26 Dec. 2011 - Genesis 16:1-16

Genesis 16:1-16
"Hagar and Ishmael"

Here in this passage, In an attempt to bring about God's promise, Abram makes a foolish step. It was common custom, then, for a barren wife to offer her servant or slave as a surrogate, which is what Sarai did. She brought forth her servant, Hagar, to sleep with Abram and bear his son.

In essence, Abram and Sarai were discontent with God's plans and God's timing. They gave up on Sarai conceiving and essentially said that even God could not bring her to bear a child. Thus, they showed discontent with His plans in the act of using Hagar as a surrogate. Discontent with God's timing, additionally, falls under the using of Hagar, but in this case it has to do with the other aspect of Abram and Sarai's attitude. essentially, they said "We're not getting any younger and we want our heir now." God had a different time frame that He was working in and had a different time at which He would grant them a son.

Let's look at some to the repercussions of Abram and Sarai's rashness, now.

• Hagar became pretentious and boastful, leading to Sarai's mistreatment of Hagar
• Hagar's son, Ishmael, would father a people opposed to that descended from Abram's promised Son.

Let's take a closer look at the latter. 

The Angel of the Lord comes to Hagar, delivering a message, while she is running away from Sarai. He speaks to Hagar regarding her son, saying about his nature and future 

"This man will be like a wild donkey.
His hand will be against everyone. and everyone's hand will be against him;
he will live at odds with all his brothers." Genesis 16:12

To put this into further perspective, the descendants of Ishmael, the Ishmaelites, appear multiple times throughout the Old Testament histories, in opposition to the Israelites. Also, the Ishmaelites gave rise to the Arab peoples and from them came Islam and Islamic thought. It is interesting that one of the core Islamic teachings was to eliminate the Jews and Christians.

Abram and Sarai's decision to be discontent with God's plan and timing had vast, far-reaching consequences that neither of them could have forseen. This being said, we need to keep in mind that God has a specific plan for our lives as well and that we should follow God's plan and not try to make our own plan. After all, it could have some dire consequences that we could never have forseen.