I am reading Genesis 13 – 20. It’s the story of God, Abram, Sarai and Hagar.
As I’m reading through this story, I have questions. I’m curious. Because as an infertile woman, I’ve known the desperation, heart ache, and need to get pregnant and have a baby, I’ve wondered how Sarai could give her servant to her husband. This step in becoming pregnant takes things to another level.
So here are a few questions:
1. Abram was around 75 years old when God called Abram and promised to make him into a great nation (Genesis 12). How soon did Abram and Sarai think this promise would be fulfilled?
2. In today’s age, women take their temperature and even use ovulating kits to determine when they are the most fertile. Did Sarai use what was popular in their time like mandrakes once she heard the promise from God?
3. Sarai did not take documented steps in controlling her family’s future until God had made a “Sands and Stars” (Genesis 13:14, 15:5) promise to Abram. My questions are: Had Sarai come to grips with her infertility until she heard about this promise from God? Had she accepted the fact she and Abram would not have children? This is a huge step to get to in a woman’s life. The custom of giving a servant to a husband to bear a child was nothing new to Sarai or her generation, but she hadn’t selected to use this option. As an infertile woman, we went through so many options, but there were some we were not willing to consider. Why did Sarai change her mind to consider Hagar as a valid option?
4. God prevented Sarai from getting pregnant, but He allowed Hagar to become pregnant. Why? What was the point?
5. Did Sarai resent her slave whom she gave as a wife to her own husband? I can’t imagine enjoying sharing my husband with anyone.
6. Sarai had to have insecurities about not producing an heir for Abram. How were the escalated when Hagar became pregnant so easily?
7. How could Sarai think that giving her husband another woman to sleep with was a good idea?
8. I wonder what the full conversation was like between Abram and Sarai when she blamed Abram for the mess she found herself in.
9. When we read Abram gives Hagar back to Sarai, we see a side of Sarai that is very unbecoming. What was Sarai’s desired outcome for mistreating Hagar? What did she hope to attain? Did she feel better about things once she paid Hagar back?
10. Then there’s Hagar. The rise from servant to wife was a brief rise to power. She didn’t seem to exercise her position too well. What did she think was going to happen when the number 1 wife told Abram what Hagar had been doing?
11. How humiliating it must have been for Hagar to go from slave to wife then be demoted again to slave. What was the final thing that happened or was said which convinced Hagar to run away?
12. When the Angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar who was on the run, his message to her was to return to the mistreatment. This would be another blow for Hagar, but where else could she have gone?
13. The God named Hagar’s son, and the angel gave a prophesy and promise regarding Ishmael. How did she take hearing her son would be like a wild donkey, his hand would be against everyone, and everyone would be against him (16:12)? Did she wonder what it meant? Did she worry about her son’s future? Did she receive notices from school saying her son had been in another fight? When did she first see this prophesy coming to life?
14. Hagar is the only one in the Bible I’ve found who has given God a name. She named Him, “The God Who Sees.”
15. Did Sarah give up on God keeping His promise or at least wonder if He was going to keep it? Abram left out for Promised Land at 75. He was 100 when Isaac was born. Every day, every week, every month, every year getting older and older.
16. Then there’s chapter 20. Sarah was around 90 years old, and King Abimilech found her beautiful and took her for his wife because Abraham told her to claim him as her brother. She was 90 and still beautiful and desirable. What kind of night cream did she use!? LOL
My mind can wonder into some weird questions, but the point of all this is to ask questions. By being inquisitive, God reveals Himself to us through His Word. It also makes me hunger for the Word even more.
What other questions did you have when you read these chapters?