No Woman So Fair (37 page)

“No, I never would have,” he said feebly.

Zara came over and put her hand on his forearm. She felt the strong, corded muscle and took a pride in his strength, as though it belonged to her.

“Yes, you would.”

Eliezer managed a smile. “I suppose a man has to be a fool sometime.”

“Well, you've had your turn,” Zara said. “Now, take her the wine.”

“She shouts at me and screams at me every time I get close to her.”

“Good! If she's screaming at you, she can't be screaming at Sarai. Go on, now.”

Eliezer straightened up, took the wine, and with a bitter face, trudged toward the tent. When he stepped inside, Hagar turned and glared at him. “What do you want?”

“Zara gave me the wine you asked for.”

“Why didn't she bring it?”

“Oh, I think she had something else to do.”

“That's the most selfish girl I've ever seen in my life! She never thinks of anything but her own comfort! Here I am suffering, and she's out flirting with some shepherd, no doubt.”

Eliezer glanced covertly at Sarai, who was fanning industriously, her face turned away.

“Well, here's the wine.”

“I don't want it now. I want some water. Some cool water.”

Eliezer said, “All right. I'll get it.”

“Well, hurry up! I'm dying of thirst!”

Eliezer stepped outside the tent. He stared at the wine, drank it, then nodded with satisfaction. “There,” he grunted, “you won't get that.” He scurried off to find the water, knowing that another tongue-lashing would be waiting for him when he brought it.

****

Abram found Hagar sitting down fanning herself, her face puffy with the heat. “How do you feel today, Hagar?”

“Terrible! Just terrible!”

“I'm sorry to hear that. Let me get you something. Some cool water, perhaps, or some milk.”

“No, I was sick again this morning. I thought I'd throw my insides up. Nobody who hasn't had a baby understands what that's like. Sarai doesn't understand. Abram, she's so mean to me!”

“Sarai mean?” Abram stared at Hagar with astonishment. “I can't believe that. Sarai's never mean to anyone.”

“Oh, she doesn't strike me or anything like that, but she doesn't care for me properly. I lay here for two hours this morning dying for a drink, and do you think she'd bring me one? And Zara's no better,” she said quickly.

“Perhaps you need a servant of your own.”

“Oh no, that's all right. I wouldn't want to be any trouble.” She reached out her hand and Abram took it. “I never saw a man so pleased that a baby was on the way.”

“I am indeed pleased, Hagar.”

“It's going to be a beautiful child.”

“It's going to be a beautiful boy.”

“Maybe not,” Hagar said. “It may be a girl.”

“No,” Abram said firmly, “it will be a boy.”

Hagar laughed. “I hope you're right. He'll be a handsome child. You and I are both so fine looking.”

“Well, you are anyway.”

“Nonsense. You've always been a good-looking man. I'd like to have seen you when you were eighteen years old.”

Abram laughed. “You flatter me. I wasn't nearly so fine looking as Eliezer.”

“Oh, him!” Hagar waved the idea of the comparison aside. “He's nothing. What will we name the baby?”

Abram failed to notice that Hagar had slipped into a possessive manner with her speech, when actually she had no right at all to name the baby anything. The child would legally be Sarai's, but Hagar appeared to have forgotten that. Others noticed it but not Abram. “I'll speak to Sarai and Zara and see that they're more attentive to your needs.”

“That would be nice.” Hagar smiled contentedly.

****

“Sarai, I wish you and Zara would pay a little more attention to Hagar.”

“More attention?” Sarai looked up and her lips drew into a tight line. She had been struggling with Hagar's demands for weeks now, and they were getting more difficult all the time. “What do you mean more attention? How do you know we're not paying enough attention to her?”

“Why, she happened to mention that she didn't get a drink of water for nearly two hours.”

Sarai was so angry she was afraid she would lose control. She bit her lip to keep from speaking foolish words, then said in a tense voice, “I'll try to see to it that she gets all the water she needs.”

Abram was surprised at Sarai's tone. “I know you're doing the best you can.”

“Thank you,” Sarai said dryly. “It's always good to hear one's work commended.”

“You might speak to Zara too. She could be a bit more thoughtful.”

“I'll speak to her.”

“Good. That settles that.”

It did not settle that, however, for this was the last straw for Sarai. She could put up with Hagar's demands and her attitude, but to be lectured by her own husband about not caring for a bondwoman was more than she could bear. She went to Zara and told her what had happened, and Zara grew red in the face. It was all Sarai could do to keep her from going to Abram and shouting the truth at him.

“No, he must see for himself. Here's what I want you to do….”

****

Sarai glanced over at Hagar, who was complaining as usual. She was aware that Zara had gone to Abram and that the two of them were standing outside the tent. Zara had careful instructions not to let Abram appear to Hagar but just to listen.

“Bring me something to eat,” Hagar demanded. “I'm starving to death!”

“I don't think it's good for you—” Sarai began.

“Shut up! What do you know about a pregnant woman? You're as barren as a brick!”

“I was going to say,” Sarai said softly, “that it might not be good for you to eat so much in this heat.”

Hagar glared at her. “I'm not going to put up with this any longer! I'm carrying Abram's child, and that means I'm the most important one in his life.”

Hagar continued to scream at Sarai, insulting her in every way possible, but she broke off when Abram suddenly stepped through the door of the tent. Hagar at once turned pale, for there was no smile on Abram's face now.

He came and stood over Hagar but did not speak to her. “Sarai, would you leave us alone please.”

“Yes, husband.”

Hagar was trembling, for Abram's face was as stern as she had ever seen it. She smiled and said meekly, “I'm a little out of sorts this morning, I'm afraid.” She waited for Abram to acknowledge her statement and went on. “I sometimes lose my temper. I'll have to watch myself more carefully.”

“You don't have to watch yourself, Hagar.
I'll
be watching you closely, and I'll have others watching you too. I'm going to turn you over to Sarai to do with you as she sees fit.”

“What do you mean?” Hagar whispered, frightened by the severe look on Abram's face.

“I mean if I hear one complaint from anyone about your lack of respect toward my
true
wife, you will find yourself abandoned in the desert. Don't make me have to say this again.” He turned and walked away, and Hagar got up, trembling. She was heavy with child now, and the thought of being abandoned frightened her worse than she had ever been frightened in her life. She stood there unable to move, and finally Sarai came back into the tent. Instantly Hagar said, “I've been wrong—”

“Shut up, Hagar! Close your mouth. Sit down.” Sarai's voice was cold, and her eyes glittered. “You give me one excuse, and you'll leave this camp forever.”

****

On the day that Abram's son was born, he was happier than anyone had seen him for years. His face would not lose its smile, and Sarai tasted the bittersweet fruit of her own decision. She was happy to see Abram holding his son in his arms and saw the pride in his eyes. But she fought her bitterness toward Hagar, who now looked at her triumphantly. True enough, she had handed the child to Sarai and made the formal declaration that Ishmael, as the child was named, belonged to Sarai and not to her. But nonetheless there was triumph in her eyes, and Sarai could read her intentions.

She thinks I'll die soon and that Abram will then have her for his true wife
.

Sarai looked at Abram and saw the joy on his face, now seamed with age and weathered by a thousand suns.
He's happy now
, she thought.
He has a son, and he will be our son
. She struggled with the thought, not able to keep her eyes away from Hagar, who was watching Abram slyly with triumph blazing from her eyes.

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.

Genesis 21:2

Abram never forgot any of the times that God had spoken to him, but the one that always was clearest in his mind was the occasion just before Ishmael's thirteenth birthday. Abram had been praying for a long time, alone in the desert. He had built an altar and offered a sacrifice, and as the smoke rose, the presence of God fell on the place, and the voice of the Eternal One came to the old man clearly.

“I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.

“As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.

“As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Abraham began to tremble violently. He fell on his face, his fists clenched and his mind reeling, his thoughts tossed like a wind caught in a storm. He lost all sense of time, never knowing how long he bowed there. He straightened and looked upward, his face contorted. For so long he had considered Ishmael God's answer to Sarai's childlessness, and now he could not bring himself to think that he had been so wrong. In the back of his mind, he was crying out,
Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?
Doubt assailed him like an armed man, and he knew the agony of losing his fondest dream. Loudly he cried out, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

But God's voice came firmly:
“Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”

Abraham's mind was filled with pain and confusion, but at that moment he remembered the words of King Melchizedek, which he had spoken after the battle of the four kings.
“No matter how impossible the thing seems, Abram, you must believe the word of the Most High!”

And Abraham knew at that moment exactly what he had to do. Putting away all his hopes for Ishmael, he rose and turned his face toward his home. As he went, he made plans to obey God, but the thought of Sarah having a child filled him with wonder.

He thought of the names that he and his wife would bear. His given name, Abram, meant “high father,” but the new name, Abraham, meant “father of nations.” It was a name he would not have chosen for himself, and he knew it would bring mocking among many when he announced it as his new name.

The name of Sarai had always seemed wrong to Abraham, for it meant “she who argues.” It may have had some truth when she was very young, before they married, but since then, his wife had grown into a woman of great patience. The new name, Sarah, meant “princess,” and Abraham the Hebrew smiled as he thought of it. She had always been a princess to him, so her new name fit her exactly! Then the significance of his own new name sobered him, and he shook his head in wonder, whispering, “You know best, O God Most High!”

****

A fierce glow of pride rose in Abraham as he watched Ishmael move stealthily across the broken ground. Abraham had paused underneath the shade of a terebinth tree, out of breath after climbing the steep hill. Now as he leaned against the tree watching his son, he suddenly thought,
Ninety-nine years I've been on this earth, and I'm still stronger than many men half my age
. He thought of how difficult it had been for him to adjust to a new name—and how it had been even more difficult for his wife. He remembered her look of stunned amazement when he had told her, “Your name is now Sarah—and mine is Abraham.” It had taken some time for his family and tribe to adjust to the new ways, and even now occasionally Sarah would forget and call him Abram.