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14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. 15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. 16 Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, "Let me not see the death of the boy." So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation." 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. ~ Genesis 21:14-19
Today, we return to our study of Genesis 21 where it has been decided that Hagar and Ishmael would have to leave Abraham's family. Of course, none of this would have happened had Sarah not come up with the "brilliant" idea that her husband, Abraham, sire a child with her maidservant, Hagar. And, of course, Hagar would have never ended up as a maidservant to Sarah had Abraham not made the decision to go to Egypt during the famine after arriving to the promised land for the first time. One thing we can conclude is that the smallest sin will always lead to a bigger one if we do not keep it in check.
In v.14 of today's passage we read, "So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba."
Again, as at other times, today's narrative happened "early in the morning." God probably spoke to Abraham in a dream, and like every other time, Abraham immediately obeyed Him. After rising early in the morning, Abraham took bread and a container of water and gave it to Hagar. Afterwards, Abraham sent Hagar away along with his son of seventeen years.
In Matthew 14:26 we read, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple."
Before I make other comments about this verse, I need to make it very clear that not everyone who believed in the Lord Jesus followed Him like His twelve disciples did. In fact, there were several He told not to follow Him like the twelve. Having said that, these words were for Andrew and James and John and Peter. If we are not careful, we will conclude wrongly that we must ardently follow the Lord Jesus as His disciples did in order to be saved. This is not the teachings of the whole of the Scriptures. There is a clear difference between our justification and our sanctification.
Now, the word "hate" here does not suggest positive antagonism but rather "to love less." The Lord Jesus was saying that the love a disciple has for Him must be so strong that all other loves are like hatred in comparison. In fact, we must hate our own lives and be willing to bear the cross or the burdens that come with following Him. Being Christ's disciple demands abandonment of our priorities. When we decide to follow Him, we will take on a completely different worldview, past, present and future. And it all begins with an abandonment of us calling our own shots. Again, we will never be perfect at this, but to the degree that we are sanctified will be the degree that we grow in God's wisdom.
I am sure that from Hagar's perspective, this was so very hard to do. And, if you have ever been in a situation like this, you know that it is moments like this that we must turn to the Lord for His help. If we have done this, we know that these have been the most important moments of our lives because it is in these types of moments that we grow best in intimacy with the Lord. It is when we are most dependent upon the Lord that we are at our best. And, the more intense our desperation for the Lord, the greater the platform for the Lord to reveal Himself to us. For Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael, this parting had to be heartbreaking.
For us, when we read this story we find our hearts breaking. But, we must remember, in this story God provided for us a picture of the role of the law and the role of His grace in our lives. We are wise when we are being defined by the Lord Himself. When we are being defined by His grace, then our relationship to the Law changes. In fact, when we are being defined by His grace, we will desire to be obedient to whatever the Lord has for us because His grace changes our hearts motivation to be obedient to Him. Those who do not follow the Lord closely have yet to lose sight of the self and it is the self that taints our motivations. In fact, many obey God to get something from Him.
In v.15-16 of today's passage we read, "15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. 16 Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, 'Let me not see the death of the boy.' So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept."
Ishmael’s loss of water was enough to make him weary before his mother, so she put him under a shady bush to get him out of the sun. This is the only time this word translated "bowshot" is used in the Old Testament. It describes the far distance, about a half a mile, that Hagar separated herself from her son. She did this because she could not bear the thought of being close enough to hear Ishmael dying or even calling out for water. In addition, she also did not want Ishmael to hear her uncontrollable weeping over what had happened.
Death is a reality that we all will have to face. The wages of sin, after all, is death. And thus we are all destined to die because we are all sinners, even though we have trusted the Lord Jesus as our Savior. But, death is not what we think of it. Death is the door that we all must go through in order to spend eternity with the Lord and all whom we love, that is if the Rapture doesn't happen first.
In v.17-19 of today's passage we read, "17 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation." 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink."
In order for some to cry out to the Lord, they must be abandoned by all others. This was the case here for Ishmael. and once he cried out to the Lord, God heard him and then God sent an angel to his mother who then pointed her to the well that was before her. Interestingly, there are three different stories in this chapter: The story of Hagar and Ishmael out in the wilderness, the story of Abraham and Abimelech making a covenant, and the scene of Abraham and his family living around the well, enjoying the fullness of God. The well around which these stories all occur is the central theme in each one. It would be easy to dismiss this as an unimportant detail in Abraham's life, except that nothing is unimportant in the Word of God. These stories illustrate for us many aspects of our relationship with the Lord.
The spiritual significance of this well is easy for us to identify, since it occurs frequently in the Bible to picture the Word of God. The water in the well is always Christ who is what our thirsty souls desire. In fact, the Lord said to the woman of Samaria as she came down to the well, "The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Wherever we find a well in Scripture it is always picturing that relationship.
Ishmael means God hears. This reminds us of the promise made all the way back in Genesis 16 when God told Hagar to name her child, Ishmael. As God heard her then, God heard her in today's passage. This just underscores the reality that God will always be there to hear us, both when life is good and when it is bad. The key is that we make it our habit to cry out to Him.
After the Angel of the Lord spoke with Hagar, she ran back to her son and after she got there, her eyes were opened to see the well of water that she missed when she was first there. For all of us the Water of Life, the Lord Jesus, has always been there. Our sin and our lack of desperation prevented us from seeing Him. It was through my deep pain that God led me to the Lord Jesus. This is the way He works in all of our lives; He directs us to His Son first and then He gives us the spiritual ability to see that where He is, is also the spot where the Water of Life has been all along. And then, astonishingly, He gives us the choice to drink that water or to reject it. The sad thing is that despite the thirst every human has, not everyone will drink from the Water of life.
