Title: The Life of Hagar
In such historical records, the weak, the losers, and the deprived are marginalized and even portrayed as evil. Since they are those who have gone against the history of development and progress, their defeat and selection are natural and appropriate, so they will be heard as a teacher while teaching those who read the record what not to do in the future. If we read the Old Testament, which contains the history of Israel, we see that there are many stories that show this dichotomy of winners and losers, protagonists and traitors of history. Wandering nomads, escaped slaves, and urban poor, they appear in history as the nation of Israel, united as the Hebrews, which seem to mean slaves. In fact, the period of living as an independent country in the midst of great powers is less than 500 years at most, including the period of Southern Judah. However, they hold on to new hope through their faith in YHWH, and they long for the history in which they are the protagonists, and such longing and expectations are being passed down to us in the Old Testament.
I am not here to discuss whether the Old Testament is really the Word of God or not. However, in that it tells the journey of human life in a vivid and concrete form, the Old Testament is also not free from the victor's ideology. Today I would like to share this story with you and Hagar, a woman who was pushed to the fringes of Israel's early history.
This is a story you are all too familiar with. It is intertwined with the story of Abraham, who left for a new land at the age of 75, and obtains a son for God's promise 'offspring as numerous as the sand'. Abraham's wife Sarah (Sarai) is 65 years old because she is 10 years younger than Abraham. While he was going down to Egypt to escape famine, he almost became a Harlem woman of Pharaoh because of Abraham's cowardice. Thanks to God, he returned to Canaan with Abraham and all that he had.
God, who has promised many descendants like the sand, does not give a son at all. He wants Eliezer to be his son and heir. However, God promises to give her a son, and 10 years after Sarah comes to Canaan, she tries to get a son through her servant Hagar, and Ishmael is eventually born. Abraham was 86 years old. Sarah must have been 76.
However, the Bible says that God's promise of salvation is fulfilled through Sarah, and 14 years later, a son was born through Sarah's womb, which was cut off until hard water. It is recorded that they become an opposing nation and are excluded from the history of salvation.
While the dichotomy of the protagonist and the marginalized person in the history of salvation still applies, they are also portrayed as evil actors who, like Ruth and Esau, were forced to do so. Hagar becomes a bad woman who takes pride in her pregnancy as an excuse and forgets her identity as a servant, and becomes a bad woman who looks down on her wife Sarah and possibly even overtakes her position. is drawn with It is only natural that they were expelled. Those who try to destroy God's history of salvation by forgetting their identity and not conforming to and obeying their fate, it is natural to be kicked out like that. So, sometimes, some people expressed their regret that the descendants of Ishmael were Arabs, and if Hagar and Ishmael had been killed at that time, Israel would not have suffered today through the Arabs. It is believed that the nature of those who do not know how to divide, destroy order, and like to fight began with their ancestors, Hagar and Ishmael. Really?
Furthermore, in verse 3, it is clear that Sarai did not simply give Hagar (a servant girl different from a slave) as seed, but as a ‘wife’ to her husband Abram. Here, 'wife' is the status of a dignified wife. Not the second, but the secondary, or polygamy, the same wife. But Sarai brings Hagar down again as her 'servant' after complaining to Abram. If Hagar is really Sarai's servant, Sarai doesn't actually drive out Hagar, and she doesn't need Abram's permission to abuse her. However, Sarai persuades Abram to reconfirm Hagar as a slave, abuse her, and eventually force her to flee. Up to this point, Hagar has not said a word, nor has she acted actively. They are simply driven by Sarai and eventually run away from the pain. This is the first escape route.
And on the way, he meets an angel of YHWH, where Hagar's servant status is confirmed again. “Go back and live in subjection” (verse 9). After adding the blessings of many descendants, he reveals the name of the son to be born. It is very similar to the Annunciation of Mary delivered by an angel. When asked where she was going, Hagar said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” (I have no excuses.) This is the first time she says what she thinks. And surprisingly, he names the God he met. ‘Eloi’ means God who sees, God who sees. And we give a new name to the place where we met that God. ‘Beer Laheroi’, ‘the fountain of the living One who sees me’. It is just like Jacob named the place where he met God while fleeing and named it Bethel.
‘Seeing’ is not simply an expression of sight. The word ‘seeing’ implies sensing through the gaze and continuously looking at it. It expands to the meaning of caring in Korean. The ‘God who sees’ that Hagar met becomes her new strength. God does not only look at Sarai. God sees those who cry in pain and is with them. Then Hagar goes back (and what she suffered after that is not known), and she gives birth to a son. It is not clear whether he told Abram that he had met an angel of God, but Abram named his son Ishmael. And 14 years pass.
An old couple, aged 100 and 90, gave birth to a son. And have a stone party. How is that joy and how precious is that son? But during the feast, Sarah sees a sight. Hagar's son (15 years old) is making fun of his son Isaac. The word ‘teasing’ has the same root as ‘smiling’. If you make fun of it, of course you do it while laughing. But teasing doesn't necessarily imply a negative connotation. What would it be like for a 15-year-old older brother to tease a 1-year-old toddler? So Sarah said to Abraham