Omer 2016 Day 4: Hagar

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Day 4: Netzach in Chesed, Endurance in Love

"Early next morning Abraham took some bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar. He placed them over her shoulder, together with the child [Ishmael], and sent her away. And she wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water was gone from the skin, she left the child under one of the bushes, and went and sat down at a distance, a bowshot away; for she thought, 'Let me not look on as the child dies.' And sitting thus afar, she burst into tears." (Genesis 21:14-16)

Hagar fulfilled many roles in Genesis. She was Sarah's slave, Abraham's concubine, the mother of his first-born son, Ishmael, and finally - cast out into the desert with Ishmael and only a few provisions - a single mother in an unforgiving world. Faced with these challenges, Hagar considered giving up. A promise from God convinced her to keep going and she managed to build a life for herself and her son, enduring and even thriving out of love for him.