Genesis 16:1-2 (NIVUK)
4 …When she knew she was pregnant, [Hagar] began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.’
6 ‘Your slave is in your hands,’ Abram said. ‘Do with her whatever you think best.’ Then Sarai ill-treated Hagar; so she fled from her.
What a mess. Hagar hates Abram and Sarai, Sarai is jealous of Hagar and blames Abram for doing what she had suggested in the first place, and Abram, it seems, has had enough and washes his hands of responsibility for it all! In the middle of this mess, Sarai asks God to judge between them. Perhaps in the words we have just read, we have his judgement. They have all wronged and been wronged, and you have to wonder why he doesn’t just wash his hands of the lot of them. He doesn’t, and I am thankful for that, because if he washed his hands of them, he’d have to wash his hands of me too. Instead, he continues to work in them and through them. That is grace.
Thank you Father that you love and work through imperfect people, including us!
Image used with permission from www.lambsongs.co.nz
Leave a Reply