope and puts undue burden on humans. God lets Abram think whatever he is going to naturally think of Ishmael, being simply father and son, for thirteen years. It is only after thirteen years that God says the following to Abram, now Abraham.

Genesis 17:1-8, 15-22

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless. Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly."

When Abram prostrated himself, God continued to speak to him: "My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you. I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God."

...[I'm skipping over the part where God gives Abraham circumcision as the sign of the covenant].

God further said to Abraham: "As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him." Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?" Then Abraham said to God, "Let but Ishmael live on by your favor!"

[Notice Abraham, because he can't quite believe that they will bear a child, is actually somewhat 'passing up' on the chance to have another heir, and is saying that he would be more than willing to stay with Ishmael as his only heir.]

God replied: "Nevertheless, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I am heeding you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation. But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year." When he had finished speaking with him, God departed from Abraham.

[After this Abraham immediately has every male, including Ishmael, circumcised.]

Now we've reached Genesis 18, which I provided with commentary in 6 of this series.

Before closing this post topic I'd like to point out another attribute of God that can be observed and learned from in the event of the appearance of God to comfort Hagar.

Notice that God spends some time in somewhat poetically describing how Ishmael will be a real handful, a "wild ass of a man" and in "opposition to all his kin." Some Jewish scholars have erroneously interpreted this as being disapproving in tone by God. Usually Jewish scholars are excellent, and as I've commented, no one really "gets" (comprehends) God the way the orthodox Jewish scholars do. However, this is an example of where there is both bias (they are "rooting for Isaac") and just a missing of a nuance of God's "personality." God is with constancy expressing his support and kinship for Ishmael as, we have seen, God comforts his mother Hagar with his actual presence, accepts and names Ishmael, ensures that Abram fully embraces Ishmael as heir and loved son, and even rebuffs Abraham when Abraham wants to just stick with Ishmael (and thus Ishmael would have not had his own separate legacy, the Muslim people, which we now know with hindsight that is what God was prophesying for him). God is insistent that Ishmael, while part of the covenant with Abraham, will have his own great legacy.

Thus one need to read what God said to Hagar as being just what it is, an expression of what a real handful Ishmael will be! You can be safe in even thinking you are detecting droll humor by God in what he says about Ishmael. It is not disapproving at all, for God is God and he would have corrected any deviance from his will real fast and really firmly. God is content that Ishmael be combative and feisty. And thus one cannot help but think of the very robust nature of the roots and branches of Islam and realize that God as all-knowing and all loving, was preparing the trunk of the tree that will reach into the harsh conditions of the desert and one day give rise to Islam, his call for the people who were living pagan ways to rediscover their connection back to Abraham, back to Adam, and know and serve the one true God.

I hope that you have found this helpful and interesting! I wanted very much for people to know about God's encounter with Hagar so her name and legacy is not forgotten.