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hardly

Genesis 16:6-8
"6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
7 And The Angel of The LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
8 And He said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai."

The pain that Sarai experienced did NOT justify what she did to Hagar...

Sarai had the idea of using her slave, Hagar, as a surrogate. Her husband, Abram, went along with the plan. Once Hagar was pregnant; it gave her a sense of superiority over Sarai. She "despised" Sarai! Hagar changed how she interacted with Sarai. Surely Sarai was feeling jealous, what was happening for Hagar was all the blessings that Sarai had hoped and prayed for and had NOT received. Sarai was hurting. 

The pain that Sarai experienced did NOT justify what she did to Hagar. Today's verses; "But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt HARDLY with her, she fled from her face." We are sparred the gory details. "HARDLY" in this context means roughly or severely. We can imagine for ourselves what all that entails. We are told the results, Hagar runs away. We might read into that she ran for her life.

The next verse is startling and amazing; "And The ANGEL of The LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And He said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai." This is the first time in Holy Scriptures that "The ANGEL of The LORD" appears! And! It's to a Gentile woman! Please, appreciate that "The ANGEL of The LORD," we interpret to be the preincarnate Jesus! (This is huge!) We infer that she is a believer in God. The spring of water is a well know place of refreshment on a journey that would be long and dangerous. If not deadly. It looks like Hagar is trying to go home to Egypt. But, GOD has other plans for her...
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