DAILY BIBLE READING July 5th, 2020 GENESIS 16:1-16 (GNT)

God’s Life-Giving Word of Promise

INTRODUCTION

Genesis 16:1-16: Abram’s wife, Sarai, remains childless and offers her slave, Hagar, to Abram so that Abram can have an heir. After Hagar becomes pregnant, she looks with contempt on Sarai. Sarai treats her harshly, and Hagar runs away. Hagar encounters an angel of the LORD who tells her to return to her mistress. Hagar bears Abram a son who is named Ishmael.

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 16:13

Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it? “So she called the LORD, who had spoken to her, “A God Who Sees.”

TODAY'S READING

Hagar and Ishmael

1Abram's wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, 2and so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don't you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me.” Abram agreed with what Sarai said. 3So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.) 4Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she found out that she was pregnant, she became proud and despised Sarai.

5Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's your fault that Hagar despises me. I myself gave her to you, and ever since she found out that she was pregnant, she has despised me. May the Lord judge which of us is right, you or me!”

6Abram answered, “Very well, she is your slave and under your control; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly that she ran away.

7The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur 8and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”

She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.”

9He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.” 10Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. 11You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.”

13Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” So she called the Lord, who had spoken to her, “A God Who Sees.” 14That is why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”

15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old at the time.

REFLECT

In the ancient Near East, it was not uncommon for an infertile wife to offer her husband her maidservant in order to have an heir. In light of yesterday’s reading (Genesis 15) in which God reassures Abram that he will have an heir, how does today’s reading reflect a tension between that promise and Sarai’s continued childlessness? In complying with Sarai’s request, do you think Abram exhibits a lack of trust in God’s promise? Why or why not? What does today’s reading reveal about the relationship between Sarai and Hagar? What is Hagar told concerning the child she is to bear?

PRAY

Almighty God, you are “A God Who Sees” and all creation is in your care. In faith and with trust, I look to you each day for guidance. I thank and praise you for nourishing and sustaining me day by day with your precious Word. Amen.

PRAYER CONCERN

Infertile couples seeking to have a child