At What Point Did You Meet Hagar? The Inanity of Human Judgment (2)

At What Point Did You Meet Hagar? The Inanity of Human Judgment (2)

…Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away. The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied. – Genesis 16:6-8 (New Living Translation)

Imagine you were the person that saw Hagar sitting tired and disheveled by the spring, having escaped in terror from Sarai, her mistress.

Now at this time, it is worth stressing again that Hagar was a slave, she was pregnant, and she probably had no relatives that she could run to. So, where she was running to no one knew, she was simply just fleeing from her mean mistress.

Another problem was that these were early times when there was no widespread civilization. Therefore, a pregnant woman walking all by herself in the woods without a companion or protection was an easy prey for criminals or wild animals. But these threats meant little to Hagar as she felt she had a greater danger in her mistress than the fear of deviants and beasts.

That was the state she was when the man saw her:

The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.

Now, if you were the one who met her in this state, what would your reaction be?

In today’s milieu, seeing Hagar this way would have provoked a global outrage, and the social media would have been agog with her sad story and pictures. Even the images of her mistress and the husband would have gone viral. Hagar would have trended on many timelines with sympathizers taking her principals to the bin for being so heartless to a helpless pregnant servant. Sarah and Abraham would have also trended for all the wrong reasons with their pictures everywhere and netizens calling them all manners of name, including being the reincarnation of the devil himself.

The local authorities would have also stepped in and arrested the couple and locked them up in jail without bail for being so wicked in their dealing with their hapless housemaid. In fact, Abraham might have even had more questions to answer for being responsible for the pregnancy that Hagar was carrying. He might be accused of constantly abusing her sexually until it resulted in pregnancy. And to make it worse, they now sent her out of the house in order to hide the true identity of the father of the unborn child.

The list of possible contemporary reactions is endless. You can imagine how you would have reacted and add your own to it.

But then, how did God see this development, and what was His own take?

To be continued…

You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!

Also read:

• At What Point Did You Meet Hagar? The Inanity of Human Judgment (1)
• Men in the Bible: Adam – A Man of Easy Persuasion
• Reasons to be Thankful
• He Saved Me from False Accusation