- “I will make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3).
- “The word of the LORD came to him [Abraham]: ‘This man [Eliezer of Damascus, Abram’s heir at the time] will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’” (Gen 15:4-5).
Sarai, Abram’s wife, had a hard time trusting God to deliver on that promise: “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived” (Gen 16:1-4). It was widely believed in Abram’s day that if a wife was barren, God was punishing you. The giving of a maidservant to a husband for the purpose of procreation was a widespread practice in Sarai’s day. Thus, what Abraham was doing here was not at all considered adultery. Hagar apparently did not have the fertility issues Sarai had, and she conceived.
As soon as Hagar became pregnant, however, Sarai became quite upset with her: “When she [Sarai] knew she [Hagar] was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me’” (Gen 16:4-5). Sarai then began to mistreat Hagar to the point that Hagar fled from her (16:6). As Hagar was running, an angel of the LORD appeared to her and said: “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (16:11-12).
Persecution Live 