The powerless are not forgotten

AS a young civil servant, I discovered how it felt to be powerless within a large organisation.

Completing my training, I was promised a particular job near to home, which suited my hopes and circumstances. Without notice or explanation, the plan changed and I was given a different job in an unfamiliar and distant part of the country. At the time, our first child was a few weeks old, some family health issues developed and the time to move far from family and friends could not have been worse. The decision was taken without reference to my wishes, needs or circumstances, and I remember the feelings of anger and powerlessness while battling vainly against an uncaring institutional machine.

For many Biblical characters who experienced slavery, lacking the power to make or even influence decisions affecting their lives must have been hard to bear. It’s still true today that those feeling powerless in work or family situations have to cope with anger, frustration and questions of self-worth.

Hagar is someone for whom big decisions about her life were made by others. When Sarai devised a plan to short-circuit God’s promises to bless her husband Abram with many descendants, no-one stopped to ask the servant girl Hagar what she thought about being given to a man in his eighties, as a surrogate for Sarai. [Genesis 16.1-15] When the pregnant Hagar draws a sense of self-worth from her fertility and ability to bear Abram’s child, Sarai becomes jealous. She mistreats her servant, while Abram abdicates responsibility for his self-inflicted family mess. Unable to bring change or to control her own life, Hagar runs away.

Only a direct intervention by God, including a promise to bless Hagar with many descendants, persuades her to return. She may be powerless in Abram’s household, but she is not overlooked or ignored by God.

After the birth of her own child, Sarai (now called Sarah) takes offence at Hagar’s son, Ishmael, playing with his young half-brother, Isaac. Cruelly, Sarah insists that Hagar and Ishmael are sent away. Abram (now known as Abraham) weakly agrees. [Genesis 21.9-21]

It would be easy for Hagar and Ishmael to be written out of the story at that point, no longer relevant to the main narrative. However God doesn’t treat people as disposable. When the mistreated mother and son wander in the desert, close to despair, God promises His help, comfort and strength for Ishmael, and reveals a solution to their immediate needs.

Hagar’s story is a sad one. At best she is overlooked and unvalued and at worst her treatment in Abraham’s family is abusive.

Yet her story is one of hope. Hagar survives and her son Ishmael survives and thrives.

The frustration and powerlessness of my early work experience left me upset and angry. Naively, I blamed God for spoiling my carefully laid life plans. Of course, He knew better. Leaving that job for another was the first step in a journey towards discovering a calling to ministry for me.

From Hagar we learn that the powerless are not forgotten or abandoned. Powerlessness is a debilitating aspect of slavery, but it also affects many aspects of modern life.

However powerless we may feel, we are not ignored or neglected by God. He hears our cry. He continues to be the God who scatters the proud and lifts up the lowly.

The Rev Richard Baxter is minister at Fort William: Duncansburgh MacIntosh linked with Kilmonivaig