Sarah no longer wants Ishmael and his mother Hagar to be part of the family. She insists that Abraham send them away now that she and Abraham have their own son together. While Abraham was struggling with the distress Sarah's request caused him, the Lord told Abraham to do as she said. He promised Abraham that He would personally watch over and protect Ishmael and see to it that he and his descendants prosper.
We've already talked several times about the custom of Abraham's day in which a childless married couple could use one of their slave women as a surrogate mother in order to obtain a son and heir. Today we learn, from commentaries on the subject, that it was also the custom that if a man decided to disinherit a son he fathered by his slave woman, he had to give both the woman and the son their freedom papers. He no longer owned either of them or had any rights over either of them. They would be free to go wherever they pleased and do whatever they wanted to do. However, their previous owner was not obligated to provide them with anything more than enough food and water to sustain them til they reached the nearest town. Freedom was considered the greatest gift that could be bestowed upon anyone, and I don't think Abraham is being deliberately stingy when he sends Hagar and Ishmael out into the world in our passage today with mostly just the clothes on their backs and a little food and water. If he'd supplied them with much more, such as enough money to live on for several years or enough possessions with which to set up housekeeping, a naive newly-freed woman and a teenage boy could easily have been taken advantage of along the way or even robbed and killed.
After the Lord tells Abraham to go ahead and send them away, the Bible says: "Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba." (Genesis 21:14) Some scholars believe she got lost on the way to wherever she intended to go. Other scholars suggest she's waiting in the wilderness for instructions from God. After all, He came to meet her in the desert before in Genesis 16. This woman has no experience living "on the outside" so to speak. Because she's been a slave her whole life, she's always been told what to do and when and how to do it. Her room and board have been provided for her. Her life has been as highly regimented as the life of someone who has spent the last twenty-five to thirty years in prison. She's not used to making decisions for herself and she doesn't know how to begin. It could be that she wanders in the desert looking for the God who previously came looking for her.
While she wanders, she runs out of food and water. She and her son are beginning to suffer the effects of dehydration. Ishmael appears to be succumbing to dehydration quicker than his mother. He's become faint and is too weak to continue on. "When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, 'I cannot watch the boy die.' And as she sat there, she began to sob." (Genesis 21:15-16) She settles Ishmael under the only shade she can find, which is the sparse shade thrown on the desert floor by a shrub. Heartbroken and unable to stand the thought of witnessing the death of her child, she walks away and begins to cry helplessly.
It's at this point that the Lord shows up. Why did He allow the situation to become so dire before He made an appearance? I think maybe it's because Hagar and Ishmael are going to need to know in the future that He is their true source of provision and protection. Sometimes the Lord allows our situations to deteriorate so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when things turn around, they have been turned around by Him and not by anyone or anything else. There have been a few times in my own life when nothing any human being could do was going to turn things around. I was down to nothing. Sometimes I was down to nothing financially. Other times I had nothing left to give emotionally or spiritually or mentally or physically. On the surface it might seem stingy of the Lord to let us get to that point before stepping in, but it's the mercy of the Lord that causes Him to do this. He does it to strengthen our faith, because for the rest of our lives we are going to know for certain that a miracle took place. If Hagar hadn't gotten lost on her journey, or if she hadn't run out of food and water before reaching a place of refreshment, or if she and Ishmael made it quickly and safely to the nearest town and immediately found gainful employment and a place to stay, would they have given the Lord credit for any of that? Or would they have thought they were "lucky" or that things turned out well because of their own intelligence and hard work? When the Lord helps them in the desert in their hour of desperation, they are going to credit Him with their survival, and this is something that's going to help them through the rest of their lives. From now on, their first instinct will be to turn to the Lord when they need help.
"God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, 'What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.'" (Genesis 21:17-18) Both Hagar and Ishmael are crying now. In Genesis 16 the Lord made Hagar a promise that a great nation would come from her son's family line. Today He reminds her of that promise, saying something like, "I haven't forgotten what I said to you. Did you think I wouldn't hear the cries of your son from whom I promised to make a great nation? I do hear him, and I am going to help both of you."
"Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink." (Genesis 21:19) The well was already there, but Hagar was crying so bitterly she didn't even see it. She gave in to defeat before taking the few steps further that would have allowed her to see the well clearly. She never would have seen it if the Lord hadn't pointed it out. Thanks be to the God who so often steps in and redirects us when---through our own lack of faith---we are about to miss a great blessing. When the Lord reminds Hagar of His promise to give her son more descendants than any man can count, He's basically asking her the same thing the Lord Jesus will ask His disciples, "Why did you doubt, you of little faith?"
When God makes us a promise, we can count on it. Our Lord is a rock firm enough upon which to stand forever. He keeps His promise to Hagar. "God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt." (Genesis 12:20-21) The Bible will later tell us that Ishmael fathers twelve sons who become the leaders of twelve tribes, and we can safely assume Ishmael fathered many daughters as well. The Lord will provide for and protect Ishmael all the days of his life and he will die at the ripe old age of a hundred and thirty-seven.
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