Genesis 16

I have resisted writing a blog on this passage because I found it difficult to understand it in places. However after a few months of rereading I have the following thoughts that are incomplete and insufficient but are necessary to record if I'm ever going to press on to the end of blogging this book!

We have already seen the weaknesses of the patriarch Abram when he ran to Egypt during the famine and suffered the consequences of his lack of faith in God's provision. Once again this pattern is identified in Abram's life through a new story. In this chapter almost exactly the same plot shapes the narrative. The similarities are between; the famine in Canaan and the bareness of Sarai; food from Pharaoh in Egypt and the fertility of Hagar, an Egyptian woman; the consequence of conflict with Pharaoh and the consequence of Hagar's seed growing to be a hostile enemy of Israel.

It is almost as though God wants to make it clear that his plan for our redemption has been despite man. Our default position seems to be to run to Egypt. To run to someone or something other than God to meet our deepest needs. It is remarkable to consider that God's grace is so persistent that despite Abram's perpetual flight to Egypt God does not abandon his plan to make Abram a patriarch remembered for his faith, the one who would father the nation that would carry his redemption story to the world.


The narrative reminds us again of the disastrous consequences of our lack of faith. The jealously and conflict within Sarai and the birth of a hostile nation from Hagar only serve to remind us that we will live with the consequences of the times we chose the provision of Egypt over God.

The tenderness of God towards Hagar is a wonderful reminder of the breadth of God's mission - although he intends to establish Abram's family on the earth his wider concern is always broader than the people of God. God's intention is always the blessing of the whole world and Hagar encounters this desire and describes God as "the well of the living one who sees me". What a wonderful description. I'm not quite sure how Hagar takes comfort at the fact that her descendants will always live in open hostility towards their relatives but there is not doubt that she has experienced something of the grace and tenderness of God.