Or, Faith versus the Culturally Reasonable
Scripture: Genesis 16:1-6
Date: May 22, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Making decisions can be very difficult when we don’t have a verse for it. As Christians, we know that if God said what to do in any given situation, we must do that. He is the Lord.
What about the times when we need to choose a direction and we don’t have a verse? Are we free to do whatever we want? How do we know what is right? What is better?
Or what about when God has promised to bring about a specific end but He has not revealed the specific path to that end? We know the What but not the How. If he hasn’t told us how, does He care how?
He does care how, and He sees all that we do. Solomon wrote that young men should rejoice in their youth, that they should walk in the ways of their hearts, and that they should “know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment” (Ecclesiastes 11:9). He is a God of seeing. He sees what is happening and what will happen as the sovereign Future-Maker. What He wants is for us to hear and obey His Word, and in the absence of a clear word to follow, He wants us to trust Him in faith.
Abram has demonstrated great faith since the LORD called him out of Ur at the beginning of chapter 12. The only faith-hiccup we know about is the trip to Egypt and his lie to Pharaoh in the back half of chapter 12. We understood Abram’s desire to provide for his family during a famine, we understand his desire to protect his family from foreign threats. But he did not seek the LORD or seek to honor the LORD in his behavior. Though the LORD protected and provided for him, it was not an unmixed blessing. He would have to earn his reputation back even in his own household.
He did that by showing generosity to Lot in chapter 13 and by showing strength to rescue Lot in chapter 14. At the end of both episodes Abram receives some sort of reaffirmation, from the LORD directly or from the priest of the LORD, Melchizedek. Abram built an altar to the LORD in worship, and gave a tithe through Melchizedek to the LORD in worship.
So when the LORD made a covenant with Abram in chapter 15, Abram believes. It isn’t that he doesn’t have any questions, but his questions appear to come from his trust in the LORD. “Lord, you say this, how can I know it?” And the LORD gives him a vision of stars and a ceremony that plants Abram’s faith deep.
Some time has passed and the situation hasn’t changed. Abram and Sarai know the end, but they make some guesses about the means to the end because the end hadn’t happened yet. It was too slow from their perspective. They come up with their own solution in chapter 16. Verses 1-6 show Human Prerogative against Divine Promise in verses 7-16 (which we’ll see next week).
In the first part of the chapter we seen the Problem, the Proposal, and the new Problems.
It isn’t a new problem at all, but it is a big problem that Moses has already told us about a few times.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. (Genesis 16:1a)
We knew Sarai was barren from the first time we met her in chapter 11 (verse 30). In the previous chapter Abram just asked about the potential need to take an heir in a legal or adoptive way rather than through having a son of his own. This isn’t a recent realization.
The second half of verse one points in a foreboding direction.
She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. (Genesis 16:1b)
The most important thing to know about this woman is not her name but her position. She is a servant, a “maid” (NAS). The word referred to a servant of a mistress (verse 4), which is not a name for a secret, extramarital lover, but the name for the woman of authority in the house. Sarai owned Hagar, Hagar reported to her mistress, not to Abram as master.
A number of ancient laws made room for alternative methods to family planning, including the Code of Hammurabi and various Assyrian marriage regulations. This makes the proposal that Sarai presents a culturally reasonable solution. Let’s see what she suggests.
Sarai feels the weight of her barren condition and presents a way out.
And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. (Genesis 16:2)
She acknowledges her situation and, to one degree or another, recognizes (or blames) God for it: The LORD has prevented me. She knows the LORD. Abram worshipped the LORD and he must have told Sarai every time the LORD spoke to him. She knows the LORD’s name and His abilities and His promises. She rightly says that the LORD prevented her, but she wrongly assumes that He would always prevent her.
She also assumes that her maid’s womb will work. But who would make her maid’s womb fruitful? The same LORD. Instead of thinking that the LORD could powerfully work in her belly, she concludes, based on her assessment of her age, maybe menopausal symptoms, or the amount of passed time since the initial promise, that the LORD can’t or won’t use her.
But look, she is after a child for herself. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. Because of her maid’s status, what belonged to her maid belonged to her. Children were a sign of blessing so that the family, in particular, the father’s, name would continue. Sarai had God’s word saying that Abram would be blessed as the father of a multitude. She knew the end, and she took a frequently practiced, culturally acceptable, a legally recognized approach to getting a child.
Sarai wasn’t pandering for Abram. She wasn’t finding him a prostitute. She took advantage of the fertility technology available in her day. She perceived that the way to get to the LORD’s promise was through the surrogacy of a servant. From her perspective her proposal wasn’t indecent, it was reasonable. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. She “fanned in her husband the same flame of impatience with which she burned” (Calvin).
The recap in verse 3 does more than summarize verse 2.
So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. (Genesis 16:3)
Why is this verse here? The only real new information is a more explicit timeframe: ten years in the land of Canaan. Perhaps this adds to the burden of barrenness. Then the roles are restated centered around Sarai - Sarai: Abram’s wife, Hagar: Sarai’s servant, Abram: Sarai’s husband.
But consider the verbs: took and gave. Do those sound familiar? How about a wife taking and giving to her husband? These are the same verbs used from Eve to Adam in Genesis 3:6. Even the end of verse 2: “Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” parallels Genesis 3:17, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife.” Moses isn’t only recapping. He is commenting on the similarities of the falls. In both cases, the word of God was not sufficient and unbelief wins.
We sympathize with Sarai. Our culture does surrogacy more clinically, but we still seek alternative solutions to get to God’s blessing. We understand her desire and her desperation to have children. We get that she knows enough to know that the LORD hasn’t wanted her to be pregnant yet and we know that waiting, even on the sovereign Future-Maker, is hard. She knew the law of the land and how a servant could produce for her. So she did what she thought was best for the family. But she did it without faith.
More damage is done than overcome. A lack of faith produced results, but not good ones. Here are four new problems that make the situation worse.
And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. (Genesis 16:4)
God did cause Hagar to get pregnant, and her pregnancy made Hagar proud. Solomon added a proverb from Agur about this to his collection.
Under three things the earth trembles;under four it cannot bear up: a slave when he becomes king,and a fool when he is filled with food; an unloved woman when she gets a husband,and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress. (Proverbs 30:21–23)
Hagar began to act like Sarai was beneath her. Sarai and her empty womb were worthless. If the earth can’t bear up under that, how much less one household.
Sarai apparently hadn’t prepared herself for this possibility.
And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!” (Genesis 16:5)
Sarai blows up at Abram even though it was her idea, not his, not to mention that he wasn’t the one despising her, Hagar was. Sarai calls the LORD to judge between she and her husband, believing that she would win the case and Abram would get the curse.
If she hadn’t been blinded by her bitter rage, she might have realized what she was asking for. If the LORD had come to judge, she was first in line. Instead, she resents Hagar and harasses Abram.
Abram may not have initiated the plan, he also didn’t stop it or step in to help now.
But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” (Genesis 16:6a)
It’s hard to know everything he was thinking at this point, but he may not have even looked up from his evening paper. If he had been thinking earlier, he could have prayed to the LORD about Sarai’s possible pregnancy. There’s no mention of him calling on the name of the LORD. For that matter, if he wasn’t going to need to adopt (Genesis 15:4), why would he need a second wife?
Even now, why isn’t he helping, leading, comforting, or protecting his child? He must have assumed Sarai would calm down. She doesn’t.
Sarai takes it out on Hagar.
Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. (Genesis 16:6b)
The word dealt harshly or “mistreated” (NIV) is exactly how the Egyptians treated the Israelites when the Israelites were their servants; God said it would happen in Genesis 15:13. Whether it was verbal or physical abuse or both, the mistress punishes her former maid and Hagar runs. We’ll see more about that in part two of the chapter next week. To note is that, by the end, a son is born for Abram but not for Sarai as she expected (verses 15-16).
[T]he first scene ends in total disaster for all concerned. Hagar has lost her home, Sarai her maid, and Abram his second wife and newborn child. (Wenham).
Be careful before deciding that you know the right means to the Lord’s ends, especially if those means don’t require faith. The righteous live by faith, not by doing whatever is culturally reasonable that could get close to the thing it seems would please God. What pleases God is believing that He will use us as instruments in His hands not that He will ask us to take matters into our own hands.
Abram sinned in light of both the revelation and responsibilities given to him. He doesn’t help/stop/lead Sarai. He doesn’t refuse or then help/stop Hagar. He doesn’t help/stop/lead Sarai again. His passivity is not of faith.
God sees it all, more on that in verses 7-16.