Genesis 16:1

In this chapter Sarai has not been able to bare Abram any children so she gets the bright idea to give him her handmaid as a wife so that she may conceive and produce a son for him.

Genesis 16
1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children: and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, Jehovah hath restrained me from bearing; go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.

This is Sarai's idea to give her handmaid to Abram and Abram goes along with it.  The idea of giving your housekeeper to your husband so that they can have children together is outrageous.  Also look at the verse where Sarai believes any children that Hagar has will be Sarai's children, probably because of slave laws and ideas where any child born of a slave are basically the property of the owner??? I guess... she's believes the children will be hers... we continue...

3 And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. 4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

Incredibly Sarai is despised with Hagar??? This is outrageous to me ... Hagar is despised for doing what she's been told to do... there's more.

5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I gave my handmaid into they bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: Jehovah judge between me and thee. 6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her that which is good in thine eyes.  And Sarai dealt hardly with her, and she fled from her face.

That's a lot to take in... so Sarai is upset about this arrangement that she created to begin with and then she deals with her handmaid "hardly" thus basically running her off.  I haven't even begun to talk about Abram's role in this sorted plan yet, but I guess it's time.  Abram agreed to this arranged relationship and agreed to even marry this handmaid and of course proceeded to have a child with her as well.  So she basically lived with Abram and Sarai and shared their bed, as it were.  After this Sarai gets aggravated about the fact the Hagar conceives and subsequently goes to talk to Abram about this... Does Abram give Sarai good advice, does he look to Jehovah for a sound response, the answer of course is, no... Abram proceeds to tell Sarai to deal with her handmaid as she sees fit to.  So she does by confronting her about the sorted affair that she, Sarai, set up to begin with.  Again this is a resounding... What not to do! - ever.

The next few verses are an interesting read.  Hagar goes and basically licks her wounds by a water fountain, an angel comes along and counsels her to go back and submit to her master, Sarai, and that she will have a son that will be called Ishmael.  I think the real meat of the story would be more around the handmaid and her endurance during all this... but that's a whole other blog.