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Hagar and the Women of Gaza – Dec.14, 2025
Reflection given in Windsor May 29th, 2025
Article “We are the Children of the Apostles” Reverend Lilian Mattar-Patey

Thank you for joining me on this life journey. Life can be good when we remember that God loves us. We do pray for change in our world. Pray for Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and many parts of the world. Contact your politician and let them know that you want them to work for peace in the world .

Hagar and the Women of Gaza

Many books on women in the Bible, don’t include Hagar. When I started to study the life of Hagar, I was surprised that even a book that is titled women of the Bible, did not mention Hagar. In the index of some Christian theology books you will find nothing on Hagar but also nothing on Ishmael. But what you will find, is information on Sarah and Isaac.
When I told a friend that I was writing about Hagar, he said: “ What is that in a comic”.
Our hymns in church, we mostly sing about Abraham and Sara, I always wondered why don’t we mention Hagar. Is it like today, we don’t talk much about the resilience of the women of Gaza. I see Hagar as a strong, resilient woman who was dehumanized like the women of Gaza, are in the eyes of people who don’t know the history of the women in Gaza.
One of the books I have is written by Phyllis Trible, Titled:”Text of Terror, Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives’’, in it you will find few pages on Hagar. 
There is a lot that can be said about Hagar, she was s strong courageous woman. We find her story mainly in Geneses.
Why is this discrimination? Do we value all human life or are Hagar and Ishmael less than human? 
God loves the world, not only certain nationalities. God is not a racist.
All three faiths Judaism, Christianity and Islam tell the story of Hagar. 
A Moslem friend didn’t know who I was talking about when I said Hagar, it is because in the Quran, she is called Hajar. The Quran considers Hagar, or Hajar, Abram later called Abraham as his second wife. 

Hagar in the Book of Genesis:
In Genesis 16 in the Bible we read part of Hagar’s story.  Genesis: 16: 1-2 we read “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had born him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.” 
Sarai said to Abram: ”You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.  
This story bothers me, one can see the selfishness of Sarai, she says so I can have a child, although it was the tradition of that time to give your slave to your husband so you can have a child. 
Sarai wanted Abram to have a son. She was troubled since she was getting older, she thought she acted in the interest of Abram. The custom and culture of that time is giving your slave to your husband if you couldn’t give him a son. 
It was not an unusual practice. Sarai wanted to build up her family by having a son through the slave Hagar. The family is honoured when they have a son. Sara was old and didn’t think she will ever get pregnant.
Was Hagar consulted? Did she want to have a son with Abraham? Most likely her wishes were not listened to.
Today the women of Gaza are not consulted on how they want to build their future after the Genocide. They are mostly ignored. They are traumatized from the bombing and the killing of their children. Sarai’s servant, Hagar had no power since Sarai was the one in charge. At that time you did not speak truth to power, you just did what you were ordered to do. The Holy Spirit gives us the spirit of power,
Part of Geneses 16: 3 we read, Sarai  took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave girl and gave her to Abram as a wife. It is important to see that Sara gave Hagar to Abram as a wife.
Hagar gets pregnant. Then the trouble stated between the two women. Hagar looked with contempt at her mistress. 
Phyllis Trible gives different translations of the Bible about how Hagar felt: “When she knew she was with child she dismissed her mistress”(NEB) or “When she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt  on her mistress”.(RSV) … or “Her mistress was lowered in her esteem”(NJV).p.12

When Hagar gets pregnant Phyllis Trible writes: ”Hagar acquires a new vision of Sarai. Hierarchical blindness disappear.”p.12 Sarai was lowered in the eyes of Hagar.

Hagar could have felt sorry for Sarai for not being able to have the child she wanted but she didn’t. Hagar and Sarai did not support each other. Even today we have women compete with each other rather than support one another. And build each other up.

Genesis 16 5 (RSV) Sarai said to Abram: “ May the wrong done to me be upon you !

I gave my maid to your embrace but when she saw she had conceived, then I was slight in her eyes.

May Yaweh judge between you and me!”

Sarai blamed Abraham for Hagar’s attitude change towards her. 

Abraham washes his hands, he didn’t want to be involved. He tells Sarai in Genesis 16:6a “Since your maid is in your hand, do her the good in your eyes.”

Sarai mistreated Hagar, Hagar gets fed up and she runs away. Now she is free from the abuse. In the dessert she meets an angel, God’s messenger.

Now the angel told Hagar: Gen. 16 “ Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael …” The name Ishmael means God Hears.  Hagar then realized that God did not forget her, that God sees, hears  and helps.

In the same way for us as individuals and as a church, God does not forget us, She hears us and sees what we are going through. The bad things that happen to us can eventually turn around and become something we learn from.

The Angel of the Lord told Hagar to return to her mistress and submit to her. This is the justification that some made about slavery. When a slave ran away, he or she was supposed to return. Yet also the story of Hagar reminds us that God sees Hagar and sees the people of Gaza in their struggle. Hagar encounters God. The faith of the Gaza people in the power of God, reminds us that they are resilient and depending on God to help them. They do not fear death, since they believe their life is in the hands of God. They believe in a God of compassion and love. Christians and Moslems, support each other in Gaza.

 Maybe Sarai when Hagar went back felt she went too far and that is why Hagar ran away.

Eventually, Sarai amazingly gets pregnant. It reminds me of people who for years try to have a baby, then they adopt a child. Somehow after they adopt a child the woman gets pregnant. 

Isaac, Sarai’s son grew, he started to play with Ishmael, Sarah didn’t like that, specially when Ishmael started to tease Isaac. 

Sarai decided she didn’t want Hagar and Ismael around, since Ismael now was about 13 years old, was teasing Isaac as children sometimes do. 

Abraham must have been troubled with the situation he was in.

Abram was told by God to listen to Sarai. Early one morning he gets some bread and water and gave it to Hagar along with Ishmael and he sent them away. They were desperate in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba.

When Hagar was kicked out and went into the dessert. She was desperate since she thought she and her son are going to die without water to drink. 

Often when we think there is no way, God finds a way. When we are discouraged, God can open our eyes so that we can see another way to go.

God, opened Hagar’s eyes Hagar saw the well of water. Hagar said in Gen. 16, God has seen me and I am still alive. She named the well of water, the well of the living one who sees me. Some call Hagar the first Woman theologian.

Dehumanized people think no one sees the trouble they are in but God sees them.  Even when you feel people don’t care enough to be there for you, God is there, sees you and want to hear your prayer.

Another reason, Sarai asked Abraham to kick Ishmael out since also, she didn’t want him to inherit with her son Isaac. It is all about money and who is going to get the most in the inheritance.

My understanding, In the Quran, Abraham leaves with Hagar and Ishmael, when he finds a safe place for them, he leaves them.

Imagine, Hagar is running in the wilderness of Gaza, she doesn’t know how she and her son are going to survive. She is crying to God for Mercy, God hears her voice .

When we read the Hebrew scripture, I believe we are to look at it from the 

history of that time. For us as Christians, we are to read the scriptures in 

how Jesus will see it. Let us always remember that Jesus loves the whole world, God loves all nationalities.

Somehow I never heard a sermon on Hagar and her son Ishmael. God had a great plan for Hagar and Ishmael. In spite of all the challenges that happened in their life God was with them and saw them through. 

Hagar experienced the cruelty and the selfishness of Sarai. She became a refugee, she was not sure were she can settle. Just like the women of Gaza today.

Now how did Hagar become a servant, most likely when Abraham and Sarah were in Egypt, Abraham said that Sarah was his sister. Abraham was afraid to say she was his wife, he was afraid that Pharaoh will kill him and take his wife because of her beauty.

The Pharaoh of Egypt, thinking Sarai was Abraham’s sister, took her to his palace. 

Actually Sarah was Abrahams sister from the same father but from a different mothers.

 Once Pharaoh of Egypt saw Abraham with Sara and realized that she was his wife, he gave her back to Abraham with many gifts, one of the gifts most likely was Hagar she might have lived in his palace. Women at that time were treated as something you can use to trade. 

Lately I met a man who worked for the UN, in Kenya, about twenty years ago, he had his blond 7 year old daughter with him. They were in the 

elevator in Kenya, a man was with them in the elevator, He said to the 

father, I will give you 100 camels for your daughter. The little girl held tightly to her fathers hand. The father said to him, 100 Black camels, which are very hard to find and are expensive. The man said that is too much. The father picked his daughter and held her tight and said to her and to the man, she is very special and not for sale. When I heard this story, I wonder if this what happened to Hagar, if she was sold or given as a gift.

Genesis 15: 5 He (God) brought Abram outright and said to him : “Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” We have No record  in the scripture that tells us that all Abrams descendants will be from Sarai.

When Sarai’s slave got pregnant by Abraham, everyone was happy and Abram named him Ishmael. Ishmael was Abrahams first son.

Hagar is the first woman to give Abraham a son.

Gen: 16:10 “ The angel of the Lord also said to Hagar:” I will so greatly 

Multiply your Offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” 

This is the way that God blessed Hagar, for at that time it was a blessing to have many children. God has chosen Hagar for a special calling.

God has a purpose for your life, in the same way God had a purpose for Hagar’s life. When there is no way, God finds a way. When we are discouraged, God can open our eyes so that we can see another way to go.

In the Quran when Hajar was in the dessert she ran out of water. She started to run between the hills of Sara and Marwa. Then the angel of the Lord Gabriel shows her where there is water. The Zamzam well became a holy place for Muslims, during the Haj they follow the footsteps of Hajar.

This is the way that God blessed Hagar, for at that time it was a blessing to have many children. God has chosen Hagar for a special calling.

God has a purpose for your life, in the same way God had a purpose for Hagar’s life.

Ishmael grew, Hagar got him a wife from Egypt, from among her people. He became the father of twelve tribes. 

We read in Genesis 17:20 God says to Abraham: ”As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous:  he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.’ 

Was Ismael’s mother a princess at one time? Some think she was and given to Sarai since Pharaoh liked Sarai.

Abraham circumcised Ishmael at 13 years old, so he can be part of the covenant that God made with Abraham.

 Later. when Abraham died Ishmael and his brother Isaac buried their father together.Gen. 21:10-14.

Hagar’s Story reminds us, When you think you can not handle all the problems you are facing, God is there to show you another way to go.

The people of Gaza seek God’s help. Christians and Moslems in Gaza pray daily for God to open a way for them to be free again.  They believe that God is more powerful than anyone else in the world. That God is with them in spite of everything they are facing in this cruel world.

How does God speak to us through the story of Hagar? 

Just as God heard the cry of Hagar and Ishmael, God will hear our prayers. God was with Hagar and saw her through, God will guide us when we turn to him. God is a God of love, we are not alone, God is with us through the ups and downs in life. Amen.

Reflection: Read John 11:23 – 44

Years ago, I mean, many years ago, when my sister and I were teenagers, we used to go to a church service that was at the second floor in a house. On the first floor was a grocery store. People were shopping while the service was upstairs. The preacher was visiting the church from Lebanon. He preached that evening on the story of Lazarus. The window were open since it was hot. When it came to the part that Jesus called Lazarus out, the preacher shouted: “Lazarus” . To everyone’s surprise, someone from the street shouted “Yes”.
The man’s name was Lazarus.
Our Biblical Lazarus, lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha. They like most Palestinian families were hospitable. Jesus will stop at their home when he needed a place to rest. He was loved and cared for.
When Lazarus became sick the sisters sent a message to Jesus and told him that his good friend Lazarus was sick. One would expect that Jesus will rush back, but he doesn’t. Lazarus dies since it took Jesus four days before he returned to Bethany.

When we pray for the war on Gaza to stop, we wonder why does God not do something to stop wars in our world.
Some ask, how can they get away with killing over 53,000 people? Blowing up over 1700 houses in one year? How can they get away with steeling our land and make us refugees?
Why does God not stop them? After all we are constantly praying for the war on Gaza and other wars to stop. 

God gives humanity freedom. Otherwise we are puppets in God’s hand. God uses you and me to work for peace and justice for all humanity. God answers prayers, not in our own timing. God, is a God of love and peace. Mathew 5:9 tells us: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God”.

Jesus loved Lazarus, God loves Gaza. God loves the world and gave us Jesus to show us what love is all about; to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. Yes, when we love we grieve over the starving children in Gaza and we would ask dear God why? Why there are so many inhumane people in this world?

Mary and Martha had to face death when their brother, Lazarus, died. People from all over came to their home to comfort them.  We see on TV today our brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren being killed,. We too ask Jesus please hurry and come. We can’t take it any more.

Jesus today reminds us that he came to give us life, everlasting life. We are told in life in death God is with us we are not alone. 

When Martha heard Jesus had arrived she went out to meet him. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Yet even so I know that God will do anything you ask” John 11:20-22.
Martha has a great faith. May we have the faith that as we pray we may put the people of Gaza in God’s hand and pray that a loving God will give them the strength they need. 

If I was Martha, I would have ask Jesus why he didn’t come right away when he was needed. When we feel the pain and the suffering of our people it is hard to see the bigger picture. 

The story of Lazarus reminds us that God is a God of life. Jesus came to give us life and give it more abundantly.

When Jesus saw Mary and Martha and the people around weeping, Jesus wept. Jesus today weeps for what is happening in Gaza: the starving children who died, the children who were injured by losing legs, arms, the dying men and women. Jesus weeps with us. Jesus came to show us God’s love, a love that took him to the cross. Jesus weeps with us because of the destruction of Gaza.
We don’t have the details of what happened at Bethany, what we know is Jesus came to give us life. 
Jesus meets us at our point of need. Jesus identifies with our suffering and the suffering of all those who are facing wars and rumours of war.
When Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus, he asked people to roll the stone away from the tomb. 
Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb. When Lazarus came out, he was wrapped in linen cloth. Jesus told the people around him, unbind him and let him go.
Friends, this is what God would calls us to do, to unbind the helpless and help them to live the life that God gifted them with.  We untie others when we encourage them , We untie them when we give them support and are there when we are needed. We are to unbind one another and empower others that they may live life to the full.
What losses we experienced as Palestinians?. The loss of great talents of poets, writers, scientist, doctors, nurses, care givers, Artists, journalist, farmers, Fathers and Mothers and thousands of people that could have made the world a better place.
We weep as we think of them. Jesus weeps with us.  We will not give up hope. Jesus reminds us that God loves the world and that is why Jesus came to identify with us. 
Salam. Peace be with you.
God loves you and for this we give thanks. God’s love surrounds us. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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Following is an article published on BADIL.org

“We are the Children of the Apostles” Reverend Lilian Mattar-Patey

While she was only two years old when her family was forced to flee their West Jerusalem home, Reverend Mattar was told the story so often that it is deeply entrenched as part of her own memory. Her father, Suleiman Hanna Mattar, was a successful banker with Barclays bank in Haifa, and the bank had moved him to Jerusalem. In the weeks before the Zionist attack on Jerusalem, her sister’s closest Jewish friends had told her that there was going to be trouble for Arabs, her father had also been told that if they did not leave their home they would all be killed. So it was obvious when the sounds and tremors of explosions began to fill the house that they needed to leave.
Her mother had just finished baking bread which was cooling on the kitchen table when the bombing began. Her father rounded up the family, taking them out the back door. The gunfire was too heavy to head for the car, so they had to walk. He told them that if they were separated they should head toward the monastery on the Mount of Olives. To keep the younger kids calm, the oldest brother invented the game ‘jump in the hole so the bullets will miss us,’ and their mother told them that they were going out on a picnic. Anxious for the safety of her children, she left her purse in the house.
Flooded with refugees, the monastery was hesitant to allow people to stay, but Lilian’s father convinced them each day that they needed another day in the small room that the nine family members were crowded into. He wanted to find a way to get back to the house and get some of the essential things from what the family had left behind, and even tried to get to Cyprus, but even that was impossible since it was controlled by Zionists; ‘infiltrators,’ as they were called, were shot on sight. At the time he did not know that the house had been looted and blown up. With all of these difficulties, the most painful moment for him, as he would later tell the young Lilian, was when she came to him at the monastery and told him that she was hungry, at the time he could not afford to feed his two year old daughter.
After a few weeks had passed, Mr. Mattar received a letter from a Swedish friend of his offering him and his family a place to stay in her Jerusalem home. She had been returning there when the attack began, and hoisted a white flag in an attempt to stay safe, but was shot at nonetheless. The family stayed with her for five years. It was on the balcony of that house overlooking the depopulated Western part of the city that Lilian saw her father cry for the first time. “He loved Haifa, Jerusalem, Kufr Kanna and had bought land in all of those places that he planned to give to his kids when they grew up and married. He and my older brother, who died earlier this year, planned to return to them all, and thought and spoke about return every day until their dying moments.”
Lilian vividly remembers her school days in the 1950s and 60s at the Schmidt Girl’s College under Jordanian rule. One day, a group of Palestinian resistance fighters came into the class telling the girls that “every Palestinian should be trained to fight.” The teacher was disapprovingly caught off guard, a feeling that turned to dismay when the presenters asked the girls which of them would want to be trained and Lilian was the first to raise her hand, inspiring the rest of the class to follow suit. This event inspired her to join demonstrations calling for the return of the refugees and their properties, beaming with pride as she carried her Palestinian flag. She even began weight lifting, seeing the activity as part of that duty to get trained, which did not go over well with her father who abhorred violence and prayed daily for peace. He also did not consider it appropriate for girls to train with weights.
After graduating, Lilian followed most of her older siblings to the United States to continue her studies, working part time at a bank in New York. This is where she was in June 1967 when Israel occupied what was left of Palestine. It was difficult to communicate with her family. One day her mother came to New York. When Lilian asked why she had come alone and without her father, the tragic answer was that he was dead.
In 1952, and in spite of being told that he was ineligible as an Arab, Mr. Mattar had persevered and gotten the job as the Warden of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, a sight believed by some Protestants to be the burial place of Christ. In the aftermath of the June 1967 occupation, during which he had refused to leave his beloved city, he answered a knock on the door, and was shot dead by Israeli soldiers as soon as he opened it. He was buried there, and soon his grave was attracting the attention of tourists and pilgrims and visited as a holy shrine. This displeased the Israeli authorities, who demanded that the family exhume the body and bury him somewhere else, otherwise they would do it themselves. It was Lilian who traveled back to Palestine to do this, ultimately burying him in Beit Jala beside Dr. Lambi, a beloved family friend who had operated a Tuberculosis clinic for Palestinians and passed away while visiting the Mattars years before.

Lilian had decided to move back to her homeland with her Canadian husband, whom she had recently married, and began a job teaching the children of diplomats at an Anglican school on Prophet Street in West Jerusalem keeping her Palestinian identity to herself. Her plan was to raise money to establish an orphanage for Palestinian children. To do this she began to take on extra work, teaching at an orphanage in the afternoons and giving private lessons to girls from the Schmidt College in the evening. Before two years had elapsed, the difficulties of fundraising, the desire of her husband to return to Canada, and recurring episodes of harassment each time her Palestinian identity became known to her West Jerusalem surroundings all combined to send Lilian to Canada.
In Canada, Lilian maintained her connection to Palestine by seeking and joining groups that worked for the Palestinian cause, and instilling in her children the memory of their grandfather, as she completed her degree in Psychology and Religion and accompanied her husband from city to city around the country as he changed jobs. At best, most churches ignored the plight of the Palestinians, a fact that distressed Lilian until she discovered the work of Rev. Al Forrest, editor of the United Church’s publication The Observer, who openly supported Palestinian rights and, when she finally met him, told her about how had been harassed for these views. He inspired her to join the United Church of Canada, the church in which she was ordained in 1985.
As a Minister in the Church, Reverend Lilian Mattar has often included the plight of Palestinians in her sermons and had to defend her views in the face of strong support for Zionism. She played a key role in educating the congregation about the truth of the Palestinian Nakba, and joined the effort to bring the Church to reevaluate its investments and pass resolutions favoring ethical investment so that it is not supporting Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians.

When asked about her thoughts about the future for Palestinian refugees, she said “this two state solution that they are talking about is terrible, it divides us, and strips us of what is rightfully ours, as if that land isn’t ours to begin with. In reality we need to all work together. I am very proud of being a Palestinian Arab; when we were younger, my mother used to tell us that we are the descendants of the Apostles, she would say: ‘where do you think those descendants went? It’s us!’”