God counsels Hagar

Sarah, not Hagar, is the honorable mention in Hebrews 11. That doesn't alter the fact that she abused her maidservant Hagar. Did Hagar have it coming? Maybe. But no one comes out lily white in Genesis 16, including Abraham, who threw his concubine under the bus (see verse 6).

Depending on how modern your views are, you will judge Hagar's subsequent flight from her mistress as mutiny or as the justifiable act of an aggrieved employee deprived of her rights. As a sin, or not. As 1 Corinthians 7:21 ("If you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity."), or not so much (Hagar wasn't exactly handed an opportunity; she took it illicitly.)

In any case, Hagar ran. And God went looking for her and found her by a spring in the wilderness. He asked her where she had come from and where she was going (because God knows that excellent counseling requires good listening skills). She replied, "I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai." The Bible narrative often gives us abbreviated versions of conversations, so Hagar may have said more than those seven words.

If you have not read ahead of this part in Genesis 16, I would like you to guess what the Lord's counsel was to Hagar. What would you counsel a person who has been abused and has run away from the abuse? You could tell her she did the right thing and now she should find a support group. You could tell her she did the wrong thing but now she must live with the consequences. You could tell her she should see a lawyer. But if you are the Lord speaking, you are the law.

"The angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress and submit to her'" (16:9).

That is, God returned Hagar to an abusive situation. He also told her to "submit" to Sarah. And we all know what God means when He tells a person to submit to someone harsh. He means:

"Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles" (Matthew 5:39-42).

What sounds like a doubly harsh command (to return and submit) is actually a game plan. This is the way Hagar will survive in a bad relationship. God knows that the best way to bear a bad situation is by a love offensive. It sometimes changes the heart of the abuser, but it always changes the heart of the one doing the loving!

Is it fashionable anymore in our modern times to counsel "the narrow way"? Few find it. And if Barna research is right, it is fewer and fewer. Jesus allowed divorce on grounds of "porneo." Have we stretched that to include every kind of unpleasantness in marriage? If God had let Hagar flee---and if He were to let us all flee---where would be the situational context for working out this?

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?" (Matthew 5:44-46)

Or this:

"Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly" (1 Peter 2:18-19).

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