He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. – Genesis 16:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 7, 2018): Genesis 16

There may be no greater cause for discontent than the suggestion that we can do the job of our bosses better than they can. We have probably all felt that kind of discontent at some times during our careers, or maybe even during our education. I know that I have. I also know that the idea is often, although not always, a lie. And usually, it is borne out of a misunderstanding of the job that our bosses do. Oh, there is no doubt that the employee may be better than the boss at certain tasks, but the totality of the boss’s job often goes well beyond anything that an employee is asked to do. And the truth is that, if the boss could spend all his time doing what the employee does, they might be better at the task than we think that they might be.

Abram and Sarai devised a plan to help God fulfill the promise that he had made to the couple. This is usually where we go off of the road. And it was no different for Abram and Sarai. God had promised an heir for Abram. In a society where heirs were extremely important, custom allowed for Abram to impregnate Sarai’s servant, and the child would still be considered to belong to Abram and Sarai. So the plan was made, and Abram slept with Hagar, the servant of Sarai.

Hagar became pregnant. We are not told how long it took, and it probably doesn’t matter. And Hagar’s pregnancy proves that God is unwilling to protect us, even when our mistakes originate from a misguided desire to help him with his promises. From the very beginning, the plan of Abram and Sarai began to fall apart. First, it was probably foolish to believe that Abram and Hagar could have a child and that it could be anything but the child of Hagar. Even in the eyes of Sarai, Ishmael was nothing more than the child of a servant girl. Even though the plan was that the child that resulted from the union of Abram and Sarai would be Sarai’s child, Sarai never accepted Ishmael as her own.

But maybe more importantly, Hagar began to despise Sarai. She began to believe that she was more important than Sarai. After all, it was she who had given birth to Abram’s heir. She did something that Sarai could not do. Hagar likely began to believe that she should have been the lady of the house, and discontent began to be a major part of her attitude toward her mistress.

Looking back at the situation described in Genesis, it is really isn’t much of a surprise. But there is also no indication that Abram ever believed that Hagar was more important than Sarai. Sarai was his wife, and Hagar was never anything more than Sarai’s servant. But just because that was what Abram believed, did not mean that that was what Sarai and Hagar believed. At this moment, a conflict was started that would not end even after Sarai gave birth to Isaac. And it was all because Abram and Sarai tried to give a human helping hand to the plan of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 17