Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where did you come from? Where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai.”
(Genesis 16:8)

God knew who she was. He knew her name. He knew her situation. He knew everything. He also gave her an opportunity to speak. He didn’t have to. But He was looking for interaction. For her to see that although SHE had run away, in His eyes she was still in her position. She was still connected to Abram’s family.

God was also questioning her to give her a chance to think things through. She had run away. But what was her plan? Where were her supplies? What was her destination? Had she thought of any of that? The scriptures show no preparation and no real goal. She ran until she found a well and stopped. It was at that pause moment, before a point of no return, that God appeared and spoke to her.

Sin is emotional. It’s all about FEELINGS and what we do with them. It isn’t logical. It isn’t reasonable. And it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. If we thought ‘what happens next?’ more often and took the time to think things through, we would sin a WHOLE lot less. Part of wisdom is thinking with better knowledge, not with our feelings. Feelings change. Feelings lie. Feelings alter. The truth always remains the same. It isn’t a fact, it’s TRUTH.

The sage Sforno writes: ‘?אי מזה באת ואנה תלכי, the angel wanted Hagar to realise what kind of an unprofitable exchange she was about to make if she left the house of a man such as Avram and traded that holy environment in the land of Canaan, preferring the spiritually contaminated regions outside the Holy Land and the evil people residing there. אנכי בורחת, “I am not going to a place I have chosen myself; I am simply escaping intolerable conditions.”‘

The sage Chizkuni writes: ‘הגר שפחת שרי, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant maid!” The angel reminds her that her status as Sarai’s servant maid had not changed. She acknowledged this when she replied that she was fleeing from her mistress Sarai.’

The sage Rabbeinu Bahya writes: ‘הגר שפחת שרי, “Hagar Sarai’s maidservant.” We already know that Hagar was Sarai’s maid servant from verse 1; why did the Torah have to repeat this? It is possible that the angel had two reasons why he thought it pertinent to mention Hagar’s personal status. 1) He wanted her to know that if she now experienced a divine vision this was not in her capacity as an Egyptian woman but was only due to her being part of Sarai’s household. It was due to Sarai’s merit. The second consideration of the angel was to stress that her original status as a slave was one that would never be changed. She would remain Sarai’s slave for as long as she lived. The angel confirmed this later when he said to Hagar שובי אל גברתך והתעני תחת ידיה, “return to your mistress and submit to her.”’