Genesis 16 — Thoughts
Abram’s God Is Not Like Abram
This chapter breaks my heart.
So many terrible things happen in this story, and they all happen to poor Hagar.
First, she's enslaved — the dignity of her autonomy has been denied her.
Second, she's forcibly married and then sexually assaulted and impregnated by her enslaver.
Third, she's mistreated — it could be verbal, emotional, or physical abuse — and it's so bad that she's forced to flee.
But worst of all, this brutality happens at the hands of someone who is supposed to be a man of God.
In Genesis 15, Abram has a powerful vision of God in which God promises to bless him with children. One chapter later, Abram is already doubting that promise and is exploiting a marginalized woman in order to make it happen on his own terms.
I get halfway through this story, and I start to wonder if God's people are even worth associating with.
But then comes the second half of the story. Abram's God is not like Abram. God hears Hagar. God sees Hagar. God cares about Hagar. And God blesses Hagar.
And I love God all the more for it.
I love the Church, but the Church can be a mess. The very first people called to follow God were also a huge mess, so why wouldn't we be? But thankfully, our hope isn't in ourselves, in our ability to reflect God, or in our ability to live right. Scripture is clear that we can't do these things on our own anyway.
Our only hope is in God. The God who hears, sees, cares, and blesses. He doesn't dismiss our weaknesses — He already paid for them on the Cross. And His Spirit within us is constantly calling us to become something better than we are.
It's actually beautiful that we don't have to have it all together to be right with God. Like Abram, we're allowed to grow in our relationship with Him, becoming more like Him the more we surrender ourselves to Him.
So let's strive to be like our God. Let's hear, see, care for, and bless the suffering and oppressed among us today. For Hagar's sake — and God's.
(Originally written June 18, 2020)