Banish "Hagar"

Some Bible stories are worth repeating for the insights they keep on generating. One such narrative is that of Hagar, the Egyptian woman who served as a personal maid to Sarah, Abraham's wife. I've previuosly writtne on this scriptural account, but a different insight comes to me now, presenting valuables lessons I'd like to share with my readers. A beautiful passage from one of my favorite books introduces my point.

It s impossible for any humand mind to exhaust even one truth or promise of the Bible. One catches the glory from one point of view, another from another point, yet we can discern only gleamings. The full radiance is beyond our vision.

Just where the boundary of these gleamings extends is profoundly brought out in these equally magnificient lies:

As we contemplate the great things of God's word, we look into a fountain that boardens and deepens beneath our gaze. Its breath and depth pass our knowledge. As we gaze, the visions widens; stretched out before us we hold a boundless shoreless sea.

Here then are some more gleamings from that immortal story. Hagar's origin was Egypt, the symbol of atheism and idol worship at that time. This egyptian woman, however, came under the influence of Abraham, the father of the faithful, and his household. What kind of influence seeped into her in her new environment such that she decided to leave her past and worship the only true God? But her upsurge into a transformed life came to a test one day. Distressed and impatient about the delay - or inaccuray, in her view, of God's promise of a son - Sarah, the stunningly beautiful lady of the house, suggested her own solution to her husband, "Wht don't you sleep with Hagar? Then we can have a son whose offspring shall be as numerous as the stars," she predicted.

Running before the Lord - even through adultery? Aren't there husbands desiring children of their wives' barren wombs who seek third parties to fulfill thier wishes? does one deliberate wrong correct another incontrollable situation? How often do some of us try to solve life's perplexities in this manner?

Anyway, Abraham obeyed his wife, and his concubinage bore fruit. Ismael brought joy to Abraham and Hagar, but not to Sarah, who later gave birth to Isaac, the promised son. Conflicts, jealousies, and other evils racked the tripatry relationship until Sarah could stand it no more. In her intense anger one day, she flung it to her husband, "Get this woman out of her, out of my sight!"

But Ismael was Abraham's son, his blood child - how could be drive him and his mother out? In his agony Abraham could turn to no one but His God. In Sarah's persistent demand, he knew God would teach him what to do. And so it is with us. Even though we mess up with our lives and dabble in sin with its sure consequences, God remains our only refuge, our sole guide and hiding place.

So as Abraham lay prostate before the Lord, bewildered and beleaquered by the warring nothers, he heard the supreme order, " Send Hagar and Ismael away." A painful blow, but that was the only way to peace. So to the wilderness Abraham sent Hagar and Ismael" What "Hagar" intrusions in your married life do you have to send away? A third party, inifidelity, unforgiving spirit, unkind words, dictatorial tendencies, selfisness, and other traits barring marring peace? The divine order is, as was given to Abraham: Banish "Hagar"

Running before the Lord - even through adultery? Aren't there husbands desiring children of their wives' barren wombs who seek third parties to fulfill thier wishes? does one deliberate wrong correct another incontrollable situation? How often do some of us try to solve life's perplexities in this manner?

Ellen G. White, Education, p.171.