Hagar was a woman that I learn more and more about each time I read her stories in Genesis.  I felt bad for her.  She was an Egyptian slave who was just doing what her mistress Sarai told her to do, but she always seemed to get the wrath of Sarai when exactly what Sarai wanted to happen DID happen.  Let me start at the beginning.

The first mention of Hagar is in Genesis 16.  We learn that Sarai, the wife of Abram, was unable to conceive a child.  She had an Egyptian slave named Hagar, and she told Abram since she could not conceive a child, that he should take Hagar as his wife, so that she could bear a child for him.   Abram did and Hagar became pregnant.   This is exactly what Sarai wanted, but when it actually happened, Hagar began to despise her.  Sarai complained to Abram, and he told her to deal with her own slave.  So she did.  She mistreated Hagar so much that Hagar ran away.  An angel of the Lord found her and asked her why she was running away.  She told the angel that her mistress Sarai mistreated her.  The angel told her to go back to Sarai and submit to her, and her descendants would be blessed.  Her baby son would be named Ishmael and his descendants would be increased in numbers too many to count.  So she returned to Sarai.

She isn’t mentioned again until after the birth of Sarah’s son, Isaac.   It is said that her son, Ishmael was mocking, so she told Abraham to send her and the boy away.  So the next day, Abraham sent away Hagar and Ishmael with a skin of water and some food.  She wandered with her son into the Desert of Beersheeba.   When they ran out of water, she put her son under a bush and went off crying.  She did not want to watch her son die.   God heard Ishmael crying, so he found Hagar and told her not to be afraid.  God intended to make him into a great nation.  She opened her eyes and saw a well of water.  She refilled the skin and gave her son a drink.  They lived in the desert, and Ishmael became an archer.  God was with them as he grew.

It’s not clear how she became a slave to Sarai.   Maybe she was purchased as a slave at some point since Abram had a lot of money and possessions.   At some point, Sarai must have had some confidence in Hagar to promote her to being her maidservant.  She trusted her enough to be a surrogate mother.  Maybe at times, she even loved her.  Hagar did come to believe in the God of her masters and followed and obeyed him.   She learned through her experiences from God that he always provides for his children.  Hagar’s story is a powerful life lesson.  In her times of greatest need, she found security and provision in the Lord.

August 29, 2011
Categories: Biblical Studies . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: 4 Comments

Jezebel… her name is synonymous with _____________.  Fill in the blank.  Wickedness.  Evil.   Many families love to choose Biblical names for their daughters… Ruth.  Mary.  Sarah.  Rachel.   But Jezebel?  I am sure you will not find one newborn baby given this name.

Jezebel was raised and trained to worship Baal.  We find her first in 1Kings 16.  She married Ahab, the son of Omri, who reigned from Samaria over Israel.  Ahab did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any king before him.  Together, Ahab and Jezebel built an altar in the temple of Baal to worship and sacrifice to him.

Jezebel made it a point to kill off as many of the prophets of the Lord as possible.   Obidiah, the palace administrator for King Ahab and a follower of the Lord, somehow still managed to hide 100 prophets in two caves from her and supplied them with food and water.   The prophet on Ahab’s most wanted list was Elijah.  The Lord sent Elijah to Ahab to show the Israelites once and for all that the Lord was their God. After making a fool out of all the prophets of Baal, the Israelites believed once again that the Lord was God, and took all 450 prophets of Baal and slaughtered them. (1Kings 18: 16-40)   In 1Kings 19, Jezebel sends out a messenger after hearing this from Ahab, telling Elijah “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” (meaning as dead as the 450 prophets of Baal that were killed that day)  Jezebel was also instrumental in having Naboth stoned to death when he wouldn’t sell his vineyard to Ahab in 1Kings 21.

Unfortunately for Jezebel, the Lord sent newly anointed King Jehu to her in Jezreel (2Kings 9).   When he found her, he called out asking if there were anyone on his side, and 2 or 3 eunuchs peered out the window in which she was standing in.  He ordered the euchuchs to throw her from her window.  The did and she was trampled by horses.  When Jehu sent men to bury her since she was the daughter of a king, the men came back saying they only could find her skull, hands and feet, fulfilling Elijah’s prophesy  “On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh.  Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”

During her lifetime, it was Jezebel’s goal to lure as many people away from the Lord and get them to worship Baal.  In worship to Baal, incense and sacrifice were common, even killing innocent humans.  Baal’s main function was fertility, of the land, animals and people, so men and women attendants in the temple would perform sexual acts in order to induce Baal to lavish fertility on the land.   She encouraged so much sin, it is hard to wrap my mind around all the evil she was willing to participate in.

To read more about Jezebel, you will find her in 1Kings and 2Kings.

August 22, 2011
Categories: Biblical Studies . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: Comments Off on Introducing… Jezebel

Miriam’s story is full of bravery, wisdom and obedience, but she also had a jealous side as well, where her brother Moses was concerned.

Miriam was the sister mentioned in Exodus 2.  When her mother took her baby brother and put him among the reeds near where Pharoah’s daughter bathed, she watched him carefully from a distance.   When Pharoah’s daughter found the baby and realized he was a Hebrew baby, she ran right up to her and asked if she could go find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for her.    When the permission was given, she ran to get her mother.

Miriam lived through all the harshness of Pharoah.  She saw the 10 plagues that were brought on Egypt.  She was a part of the very first Passover.  She followed the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.  She was a witness to the parting of the Red Sea and Pharoah’s army being swallowed back up by the sea when they pursued the Israelites.   She rejoiced in song and dance with the Israelite women in Exodus 15.   She witnessed God providing for their every need in the desert, bringing them water, quail and manna.

In the book of Numbers though, we see another side of Miriam.  Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.  “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?”  The Lord was not pleased with them talking badly about Moses, so he struck Miriam with leprosy.  She was sent outside of the camp for 7 days until she was healed by the Lord.  We are told in Numbers 20:1 that Miriam died in the Desert of Zin in Kadesh.

You can read more about Miriam and the Exodus of Israel in Exodus 2 and Exodus 15, and also in Numbers 12 and 20.

August 15, 2011
Categories: Biblical Studies . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: Comments Off on Introducing…Miriam