Genesis 16

It’s really interesting that Abram and Sarai both seem to think it’s not weird to consider Hagar’s child their own.  Very controlling master-servant (master-slave?) relationship.  Is it just me, or are we supposed to sympathize with Hagar?  This is why should have one man and one woman, otherwise jealousy’s ridiculous.  Don’t blame Hagar at all for her contempt.  But God comforts Hagar, says her son’s descendants will be numerous, too--or is that just because of Abram?  You didn’t want her to despair, You wanted her to keep living.  And Hagar is amazed that You allowed her to see You and live.  But she just saw an angel; does that mean angels are just smaller versions of You?  Sarai blames Abram rather than taking blame herself--like Adam and Eve.  Did she know she’d done wrong?  I think what she did was wrong, forcing her maid to have “her” child.  And she wasn’t trusting that You would give her a child, someday (did Abram ever tell her about Your promise?).  But Abram still knew, and he still slept with her anyway (Men... *snorts*).  And once Hagar starts hating Saria (but not him... hm, interesting), he seems to think Sarai has the right (although that could just be a survival thing, not wanting to live with an angry wife, or just automatically assuming that his wife was right and the servant was wrong).  Either way, he definitely tells Sarai that she can do whatever the hell she wants with Hagar, which is such a recipe for disaster.  Hagar and Sarai probably hate each other at this point!  Hagar hates Sarai because Sarai ordered her to go in to Abram and now she’s pregnant and it’s not even technically her child, and Sarai hates Hagar because Hagar can do everything for Abram that she can’t--well, just bear children, but that was obviously hugely important to her.  What a mess!!  You also seem to side with Sarai a bit.  You tell Hagar to go back to her mistress and submit, implying that Sarai does have a legit claim on Hagar.  Or maybe Hagar staying with Sarai was just part of Your plan.  But You do often want us to acknowledge the legit power, even if it’s not always right.  In some ways this is a very New Testament idea, doing the right thing by acknowledging the proper authority and suffering under it.  Or do You want us to fight unjust powers?  Then again, all powers are unjust to some degree, to someone.  I guess that’s something that really would require Your guidance to do well (but that’s true of everything).