Thoughts on the real Hagar

Spiritual bias
Until recently I had never read the story of Hagar in its own right and in the past generally skipped across the detail focusing on Abraham and his faith. This changed recently as I slowly read through Genesis 16 and realized just how much God loved Hagar and her son. It's an amazing story about a son of promise (Ishmael) but not "the son of promise" (Isaac). 

I skipped this detail because I carried a negative image of Hagar into the story each time because my thinking has been shaped by St Paul's use of the story of Sarah and Hagar and their sons Ishmael and Isaac to illustrate the differences between the bondage of the Old Testament Law (Hagar representing being born into slavery) and the Gospel (Sarah representing being born into freedom).  

This chapter graphically displays how God works in the midst of human failure to show His love and mercy to all people no matter who they are.

 Hard work
Genesis 16 starts off badly with anger and damaged relationships all round and then describes Hagar's flight from Sarai and Abram to a remote well in the Negev desert.
The way to Shur.
However, this chapter contains so much richness that is hidden in the sparse narrative that it takes some concerted effort to uncover it. However I was left exhilarated about a story I had never understood before and it was well worth the effort.  This post is very large so I've split it into two parts this being the introduction and the main commentary is found here.

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