I misunderstood the ethnicity angle and I also am getting that you're saying the commentary is actually added verses that we read in the Bible correct? Also, Hagar is clearly Egyptian but still race is not an issue. The issue with race isn't from Sarai or Abraham. From the verses, God is reassuring her that she will not be forgotten and a race would be formed from Ishmael since he wasn't going to claim and inheritance with God's chosen descendants of Abraham. So I reread the story and genesis 16 explains why I say Hagar & Ishmael have issues:It is not without context. The context is given. Why do you say 'as the actions of Hajar and her son'? When it was Sarah who dealt with her harshly?
Ethnicity seems the entire focus of the verse above. There is a story of a woman who is taken to Abraham (alayhis salaam) as a slave, then given to him by his wife, who is barren. Then when she comes with child, begins to despise her mistress, which is not shown through actions but seen 'in her eyes'. Then Sarah, when presented with an option of what to do with her slave, casts her out into the desert, alone, with her child.
At which point God sends an angel to save her and her child. Then all of a sudden the narrative switches up into a rant about race and her offspring. Where the 'Lord hath heard of her affliction', yet suddenly responds by decreeing that her son shall be a 'wild ass of a man', something which will be in the face of all of his descendants.
If not viewing this as a later addition by Jewish commentators in light of their circumstances and tribalism, how does a modern Christian interpret verses that seem so racially charged? They were previously, when racism was not such an issue, interpreted in a racist way. When did the shift from this interpretation occur?
The account is kind of funny in a old couple sort of way. To be clear, Sarah was wrong to recommend her servant to begin with Abraham didn't want her and she lost faith in God promising her a son. She was also wrong in thinking that she could simply adopt her slave's kid to fulfill God's promise. In any event, the slave forgot her place because she was pregnant with her master's kid. Sarah punished her and she ran away.1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
Personally I think it's a mistake to think that the hatred was as instantaneous as a glance. This had been Sarah's servant for at least some months if not longer.
Several years later, Ishmael, as a teen, is the one causing problems and they are finally, with God's permission and protection, thrown out of Abraham's camp. I'm still not getting the rant part as the story flows nicely and reveals the flaws & blessings of all involved from Sarah, Hagar, Abraham, & Ishmael.
Ishmael's descendant became a huge nation and he apparently continued to play a role in his father's life. The wild comment was an insult, it was a character trait to reflect that he would prefer to go his own way.