Strangers in a strange land

I'm getting ready to prepare a message about Hagar and Ishmael. I find it interesting that Hagar was an Egyptian, brought to Canaan to be a slave of Sarah's. Yet in three generations the descendents of Sarah would be moving back to Egypt to escape famine in the "land of milk and honey" to which they would not return for several centuries.

While the known world was much smaller geographically in those days, we still find ourselves becoming strangers in our own land. We citizens of the United States have taken for granted that we live in the good land, the promised land. And yet we are finding that we are increasingly dependent upon strangers in foreign places for our energy needs and food, among many other things. As our educational systems fall farther behind we will be more dependent upon strangers for scientific advances. As we divest ourselves of industry we become dependent upon strangers for the goods we use every day. The promised land only remains so long as the strangers continue to cooperate.

How does God enter into all of this? As I read Genesis, I see that God promised to bless Hagar and Ishmael and their descendents just as God blessed Sarah and her descendents. Sarah treated Hagar horribly, and yet Hagar's people welcomed Sarah's great-grandchildren and fed them in their time of need. Centuries passed and Sarah's people became the slaves of Hagar's people. Was this some kind of divine "tit for tat" exchange for Sarah's treatment of Hagar?Probably not -- I don't think God works that way. But it certainly was a complete turnaround in human affairs, wasn't it!

As we approach the celebration of Independence Day in the United States of America, perhaps we should do an internal audit to see how we are treating the other peoples of the world. Who are we enslaving because of our monetary policies? Who are we abusing because they will work more cheaply than we will work? What's it going to feel like when someday we find that another country is the "land of milk and honey"?