Fiftieth Page: Ishmael – an accidental son?

At an age when most people retire and begin a settled life at home, Abram begins his journey as a part of his father Terah’s household, from Ur. Yes, he was 70.

Still later, when he was 75:

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.…..the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing (Genesis 12:1-2).

Again in verse 7 God reiterates His promise. So the Lord had spoken at least twice about giving him the land. And the obedient Abram moves from place to place within the land of Canaan, arrives at Bethel, builds an altar and calls upon the name of the Lord.

So far so good.

There is a little turning point in verse 9: and Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

It is not known if this was in accordance with God’s will. Was Abram getting carried away by the momentum of his movements? Was he getting too comfortable with God, not bothering to check with Him if it is alright to move on? Indeed, was he taking God for granted?

It appears from the events that unfold subsequently, that Abram does stray from God’s will in deciding to go south. He was led, we may conclude, by his own desire to explore the land. He didn’t stop when he should have. He suppressed God’s will and allowed full reign to his own will.

Sound familiar?

God may have spoken to us and given us His guidance at a certain point in our life. But unless we maintain a constant relationship with Him and keep listening to His voice, we too may fall into Abram’s error.

Complacency

For some time everything may seem hunky dory and we may bask in the brilliance of sunshine. God is somewhere up there and we imagine He is sporting an attitude of benign indulgence towards us. But beware, “God cannot be mocked” (Galatians 6:7).

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Not surprising therefore that soon enough Abram experiences famine. And what does Abram do? Immediately he goes to Egypt. I suppose there was reason enough for Abram to be very concerned, for the Bible says the famine was grievous in the land; but there is no mention here of Abram talking to God about the problem. God had called him to go to the land of Canaan – not Egypt –  but at the first onset of trouble, Abram decides to move of his own accord.

Famine in more than one sense – his relationship with God goes totally dead

You’d think that our man had wandered enough – first south and then west – in his own steam and was completely out of touch with God. It gets worse in verse 11! Suddenly he realizes his wife is beautiful (ha,ha!), pays her a back-handed compliment and asks her to fudge her marital status. She was to announce to anyone who asks that she was his sister, the argument being that if the Egyptians know that Abram was the husband they will have no qualms about eliminating him. This was a society where adultery was considered  a crime whilst killing was commonplace. Abram knew this and was afraid for his life. He was prepared to lay Sarai’s virtue on the altar of expediency.

Selfishness in a saint!

Gripped by fear of what might happen in a foreign land, Abram quickly forgets all of God’s promises. Promises that spoke very specifically of his (Abram’s) name: that in his name shall all the families of the earth be blessed. But having lost his connection with God, Abram wants to play safe, takes matters into his own hands and  puts himself in control. God is quietly taken out of the equation and is nowhere in the picture!

“There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof are ways of death” says the  writer of Proverbs (16:25). Again “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Sadly Abram fails.

To be sure his worldly wisdom seems vindicated as everything goes according to prediction. The Egyptians set sight  on Sarai, are captivated by her beauty and the princes of Pharaoh take her into the Pharaoh’s house and things are going well for Abram with accumulation of material wealth  – for a while. Sheep, oxen, asses, camels, servants! Prosperity for sure, but was it a blessing from God?

Hardly!

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After giving Abram a long rope, God gets into the act. Another turning point. The Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house  greatly because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Instead of being a blessing as he was called to be, Abram had turned out to be a curse for Pharoah’s household. The episode has an inglorious end, with Abram and his company getting booted out of Egypt.

What a fall!

In the first place, Abram shouldn’t have moved from Bethel – the place where he built an altar. And he could have turned back when he first encountered famine in the self-directed journey South. Then again, having decided to go to Egypt, he could have trusted God to preserve him and his household. After all he was the recipient of specific promises! He fails to realize that “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).

A succession of errors,  a succession of lost opportunities. One thing leading to another, in a swift downward slide from God’s exalted calling.

How sad it is that our faith in a fable often exceeds our faith in God. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”(Genesis 18:14). Is situational ethics – the “when in Rome syndrome” – robbing us of our witness? God is fully capable of keeping His promises, whatever the circumstances, however you have compromised yourself – if only you will cry out to Him, even out of the depths.

Yes, there are lessons to be learnt from the failures of the Father of Faith.

If you are sympathetic to Abram because of his previous obedience, you can take the view that God seems to be playing with Abraham (or Abram). He is repeatedly testing his obedience, his faith. If anything He seems to be a little more severe on his wife Sara (Sarai) as we will see; her faith after all, was a corollary to her husband’s.

We know that God had told Abram when He called him out of Haran that  “² (He) will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” Gen. 12

When some time later, Abram protests to the Lord saying it looks like his servant, Eliezer of Damascus was going to be his heir. Then:

^“4  behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir“. (Gen. 15)

It is to be noted here that this concerns Abram and X. Sarai is not mentioned by name. And Sarai seems to have taken it to heart. For:

“ ² Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai“.Gen.16.

Now, who is at fault here? It looks as though, Sarai was taking it upon herself to fulfill the promise of God. Indeed, she is upset with God and in a way cocks a snook at Him by bringing Hagar into the picture. People, do you realize she is practically offering her husband a guilt-free-pass to commit adultery at home!  Abram should have known better, you think. But he finds the proposal interesting (as most men would) and he readily agrees. No protest is recorded. I guess you can’t blame him; just take a look at Hagar! Phew!!

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Going by this picture Father Abraham seems to be quite successful in suppressing his unholy glee behind his greying beard (lest Sarai gets annoyed)!

Now here comes a big question.

IS THIS ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD?

I guess most people would say “no”. This is according to Sarai’s will and Abram’s weak (but privately enthusiastic) consent!

Let’s turn the spotlight on Hagar, hitherto a submissive handmaiden to Sarai.

^“4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes”. Gen. 16

This is an era when child-bearing was important.

I don’t know if Hagar was so emboldened by her new status that she said something like what Elizabeth Gaskell writes in Wives and Daughters: “Your husband this morning! Mine tonight!

Sarai doesn’t take this lying down. The moment it is clear that Hagar conceives, her countenance changes. This is curious, since this was the whole puporse of the exercise !.  “ Women are so flighty, fickle, changeable, susceptible, and inconstant”; fortunately for me those are not my words.  It was Christine de Pizan who wrote that – in passing- but I am not sure that was her conclusion. Anyway there is little doubt Sarai pretty much embodied fickleness in this instance.

This is apparent from the way she turns around and talks to (her Lord, as described in the New Testament !) Abram. Still in Genesis 16:

⁵ Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee.”

How do you like that? To start with this whole episode was the brainchild of Sarai; and now she has no qualms whatsoever in laying the blame at Abram’s door. “My wrong be upon thee” …………………”the Lord judge between me and thee.” Pretty thick, eh?

 

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Abram – poor sod – backs down in the face of such vehemence. (After all he had had his pleasure and what is more, an heir seemed to be in the offing!)

⁶ But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.”

Now we can raise the question “WAS GOD AWARE THAT EVENTS WOULD TURN OUT LIKE THIS, IN A WAY – as we can surmise –  THAT WAS NOT QUITE ACCORDING TO HIS PERFECT WILL?

You bet He was. He is omniscient and He certainly did  foresee this unfortunate turn of events, which proves absolutely pivotal in the history of mankind and has made the Middle East a powder keg with world-wide repercussions till this day.

We can ask another question (when we get to heaven): WAS THIS PREDETERMINED BY GOD?

How do we know that God was aware that things would pan out like this?

The Lord despatched His angel the moment Hagar was unceremoniously driven out of Abram’s household and he was ready and waiting. Read on in Genesis 16:

⁷ And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

From Daniel 9:23 we know that sometimes it take angels a while to travel. So it stands to reason that the angel of the Lord journeyed and caught up with Hagar.

^“8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai”. Gen. 16

Continuing:

⁹ And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.

¹⁰ And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

¹¹ And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.

¹² And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

¹³ And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?

¹⁴ Wherefore the well was called Beer lahai roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

It then appears that Hagar returned unto her mistress in obedience to the angel’s instruction:

¹⁵ And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.

¹⁶ And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

Gives hope to some of us, what?

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