Employees in the Bible: Hagar and the Cost of Losing Emotional Intelligence

Employees in the Bible: Hagar and the Cost of Losing Emotional Intelligence

by | Jan 28, 2026 | Archives, Entities, Women

Employees in the Bible: Hagar and the Cost of Losing Emotional Intelligence – A leadership and workplace lesson from Genesis 16 on status, favour, and self-control

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. – Genesis 16:1-4

We are opening our staffers or employees in the Bible subseries in this digest by considering the example of Hagar, the maidservant of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. From the passage above, we can see that Hagar lacked emotional intelligence, judging by her reaction to her mistress, Sarah, after she became pregnant as a surrogate for the couple.

We have devoted a mini-series to exploring the intricacies of Hagar’s character vis-à-vis how ill-advised human judgment and popular opinion can be on a sister website. You can read that series by clicking here. Today, however, and in line with the orientation of this site, we shall consider Hagar in the light of an employee, a staff, or a worker under the authority of a boss.

From the scriptural excerpt above, we can see how Hagar came to have her status upgraded from a servant in Abraham’s household to an important member of the household through surrogacy. Before the idea of her being a surrogate mother for her master and mistress was mooted, Hagar was a maidservant whose only pleasure was to do the bidding of her lords. By the norms of that time, she arguably had no right, and her owners probably had the power of life and death over her.

Therefore, it was surprising that after Abraham and Sarah made her a surrogate for their child, and she became pregnant, a feat her mistress, Sarah, could not achieve, Hagar started despising her mistress and became ungovernable. Her reason? She was now pregnant; therefore, she was a better woman than her madam. She started behaving rudely and showed no regard for her benefactress.

This attitude betrayed a lack of emotional intelligence on the part of Hagar and also depicted her as a not so smart person, because someone wiser and smarter would have continued to honor and respect her bosses, and would not allow success to get into her head as to start to see herself as better and superior to her mistress by whose favor she had her profile elevated in the first place, and whose idea it was that Hagar be their surrogate.

How often do we see this same scenario played out in people we know or hear about? Someone who, before an encounter with a benefactor, had nothing or little to their name. However, by virtue of their encounter or association with a benefactor, which resulted in attaining a higher status than they used to have, they then start to despise or disrespect the person whose influence or contribution was key to their becoming.

That is not a very smart thing to do. We can all learn from the example of Hagar.

Selah!

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Men in the Bible: How NOT to Be A Father

Men in the Bible: How NOT to Be A Father

by | Dec 1, 2025 | Archives, Men

Men in the Bible: How Not to Be A Father And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was…

Men in the Bible: How Not to Be A Father

And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside…So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” – Genesis 9:20-22,24-25

Having considered the terrible mistakes made by Ham, the second son of Noah, in turning his father’s nudity into a topic of gossip and joke, it is apt for us to look at the scene from another point of view so as to make our lessons from this scenario more balanced. In that regard, we shall be looking at the man Noah as an example of recklessness and how not to be a father.

After surviving the flood and being the privileged person to lead the new world order that God started with the human race at that time, Noah did well by picking up a new vocation as a farmer. Perhaps it was the giddiness of his first harvests, which must have been bumper, or something else, Noah indulged himself by drinking from the wine harvested in his vineyard. That is not bad in itself as one is meant to enjoy from his labor. But he did it to the point of reckless abandon such that he threw caution to the wind, cast his clothing aside, and was stark naked in the tent.

Considering that tents in those days were not as structured as our modern housing, with proper roofing, doors, and other items for privacy, it was reckless behavior on the part of Noah to indulge himself to this extent. He might as well have debauched himself outside the tent in the glare of the public. Noah put his family members in a difficult position by not exercising more self-control or being more discreet with his indulgence.

Secondly, by this time, Noah was already a grandfather. That meant he not only had a wife of his own, but his sons also had their own wives and children as well. So, what could Noah be thinking by throwing caution to the wind this way? Yes, he was the patriarch, but any of his grandchildren could have been the ones to walk into his tent with the intention of spending time with grandpa.

Moreso, what example was Noah setting for his own sons and his grandchildren by drinking wine so excessively to the point of stupor. He certainly did not cover himself in glory in this regard. He was careless, reckless and irresponsible. To make it worse, his hubris led to the downfall of one of his sons. That is certainly not how to be a father.

Further, after Noah came to his senses and the realization of what his son, Ham, had done, what he did next was even more shocking. Instead of rebuking his errant son sharply for his immaturity or correcting him in love, he rather placed a curse on him. Worse still, he did not curse the son directly; he placed a generational curse on the son of the son! In other words, he cursed his grandson! What kind of man curses his own grandchild?

Even worse, Canaan, the grandson he cursed, knew nothing about what his own father had done. So, Noah only cursed an innocent child. He did not have the ball to curse his own son, perhaps because he did not want to witness the manifestation of his curse while he was still alive. Still, he had no scruple in cursing his own grandson, an innocent boy, and that with an eternal curse that he would forever be a servant of servants, was the height of irresponsibility. That means Canaan and his own descendants would not just be servants to masters but would be servants to the servants of masters. That was relegating Canaan and his entire lineage to the very dregs in societal order.

What a man! What a father! What a grandfather Noah was! This is certainly not the way to be a father or a grandfather to boot. A right-thinking (grand)father corrects his (grand)children in love, not condemn them; he blesses them, not curse them. Noah was the opposite of this. We all can learn how not to from him.

Selah!

Also read:

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