Hagar - Her Life And Times

Hagar - Her Life And Times

SLAVERY

Slavery was a common practice in ancient Near Eastern culture, so common that God’s laws made provision for its safe and fair practice but not for its destruction. Slaves were obtained in any of a number of ways: Captives from war became slaves, particularly virgin women (Numbers 31:7 – 32); men and women and their children went into slavery to pay debts (Leviticus 25:39); slaves could be purchased (Leviticus 25:44); and sometimes slavery was even voluntary, as when a male slave who could have gone free remained in servitude in order to stay with a wife he loved (Exodus 21:2 – 6).

Hagar, an Egyptian, probably became a slave to Abraham and Sarah when they left Egypt (Genesis 12:20). Leaving her homeland behind, she made herself useful and proved herself trustworthy, thereby becoming Sarah’s maidservant, a position of some importance in the household.

Sarah must have had some confidence and perhaps even affection for Hagar to want her to be the surrogate mother of her son. Such practices were fairly common in that day. Infertile women urged their husbands to take their maidservants in order to gain a child and heir for the family. Female slaves were often made the concubines or wives of the master or one of his sons. Their children became the property and sometimes the heirs of their masters. As female slaves, they had no choice in the matter. They were alone, with no rights and no one to defend them.

Many women today are in a position similar to Hagar’s. They may not be actual slaves, but they are in positions of weakness, with no one to defend them. No one except God. The same God who defended Hagar and heard the cries of her son in the desert hears the cries of helpless women and their children today. When we are at our weakest, God is at his best, ready to step in and say to us as he said to Hagar, “Do not be afraid” (Genesis 21:17).