Genesis 16
Sitting in class we had a short reflection of Genesis 16.
I continue to be impressed by the way God hears the cry of the oppressed. Additionally, it was raised it was off putting that Ishmael "shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him;and he shall live at odds with all his kin."
Then a woman in the class said, "If I were a slave and was running from my oppressor, and GOD heard my cry, and told me my son would be a 'wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him;and he shall live at odds with all his kin' I would rejoice because he would not have a life like me; enslaved."
It was also brought up in class that the connection of this pronouncement (which from what we could recall is the only time God speaks directly to a woman in the OT) can be made to not God's pronouncement to Mary of Jesus, but the description of Ishmael sounds like John the Baptist (or vise verse, John sounds like Ishmael).
I continue to be impressed by the way God hears the cry of the oppressed. Additionally, it was raised it was off putting that Ishmael "shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him;and he shall live at odds with all his kin."
Then a woman in the class said, "If I were a slave and was running from my oppressor, and GOD heard my cry, and told me my son would be a 'wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him;and he shall live at odds with all his kin' I would rejoice because he would not have a life like me; enslaved."
It was also brought up in class that the connection of this pronouncement (which from what we could recall is the only time God speaks directly to a woman in the OT) can be made to not God's pronouncement to Mary of Jesus, but the description of Ishmael sounds like John the Baptist (or vise verse, John sounds like Ishmael).
