By Brenda Cannon Henley
My good friend, Crystal Rawls, introduced me to the writings of Jeff Elkins. Crystal graduated from Baylor University in Texas and was a classmate of Jeff’s. After having lost contact with Jeff for a number of years, she has reconnected and found many of his writings and teachings interesting and informative. Good friends share good reading and exciting teaching. Late one evening, I was cruising through my emails and saw that Crystal had sent me something written by her college friend. Since last month I have read many of Jeff’s writings, listened to podcasts, and given much thought to several subjects upon which he touched. With permission granted, I want to share the thought “God sees me” with you.

Have you ever honestly thought that you didn’t much matter to anyone or that your contributions weren’t valued? It just might be that your sadness and distress came by way of family members or work mates, those very people you are often with in day to day life.

Jeff wrote about Hagar, Sarah’s maid in the Old Testament story of Abraham. His writing caused me to see her in a new way and appreciate her fragile position in a new light after having taught these well known verses for years.

Jeff asks his readers to think of the story of Hagar as a play. There are two acts. In both acts, there are two characters on stage.

ACT ONE: ABRAM AND SARAI TALK
First, we see Abram and Sarai on the stage. The narrator kicks things off by reminding us that Sarai has not borne Abram any children and by informing us that Sarai has a female slave named Hagar. (Genesis 16:1)

Sarai speaks first, explaining to Abram that God has stopped her from having children, so Abram should have sex with her slave, and Sarai will have children through the slave.

Genesis 16:2 tells us that “Abram listens to Sarai.” Then Abram sleeps with Hagar and Hagar conceives.

Animosity forms between the two women, as one can easily imagine, and in verse 5, Sarai speaks again. She says 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!”

Abram replies, “Your slave is in your hands. Do with her whatever you think is best.”

So Sarai treats her slave “harshly” and Hagar runs away.

FOUR THINGS TO NOTICE ABOUT ACT ONE
There are four things we need to notice in the first act of Genesis 16.
Notice how Abram and Sarai choose to deal with their problem.
Sarai cannot have children, but God has promised that Abram would be the father of many nations. Instead of asking God for help, or at the minimum an explanation, Abram and Sarai decide to take matters into their own hands and solve the problem themselves.

While I’m not championing inaction, I am arguing that the first lesson from this story is that when we cut God out of the conversation we make poor decisions.

Notice who speaks.
Abram has a voice. He speaks. He makes choices.
Sarai has a voice. She speaks. She makes choices.
But Hagar is silent, and the only choice she makes is to run away.
And God is silent. Silent and unconsulted.
When we find ourselves in a position of power, and we need to immediately stop what we are doing and give those without power a voice.

How different would this story have been if Abram and Sarai had given Hagar a voice instead of treating her like an object? I believe that most injustice in the world would end if those of us with a voice would simply pause and seek to understand the perspective of those who have no voice.

(I plan to continue this discussion in my next column. I sincerely appreciate the recent notes, texts, and calls concerning various articles I have written).

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at 409 781 8788, or
[email protected]

[BCH: Nov-8-2022]