Thursday, February 10, 2022

Critical Details Missing

For Family Scripture Study tonight, we read about Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, and frankly, it doesn't sound like a good story. I'd summarize, but I'm sure I don't have enough details to tell the story fairly. It's in Genesis 16, if you'd like to read it for yourself. The bottom line is that, in that story, all three of those characters do things that, to the modern reader, seem regrettable. Yet, I don't want to judge them too harshly because, as I've said, I don't have all the details.

I know that Hagar offended Sarai in some way, but I don't know exactly how. I know that Abram reminded Sarai that she had a legal right to "do to [Hagar] as it pleaseth [Sarai]," but I don't know what else he said or didn't say to her. And I know that Sarai "dealt hardly" with Hagar, but I don't know how hardly or in what way. There is a lot of context missing from this story, and without it, I can't really judge who, if anyone, was in the right or who was in the wrong, or how badly.

It's possible that some of them were in for some divine reproof for some of those things. But it's also possible that at least one or two of them were completely justified in whatever it was they did. Thankfully, it's not my place to judge. God will mete out whatever divine rewards and punishments for whatever they do. I don't know exactly how that story played out, but God does, and God'll sort it all out, if He hasn't already.

I don't know the details of this story, but I don't have to. I don't know the story well enough to pass any judgement, but I don't have to do that, either. Judgement isn't my job; it's God's. God can judge Abram, Sarai, and Hagar fairly for whatever happened in Genesis 16, and that's about all I personally really need to know about it.

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