The Fate of the Not-Chosen
You’ve likely read at least some little thing about how Yahweh looks after and protects and prospers His chosen people. And you’ve likely wondered how is it fair for one subsection of people to receive preferential treatment.
Genesis 16 is about Hagar. And Ishmael. And a promise circumvented.
As far as we know, Hagar is an innocent person in this story. She’s the maidservant of Sarai, Abram’s wife. She doesn’t choose what happens to herself. She is in the service of another.
Yahweh makes a promise to Abram. You’re old, but you’ll have a son, and more descendants than anyone can count.
Then a year passes. No son. Another year. Nothing. Then another. And another. And another.
Ten years pass. TEN. That’s a long time to wait on God to deliver on His promise. Keep in mind that Abram didn’t have any Scripture to look to. He was the 10th generation from Noah. He knew some stories of ages before, but his own father worshipped other gods. He wasn’t exactly raised on the tales of Yahweh’s faithfulness.
To wait ten years for a promise from a mighty being whom your father did not know is to hang your future on a hope and a memory of an experience.
It’s not surprising that Sarai proposed a workaround. I have a maidservant… she can give us a child… I will give her to you as a wife (but not THE wife).
We don’t know the context, but once she gets pregnant by Abram, she looks on Sarai with contempt. If childbearing is the ultimate sign that a woman’s place is secured with her husband, then Sarai has a problem.
She “dealt harshly with” Hagar, and Hagar fled into the wilderness.
This woman has no home of her own. She is the servant of another woman. She has been forced to bear a child for her mistress. And now she’s mistreated.
The messenger of Yahweh meets her in the wilderness. He instructs her return to her mistress and submit to her. That’s asking a lot. But the instruction comes with a promise.
”Surely I will multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered… You will call your son Ishmael (“The Mighty One hears”) because Yahweh has listened to your affliction…”
Hagar wasn’t God’s choice. Sarai was. Sarai waited ten years and then opted for a workaround. Her workaround backfired and she regretted it. Sarai is still God’s choice for the heir of the covenant.
But He doesn’t leave Hagar stranded. He doesn’t abandon Ishmael. It says something about His character that he promises blessing upon Ishmael, the one who by all accounts should never have been born.
Hagar called the name of Yahweh “El Roi” or “The Mighty One who sees”. She felt seen in her distress.
Yahweh loves this unborn child, Ishmael. He will not be the heir, but that doesn’t mean he’s cast out.
It’s worth noting Ishmael is 13 years old when Yahweh returns to speak to Abram and elaborate on His covenant. That’s a fact you could skip right over. But in Hebrew culture, a boy becomes a man at 13. Perhaps it is His mercy and kindness that Yahweh allowed Ishmael the undivided attention of his father through childhood before returning to proceed with His planned heir. That is not how worthless things are treated.
This is not the Ishmael’s story. But hearing his story offers dimensions of Yahweh’s character we won’t see by simply following the heir of the promise. You have to see what happens to the “NPCs”.
He brings blessing and prosperity and multiplication even to those who do not fulfill the covenant. He loves more than a select few.