Humility of Peace (Genesis 16)

 Humility of Peace

In Genesis 16 an unfortunate family quarrel is recorded.The first cause was Sarai who advised Abram to take Hagar so they could get a child through her. Hagar was Sarai’s servant. Sarai herself did not have any children and even though God promised they would get a child, Sarai believed it couldn’t be through her.

But the polygamy became an occasion for quarrel and when Hagar did conceive the consequences were dire:


[Gen 16:4-6 NKJV] 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong [be] upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me." 6 So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid [is] in your hand; do to her as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.


Hagar despised her mistress Sarai, it was bad and visible enough for Sarai to become frustrated and Hagar fled when Sarai dealt harshly with her.

All parties had their guilt in this situation. Sarai was wrong for even proposing the idea in the first place. Abram shouldn’t have agreed with it. Hagar shouldn’t have gone with it either and shouldn’t have despised Sarai when she conceived.

The quarrel had become pretty bad. But then God showed up.


[Gen 16:7-9 NKJV] 7 Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." 9 The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand."


After this God gives a blessing to Hagar and her child. God didn’t leave her just with an admonishment, but this admonishment is important.

First God investigates the matter and makes Hagar investigate herself. What was she doing? Where was she going? 
She was fleeing from her mistress Sarai.

God told her to return and to submit herself under her hand. She had to make the move to peace and submission also meant to not despise Sarai anymore.

When there is a quarrel and we do not have all of the blame it may be hard and humiliating to make the first move to peace.

Returning and submitting was a humiliating move for Hagar. And yet God commanded her to do it.

Oftentimes we are the ones who have to make a move of humility for the sake of peace. We may well point out the mistakes and guilt of others, but we cannot ignore our own responsibility.
We cannot just always wait for the other party to make an apology nor should we always avoid the issue.
Many times we have to make the first move to peace no matter how humiliating that process may be. Taking responsibility for our own actions is a start.
In the case of Hagar she had to return and submit herself to Sarai. No guarantee was given that Sarai would do her part too.
But it was the right thing to do.

Such humility is required for chasing peace sometimes.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Blessing in the Curse: When God Curses (Genesis 3)

When God Curses In Genesis 3 the first curses of God are given. God hates sin and it is in His character and nature to punish it. His principle is against evil. But even in these first curses His love can still be seen. With the thorn comes the rose and God can be graceful in His stern justice. First the serpent is given a curse, who does not even get the time to give an answer for what he did unlike Adam and Eve: [Gen 3:14-15 NKJV] 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You [are] cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." Because you have done this . Done what? Deceived humanity and brought it to destruction. In God’s hate for what Satan did He shows His love for humanity. He actually cared about th...
Read more

Curses for the Genders (Genesis 3)

Curses for the Genders When humanity had sinned God cursed the man, woman and the serpent. We will here look at the curses given to the man and woman specifically since these reveal how people often work. They show how the relation between the two sexes often are. This is not the ideal, since it came from a curse. But it is what it is and God Himself had given these curses for a reason. In fact, in the curse for Adam He explicitly says it was for his own good. For the woman it is said: [Gen 3:16 NKJV] 16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire [shall be] for your husband, And he shall rule over you." For this article the last part is especially interesting. The wife would desire the husband. Closely related to this and what may explain which kind of desire this is, is that the husband would rule over the wife. Now this rule has often been abused. But when it is within God’s law it is a...
Read more

Loneliness and Marriage (Genesis 2)

 Loneliness and Marriage On the sixth day God created men. But this did not make it perfect and very good yet. Something was missing. [Gen 2:18 NKJV] 18 And the LORD God said, "[It is] not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Adam, the first man, was still alone. To put this loneliness into perspective Scripture gives this context: [Gen 2:19-20 NKJV] 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought [them] to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that [was] its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. The animals could not relate to Adam. They could not be His ‘helper’ or sustainer. No one was comparable to him. Not only are animals a different species, they were on a different level too. They did not have his intellige...
Read more