One of the major
features of the middle chapters of Genesis is a plethora of good people trying
to accomplish good things in the worst possible way.
Sarah trying to bring an heir into the world to fulfill the promises of God via the womb of her
Egyptian servant. Her husband Abraham going along, though it means infidelity to
his own wife. Scripture doesn’t tell us whether Hagar was an especially
attractive woman, so let’s give the patriarch the benefit of the doubt and just
say he unwisely capitulated to Sarah’s poorly-thought-out plan rather than to
something less honorable, like garden-variety male lust.
Then we come to Rebekah.
