Afflicted

“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
Genesis 16:6 (NIV)

When Sarai “mistreated” Hagar, the Egytian slave, the word is עָנָה (ahnah). It means “to afflict.”

So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
Exodus 1:11 (NIV)

‎It’s the same word that describes how the Egyptians treated their Israelite slaves.

‎And in both cases, God heard the cry of the afflicted.

The End is in the Beginning of the Next Chapter

There’s something odd about the way Genesis is written.

If you look at Genesis 1, it’s clear that it really ends in the next chapter: Genesis 2:1-3. Go look!

Now if you read Genesis 50 (the last chapter of Genesis), it’s clear that it really ends in the next book: Exodus 1:1-7.

My theological takeaway?

The fulfillment of God’s promise may not happen in this lifetime. God told Abraham re: his descendants & the Promised Land, but it was a promise that wouldn’t be fulfilled until the book of Joshua.

God will make things right. Some now. Some later.