I’m reading the Bible chronologically using the You Version app, along with Bible Reset commentary. Interesting way to study, and I’m so excited to get away from the LDS materials that just keep parroting back to covenant path and temples and priesthood. Let’s get a fresh take where we can think afresh and not be afraid to get outside the echo chamber.
I want to share some insight I had today about Sarai and Hagar. I was able to appreciate Hagar today and put her in a good light, which I’ve never considered before.
In Genesis 16, Sarai is quite elderly and God has not come through with his promise. In her time of doubt and despair, Sarai takes matters into her own hands.
(no, D&C 132:65, God did not command Abraham to take Hagar to wife!!!)
But as soon as Hagar is pregnant, Sarai changes her mind and freaks out and casts her away!
Because of Sarai’s faithlessness and taking control rather than patiently awaiting God’s promise, there are now two nations that have been warring for 4,000 years. Yikes.
Notwithstanding, Sarai is the blessed woman and God keeps his promise, even when we are sinful.
At the same time, God sees Hagar and knows her heart. She was willing to do the part that was given to her to fulfill the promise. So God rewards her and also promises her great posterity.
Hagar is not just some servant girl. She was faithful. She was a meek servant. And she was cast out for it. But she turns to God and looks to Him in praise:
“You are a God who sees…. I have seen Him who looks after me” (Genesis 16:13).
There are a few more stories within just a few chapters where someone is like Sarai, taking action too quickly rather than relying on God, and doing something really stupid and even wicked.
Why does Lot offer his daughters to the perverted nasty men? (Genesis 19:8) He was probably pressured to come up with a quick solution to protect the angels (why would a human need to protect an angel?) or to keep the angels away from this degenerateness, out of a state of embarrassment. I kind of like that last one. How often are we ashamed on behalf of wicked people, because we know deep down we are also sinners? So if we can create our own cover up, maybe we can hide it from God.
And why do Lot’s daughters rape him? (Genesis 19:32) I think they were, much like Sarai, hopeless upon finding themselves in a bind, and so came up with their own solution. But maybe God would have had something else in mind.
In all of these stories, someone is trying to solve a problem without consulting God.
How do we all do this? We don’t trust God to solve our problems for us. We come up with wicked solutions rather than waiting and trusting him.
(My husband found this pattern in Mormon history: the saints following Brigham Young was another time they could have trusted God for a solution instead of jumping into the first narcissistic, dangerous claim that was made. And because they trusted in the arm of the flesh and didn’t know their doctrine, they fell for it!)
So next time you’re in a bind and you’re wondering when God is going to show up, wait for His miracle. Wait for Him to manifest himself. We don’t need to compromise and do wicked things.
All I Possess 