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Hagar, a remarkable woman

LettersHagar, a remarkable woman
Editor Amandala
Sir,
   
Hagar, the humble Egyptian servant to her mistress, Sarai, has been so grossly disrespected by so many professed Biblical scholars that I feel compelled to vindicate this woman, blessed by God to be the matriarch of a great people and the ancestor of the last great prophet and law giver.
   
Surprisingly, Hagar is the only woman in the Bible to whom God spoke and gave constant counsel and reassurance.
   
In Genesis, chapter 6 verse 13 of the King James Bible, we can read, “And she calls the name of the Lord that spoke to her, Thou God seest me.”
   
God not only spoke to her, but at every crucial step of her life, He sent an angel to guide and reassure her. Of all the wives and concubines of the Prophet Abraham, only Hagar was special in the eyes of God. Even Sarai, the mother of Isaac and first wife of Abraham, heard of the good news that she was to have a son from a conversation between her husband and three angels and she disbelieved. Hagar did not.
   
When she ran away from her jealous and abusive old mistress, she followed the instructions of the Angel of the Lord and returned to the abuse. Chapter 16 verse 9 says, “And the angel of the Lord said unto her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands.” The angel of the Lord continues in chapter 16 verses 12, 13, 14 to tell Hagar of the hard life she and her son, Ishmael, will have at the hands of his brethren, which also serves to tell us that prejudice was rife then as it is now. But Hagar submits herself to the will of God.
   
And finally, in chapter 17 verse 20, God tells Abraham, “And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget and I will make him a great nation.”
   
Now if we analyze this verse carefully we can see that Abraham was concerned about his beloved first born and God knows this because He is the all-knowing. And if we continue in our analysis, we see that Ishmael will produce twelve princes. Would Ishmael become the King? Only Kings produce princes.
   
Now chapter 17 verse 19 says that God would establish His covenant with Isaac, but a bit further on in verse 23 we read, “And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all that were born in the house, and all that were brought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day as God had said unto him.” And this means that the covenant of circumcision was effected with Ishmael who was then thirteen years of age (verse 25), the selfsame day that Abraham was commanded to do so by God. Isaac was not yet born.
   
There is another point I would like to clear up. Disrespectful Biblical scholars have demoted Hagar to a concubine. Our King James Version tells us in chapter 16 verse 3 that “Sarai, Abraham’s wife, took Hagar, her maid… and gave her to her husband Abraham to be his wife.” And there is a reason for this. If ten years after a marriage no children were produced, it was the custom for a man to take a second (or third) wife until he produced children, and we know from the Bible that Abraham, while he was married, dwelt in the land of Canaan for ten years.
   
Furthermore, in both Smith’s and Pelobet’s Bible dictionaries it is explained that the names of concubines and their children as supplementary family members appear in the Patriarchal Genealogies, Genesis 22, 24, and that their position and their provisions depended on the father’s will. But the names of Abraham’s wives, Sarai and Hagar, do not appear except for the names of their sons because they were the inheritors of their father’s legacy.
   
In conclusion, let me say that Hagar, an Egyptian servant to her mistress, Sarai, and eventually second wife of Abraham, known as the father of monotheism, was a woman above reproach and special in the mind of God. Her faith in God was exceptional and in time, as promised by God, one of the greatest prophets and law givers would make his appearance and establish one of the greatest religions on our planet, Islam.
 
Yours sincerely,
 L. M.   
 

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