Now
Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.
And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So
Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid;
perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then
Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her
husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of
Canaan. (Genesis 16: 1-3)
God had promised Abram and Sarai that they would have descendants
as numerous as the stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach. But by Genesis 16, Abram was nearly 80, Sarai was ten years younger but still very post-menopausal,
and they had no children. But they did
have a north African servant girl named Hagar.
Law and custom permitted the lady of a great household to
use a female servant as a surrogate mother.
The servant girl was supposed to lose legal rights to her biological
child which the boss-lady would raise as her own.
Genesis
30:1-12 notes that of the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel were the
product of similar arrangements. You
could call it servant surrogacy, or arranged marriage and adoption, or you
could call it sexual exploitation of underclass and denial of their parental
rights. Whatever the terminology, Hagar
got pregnant by her boss’s husband, ,who was her boss, and also now her husband,
too (
Genesis
16:3-4).
The shocking, surprising, and absolutely inevitable result
of an old lady putting a young lady in bed with her husband ---- was
drama.
“When [Hagar]saw that she had conceived, her mistress became
despised in her eyes.” Hagar got a
permanent attitude, but Sarai wasn’t about to put up with an uppity servant
girl, sister-wife or not.
Genesis 16:5-6
Sarai to Abram: This
is all YOUR fault. Now, I swear to God
you better do something about this little girl.
Abram to Sarai: She
works for YOU. Do whatever you
want. Just leave me out of it.
Abram to himself (in a Danny Glover whisper):
I’m getting to old for this dung.
84% of homeless
women had been physically or sexually abused.
HALF of all homeless women report that domestic violence was the IMMEDIATE CAUSE of their homelessness.
By the end of Genesis
16:6, Hagar was pregnant, alone, and homeless, fleeing an abusive household in
which her rich baby’s daddy had done nothing for her but get her pregnant.
Yeah, I know. This
ancient Bible stuff doesn’t relate to what happens in the modern world. (Insert sarcastic eye-roll)
67% of the victims of the women who are seriously injured by
their abusers never seek medical treatment. Let me rephrase that: 2/3 of the women who are
wounded by their abusers hide their wounds, and that is part of the problem. Victims of domestic abuse feel
invisible. Our culture treats the
victims of domestic abuse as if they are invisible.
They are not invisible.
Not to every one.
Hagar was alone, homeless, and pregnant with no midwife and
no community of women to look after her (i.e., no healthcare), but she was not
invisible ---- to God. God met Hagar in
her distressed and disclosed to her a plan, a Divine plan to protect her and to
prosper the legacy that would be realized in her yet unborn son (Genesis 16:
11, 12).
Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said,
“Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” (Genesis 16:13)
God saw Hagar.
She was not invisible.
Hagar returned to the home of her abusers. Not surprising. On
average, it takes a victim
seven times to
leave before staying away for good.
Years later, Genesis 21:1-19 explains, after the child
promised to Sarah was born, Abraham conceded
to his first wife and evicted
Hagar and her son Ishmael. Hagar, now a
single mother, again homeless,
unable to
provide for her teenage son.
But, God was still the God who sees. Hagar was still not invisible.
The Lord had gotten her out of the abusive home for good,
and now the God-Who-Sees “opened her eyes,” so that she could see how to
survive, how to provide for her son without compromising her dignity, how to
not just survive, but SUCCEED. The
God-Who-Sees invisible women, transformed an abused, abandoned, homeless single
mother into the patriarch of a great nation.
Genesis 25:16 says that Ishmael had 12 sons who were “twelve
princes.” Abraham wouldn’t have 12 male
heirs for 2 more generations. And,
because God invented irony, when Abraham’s 12 descendants turned on their brother Joseph, they
tried to sell him to Hagar’s descendants (Genesis 37:25-27).
The abused and abandoned women are NOT INVISIBLE. God sees.
God saves. God has, can, and will
do great things for them.
The mother on the street, again. The sister whose last boyfriend put his hands on her like boyfriend before him. The woman and child pleading because they CAN'T go back again: God sees them.
If we truly serve
God, we will open our eyes and see them, too.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T.
Graves II is pastor of
Miles Chapel CME Church in
Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth
Networking Organization
(SAYNO); and director of rural leadership
development for the National Institute for Human Development (
NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Support by check or
money order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME
Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
