Hagar’s Son
Genesis 21:8-21

June 23, 2002

There is a reason one of the world’s greatest novels begins, “Call me Ishmael.” Herman Melville could not escape his Puritan Congregational upbringing as he wrote Moby Dick, the great adventure story, but also one of the most Biblically-saturated modern novels. The captain is Ahab, the namesake of one of the most evil of Israelite kings and the husband of an even more evil queen, Jezebel.

Ishmael is the narrator of Moby Dick, a soul who wanders the world and reports the cruelties and absurdities he witnesses. He signs on to Ahab’s whaling vessel and is caught up in the attempt to conquer the ruler of the chaotic deep sea, the great white whale Moby Dick. There is nothing wrong with Ishmael that is not wrong with a million other people, but he does not appear to have the grace of God in abundance. At the very end of the novel when the whale has destroyed the boat along with Ahab and most of the crew, the only one left in the water is Ishmael, holding on to an empty coffin of his companion Queequeg, a Polynesian whale harpoonist. Likewise, the Biblical tale in Genesis is focused on the loser who survives, by the grace of God.

Mostly, however, the story is about Sarah, the favorite wife of Abraham, to borrow the phrase of affection from the later saga of Hannah and her husband Elkanah. Not a flattering tale, to say the least, but the Biblical author does Sarah the honour and dignity of talking about her enough so that we might see her character filled out in more detail. There are few Biblical personalities who receive such close attention.

The most important actor in the drama is God, which should never be surprising. God has a promise to fulfill, to embody a nation of people with God’s purpose and compassion; in New Testament language, to make God’s word become flesh. Starting with an individual and his family, God is building an Israel. God, however, does not seem to know the time the way we do. Abraham and his wife Sarah become impatient and try to fix things, for Sarah is barren and the promise is as much to her as it is to Abraham.

It is Sarah who makes the suggestion that Abraham take to bed her Egyptian maid servant, Hagar. Different mores back then needless to say, the idea is that the child born out of this union would be counted as Abraham’s son and heir quite legitimately. The son would, in fact, be considered the son of Sarah as well.

This was a pre-technological of a surrogate mother, with all its modern and ancient scenes of conflict. We have heard this all before, painfully. There is nothing new under the sun.

And so it came to pass, but not without Hagar looking down upon her mistress, having one-upped her in the conception category. Sarah jumps all over Abraham, telling him that it’s all his fault, and with his permission she treats Hagar harshly. Hagar tries running away, but an angel stops her and promises her the same as Abraham and Sarah, a great and multitudinous offspring.

The child receives the name Ishmael - “God hears” - “for the Lord has given heed to your affliction” (Gen 16:11). In years to come God will once again listen to the affliction, not of an Egyptian slave, but of his people enslaved in Egypt.

Then last week happened. The holy couple are visited by a trinity of God’s messengers and Sarah laughing will become full with child and give birth to the laughing one, Isaac. When Isaac was weaned, the ugly side surfaced again. Sarah could not stand even to see the two boys playing together, so she set upon Abraham again, wanting Hagar and Ishmael completely out of the picture.

Abraham had to be a great and powerful leader, but here his ethical decision making is skewed badly - he is a wimp, even a coward to allow such abuse and violence and to actually participate in it. The Bible appears to be very clear here: Do not have two wives or two mistresses. Let all God’s children say Amen!

There is nothing good about this behaviour. Yes, God reassures Abraham that Hagar and the boy will be provided for. Does God not want to cross Sarah either?

Distressed is Abraham, but his attempt to fix things is puny. He will revisit this distress double fold in the not distant future, the very next chapter. The author takes care to use the same sequence of verbs to describe Abraham’s actions here and when God calls upon him to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham gets up early in the morning, lays provisions of bread and water upon Hagar’s shoulder. They wander deep into the wilderness, and when the water and all else seems lost, an angel calls to Hagar as one will to Abraham and they both look up. Hagar sees a well from which to drink and have life for her son. Abraham will see a ram caught in a thicket to be the appropriate sacrificial animal so that his son Isaac may have life.

God was with the boy. Things went well for him and his mother procured for him a wife from her native Egypt. In the Bible we hear no more of Ishmael, and you would think that denotes an insignificant person. Yet, tradition will have it that Ishmael is the future nation of Islam, the ancestor of the Palestinians, and the patriarch of any other inhabitants of the Holy Land whom those in power did not consider holy enough.

God listens to our cries of affliction, but seldom ever listens to our roars and cheers of power. This story is a sorry mess, perhaps a little too painfully familiar in its jealousies and abuses to be ignored. A story like this lures us into identifying ourselves in the drama. Which person are we? Abraham and Sarah are our spiritual ancestors and without them we would not be sitting here today reading and hearing their stories. God’s purpose is not going to be twisted by their strengths and weaknesses. God’s way prevails no matter how much the best of us mess up.

Ishmael was not the main character of the story, nor would he be a Jew or some other player in the Biblical drama. He doesn’t qualify according to most human standards, but God walked with him a long way. Despite their repulsive behaviour, Abraham and Sarah were, nevertheless, not really punished. They too had a lack of faith in God’s providence, yet God blessed them too. Our God does not usually pay attention to our standards. That’s good news.

In the United Church of Canada marriage service, the minister asks the couple to state honestly and publicly whether there is anything which will prevent them from being married. “For unless your marriage is based upon mutual honesty, trust and love, your marriage will not be successful, and God will not bless your marriage.”

Awful theology. We don’t know what God will bless or not. God blesses an awful lot of things that don’t meet the approval of good people.

That really is Good News, that God’s purpose and compassion will persist for us, despite us, and in spite of us.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan