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Old Testament

The Pentateuch

How did Sarah rush God’s plan along?

Sarah had no children and feared she never would, despite God’s promise to her husband. Sarah did, however, have a slave girl named Hagar. According to the custom of the day, it was appropriate for a wife to encourage her husband to sleep with the slave girls and claim any resulting offspring as her own. That is just what Sarah did. She encouraged Abraham to sleep with Hagar. If Hagar got pregnant, then the baby would be Sarah’s.