Women of the Bible Hagar Part 3 Finish

In this study we will take a look at the women within the Bible. We will look at each one of them and see how their story influences our lives today.

As we continue our study in this fantastic insight of the Women of the Bible, this morning we will take a look at Hagar. If you remember Hagar was the ‘slave woman’ to Sarah. As we read earlier in the Legends of the Old Testament Characters it stated that Hagar’s father was Pharaoh of Egypt, there in Gen. 12.

In our last study we seen that Hagar gave birth to Abraham’s son Ishmael (EL will hear). We read that Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. In this study we will be in Chapter 21 looking at the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael AFTER the birth of Isaac.

Hagar and Ishmael expelled
 Read Genesis 21:1-21

Despite Hagar's return, the rivalry between the two women was unresolved. Later, the birth of Sarah's son Isaac upset the balance of power, and the problem resurfaced. 

For fourteen years Ishmael was seen as the future heir of Abraham.  But when Sarah had her own son, everything changed. The question was who would be Abraham's heir: the first-born son, or the son of the principal wife? 

Sarah had no doubt about the matter. She saw Ishmael as a threat to her son, and the old hostility between the two women reappeared - now even more savage than it had been before. 
 
 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham 'Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac'. (Gen. 21:10)

It was a bitter moment for Abraham; little sleep did he have that night. 

Abraham, once clear about the will of Yahweh, made no delay. He "rose up early in the morning "to do the will of his Yahweh. In spite of his unrest for the suffering of Hagar, in spite of the bitter pang of parting with his boy, Abraham "took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away." (Gen. 21:14).

We do not know the details of the bitter power struggle between the two women, but we do know that Hagar lost. Neither of the women had ever trusted or liked each other, but now Sarah had a murderous hatred for Hagar, and actively sought her death. 

Alone in the desert, Hagar and Ishmael soon used up their tiny supply of water. Hagar searched desperately for more but found none, and saw her son begin to die of thirst. There was nothing she could do to save him except place him in the shade of an overhanging bush and wait.

 Hagar must be exhausted to the highest. The burning lips of Ishmael and his drooping limbs told of approaching fever; and in her despair Hagar "cast him under one of the shrubs," (Gen. 21:15) where she found a little shade, "and she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow-shot; for she said "Let me not see the death of the child." (Gen. 21:16) Had Hagar forgotten the name she had given to the well? Had Yahweh ceased to be "the Living One?" Had He ceased to be "Thou EL seeth me?" (Gen. 16:13) Surely not; but Hagar was looking another way, looking at her wrongs, looking at her fainting child, instead of looking to Elohim. "She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice and wept."

Hagar was never fully accepted into the Hebrew group despite being the mother of Abraham's child. In the end she was rejected completely, and expelled. But she was protected by Yahweh against the hatred of Sarah, and in the end lived as a free woman, no longer a slave.

Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!

Have any questions? Feel free to email me; keitner2024@outlook.com