Wednesday, July 06, 2005

The Beginning

Well, I love Genesis. Even if Iain has to explain half of it to me. What is going on I do not know sometimes. Genesis is one big mystery - like those people who tell enough to appear open without actually revealing anything.

Nevertheless, I found something I really like. God promises Abram that he will give him more desendants than he can count. A bit further on, and before Abram and Sarai have any kids, poor wee slave woman Hagar is brought in on the act. Basically, they get her to sleep with Abram so that Sarai can have kids through her. (Cos in their estimation I suppose she's not really a person). Once she's pregnant she flaunts her new found power, and Sarai gets MAD. So she starts tormenting Hagar, and Hagar runs off.

But there is God, and he sends an angel out into the wilderness to find her. And when the angel does, he tells her that God has heard about her grief, and so she should call her son Ishmael because that means God Hears. And that Ishmael will be 'wild and free'. And THEN God tells Hagar that she will have more descendants than she can count. Now there it is, Hagar is brought into this situation by Abram and Sarai because they do not care, but GOD cares. So he makes her the same promise he makes Abram.

They say that after that Hagar called God The One Who Sees, because she said "I have seen the one who sees me".

I thought that whole story was so beautiful.

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