Genesis 12: 4-20;
16:1-15; 21:8-21
Welcome to our study on Hagar!
To fully understand who Hagar was and the events that unfolded in her life, we have to look at some background and context. That background and context starts with a godly childless couple who desperately wanted children but were unable to have them. The couple was none other than Abram/Abraham and his wife Sarai/Sarah. They had made their way to the land of Canaan from Haran, per God’s instructions and that's where we'll pick up with them in Genesis 12:4-20 and lay the foundation for this study.
4 So Abram
departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 Then Abram
took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that
they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they
departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
6 Abram passed through the land to the place
of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then
in the land.
7 Then the Lord
appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And
there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 And he moved
from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel
on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called
on the name of the Lord.
9 So Abram
journeyed, going on still toward the South.
10 Now
there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell
there, for the famine was severe in the land.
(We don’t know how
long Abram was in the land of Canaan before he decided to go down to Egypt
because of the famine.)
11 And it
came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his
wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.
12 Therefore
it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say,
‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you
live.
13 Please
say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your
sake, and that I may live because of you.”
14 So it
was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that
she was very beautiful.
15 The
princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was
taken to Pharaoh’s house.
16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. (I consulted several different versions of the Bible for a clearer meaning of this verse, and they all agreed that Abram received from Pharoah sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels because of Sarai.)
17 But
the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of
Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18 And
Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to
me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
19 Why did
you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now
therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”
20 So
Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away,
with his wife and all that he had.
Whew! That’s pretty action packed isn’t it! Famine, half-truths, plotting, deception,
beauty, prestige, wealth, gift-giving, plagues, confrontation … and this is
just the beginning. Although not blatantly
obvious at this point, Abram, Sarai and Hagar’s lives are at the beginning of
being intertwined forever and as we will see, there will be plenty of action-packed
drama to come! But for now, let’s
look at what we can glean about Hagar from the Scriptures we just read.
What we know so
far:
Hagar was likely
one of the female slaves given to Abram as part of the gifts/dowry Pharaoh gave
to him for Sarai. Or, Hagar could have
also been a gift from Pharoah to Sarai during her brief stay in his harem. Scripture doesn’t tell us, but research indicates
it was likely one of these two options.
Hagar was
Egyptian.
Through no choice
of her own, she was taken from Egypt and all that she had ever known including
the gods she grew up worshiping, by Abram and Sarai.
What are your
thoughts about Hagar at this point?
Hagar was about to
become the center of a controversy that would last throughout time, even until
today. I hope you’ll meet me back here
next Thursday when we see that controversy start to unfold.
patsy @ From This Heart of Mine
~ a place for women to gather and study God's Word ~
Sources used for this study:
Various translations of the Holy Bible
Various commentaries
Several trusted and biblically sound online sources
Dictionary of New Testament Background, Editors: Craig A Evans & Stanley E. Porter
Archaeological Study Bible
All the Women of the Bible by Edith Deen
Daughters of Eve by Lottie Beth Hobbs
Halley’s Bible Handbook by H. H. Halley
Even today innocent lives are changed forever by those who own them and decide for them the course of events that will effect them forever. This was God ordained for Hagar but how sad for her to not be able to have any say in future events. Most women would not want what was in her future or having to leave all that is familiar and home. I have always felt sorry for her.
ReplyDeleteLana, I had never given much in depth thought to Hagar other than just surface knowledge but doing the research for this study has given me a totally different view from what I had of her and of what she went through. And yes, God allowed this for Hagar ... it might have been the only way Hagar would have ever come to know the true God. Sometimes it takes hard and difficult things to open our eyes to God. The goal for us all is Heaven, it was then, and it is now, and sometimes that way is paved with heartache and trials.
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