Two Different Handmaids - Two Different Legacies

In today’s lesson, we’ll look at two different handmaids spoken of in scripture. A handmaid is a girl or woman who is actually a bond servant — someone who was bought and served as a slave. Normally, you wouldn’t think a person in such a humble station in life, could pass on a legacy worth mentioning. Nevertheless, these two handmaids passed on legacies that have had, and are still having, tremendous effects on the entire world. The first of these handmaids is Hagar.

Hagar. Hagar handed down a two-fold legacy to the rest of the world. We’re all aware of the first part of that legacy, which is the Arabs — that hostile, fierce and unpredictable people who descended from Ishmael. To recognize the other part of her legacy, we need to look closely at Hagar’s unique situation, and to do that, I’m going to’ read between the lines,’ and enlarge on the story recorded for us in scripture. However, I’ll be pointing out only things that are abundantly apparent because of human nature, so I don’t believe I’ll be doing any violence to the truth.

It’s hard for us to even imagine what it would be like to have life-circumstances like Hagar’s. She was a young Egyptian woman who had been sold as a bond servant. Specifically, she was Sarai’s personal handmaid, whose job was to assist Sarai in all her household duties. As a bond servant in a foreign land, she was at the bottom of the social order. With no legal rights, she was essentially at the mercy of Sarai and Abram, and had nothing to look forward to but a life-time of servitude. When Sarai and Abram decided for her to become Abram’s concubine, she had no choice but to comply. So, as a young woman, probably in her early twenties, she found herself the inferior wife-of-convenience to an 85 year old man. Her sole purpose in that union, was to provide a child who would belong to her mistress. Hagar’s life wasn’t her own, for she was truely a victim of circumstances beyond her control .

However, when Hagar became Abram’s concubine, she suddenly acquired a new and totally different potential. Abram was an extremely wealthy man, and since both he and Sarai were quite old, Hagar found her self with the undreamed of prospect of becoming the only surviving parent of the heir of all Abram’s great wealth. When she became pregnant, this was likely the reason her attitude changed toward her mistress Sarai, who was 75 years old. Hagar couldn’t help but realize that when Sarai died, everything Sarai had would be hers. Faced with that possibility, Hagar was too young and foolish to keep her feelings to herself; so she began ‘to lord it over’ Sarai. But Sarai complained to Abram, and he permitted her to disregard the fact that Hagar was his wife, and to discipline her as her servant. Sarai quickly taught Hagar the difference between the reality of her current situation, as opposed to the anticipation of her dreams. As we saw in the last lesson, Hagar couldn’t take Sarai’s discipline, so she ran away.

Confirmation. When Hagar fled from Sarai, the angel of the Lord found her at a well in the wilderness and told her to go back to Sarai, but he also told her something else that had to be a great encouragement to her.

Genesis 16: 9 - 10

We read this with the advantage of several thousand years of hind sight, but Hagar didn’t have that benefit. She heard it from the perspective of having been in Abram’s household for about ten years, where God’s promise to Abram would have been a regular topic of conversation. She was already Saria’s handmaid when God spoke to Abram, responding to his distress at not having any children to be his heir. Look at what God had told Abram on that occasion.

Genesis 15: 4 - 5

Living with Abram and Sarai, Hagar would have heard them talking about God’s promise that Abram’s seed would be as impossible to count as the stars in heaven. Then later, the angel also told her, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude." Since she knew she was pregnant with Abram’s child, she would naturally have assumed that the multitude God promised her, was the same multitude he had promised Abram. Therefore, I believe Hagar went back to Sarai, believing God had just confirmed to her that her child was indeed the one through whom God was going to fulfill his promises to Abram. Believing she had that assurance, she would have determined to take Sarai’s abuse, convinced that before long Sarai would die, and she would be left as the mother of the heir of all Abram’s material wealth, the entire land of Canaan, and all the special spiritual blessings God had promised to Abram’s seed (Ref: Genesis 12: 1 - 3). So Hagar went back to Sarai, gave birth to Ishmael, and spent the next 13 years enduring Sarai’s harsh treatment, consoling herself that some day soon Sarai would die, and her day would finally come

The End of a Dream. But when Ishmael was 13 years old, the unthinkable happened. Ninety year-old Sarah who had long since gone through menopause, actually became pregnant. And if that wasn’t enough, God also changed her name to "Sarah,"which meant "Princess." Those two things had to convince Hagar that her cherished hopes for Ishmael, and hence for herself, were lost. On top of that, they named Sarah’s son Isaac, which means "laughter," and that was an apt description of the new atmosphere that prevailed in their home. That is, it prevailed with everyone except Hagar. While everyone else was rejoicing, Hagar had to have been in the depths of disappointment. And there was no way she could tell Abraham and Sarah why she was so miserable. But a woman HAS TO TALK TO SOME BODY!!, and there was only one person who could listen and understand, and that was Ishmael.

When Sarah became pregnant, Ishmael was 13. At least two more years passed before Isaac was born and weaned. During those two years, Hagar would have reminded Ishmael time after time about how unfair it all was for them. Because of that, Ishmael would have developed an intense dislike for Isaac, who was robbing him of what he thought was rightly his. Why else would a 15 year old boy bother to mock a little baby who didn’t even know what was going on? We all know how children reveal things said around home that parents would rather not be broadcast. This was what happened to Hagar. By mocking Isaac, Ishmael was simply expressing the LEGACY of resentment and hate that Hagar passed on to him, and through him, to all his descendants. As a result of his expressing that legacy, Ishmael and his mother Hagar lost everything she had wanted so badly.

Genesis 21: 9 - 10

By the custom of that day, the child born to Sarah’s bond-servant belonged to Sarah, and since Hagar was still Sarah’s servant, Sarah had the prerogative to send her away and send her son Ishmael with her. As long as Sarah had no child of her own, she needed Ishmael to be Abram’s heir. But when Sarah finally had a son of her own, keeping Ishmael in the family would cause the inheritance to be divided between both children. Sarah made it perfectly clear that wasn’t acceptable to her (Ref: verse 10 above). When Ishmael mocked Isaac, that gave Sarah the excuse she needed to get both Hagar and Ishamael out of her life and family.

Abraham was reluctant to do what Sarah suggested, for Ishmael was still his own son the same as Isaac. But God told him to do it, because Isaac was the one God had chosen for Abraham’s seed. Only when Abraham sent Hagar away, did it become apparent just how much Hagar had lost because of the birth of Isaac.

Genesis 21: 14

For over thirteen years, Hagar had dreamed of her son being the heir of everything Abraham had. But because of the birth of Isaac, all she got was a loaf of bread and bottle of water. When that was gone, Hagar and Ishmael sat down, resigned to the fate of starving to death in the wilderness. But God came to her in her despair and delivered her, and once again confirmed the promised he had made before Ishmael had been born.

Genesis 21: 18 - 20

The Fruit of Hagar’s Legacy. Hagar was nobody but a bond-servant who had been set free. She was a single mother with a teenage son in the wilderness in a foreign land. It’s reasonable to wonder what kind of impact such a person could possibly make in a world that not only cared nothing about her, but also wasn’t even aware she existed. This misfortune came into Hagar’s life almost 4000 years ago; yet the legacy of resentment and hatred she passed on to Ishmael and his descendants, is still active as possibly the one most prominent force working to disrupt our present world. Approximately 2500 years after Sarah had Hagar and Ishmael cast out of her home, one of Ishmael’s descendants named Mohammed, established the religion of Islam based on the Koran, which he wrote. In the Koran, Mohammed rewrote the story of Abraham, replacing Isaac with Ishmael, as Abraham’s heir. The Koran teaches that Ishmael is the heir of everything Hagar believed he had been cheated out of by Isaac. According to Mohammed’s version, the land of Israel and all the blessings promised to Abraham were passed on to Ishmael and his descendants, the Arab people. Therefore they see Israel as usurpers, attempting to take away from the Arabs that which is rightfully theirs, just as Hagar believed Isaac did long ago. As a result, the radical faction of Islam that we know as "Al Qaeda" is committing the worst kind of terrorism imaginable against any nation that supports the nation of Israel. Hagar’s legacy of resentment and hatred, is demonstrating the truth of God’s prophecy about Ishmael, beyond anything we would ever have imagined. He is indeed, ...a wild man; his hand is against every man, and every man’s hand is against him...(Ref: Genesis 16: 12).

A Very Different Kind of Handmaid. Hagar was a handmaid who refused to accept her position either willingly or graciously. She resented Sarah’s position of authority, and took advantage of the first opportunity to exalt herself above her mistress. As a result, in contrast to the blessing of Abraham, which she wanted so badly for her son Ishmael, she left him a legacy that has become a curse to the rest of the world, and which has placed him at odds with all the rest of mankind. In stark contrast, the other handmaid in our lesson, accepted her position as a bond servant without any resentment. In fact, she herself was the one who proclaimed that humble position to be her station in life, and she did that as an expression of willing submission. Because of that, she passed on a legacy that’s completely different from that of Hagar.

Luke 1: 38, 46 - 49

This was Mary’s response when the angel Gabriel finished telling her what the Lord was calling her to do. Very soon after that, she visited her cousin Elizabeth and confirmed her joyful submission to the Lord’s will.

A Different Kind of Legacy. Perhaps you’ve never considered the legacy we enjoy from Mary. Where Hagar left a powerful and long lasting legacy of resentment and hatred, Mary left a legacy of faith, and of perseverance in that faith even in the face of adverse circumstances she had no way of understanding. As unbelievable as Gabriel’s message to her was, she accepted it without hesitation; manifesting a strong faith in God. It’s apparent from the Gospels’ accounts that most of Mary’s generation thought the Messiah was going to be totally different from what Jesus was actually like, and there’s no reason Mary’s understanding should have been any different from that commonly accepted by those around her. Her first clue that things were going to be different, came about forty days after Jesus was born, when they brought him to Jerusalem to present him before the Lord according to the law. There was a man named Simeon at the temple, and when he saw Jesus, the Holy Ghost came upon him and he prophesied concerning God’s purpose for Jesus. But he also proclaimed a blessing on Joseph and Mary, and included a special message for Mary.

Luke 2: 34 - 35

The popular and cherished belief of that day, was that when the Messiah came, he would solve all Israel’s problems, and bring about a complete restoration of God’s blessings upon them. But contrary to that belief, the Holy Ghost revealed to Mary that God’s purpose for her son was that there should be a purging in Israel, and many would fall before they would rise again and be restored in the Lord’s favor. Because of that, Jesus would be a sign that would be spoken against. That meant Jesus was going to experience opposition, before God would accomplish Israel’s restoration. Because of that opposition, God had a special message for Mary.

As a part of that opposition, things would happen to Jesus that would literally pierce Mary’s soul like a sword. Israel had an outward appearance of being carefully obedient to God. But that was a false picture, and the things Israel would do to Jesus were necessary to reveal what was truly in their hearts. God had ordained the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to be the stumbling block that would expose the hypocrites in Israel, as well show up the weakness of the wisdom in which the Gentiles [Greeks] took such pride. (Ref: I Corinthians 1: 22 - 25). It wasn’t long after Simeon spoke these words, that Mary began to experience their truth. When king Herod heard that a king had been born in Israel, he did his best to destroy him. He had all the boy babies killed that were under two years old in the area around Bethlehem. To save Jesus from death, Joseph and Mary had to flee with him to Egypt. This was only a preview of the opposition that would plague Jesus throughout his ministry, and eventually would result in his crucifixion.

I don’t know if it’s occurred to you, but Mary is the only person mentioned in scripture, who was with Jesus from the very beginning of his time on earth, until the day he returned to heaven. During that time, an awful lot of things happened that she had no possible way of understanding; yet scripture doesn’t record a single occasion when Mary doubted. No one else had their souls pierced through by a sword like she did; yet there’s no record that her faith ever wavered, or even that she ever questioned God. She truly left us a legacy of faith that was worthy of the mother of our Lord.

There have been many different arguments offered as attempts to prove that Jesus truly did rise from the dead. Yet Mary herself provides the best proof of all. Mary was the one who received the announcement from the angel Gabriel that Jesus would be the Son of God. She knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jesus was indeed born of a virgin. She heard the shepherds recount how the angel of the Lord had told them about Jesus’ birth, declaring that he was the "...Saviour, which is Christ [the Messiah] the Lord." (Luke 2: 10 - 11) She heard the wise men, who came saying Jesus was the "King of the Jews." (Matthew 2: 2 & 11). Mary was there when he performed his first miracle of turning water into wine. She was aware of the other miraculous works that he did. Mary knew that Jesus had received the same education as all her other children; so when he taught with great knowledge and wisdom, she knew that it had to be from God. More than anyone else, Mary suffered through his trial and crucifixion. She was there when they nailed him to the cross, and she saw him breath his last breath and die. Yet on the day Jesus ascended back into heaven as the risen Lord, Mary was there, along with his brothers.

Acts 1: 8, 9, & 14

Therefore, Mary’s legacy to us is her own unimpeachable testimony, that Jesus Christ is the virgin born Son of God, the Savior of the World, AND OUR RISEN LORD!!!.

R. Y. Jackson

242 Hillcrest Dr

Austell, GA 30168

(770) 948-3607

August 28, 2005