History and Story (3)

“May God decide which of us is right”  Genesis 16:5 Eugene Peterson The Message

Is right– Sarai’s attempt to usurp God’s plan has the same consequences as Havvah’s enticement. Her life becomes much worse. Instead of fulfilling her desires for happiness, Hagar’s pregnancy brings humiliation, envy, and anger.  Now she must live with a servant whose body shows everyone her husband’s lack of moral integrity and her inability to provide an heir.  We see her anger in her confrontation with Abram: “Look at the violence you have done to me!  It’s your fault.”  Sarai tells Abram that she has lost face in this arrangement.  Hagar now thinks herself better than Sarai because she carries Abram’s child.  Her plan has backfired.  Instead of a life of fulfilled promise, she has inherited a life of shame.  No one can doubt Abram’s potency.  And now it is public knowledge that Sarai is infertile, a devastating position for a woman who is to be the mother of a great nation. The secret is out.  Public and private humiliation follows.

We need to pay close attention to the text here.  Notice that Sarai acknowledges that it was her plan to provide Hagar as a surrogate mother (“I myself gave my maidservant to you.”) but that does not relieve her discontent.  Hagar’s pregnancy conceives Sarai’s shame.  Sarai makes it very clear that the situation and its consequences are quite serious.  She says to Abram, “May Yahweh decide between you and me!”

It’s not obvious what this means.  Peterson translates it, “May God decide which of us is right,” but that doesn’t help much.  Right about what?  The context of Sarai’s statement is her complaint about humiliation.  She is angry with Abram.  In her opinion, he has not safeguarded her status.  Abram has let Hagar’s pregnancy affect hisemotional attachment.  Sarai sees that Abram is pleased that a child will be born to him even though it is not Sarai’s child.  This is humiliation beyond enduring.  So, she says to her husband, “God will decide if I am right (that I should have been cared for) or if you are right (that you showed favor toward Hagar).”  Sarai’s obvious implication is that there is no question who should come first—she should—and God will judge Abram for his misplaced devotion.

Once more sexual involvement backfires in the family of Abram.  Abram’s pattern, repeated by Sarai, is now the source of severe stress and deep emotional conflict.  Sarai fares no better as perpetrator of the plan.  She still ends up the victim.  We must notice that the drama that started out about a child has suddenly turned into a soap opera about the misguided plans of the woman. The child fades completely from the scene.  The real story is about Sarai’s self-identity.  In her mind, even though she got what she wanted, she lost what was important.[1]  She has been disgraced.  The Hebrew word she uses to describe the “violence” done to her is hamas. This is the only time in the Tanakh that this word describes an action done by a woman.  Sarai has been humiliated by her own gender, and worse, by her own slave.  The humiliation is not about the child; it is about the change in two relationships. First, her husband is no longer hers alone. And secondly, her status as the mother of the promised progeny is in doubt. She loses her present and her future.

Sarai appeals for justice.  Actually, she wants revenge.  But Abram refuses it.  After all, it was her plan and it is now his child.  Feeling even more slighted, she says that God will decide, throwing the judgment of Yahweh on Abram’s refusal to act on her wishes.  When Sarai offered Abram sex with Hagar, he was only too happy to comply.  Now that the circumstances have turned against her, Sarai finds that Abram is not so compliant.   Nothing seems to be going her way.

Topical Index:  Sarah, Sarai, Abraham, Genesis 16:5

[1]Although Yeshua makes no reference to this story, it is certainly a Biblical example of his remark, “The one who seeks to save his life shall lose it.”