A Skeptic Analyses, Interprets and Provides Commentary on the Holy Bible: GENESIS Chapter 16
GENESIS Chapter 16 (KJV)
1 Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
3 And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
Gave her maid to Abram. She's not a toaster..
4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee.
6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
The question has to be asked why the Lord God's chosen seem to have such little humanity. To use a woman as an incubator for your child and then throw her to the wolves seems rather heartless. I know it is said they are chosen for their blood rather than their character, but what is the point of preserving one type of blood, if it is about that, if that blood doesn't contain something that would lead people to be better? To me this is all sounding like the inner workings of a fucked up royal family thus far, and I question whether God is connected to government, more so than the Creation of the universe. But there's plenty more of this story to go..
7 And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.
9 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
This is the first mentioning of an angel. I wonder why it is an angel and not the Lord to send the message. Perhaps because Sarai is not of Abram's blood and the Lord cannot manifest in front of her? I also wonder if it is relevant that she was by water when the angel appeared.
I have wondered why angel is so similar in spelling to angle. The definition of angle is; In plane geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the sides of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle. Angles formed by two rays lie in a plane, but this plane does not have to be a Euclidean plane.
Perhaps I am reading too much into this but I do find language fascinating and think it holds many clues, if not all the answers. The way perceive reality is pretty much dictated entirely by our understanding of language, so it makes sense to me that within our language would be a great deal of information. But the definition of angle seems to have some rather selective language in it. For starters, "figure" doesn't seem like the right word to use there, and "rays" also seems a selective word, as line would have done just fine. Figure, and ray like a ray of light, and even plane, as in Earth, could be interpreted in another way to be describing an angel, rather than an angle, if that angel is composed of light. Just a thought. I will likely think about this definition further.
10 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
11 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
13 And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
14 Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.