Genesis 16

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)

point #1.. sarah was her own worst enemy.. what woman do you know that would tell her husband to sleep with another woman.. no matter who it was... I realize WHY she did it.. in their culture.. to be childless was to be ashamed.. so they would use surrogates to have children on their behalf... I am thinking I would have to be shamed... I would not send my husband off to sleep with another female... AND.. this is AFTER God had promised them the child.. which means that basically... sarah was taking things into her own hands.. okay.. I am VERY guilty of that!! and just like her.. it creates a mess every time...

4 So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”

so hagar gets full of herself... (what woman sleeping with YOUR man doesn't?) somehow this caused her to get to thinking that she was the wife and sarah didn't count any more... ummmm... all women that sleep with someone else's man get this syndrome... they decide that somehow they have become the true love and the man no longer loves the wife... which usually is NOT the case.. but after the wife finds out he's been sleeping around.. then she walks away and he ends up with the other woman...

6 Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
typical man... although we have to say that this one really was not his fault... but he still responded like a typical man...
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.

(she now remembers she is the slave and sarah is her mistress/owner... hindsight is 20/20..)

9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”
submit to her authority... definitely one of my weak points... definitely...
11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”

this really doesn't sound like much of a blessing on the boy... not to me... yet it was... because ishmael was nearly as large a nation as issac... besides... I tend to be a little hardheaded and wild too.. although I would prefer to not be called a wild donkey by God...

13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.

God enters into relationship with hagar.. although she is not the chosen nation... God chooses who He chooses.. no matter what people think...
I have to say... I feel sorry for abraham over ishmael because he had to send his son away because of his wife.. who was the whole reason he even had the extra son and woman... I feel sorry for ishmael because he is sent to live away from his father through no cause of his own... I would say that hagar made out in the end... she no longer was a slave.. she ended up to be the mother of a very prosperous leader...

now what any of that has to do with us? I guess I will say that we are to submit to the authority placed over us and God will make us mother to a prosperous leader in the end? LOL! not necessarily... but we are to submit and God will work it all out as it should be... truly... God did not tell abraham to sleep with hagar and create the extra son... abraham apparently didn't ask... otherwise he would have been told that God promised him a son with sarah... yet God takes the mess that we have created and He has allowed and He turns it all for the good of many...