The pain of abandonment lls this part of the great saga of Abraham. The story thus far has been laden with dif cult choices: the decision to leave Ur and all its familiarity and then to leave Sodom and Gomorrah to God’s judgment after striving to nd clemency; leaving Lot’s wife because of her fated disobe- dience. And now after all that faithfulness, we have a story of ruthlessness.
We recognize the themes of invitation and hospitality throughout this story: Sarai’s invitation for Abram to lie with Hagar, the Egyptian slave; the kindness shown by Abram to the strangers who visit; promises and covenants, including the cir- cumcision of Ishmael, the slave woman’s son, along with all the males of the household; and God’s promises, not only to Abram but also to both Sarai (Sarah) and Hagar about their sons, now ourishing and growing in strength.
But a dark thread runs through this narrative. In Genesis 16 we read how Hagar, having conceived, has mocked the bar- renness of her mistress. Sarai responds by treating her badly so Hagar runs away into the wilderness where God encounters her as she rests by a spring of water. And now, some years later, we nd Sarah’s jealousy and Abraham’s response resulting in Hagar being driven into the wilderness to the point of death. Experi- ences of being “in” and “out” weave through the story.
Through all of this drama of inclusion and exclusion, jeal- ousy and suspicion, brinkmanship and desperation, human kindness and yet disturbing injustice, one thing remains con- stant: God, who hears “the voice of the boy where he is,” keeps God’s promises, providing sustenance to the outcast in need and treasuring the life of Ishmael. “God was with the boy.”