John Calvin Commentary Genesis 16:1

"Now Sarai, Abram`s wife, bare him no children: and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar." — Genesis 16:1 (ASV)

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife. Moses here relates a new account, specifically, that Sarai, through impatience from long delay, resorted to a method of obtaining offspring by her husband that was contrary to the word of God. She saw that she was barren and had passed childbearing age.

And she inferred the necessity of a new remedy, so that Abram might obtain the promised blessing. Moses explicitly states that the design of marrying a second wife did not originate with Abram himself, but with Sarai, to teach us that the holy man was not impelled by lust to this marriage; but that when he was thinking of no such thing, he was induced to engage in it by his wife's exhortation.

It is, however, asked whether Sarai substituted her maidservant in her place through the mere desire of having offspring. So it seems to some; yet to me it is incredible that the pious matron should not have been aware of those promises, which had been so often repeated to her husband.

Indeed, it ought to be fully taken for granted among all pious persons that the mother of the people of God was a partaker of the same grace as her husband. Sarai, therefore, does not desire offspring (as is usual) from a merely natural impulse; but she yields her conjugal rights to another, through a wish to obtain that blessing, which she knew was divinely promised. It is not that she makes a divorce from her husband, but she assigns him another wife from whom he might receive children.

And certainly, if she had desired offspring in the ordinary manner, she would more likely have thought of adopting a son than of making room for a second wife. For we know the vehemence of female jealousy. Therefore, while contemplating the promise, she becomes forgetful of her own right and thinks of nothing but bearing children for Abram.

This is a memorable example, from which we gain no small profit. For however praiseworthy Sarai’s wish was, regarding its end or the aim to which it tended, nevertheless, in its pursuit, she was guilty of a significant sin by impatiently departing from the word of God in order to enjoy the effect of that word.

While she dwells on her own barrenness and old age, she begins to despair of offspring unless Abram should have children from some other source; in this, there is already some fault. Yet, however desperate the affair might be, she still ought not to have attempted anything contrary to the will of God and the legitimate order of nature.

God designed that the human race should be propagated through sacred marriage. Sarai perverts the law of marriage by defiling the marriage bed, which was appointed only for two persons. Nor is it a valid excuse that she wished Abram to have a concubine and not a wife, since it ought to have been regarded as a settled point that the woman is joined to the man, that they two should be one flesh. And though polygamy had already become common among many, yet it was never left to human will to abolish that divine law by which two persons were mutually bound together.

Nor was even Abram free from fault in following the foolish and preposterous advice of his wife. Therefore, as Sarai’s rashness was blameworthy, so the ease with which Abram yielded to her wish was deserving of rebuke. The faith of both of them was defective; not indeed with regard to the substance of the promise, but with regard to the method they used, since they hastened to acquire the offspring that was to be expected from God, without observing God’s legitimate ordinance.

From this we are also taught that God does not command His people in vain to be quiet and to wait with patience whenever He delays or suspends the fulfillment of their wishes. For those who hasten ahead of time not only run ahead of God’s providence but, being discontented with His word, rush themselves beyond their proper bounds.

But it seems that Sarai had something more in mind; for she not only wished that Abram should become a father, but she also gladly wished to acquire for herself the rights and honors of a mother. I answer, since she knew that all nations were to be blessed in the seed of Abram, it is no wonder that she should be unwilling to be deprived of participation in his honor, lest she should be cut off, as a decaying member, from the body that had received the blessing, and should also become a stranger to the promised salvation.

Bare him no children. This seems added as an excuse. And truly, Moses intimates that she did not seek help from the womb of her maidservant before necessity compelled her to do so. Her own words also show that she had patiently and modestly waited to see what God would do, until hope was entirely cut off, when she says that she was restrained from bearing by the Lord (Genesis 16:2). What fault then shall we find in her? Surely, that she did not, as she ought, cast this care upon God, without limiting His power to the order of nature or confining it to her own understanding. And then, by neglecting to infer from the past what would take place in the future, she did not regard herself as in the hand of God, who could again open the womb which He had closed.