"I see you"
I’ve begun reading through the Bible again hoping that the context in which I read will affect how I see and hear God. I’m in particular interested in seeing scripture from the eyes of poverty and how the marginalized might respond to passages differently from me. I know since I’m not poor it will be impossible to authentically read without my US privilege bias but I’m trying anyways.
One story really stuck out to me as a passage speaking for the marginalized but I had never noticed it before. It’s the story of Hagar, Sarah’s servant whom is given to Abraham to father a nation. When Hagar conceives, Ishmael is born but Sarah becomes jealous seeing that she herself cannot conceive for Abraham. She becomes so jealous as to send Hagar away in Genesis 16.
All of this is very different from our culture today and I haven’t unpacked it all yet but it seems Hagar is always in the position of weakness, able to given in marriage or sent into the desert at the whim of Sarah. In other words she lacks power and has no individual rights. It’s in this weakened place, alone, a single mother, marginalized from her life that God comes to Hagar. In the interaction she replies to God “I have now seen the One who sees me.” I wonder how important it is for single mothers whose backs seem up against a wall to know God “sees” them. He not only sees the “Abrahams”. Later God again intervenes in Genesis 21 saving their lives and giving the promise to make Ishmael a great nation.
This story is in contrast with the promises and attention given to Abraham, the one called to build a nation. The story of Hagar comes when it seems God’s attention is on nothing and no one but the honored. (Though later he explains he honored them because they were the least of all nations.Duet 7:6, 7) God does not forget but rather sees a single mother wanderings and her son crying…and is moved.
What do you think about the significance of this story in scripture?
One story really stuck out to me as a passage speaking for the marginalized but I had never noticed it before. It’s the story of Hagar, Sarah’s servant whom is given to Abraham to father a nation. When Hagar conceives, Ishmael is born but Sarah becomes jealous seeing that she herself cannot conceive for Abraham. She becomes so jealous as to send Hagar away in Genesis 16.
All of this is very different from our culture today and I haven’t unpacked it all yet but it seems Hagar is always in the position of weakness, able to given in marriage or sent into the desert at the whim of Sarah. In other words she lacks power and has no individual rights. It’s in this weakened place, alone, a single mother, marginalized from her life that God comes to Hagar. In the interaction she replies to God “I have now seen the One who sees me.” I wonder how important it is for single mothers whose backs seem up against a wall to know God “sees” them. He not only sees the “Abrahams”. Later God again intervenes in Genesis 21 saving their lives and giving the promise to make Ishmael a great nation.
This story is in contrast with the promises and attention given to Abraham, the one called to build a nation. The story of Hagar comes when it seems God’s attention is on nothing and no one but the honored. (Though later he explains he honored them because they were the least of all nations.Duet 7:6, 7) God does not forget but rather sees a single mother wanderings and her son crying…and is moved.
What do you think about the significance of this story in scripture?
posted by brian sanders at 7:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home