Purposeful Suffering

Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, "You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment." The Angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count." Then the Angel of the Lord said to her: You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your [cry of] affliction. – Genesis 16:9-11 HCSB

The Scriptures candidly reveal the Patriarchs for the ambivalent, hopeful, fearful, great and pitiful people they really were. Abraham, the father of faith, our teacher in following El Yare,[1] was also a hen-pecked polygamist. Sarai, the mother of the nation of Israel, was a shrew. The heroin of the whole sad affair was actually an Egyptian slave!

Sarai, in a sublime moment of poor judgment, decided to give God a hand in fulfilling His promise of an heir. She offered Hagar, her slave, to Abraham as a surrogate mother and Abraham, following current social norms, went along with it. Never mind what this poor Egyptian girl felt about it.

But then, when the affair was successful (if you’ll pardon the pun), Sarai changed her mind. Hagar, through no fault of her own, had become pregnant with her master’s child. The text does not say that she was actually arrogant. It simply states that that was Sarai’s perception. Hagar was being persecuted for performing her function too well.

Sometimes I wonder if Sarai’s purpose in this whole fiasco was to demonstrate that the barrenness was Abraham’s and not hers and when it became apparent that the problem lay with the beautiful Sarai, she was less than pleased. She became jealous, hateful and indignantly demanded retribution for what had been her idea in the first place! Abraham, the great nomadic prince who had recently taken on five kings in pitched battle and won, meekly submitted to her whim.

Sarai began to systematically mistreat Hagar. It got so bad that Hagar believed that life in the desert alone would be preferable. Until you have actually seen the Negev or the Sahara you have no idea how desperate someone would have to be to even think such a thing.

The Angel of the Lord found her and claimed to have heard her cry of affliction. His response? Send her back into the very same suffering. He didn’t even offer hope of a change. He categorically stated that her mistress would continue mistreating her. But what He did offer made all the difference. Her suffering would have meaning. She would become the mother of a great nation.

God will not necessarily remove your suffering from you. What He does offer is meaning and purpose. You can demonstrate what Yahweh’s grace can do. You can use your suffering as a means to reach others. Paul witnessed to the Praetorian Guard to Christ while chained to them.[2] How can you use your circumstances similarly?

[1] Deuteronomy 10:17
[2] Philippians 1:12-13