Starting with chapter 11, we have been traveling with Abraham as he journeyed from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan. This journey is described as a journey of faith.
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance…9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise.” Heb. 11:8-9
While it was indeed a journey of faith, it was by no means perfect faith. On the contrary, as we have seen already, it was more peaks of faith followed by valleys of doubt and stumbles (lingering long in Haran, going to Egypt and lying about Sarah). Chapter 15 ended with one of those peaks. God reaffirmed His promise of giving him a child. Abraham responded with faith that earned him righteousness in the sight of God only to see him here in chapter 16 stumble again.
However, chapter 16 is not as much about Abraham as it is about the two women in his life, Sarah and Hagar. In this chapter, for the first time, we hear from Sarah. She was introduced to us in chapter 11:29-30. In that introduction the Holy Spirit pointed to one fundamental and painful reality in her life.
“Now Sarai was barren” Gen. 11:30
Chapter 16 vs. 1 begins with the words: “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.”
It is this reality that Sarah is battling in this chapter. Her and her husband’s faith would be tested through this reality, and they would both fail here. This failure would drag into the picture Hagar, an ambitious and feisty Egyptian servant of Sarah. Ultimately, Sarah’s impatience and failure of faith would bring heart break and pain to all three of them. It would also bring about the birth of Ishmael. He would be “a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” Gen. 16: 12
Please read this chapter. Meditate on it. It is one of those chapters that we can easily gloss over quickly. There is much to be learned and gained from the way these two women behave toward one another.