St. Pat’s Book Club, Esther and destiny
I love this depiction by Francois-Leon Benouville. Esther seems troubled by something. Perhaps the challenge to fulfill her destiny?
As we close out our first book club series, we come to the phenomenal story of Esther. As Irene Nowell tells us, there were two versions written, the shorter Hebrew version that doesn’t seem to acknowledge God’s presence, and a later Greek version that injected the presence of God.
Why do you think the original version didn’t include God?
What was the author thinking?
What would be the purpose for excluding God?
When I studied Esther in my fourth year of bible study with the Archdiocese, we didn’t spend enough time on this issue, and I was a little disappointed about that. It troubled me that someone would be inspired to write this story explaining the celebration of the holiday of Purim, and not choose to include the source of the inspiration. To quote a contemporary phrase, “What’s that all about?”
For me, the answer can be found in one of the key turning points in the story, when Esther’s uncle Mordecai pleads for her to petition King Ahasuerus to overturn his decree that will wipe out the Jewish people. Initially, Esther throws up an excuse that expresses her fear that the king will punish her with death for disobedience, like he did with her predecessor, Queen Vashti.
But then, Mordecai challenges his niece to ponder whether or not her life had always been leading up to this very moment.
When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he had this reply brought to her: “Do not imagine that you are safe in the king’s palace, you alone of all the Jews. Even if you now remain silent, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source;but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows—perhaps it was for a time like this that you became queen?” (Judith 4:13-14)
Esther is a very lucky woman having won that extravagant contest to replace Queen Vashti. Was her success only so that she could live a lush life in the harem of King Ahasuerus? As Mordecai points out, Esther’s Jewishness may not remain hidden from the King (if it isn’t already known), and as such she might find herself to be the predecessor all the pretty virgins speak about at the next beauty contest.
Esther girds up her courage and decides to take action. She first strips off her pretty garments and other adornments (notice the contrast to how women of the Old Testament used clothing, perfume and other accessories to attract and distract others) and prays fervently to her Lord for courage and strength and guidance.
The rest, as they say, is history. The decree is overturned and Haman, once the powerful and trusted second in command, is defeated. Even his sons lives are taken in order to reduce the possibility of revenge. Esther has taken up God’s challenge for her role in history, and met it.
What do you think about your life and what God calls you to be and to do? Do you ever spend much time thinking what it is God wants from you? Irene Nowell poses that perhaps Esther came into a fuller appreciation of herself and her faith through this hardship. Esther places God rightly at the center of her being, and the meaning of her existence. As we know from the first Commandment handed down by Moses, we are called to love God first and base our actions and words around his desires for us.
So perhaps the original Hebrew author left out God because he had an immature faith. Or maybe he left God out so his readers would be drawn to the question “Where is God?” If the latter, I applaud the author for offering such a brazen challenge. I also applaud Esther for her humanity, her initial lack of courage, her growing into her faith. That is very human and I can empathize with her struggle. How about you?
A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to all.
St. Pat’s Book Club, Judith & Susanna, So much more than meets the eye
Humans are funny creatures. We are so prepared to judge someone or something based on our first impressions. We look at a person walking up to us on the street and immediately we’re sussing them up as either a friend or foe so we can plan accordingly. We join a bible study group with preconceptions about who we’ll meet, what we’ll discuss, what we think about the Bible, the Catholic Church…
There is nothing wrong with being human and judging people in advance. It’s our nature, probably a survival mechanism formed at the very beginning of human development. The hazards, as we find in Judith and Esther, come when we aren’t self-aware enough to see how we are judging others, and how our actions and beliefs might not let truth shine through.
Botticelli’s rendition of Judith and her maid returning to Bethulia. (This is the cover art for our book.)
Judith is one of the lesser known heroines of the Old Testament, but her story for me is singular in its ability to remind us of human nature and how God asks us not to live at the superficial level. This story commands the reader to go much deeper than the surface in our connections with God’s creations (human or otherwise).
Judith is a widow, but she is far from the helpless solitary woman whom the Old Testament laws caution society to protect. She needs little protection. Nor is she a wife aggrieved by a cheating husband. She is a proud and faithful Jew, whose husband she remains faithful to even after his death. She is incredibly beautiful, but her intelligence is her greatest asset. She defies all stereotypes.
Yet everyone else it seems misjudges her. How many times do we find characters in this story incapable of seeing past Judith’s beauty? They are captivated, astounded, marvel at Judith’s comeliness. Holofernes burns with desire to possess her — a fatal miscalculation.
What I love most about Judith and this story is that Judith doesn’t let her superficial qualities overpower her heart and her faithfulness to God. She knows she is capable of so much more than being “eye candy,” and she uses her wisdom and courage to do God’s will. In fact, as Uzziah duly notes, Judith’s wisdom corresponds to the worthy dispositions of her heart (Jud 8:29).
Susanna faces the same dilemma in our final chapter of Women in the Old Testament. The two elders who plot her rape sorely misjudge their victim’s wisdom and willingness to remain faithful to God. Susanna’s trust that God will protect her is so powerful for me, especially at this time in my life when I have been wondering what God’s plan for me is, and how I can care for my family and do his will at the same time.
Susanna is set upon by two elders.
Susanna pleads to God: “… you know what is hidden and are aware of all things…” She chooses not to engage in an earthly defense, but trusts in God “wholeheartedly.” And how does God work? Through a lowly boy, Daniel. How marvelously ironic. The Israelites were prepared to condemn an innocent woman to death, and a “young boy” uses God’s wisdom to save her.
How many of us would have trusted Daniel or any young boy in such a precarious situation? If we were defending Woodbury from a siege, would we send a beautiful widow out to the enemy to save us?
Judging others is such a dicey proposition. Trying to discern the truth of another person’s character is incredibly difficult. We all may have intuition, but how often have even our most certain determinations been?
I don’t think God necessarily wants us to project our beliefs on other people or pretend that we “understand” them. As we see at Judith 8:14, it may be near impossible for us to plumb the deaths of the human heart. But I do believe that God wants us to let others speak up and speak out, to share their feelings and beliefs, to make a case for their human dignity. We need to be prepared for the God of surprises to surprise us through others.
St. Pat’s Book Club, Women of Israel’s Early Tribes, Part II
Throughout our study, we have often found women placed in a very compromised position. Sarah was cast into the king’s harem as Abraham’s sister in order to save Abraham’s life. Rachel and her sister Leah played off of each other’s fertility in a battle for Jacob’s affection and inheritance. Tamar sought a husband so that she could fulfill God’s covenant.
As the young nation Israel begins to settle down in Canaan, women once again play a prominent role with its movement from a nomadic tribe to a landed monarchy. In Chapter 6 of Women in the Old Testament, we find women struggling to love and be loved.
The most tragic for me is the story of Michal. Daughter of Saul, Michal apparently is the only Old Testament woman whose love for her husband is explicitly expressed in the bible. She loves him enough that when her father plots David’s death, she helps David escape and then produces a decoy (ironically with a foreign idol) to give David a little more time. But her love is apparently never returned by David.
While Michal doesn’t get a lot of play in biblical circles, certainly not as much as say Sarah or Jacob’s wives, her character is extremely well developed. We experience a lifetime’s worth of marital emotions in her, from her initial love for David, to eventually her despising him for the way she was treated (I don’t think she was angry at him just for dancing half naked in the streets).
Bathsheba is treated shabbily too by David. Imagine a woman worried about her husband in battle being espied by the most powerful person in her country. When she is called by his servants, she goes with them and before she knows it, David is pushing himself on her.
Artemisia Gentileschi, David and Bathsheba, ca. 1640, Gentileschi, one of the few women artists known from her time, portrays Bathsheba in a much more honorable light than the bible. Bathsheba is undressed but she covers herself both from our sight and David’s (on the balcony in the distance).
The echoes of Ruth, Delilah and others rebound in our memories as yet another pawn is played in a man’s world. Jewish rabbis have portrayed a whole different story in midrash, one where David and Bathsheba’s marriage was pre-destined at the time of the world’s creation, and therefore both were forgiven for their infidelity.
Regardless, Bathsheba becomes another crucial player in God’s unfolding plan for Israel as a nation. She is the mother of the wise king, Solomon, and will do everything within her power to ensure her son follows David. Despite whatever we may think of David and Bathsheba’s conduct, God has HIS plan and will not be thwarted.
Sr. Nowell wraps up our look at women betwixt and between with another tragic figure, a second Tamar. She is caught up in a battle between the step brothers Absalom and Amnon, and treated with indifference by her stepfather David, versus his concern for public image and kingly succession.
What must Tamar have felt like, her body being treated as a throwaway object, her emotions trampled upon by her own family? Is this why the bible authors present her story to us? Is Tamar meant to be a cautionary tale of lust and greed? As in the case of Bathsheba, are we meant to judge women and apply some kind of responsibility to Tamar for stepping into her situation?
I am not sure what the ultimate meaning of the author was for these passages. Again, we are faced with the painful consequences of indifference and cruelty. While Tamar’s presence helps lead to a decision of succession for David, are we to believe that a rape is God’s plan for the greater good? That is not the God I believe in, so I don’t subscribe to that view. More importantly, what’s your view?
- Read through the stories of Michal again and focus on her emotions. What do you think of Michal’s journey? Is it believable? Do you have any judgment about how she acts? Why do you think the author of these stories portrayed Michal so fully and what does her emotional journey tell you about our emotions and God’s likely reaction to them?
- What do you think of Bathsheba? Would you want her as a spouse? A mother? A friend? Why or why not?
- Why do you think the sad story of Tamar’s rape is included in the bible? What purpose does it serve?
- If David is considered the greatest king of Israel (interestingly, Chronicles leaves out the seduction of Bathsheba), why did he treat two wives and a daughter (Tamar) so poorly? Didn’t the Jewish people feel any anger at a man who could be so cruel? What do you think of David now versus prior to reading these stories? If you weren’t aware of Michal and Bathsheba, what has changed about your opinion of David?
St. Pat’s Book Club, Is this the Bible, or “Dallas”?
Okay. So I’m dating myself by referencing a 1980s television show, but I think you get my drift.
Rahab served God faithfully and was rewarded by having her life and the lives of those she loved saved.
What happened to the Bible we know and love? Where are all the pious characters we like to think about when we think of the Bible? Sister Irene Nowell wonderfully captures human nature in Chapter 4 of “Women in the Old Testament.” We have a possible madam in Rahab, a murderess in Jael and a possibly “heartless” wife in Delilah. J.R. Ewing would be proud of this bunch!
As we meet Rahab, Joshua has led the Jewish nation to the shores of the Jordan River and is preparing to enter into Canaan. He is fulfilling his covenant to God and to Moses, to install the Jewish people in the Promised Land. Finding Jericho a formidable fortress, an obstacle to success, Joshua sends spies in to reconnoiter and determine the enemy’s weaknesses and strengths.
Rahab has heard word about this new nation and their devotion to one God and shares her knowledge with Joshua’s spies. Without an argument, Rahab commits to assisting the spies and they promise to spare her. The rest, as they say, is history.
Once again we find ourselves engaged in the story of a less than perfect person serving a crucial role in God’s plan. This is not some throwaway story either. Rahab’s family is listed by Matthew in the genealogy of Jesus. And James refers to Rahab when discussing how works can identify the faith of an individual.
“See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route?For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
I don’t want to head down a tangential discussion about faith and works and what James was trying to say here. But it is useful for us to think about what kind of state Rahab was in when she met Joshua’s spies. What James gets at is that a person can only do good works if they are truly in covenant with God. The New American Bible explains the words of Deuteronomy in Rahab’s mouth by stating:
“Through her, the author expresses a theological conviction: the Lord, the God of Israel, is God above all gods; the formation of the people Israel and its success is the Lord’s doing; and all the rulers of the neighboring nations do well to panic at what the Lord is doing.”
Rahab may not be a Jew, but like Hagar and Rachel, and other women we have met, she has some insight inside her that separates God from all the others. She believes.
Jael doesn’t repeat Deuteronomy, but certainly Judge’s author’s blessing upon her at 5:24 gives us a pretty good indication of her standing amongst her biblical peers. She is “blessed among women,” and that reference is not accidental. Once again, a non- or semi-semitic woman steps in at a crucial moment in Jewish history and fulfills God’s needs, eliminating a potential threat to the Jewish people.
Most of the characters of Dallas would not exactly have had the courage or piety to match these ladies.
- What do you think of Sister Nowell’s statement that we are perhaps doubly offended by Sisera’s murder because he falls at a woman’s hand? Given what we know about ancient Israel and the culture of this age, is it offensive to you?
- What do you make of Jephthah’s daughter? Is she a heroine of the bible when she doesn’t take any direct action? Can we be holy simply by being passive to God’s will?
- Who offends you more, Samson and his wives’ families, for placing women in the middle of an untenable situation, or Samson’s wives? Now that you have read the story of Samson in greater detail, how is it different from what you remember? What is the significance to you between what you remembered about Samson, and the full story?
St. Pat’s Book Club, Reading between the lines, The Women of Passover
At class on Monday, we were a small but active group. Because there were so few of us, we could spend a little more time on each participant’s thoughts and questions. One area we focused on was the primacy of women in enabling the redemption of Israel. We spoke again of how Zipporah saved Moses’ life as he prepared to enter Egypt to save the Jewish nation. We talked about how Puah and Shiphrah stood up to Pharaoh and refused to participate in his infanticide.
There are so many strong, key Women of Passover, most of them acting in the role of mother. But I mentioned how one of my favorite Jewish authors, Aviva Zornberg, teaches a great lesson about the unwritten Jewish heroines and how they contributed to Israel’s redemption by being loving wives. Zornberg was interviewed a few years ago by Krista Tippett, for Tippett’s program “On Being.” You can find the interview podcast and other materials by clicking on this link.
Krista Tippett interviews biblical scholar Aviva Zornberg (R).
I’ve excerpted from the interview transcript the section where Zornberg talks about how the Israelite women responded to Pharaoh’s punishing directive to remove straw from the slave’s ingredients for bricks. He was trying to break the men, and by doing so, break the Jewish nation. As Zornberg teaches, the Jewish women responded in their uniquely powerful, feminine way. This is from a primary Midrashic collection, Tanhuma Pekudei, edited in the fifth century.
Reader: “You find that when Israel were in harsh labor in Egypt, Pharaoh decreed against them that they should not sleep at home nor have relations with their wives. Said Rabbi Shimeon bar Chalafta, ‘What did the daughters of Israel do?’ They would go down to draw water from the river, and God would prepare for them little fish in their buckets. And they would sell some of them, and cook some of them, and buy wine with the proceeds, and go to the field and feed their husbands. And when they had eaten and drunk, the women would take the mirrors and look into them with their husbands, and she would say, ‘I am more comely than you,’ and he would say, ‘I am more comely than you.’ And as a result, they would accustom themselves to desire, and they were fruitful and multiplied, and God took note of them immediately. Some of our sages said they bore two children at a time, others said they bore 12 at a time, and still others said 600,000. … And all these numbers from the mirrors. … In the merit of those mirrors which they showed their husbands to accustom them to desire, from the midst of the harsh labor, they raised up all the hosts.”
Dr. Zornberg: She says to him, ‘I’m more beautiful than you,’ and he answers her, ‘No, I’m more beautiful than you.’ So there is some kind of dare going on here. There’s some kind of game. As I understand it, it’s a game in which she is challenging him to see his own beauty. If there’s anything left in him at all of any kind of assertiveness, then how could he not somewhere swing back at her when she has said that to him? And the result is — and the Midrash is very unequivocal — the result is that they accustom themselves to desire, an extraordinary expression, as if desire is something that simply has disappeared from their repertoire.
Dr. Zornberg: And I think there’s a sense here that what she’s got going here makes it possible for each couple to feel that they are capable of giving birth to all the many various possibilities.
Ms. Tippett: And the possibility of freedom.
Dr. Zornberg: Of freedom, of infiniteness, of unpredictability, which such multiple births suggests, and that it’s all done with mirrors, the Midrash says, mischievously, it seems to me. And I have a whole theory about these mirrors. It seems to me that, when one looks in a mirror, one is basically always seeing a somewhat changed version of oneself, a distorted version of oneself. So it means that the mirror represents fantasy. But from the point of view of the Midrash and from the point of view of God, who supports the women’s activities, it takes an act of this kind, a performative act of whimsy and imagination, not looking at things quite straight, in order to open things up.
St. Pat’s Book Club, Giving Birth to the Covenant
When last we left the Semitic people, the descendants of Rebekah and Isaac, Rachel, Leah and Jacob, were struggling to extend the lineage of Abraham and Sarah. Barrenness tested faith. Humans battled their free will in the face of God’s will.
In this short chapter of Women in the Old Testament, we meet more significant players in God’s plan; women who give birth to the signature moment in Jewish history, the Exodus and salvation of the new nation. Once again, God’s ultimate design requires women(including some from outside the 12 tribes) to take action reaffirming faith in the covenant.
Pharaoh commands the midwives to take the lives of all the Jewish newborns.
The midwives are moved to act faithfully by their fear of God. I think that the midwives of Exodus are some of the most courageous people in all of the Bible. Here are Shiphrah and Puah (possibly Egyptian, as Sr. Nowell instructs us on page 48), familiar enough to their ruler that they are instructed by Pharaoh himself to kill Jewish babies, but equal to their task of resistance.
As midwives they had very little power yet still they see the chaos of Pharaoh’s directive, how it conflicts with God’s desire for order, and stand up against it. Sr. Nowell’s statement here about the one meaning of their actions should stay with us throughout this study: “The only way to break oppression is to refuse to be oppressed.” What a lesson Shiphrah, Puah and many other Women in the Old Testament have to teach us all.
Moses’ mother Jochebed and sister Miriam are the next women who refuse to be oppressed by Pharaoh’s genocidal decree. While their actions are easier to understand given their blood connections to Moses, they are no less brave and bold in their defiance. I believe it is very significant here that the author of Exodus uses language that directly connects Jochebed with God.
First, Jochebed refers to Moses as “goodly” at Exo 2:2, much in the way we heard how God saw what was good in the Genesis creation story. Second, the Bible uses the word for the vessel Moses is placed in (tebah) only in the Genesis story of Noah’s ark. For me, there is no mistaking the inspiration of the Exodus writer. Women are undeniably made in God’s image.
Another crucial “mother” of the Exodus is none other than Pharaoh’s daughter. Perhaps it is her motherly instincts that cause her to defy her own father’s orders. One of the things I love about this passage is the way that the author describes her motivation upon hearing the baby Moses crying in the reeds:
“She was moved with pity for him.” Exo 2:6
Throughout Exodus, God too is moved by pity when hearing the cry of the Jewish people. First we hear His compassion prior to and at the burning bush. God “heard their cry of complaint.” We hear it again and again, not only in Exodus, but also in the Psalms, like 106 and in St. Stephen’s discourse in Acts of the Apostles. Pharaoh’s daughter acted like God and she too should be remembered for her mercy.
Miriam and Zipporah also are crucial to God’s plan. Zipporah, conceivably a non-Jew as she lived in Midian (which was traditionally directly connected with Arab tribes), saves Moses’ life, and as such permits him to fulfill his role in leading the Jewish people out of Israel. Circumcision was a sign of male devotion to God’s covenant, and it is Zipporah who in the face of God’s wrath takes charge to ensure that God’s plan can proceed. Pretty powerful stuff (even without all the references to blood).
Miriam would not even had the chance to be a prophetess if not for her sister-in-law Zipporah. But once given the opportunity to be a leader, she engages. In Hebrew, Miriam’s name means “bitterness,” reflecting the despair she likely felt living during the time of great oppression of her people. But despite her bitterness, Miriam makes some savvy choices to help save her people.
Miriam leads the women of Israel in song after Pharaoh’s army is swallowed up at the Reed Sea.
At a Jewish website, I came across the following description of Miriam’s journey as the sister of Moses:
For it was Miriam, with her deep well of feminine feeling, who truly experienced the bitterness of galut (exile and persecution). And it was Miriam, with her woman’s capacity for endurance, perseverance, and hope, who stood a lonely watch over the tender, fledging life in a basket at the edge of a mammoth river; whose vigilance over what would become of him and his mission to bring redemption to her people never faltered.
The author eloquently captures the unique nature of women to feel despair when life, something they feel directly when carrying a child in their womb, is not fulfilled. Is this the same mercy and compassion God feels when he hears the cry of his beloved nation in affliction?
- What do Jochebed’s actions tell YOU about her place in God’s heart?
- Having met non-semitic members of the Bible, what do you make of the actions of women like Pharaoh’s daughter and Zipporah, and their inclusion in the story of the birth of the Jewish nation?
- Does it bother you that both Aaron and Miriam confront God about Moses’ mission, but only Miriam is punished?
- Name the 2-3 most prominent character attributes of the Women of Israel’s Passover and how you feel about them.
- Name the instances where the stories of the Women of Israel’s Beginnings are repeated in Women of Israel’s Passover.
St. Pat’s Book Club, “She is more righteous than I am.”
Chagall’s Tamar Belle-Fille de Juda (Tamar Daughter-in-Law of Judah), 1960
This is the voice of Judah, Jacob’s son, when he realizes his daughter-in-law Tamar has done more to maintain God’s covenant than he has. As we read Tamar’s story, we hear echoes from the lives of Sarah, Rebekah and other women of Israel’s beginnings.
Judah has withheld his third son Shelah from Tamar because he fears Shelah will follow the fate of his two brothers — to an early demise. Judah is willing to rebel against God’s plan for his tribe, as well as the custom of the time to provide for the twice-widowed Tamar. But Tamar will not be denied her devotion to continue the patriarchal line of the tribe of Judah.
You may disagree with her method of complying with God’s designs, but she achieves her goal and even the Gospel writer Matthew himself will etch Tamar’s name into the history of Christianity.
Tamar is just one of many determined women we find on pages 21-46 of Women in the Old Testament. Some will deceive (Rebekah), steal (Rachel) and cause strife with jealousy of their sibling (Leah). (Of course, the patriarchs aren’t much better. What is with the sister-wife deception thing?)
How human they all are. In fact, not only do they thrive in their time, they are blessed by God too. Isn’t it reassuring for the rest of us? Despite their/our human weaknesses, these women and us are still capable of being blessed by God and playing a positive role in helping the Lord achieve His goal.
Finally, I relish the fact that it is a man who states unequivocally Tamar’s superior righteousness. That must have taken great humility for Judah to make this statement. To place a woman above him in God’s eyes no doubt was not easy in that society. Perhaps Judah might be called the world’s first feminist.
- What are the parallels we find between Rebekah and her mother-in-law Sarah?
- What do these similarities tell us about Rebekah’s place in God’s plan?
- Why do YOU think Rachel stole her father’s idols?
- Is Tamar worthy of being one of Jesus’ great-grandmothers?
St. Pat’s Book Club, A last look at Hagar and Sarah
Sarah offers Hagar to Abraham.
Monday’s discussion was truly a delight. We delved deeply into some troubling questions about what we believe about Sarah and Hagar, and how these two magnificent women reflect on our Catholic faith.As Mike Hansen said several times, “contradictions and conflicts abound” in the stories of these two matriarchs. We can try all we can to box Sarah and Hagar into some kind of biblical stereotype, but odds are we are going to fail. Sarah may be the wife of Abraham and devoted to God, but she also was willing to cast out into the desert a woman whom she was responsible for, and her husband’s son. Not exactly charitable.
Hagar meanwhile lorded her fertility over Sarah when she was pregnant. Is this a character defect that should concern us?
The one area of consensus I did hear was how God creates order in the world, and that when man or woman go against that order, conflict is created. If Sarah and Abraham had been obedient to God’s promise and patient for it to bear fruit, Hagar and Ishmael may not have experienced their pain and suffering.
Perhaps that in the end is the ultimate message of the lives of Sarah and Hagar. Here we have two very decent human beings, blessed in so many ways by God. Yet, despite their good fortune they struggled to trust completely in God and ended up bringing disorder to the world. Even as a man, I find it very easy to see myself in Sarah and Hagar. How about you?
St. Pat’s Book Club, Comparing and Contrasting Sarah and Hagar
For our first class, scheduled to meet on Monday, October 15, please read pages 3-20 of Women in the Old Testament.
Appropriately, we start our program following the Genesis journeys of two archetypical Old Testament women, Sarah and Hagar. As Sister Irene Nowell points out, the author of Genesis compares and contrasts the character and meaning of these two women.
Sarah laughs inside the tent when the three visitors predict she will bear a son. Isaac will thus take the name which means “he laughs.”
SARAH is Abraham’s wife, whom God has made a promise with, that she shall overcome her barrenness and be, in essence, the mother of Israel.
As Nowell writes, Sarah is a “strong woman and complex character.” She obediently follows Abraham’s direction, even when it puts her own welfare in jeopardy (Genesis 12:10-20). This portion of Genesis is hard for most modern people to comprehend. Why would a strong woman concede to her husband’s request that she claim herself his sister? Given the possibility that she would be taken advantage of by the king, why didn’t she rebel, or flee?
But Sarah also can make demands of her husband, as she does when she instructs Abraham to drive Hagar and Ishmael away (Genesis 21:10). Was Sarah concerned with Isaac’s ability to earn his share of his inheritance from his father (which in ancient custom also would help secure Sarah’s future if Abraham predeceased her)? Or was it something more, something perhaps related to the covenant Sarah shared with God.
Explore more deeply here what St. Paul writes in Galatians about whom Christians are the heirs.
The messenger of the Lord comforts Hagar with her son Ishmael in the wilderness.
HAGAR is introduced as Sarah’s handmaiden and slave, but she is important in God’s eyes.
Nowell beautifully notes the special relationship Hagar has with God, that out of all the characters in the Old Testament, only she is permitted to give God a name. (Genesis 16:13) Later, in Exodus, when Moses asks God to provide a name, God does not acquiesce. He eludes the question with a riddle-like answer. With Hagar, it doesn’t appear God resists being named.
Despite this special relationship, Hagar and her son do not possess the promise of Abraham’s progeny. She is not chosen to bear a son in the long line of chosen patriarchs that will lead the nation of Israel. In fact, God instructs Abraham to follow his wife’s directive that Sarah and Ishmael be driven out into the wilderness.
Is this a cruel joke God has played on Hagar? What are we to make of the interjection of Hagar and her son into the story of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac?
As we prepare for our first class, here are three questions to provoke conversation for this session:
- Why would God provide a son to Abraham and Sarah only after Abraham bears a son with Hagar?
- What character traits of Hagar do you admire?
- What parallels do you see in the birth announcement forms of Isaac, John the Baptist and Jesus and why do you think the author of the Gospel of Luke would draw such comparisons?
Richard D'Ambrosio
Pathways 