Abstract
The story of Hagar and Ishmael’s expulsion from Abraham and Sarah’s home is profoundly shocking. It is a Bible passage that for many years has caused me great consternation and, being honest, I find it difficult to utter the refrain ‘Thanks be to God.’ upon hearing this disturbing saga. It is understandable if people are left with the feeling of complete incomprehension rather than thankfulness at this account of cruelty. It is not only Sarah’s lack of compassion that can leave one feeling aghast at such an extreme example of mercilessness but also Abraham’s (and seemingly God’s) unwillingness to challenge Sarah’s alarmingly severe punishing behaviour towards Hagar and Ishmael.
Yet, despite this provincial tale of one female’s hard-heartedness towards another woman and her child occurring a long time ago, the tremors emanating from this story are still felt throughout much of the World today. For an account of this story appears in both the Pentateuch and the Qur’an, and symbolises Islam’s separation from Judaism and Christianity. The Qur’an records Abraham’s son Ishmael (Isma’il) as God’s chosen successor, after his father, to reveal the Divine’s continuing relationship with humanity, whereas the Pentateuch reports that God appointed Abraham’s son, Isaac, to fulfil this role.
Nonetheless, despite this story’s great significance, I am always astonished how the Church has often overlooked this pivotal narrative which continues to have major ramifications for human history. Is the neglect owing to the two key human figures in the story being women? Or is it because we are uncomfortable with the idea of Abraham (according to the Gospel of Matthew), one of Jesus’s forefathers, having sexual relations with a slave girl, which certainly raises very difficult questions of consent? Or is it because, on a more personal level, we identify a little more closely than we would like with some of the unsavoury attributes displayed within the story? Perhaps, Sarah’s actions ‘tap a nerve’ within us that we wish to remain hidden and would much rather conceal than confront our own deepest desire to obliterate those of whom we are jealous.
Prior to our reading, Genesis’s reports that owing to Sarah’s inability to have a child, she offers her own slave girl, Hagar, to Abraham, in the hope that she will provide her husband and herself with a much longed-for infant. This is a heartrending scene, for we are presented with elderly woman, who is regarded simply an embarrassing burden to Abraham. Owing to social attitudes towards women at the time, would have been considered a failure by those around her owing to her reproductive difficulties. She would have been weighed down by this heavy emotional baggage from tactless social expectation, perhaps alongside her own personal grief and pain regarding their lack of children. Thus, if we perceive Sarah as a desperate, rather than coolly calculating, woman, trying to grasp at any opportunity that might provide her with what certainly society desires, if even not she herself, then her actions may become a little more understandable.
But, if Sarah feels helplessly caught by uncontrollable emotional forces, whether social or emotional, then this experience of defencelessness must have been heightened for Hagar. For, being a slave, the very idea of having her own aspirations, would never have been considered. Sarah owned her, in the same way that she owned a cookery pot; Hagar was simply a vessel to do her mistresses’ bidding, and Sarah’s bidding was for Hagar to have sexual relations with the aged Abraham.
This is a most depressing and sordid story but one that I firmly believe the church can no longer ignore. It would be too easy to excuse such behaviour on account of its historical distance from ourselves, but now, in the twenty-first century, with the increasing volume of women being exploited by sex traffickers, it is surely time to express our ire at Abraham’s and Sarah’s behaviour. An individual’s needs and desires should never be satisfied at the cost of another’s, no matter how important or powerful the person.
However, the lectionary reading from Genesis, is taken from a later part of Sarah and Hagar’s story, yet despite Hagar providing Abraham and Sarah the much anticipated child, the abuse of Hagar, in a different manner, continues. For, when Hagar’s son, Ishmael, is twelve years old, God’s miraculous power affords Sarah the reproductive ability to have a child, whom they call Isaac. Yet, when two years later, Sarah witnesses Ishmael teasing her son, her wrath becomes disproportionate, for she demands Abraham cast Hagar and Ishmael out, thrown away as if a piece of rubbish.
It is the absence of any considered thought or empathy that I find truly alarming in this account. Sarah’s upset at seeing her infant being bullied by his teenage half-brother is understandable, however it would appear the strength of her dismay prevents her from also having compassion for Ishmael perspective. Unquestionably, life and his identity, would have been incredibly problematic for the adolescent Ishmael. Child of a slave being brought up by his mother’s mistress and natural father, he found his position within the family to be usurped by the arrival of Isaac. Ishmael, a once pivotal, now no longer required, part of his own father’s life. Such a perception of rejection could plausibly cause a person to become angry, particularly towards the person who they considered to be responsible for their fall.
I am not attempting to exonerate Ishmael’s actions of intimidating a toddler, however I am appealing for a more empathetic response, something far less dehumanising than Sarah’s demands. Abraham felt uncomfortable about his wife’s barbaric requirement that both his son and his mother be driven out into the inhospitable wilds, however God grants his assurance, that Ishmael will survive. And, Ishmael and Hagar, on account of God’s intervention, do endure but at such a traumatic price, as Hagar almost watches her son die of dehydration. However, it is Abraham’s, the first Patriarch’s, failure to speak out against this injustice and encourage Sarah to think with a little more reason, rather be motivated only by primal feelings, that I believe is truly disquieting. Yet, am I so uneasy by Abraham’s behaviour because it makes me assess the times when I have sided with the bully rather than defend who they are attacking?
I firmly believe that although this is an extremely uncomfortable scripture reading, it is one that we need to engage with fully. I believe the themes embedded within the text are of a great significance to our world, however I would suggest that the greatest, but at times most difficult, response that this passage demands of the reader is to always have empathy towards the other, especially those of whom we are jealous.