Genesis 16:4-6 Sarai Reaps What She Sowed.

So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.” So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.

After Hagar became pregnant, with what would turn out to be Ishmael, it appears that the relationship, between Hagar and Sarai, turned sour. What most likely happened is that Hagar began taunting Sarai, because now, she would be the mother of the heir of Abram's house. In the Middle East, that equates to Sarai being a second class citizen. I'm sure that Hagar began looking at Sarai with contempt. This was not right, but unfortunately deserved, because of Sarai and Abram's sin of unfaithfulness. However, Sarai did the right thing and put it into God's hands.

As a sidebar, this does gives us an insight into the trouble our sin can get us into. If Sarai and Abram had faith in God's promise to give them an heir, then this incident wouldn't have happened. That can translate into our lives. If we are having problems, in our life, the first place we need to look for the reason is our past transgressions against God. So many times, our problems and our past sins are the cause for our present troubles. If so, stop, confess your sins to God, repent and go on. It will settle out.

In the end, it is obvious that, Abram and Sarai saw the error of their ways. However, they responded incorrectly. Sarai began treating Hagar harshly and Abram looked the other way. The result was that Hagar began to live separately from Abram and Sarai. This incident will result in future problems, which we will investigate, in a future study.