1.4.07
Runaway Bride
Because Abraham trusted God, he found favour in him. The Lord promised Abraham's descendants would receive the land. There was an oath, or a covenant, that had taken place between the two of them, through a ritual involving cutting some animals in two: An agreement to what would become of Abraham if he did not keep his part of the covenant.
A decade later, Abraham is still childless... Sarah, his wife, takes the initiative. She becomes the main character in this episode in which Abraham gets but one sentence. Sarah offers her servant, Hagar, as a second wife to Abraham.
This practise was regular in the ancient world: If a woman cannot bear a child to her husband, he is to take a servant as an additional wife, so she can bear him a son.
Still, in a culture in which moterhood is so prized, Sarah can't help but feel down once Hagar is pregnant with Abraham's child.
Because her self-esteem is stained, Sarah demands justice from Abraham and he lets her do as she pleases, until the mistreated pregnant servant-wife runs away into the desert...
This is where an angels appears to Hagar. Angels, like we have seen before, are "regular", if otherworldly beings, who act as courtiers for God. This one comes to Hagar, probably on the road leading back to her native Egypt, to deliver this message:
She is to go back to her mistress; she is to name her son Ishmael, meaning: "May God hear", who will be quarrelsome, yet dwelling at the edge of the land promised to Abraham's and Sarah's child.
This visitation leaves a very deep impression in Hagar's heart and she calls God: "The One who sees me", the one who saw and rescued her.
A decade later, Abraham is still childless... Sarah, his wife, takes the initiative. She becomes the main character in this episode in which Abraham gets but one sentence. Sarah offers her servant, Hagar, as a second wife to Abraham.
This practise was regular in the ancient world: If a woman cannot bear a child to her husband, he is to take a servant as an additional wife, so she can bear him a son.
Still, in a culture in which moterhood is so prized, Sarah can't help but feel down once Hagar is pregnant with Abraham's child.
Because her self-esteem is stained, Sarah demands justice from Abraham and he lets her do as she pleases, until the mistreated pregnant servant-wife runs away into the desert...
This is where an angels appears to Hagar. Angels, like we have seen before, are "regular", if otherworldly beings, who act as courtiers for God. This one comes to Hagar, probably on the road leading back to her native Egypt, to deliver this message:
She is to go back to her mistress; she is to name her son Ishmael, meaning: "May God hear", who will be quarrelsome, yet dwelling at the edge of the land promised to Abraham's and Sarah's child.
This visitation leaves a very deep impression in Hagar's heart and she calls God: "The One who sees me", the one who saw and rescued her.
# poster: Mormon(s) of another kind at 11:19 
