Hagar

Hagar

from Praying with the Women of the Bible

by Bridget Mary Meehan

A ccording to the biblical text, Hagar is Egyptian. She is

Sarah’s servant. When Sarah had not conceived at age 76, she followed the practice of her culture and gave Hagar to Abraham as a second wife and surrogate mother. Sarah complained to Abraham about Hagar’s attitude toward her, and Abraham told her to do what she pleased with Hagar. Sarah abused Hagar, and Hagar ran away to the desert.

An angel found Hagar by a fountain of water and asked her what had occurred. Hagar told the divine messenger that she was running away from her mistress. The angel directed Hagar to return to Sarah and then announced good news that her child would become the father of a blessed nation: “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude…. Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the Lord has given heed to your affliction” (Gn 16:10–11). Then Hagar named the Holy One who spoke to her El-roi, “the God who sees me.” Hagar then returned to Sarah and gave birth to Abraham’s firstborn son, Ishmael.

Fourteen years later, Sarah conceived and Isaac was born. Isaac and Ishmael grew up together. One day after observing Ishmael playing with Isaac, Sarah became troubled and told Abraham to send Ishmael and Hagar away. Abraham was distressed, but God told him to do what Sarah ordered. So the next day, Abraham gave Hagar and Ishmael bread and water and sent them away into the desert wilderness. When their supplies ran out, Hagar prayed and wept. The angel of God answered Hagar from heaven. “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Suddenly when she opened her eyes, Hagar saw a well of water. She drank from it and gave it to her son to drink. Ishmael grew up in the wilderness of Paran. Hagar found a wife for him in her homeland, Egypt (21:9–20).

It is obvious from the way God treats Hagar that she is an important matriarch. Twice in the desert God appears to comfort, strengthen, and lead her to a life-giving spring of water. In the first encounter she is alone and pregnant (16:7). In the second encounter Hagar and Ishmael are near death from thirst (21:17). Each time God saved her from death.

Hagar is the first woman who is visited by a divine messenger with the promise that her child would be blessed and become the father of an important nation. Like Sarah and Abraham, God made a covenant with Hagar and her descendants. Hagar has the unique honor of being the only person in the Bible to name God and the only woman in the Hebrew scriptures to see and talk with God (16). Why was Hagar blessed like Abraham, Moses, and Jacob who had visions or theophanies of God? The explanation, according to Elsa Tamez, is that “God wished to point out that the oppressed are also God’s children, co-creators of history. God does not leave them to perish in the desert without leaving a trace. They must live to be part of history, and struggle to be subjects of it.”1

Yet, according to the story, Hagar suffered exploitation and exile, and God sent her back to her oppressor. Why? Are there any explanations? Elsa Tamez thinks it is part of God’s plan for Hagar and Ishmael’s salvation. In order to claim his rights as Abraham’s son, Ishmael must be able to demonstrate that he is the firstborn and had been circumcised. This would assure his place in salvation history: “Strangely enough Hagar gives God a name, the God who sees, because this God saw her oppression and offered her great plans for the future of her son.”2

Miriam Therese Winter, in her WomanWisdom, raises two interesting questions that students of the Bible still wonder about today: “Did Sarah banish Hagar? Or did she give Hagar her freedom?”3

Biblical scholar Savina Teubal thinks Sarah gave Hagar her freedom. It was her deathbed wish. This process began with Hagar claiming responsibility for her child. Impressed by Hagar’s courage in the face of oppression and a sense of her own spiritual power, Hagar— as Teubal concludes—is a model worthy of admiration: “Above all her close relationship with divinity and her inspiration to forge her own community must not be forgotten.”4

Alice Ogden Bellis, author of Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes, believes that Hagar’s story raises the issues of the struggle for status between women and the ethical questions involved in surrogate motherhood:

Hagar was victimized by surrogate motherhood, but it also provided the means through which she ultimately became the mother of a great nation. Are there other kinds of benefits, economic or otherwise, that might make surrogate motherhood an acceptable institution today, not only to those for whom it is a way to motherhood but also for those who are the surrogate mothers?5

In Texts of Terror, Phyllis Trible asserts that Hagar is an important figure in biblical theology:

As a maid in bondage, she flees from suffering. Yet she experiences exodus without liberation, revelation without salvation, wilderness without covenant, wanderings without land…. This Egyptian slave woman is stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted for the transgressions of Israel. She is bruised for the inequities of Sarah and Abraham, upon her is the chastisement that makes them whole…. All we who are heirs of Sarah and Abraham by flesh and spirit must answer for the terror in Hagar’s story.6



Hagar is a symbol of the powerless foreigner who has been exploited, persecuted, or abused. Battered women, pregnant teens, abandoned refugees can find in Hagar a model of courage who discovers the Holy One close by in their desolation. As God spoke to Hagar so, too, God will speak words of hope and glory for the future of the brokenhearted and hurting members of humanity. The God who sees continues to lift up the downtrodden to high places. Perhaps God will involve us in this work of reconciliation. We can begin this journey toward healing by asking forgiveness of the “Hagars” of our society whom we know or whom we meet.

Hagar, the woman who names God, is a mentor for women (and men) today who are discovering feminine imagery for the Holy One in the Bible. The biblical writers realized that no human words can describe God fully. They used a variety of masculine and feminine metaphors for God such as father, potter, shepherd, mother, midwife, woman in labor, washerwoman, mother eagle, and mother hen. As we incorporate some of this new, yet ancient feminine imagery of God, we, like our biblical sister Hagar, may encounter God as “The One Who Sees Me.” The biblical image of a mother holding her infant close to her breast may nurture our soul’s longing for a comforting God. Women (and men) may realize for the first time what it means to be created in God’s feminine image and discover a greater integration of the masculine and feminine in their lives.







Reflection



“The angel…found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And the angel said, ‘Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai.’ The angel of the Lord said to her: ‘Return to your mistress, and submit to her…. I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.’ And the angel…said to her,





‘Now you have conceived and you shall bear a son;

you shall call him Ishmael,

for the Lord has given heed to your affliction…’” (Gn 16:7–11).



“So she [Hagar] named the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are El-roi’; for she said, ‘Have I

really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?’” (Gn 16:13).

“Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abraham was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael” (Gn 16:15).







Discussion Questions



1. Comment on Hagar’s suffering in the story. Was Hagar a victim of Sarah’s abuse? Was

Sarah also a victim? What role did patriarchy play in this story?

2. According to the story, Hagar suffered exploitation and exile, and God sent her back to her oppressor. Why? Are there any explanations? Do you agree with Phyllis Trible that “All we who are heirs of Sarah and Abraham by flesh and spirit must answer for the terror in Hagar’s story”?

3. Do you think Sarah banished Hagar or gave Hagar her freedom? Why? How do you feel about surrogate motherhood? Was it ethically acceptable at the time of Sarah and Hagar? Is it ethically acceptable today?

4. Hagar is the only biblical character to name God. What

is the significance of this honor? How can Moslems, Jews, and Christians, the spiritual ancestors of Sarah and

Hagar, discover common ground today through this story of faith?







Prayer Experience



1. Breathe slowly and deeply for several minutes. As you inhale, be aware of God’s love all around you, filling you with delight, joy, and peace…. As you exhale, let God’s love flow from the depths of your being to all other beings….

2. Become aware of being in the Holy One’s presence always…. Every sight you see, every sound you hear, everything you touch, smell, taste reflects El-roi, “the God who sees you,” and holds you close…

3. Realize that El-roi, our healing God, sees everything and comes to all who hunger for wholeness…. Recall people in your community and throughout the world who have broken hearts, wounded bodies, brooding spirits, chronic illnesses, tortured memories of physical, spiritual, or sexual abuse…. As their names and faces come to mind, pray that they may be set free and find fullness of life….

4. Imagine conversing with the great matriarch Hagar about El-roi…about her relationships with Sarah and Abraham

…about women in our world today who are abused and oppressed. Ask forgiveness of Hagar and the “Hagars” in your community and world for the injustice they suffer in our society—such as women who work in low-paying menial jobs, single mothers, political




and economic refugees from poverty-stricken countries, and so on…. Ask this holy woman to be a mentor on your way to a deeper solidarity with women who are different from you, women who struggle for justice, freedom, and understanding in our society…. Decide on one act of empowerment that you can do together….

5. The Hebrew word for mercy, rachamin, is derived from the word rechem, which means womb. According to this powerful image, mercy comes from God’s womb-love which tenderly embraces us when we come laden with guilt and sin…. Is there part of you that needs to be healed from shame or guilt?… Contemplate the light of God’s womb-mercy shining in the darkness of your own and

the world’s sin…. Imagine God’s womb-love filling

you and the world with goodness and kindness…peace and justice…hope and compassion…. Imagine this womb-love spreading above us, within us, around us, and accompanying all the “Hagars” in our world through their struggles and trials, rescuing them and helping them begin again.

6. Say or write down a short prayer with your favorite images or names for God…. As you do so, be aware of how God’s presence and love is revealed to you through this name… for example, “Father, I adore you, I give my heart to you”… “O mothering, nurturing God, kiss away the wounds of abuse in my life.”… “Sophia, Holy Wisdom, guide me along the paths of justice and peace.”… “Jesus, Healer of my heart, free me from resentment.”… “O Creator of the Earth, open us to the wonder of tiny bugs and wildflowers.”



7. Image God looking in your eyes, saying your name, and doing whatever needs to be done to transform you into a radiant image of God’s feminine presence in the world.