Women with a Story to Tell 8

 “Cast out, old man, cast out,” Sarah said. She was complaining to her husband about Hagar. Hagar is the original woman with a handmaid’s tale. 

 Martha Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) was well received. The book has been turned into a movie, a play, and a television series. What is the attraction? Why does it hit close to home? At its core the story reflects and amplifies Hagar’s story. Atwood envisions a time, perhaps 50 years in the future, when the U.S. government has been overthrown. A faction of ultra-conservatives has turned New England into a country called Gilead, a name that suggests that its social organization is loosely based on the Old Testament. However, there is no balm in this Gilead. 

 Women are denied rights; cannot hold a job, cannot own no bank account, cannot choose their own partner. Most women are infertile (another problem), so women who are formally married to the ruling class of men must depend on designated lower-class women who are impregnated by their husbands. The handmaid is forced to have children, then must give up their children so the wives of the elite can pretend to be mothers. See the resemblance? Atwood says that these social relations she writes about either already exist somewhere in the world or exists in the imagination of certain political factions in our own country. 

 In the Genesis story, there seems to be no point where Sarah shows any sympathy or compassion for Hagar. Was Hagar asked if she would do this service for Sarah and Abraham? It’s not in the text. Was Hagar asked if she would share the son that was born? It’s not in the text. Only Abraham seems to have developed a fondness for Ishmael. 

 Does Sarah have a justifiable claim against the child and Hagar now? The text says only that Ishmael ‘laughed’ at Isaac during the celebration of Isaac’s weaning. How old would Isaac have been? Probably no older than five. Ishmael? Ten to fourteen. If the misbehavior was ‘mocking’ or ‘poking fun’ at Isaac, then Sarah’s reaction seems overdrawn. 

 So, Hagar, who was not asked if she wanted to participate in this drama, is now banned from Abraham’s community. How important is that? Remember when Lot was kidnapped? Abraham “led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan” (Genesis 14: 14-16). Who has over 300 hired hands except someone wealthy enough to control a large community? Hagar should have felt protected in this large community; now she is kicked out to be on her own in a wilderness.

"So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

“When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

"And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink" (Genesis 21: 14-19)

 In today’s world, Hagar would be on the streets, homeless. ‘Homeless’ is an inadequate word. The woman on the street with a child today not only lacks a building to live in, but she also lacks protection…from other human beings. Homeless women have a shorter life expectancy, around 20 years shorter. Homeless women have little access to health care. The search for food and shelter requires most of the hours of a day. However she got there, for most there is no way out.   

 Hagar wandered around the desert of Beersheba. When she ran out of food and water, she set Ishmael under a shade tree, then walked far enough away she would not see the child die. Then, she wept. 

 God heard her voice, so an angel of God came to her. God led her to a better life for her and Ishmael. She arranged for a wife who was an Egyptian, like she was (Genesis 21: 20-21). And Hagar and Ishmael prospered. When Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave at Machpelah with Sarah (Genesis 25: 7-11). 

 Society gave Hagar a rough road to trod, she came to the end of her rope.                     But she walked that road leaning on God, who blessed her with a life of hope.