Genesis 21:8-21
Meeting God in the Story
James Sledge June
25, 2017
Unless
you know the book of Genesis well, you are likely unaware of a small problem
with the story we just heard. When Hagar walks out into the wilderness with her
meager provisions of bread and water, she also carries her child, who by the
way, is in his mid to late teens. You hear a lot about helicopter parents, but
I’ve never seen a mother carrying her teenage boy on her shoulder.
Now
some may be thinking, “Wait a minute. The story doesn’t say a thing about how
old the boy is.” True, but an earlier story that tells of the child’s birth, as
well as his name, Ishmael, says that Abraham was 86 years old then. He’s 100
when Isaac is born and children were typically weaned at around three. You do
the math.
Of
course now that I’ve pointed out this problem, I should add that the problem
isn’t really with our story. The problem is modern people who don’t know how to
listen to Israel’s faith stories, our faith stories.
Like
some other parts of the Old Testament, Genesis is a collection of stories, many
of which existed independently before being woven together. And because the
editors who do this don’t share our interest in precise history or facts, they
make no effort to harmonize our story, one clearly about a very young child, with
another that makes him much older.
These
editors were not stupid people. They were the intellectuals of their day. But
they were not writing history or recording events. They were perfectly willing
to leave intact and honor stories as they received them, stories that people
probably already knew anyway. They wove these into a larger fabric to help
Israel wrestle with what it meant to be the people of God, especially in a time
when Israel had suffered defeat and exile.
