He Knows!

English Standard Version Chapter 21

And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” 11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 13 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into 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 boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Good times and bad times. It’s what makes up life doesn’t it? None of our lives are filled with complete goodness and none of our lives are filled with complete heartache. As one of my favorite contemporary Christian artists puts it, “Hills and Valleys.” Well in our text for today, we are going to witness a few of those hills and valleys that some prominent characters in the Old Testament witnessed. What I would like for us to glean from the text for this morning is that no matter whether you are on a hill or in the valley, God is always with you. Second, no matter if you are in the valley or on the mountain, God sees you. And thirdly, God cares for you. With that in mind, may God bless the preaching of this, His Most Holy Word.

So last week, if you will remember, we discussed the promise of Almighty God to Sarah, that she would indeed bear a son. Then we pick up in Genesis 21 today where we read that, “the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.” Great celebration and joy was occuring over this child that and 90 year old woman and a 100 year old man had brought into this world by the hand of Almighty God. Yet amid this celebration and joy, this mountaintop experience, if you will, there was an issue, a valley. We read in verses 9 & 10, “But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” OH my!

So, let’s go back and get a little history on this. If we back up in the book of Genesis to chapter 16, we will find where this all begins. Here in chapter 16, Sarai, as she is called at this point, begins to doubt God’s promise that she will bear a child and therefore takes matters into her own hands. We read in Genesis 16, beginning in verse 1, “She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.” Following this Abram goes into Hagar and Hagar conceives. Following the knowledge of Hagar’s conception, Sarai is filled with contempt towards her. Contempt means, “a feeling of intense dislike and superiority toward someone or something, often accompanied by disdain or scorn.” Even though this plan was brought about by Sarai, she now hates her servant. So she sends Hagar away, where she is met by Jesus, the angel of the LORD. It is during this encounter with Jesus that we learn a new name of His and that is El Roi, the God who sees. It is here that Jesus encourages her, supports her, and motivates her to move on.

Then we get back to our text for today. And with that background in mind, we can now better understand. Let’s read again, Genesis 21:9–10 “But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”” Now upon first reading this we may not catch what the big deal is, however upon closer examination, we will soon see. We read that Sarah saw Ishmael, Hagar’s son, laughing. As I said, upon first reading this, we may think to ourselves, so what’s the big deal. However this was not just laughing. This was laughing in mockery, teasing. It was not nice. And upon witnessing this and in the back of Sarah’s mind, wanting her son, Isaac to have the inheritance, she commands Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out. Can you imagine?

Have you ever been kicked out of somewhere or not allowed to be in a certain place? I know I have probably mentioned this before, but I still, to this day, have very vivid memories of not being allowed to sit at the cool kids lunch table when I was in middle school. I remember getting up the courage to sit over there one day and I remember every eye at that table being on me. It’s not fun to not be welcomed or wanted where you are. So we can only imagine how Hagar must have felt.

Following Sarah’s command to Abraham, Abraham did what every man and woman should do when troubled, he went to God. For we read in verses 11 and 12, “And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” God meets Abraham in his troubled state of mind as He does with us today as well. The Bible Says Commentary writes, “Abraham is caught in the middle of the matter and feels distressed. Ishmael is his son, born of his own body. Forcing Ishmael to leave grieved him. Abraham loved both Ishmael and Isaac and did not wish to send either of them away. God reveals to Abraham what he is to do and confirms His plan for each child, Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her. As the head of the household, Abraham must give the order of expulsion to Hagar.

God consoles Abraham by decreeing that through Isaac, and not through Ishmael, His purposes and promises to Abraham will be carried out, and his descendants shall be named (Romans 9:7; Hebrews 11:18). Isaac is the child of promise. Future generations will be blessed through this single child. So, we see a shift from Sarah's motivation to God's purposes. Two thousand years later the Apostle Paul will use this event to illustrate that reward of inheritance passes through promise rather than law. According to law and custom, Ishmael should gain the birthright inheritance to receive the reign. But God grants the inheritance to the child of promise, which are those who receive God's grace through faith (Galatians 4:21-31).”

We can only imagine how difficult this must have been for Abraham, however in God’s tender mercy, he reminds Abraham of how things will play out. As Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” So, brothers and sisters, whatever it is that God is calling you today, telling you today, or reminding you of, rest in those truths. As my lisence plate above my door says, “IGTBOK”- It’s Going To Be Okay! Rest in the truths and the promises of God today!

In verse 13, God reminds Abraham. It reads, “And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” Because of who Ishmael belongs to, God will make a great nation of him and already has. This is a promise. May we stand upon the truths and the promises of God, because that is truly what is going to get us through this life.

Picking up in verse 14, we read, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.” Can you imagine what this must have been like, the emotions that were felt in this? Abraham arises early in the morning, takes Hagar, equips her with a skin of water. According to my research, a skin that would have been carried over the shoulder typically held anywhere from 1-2 gallons of water. Abraham equips her with physical water, yet as we will soon see, in her time of utter despair, Hagar encounters the Living Water. So, Abraham equips her as best as he can and sends her away with Ishmael and they wandered in the wilderness fo Beersheba.

Then we read, beginning in verse 15, “When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.” Hagar had reached her end. Or so she thought? Have you ever been in Hagar’s position. Everything that you ever knew has been taken away from you. You no longer have a home. Nothing is familiar. You have no family and you are alone. I think at one time or another, we have probably all reached this point of desperation.

The Bible Says Commentary writes, “Ishmael was 14 when Isaac was born. Assuming that Isaac was weaned 2-3 years later, Ishmael was somewhere between 16-17 when Abraham sent him into the wilderness with Hagar.” “After an unspecified length of time, the water in the skin was used up. It's likely their bread was gone, too. Hagar gives up hope on survival, so she leaves Ishmael under one of the bushes of the wilderness.She leaves him there and sits opposite him, about a bowshot away, perhaps around 100 yards so that he cannot see her. She begins to pray, Do not let me see the boy die. She is afraid that they may die of starvation and thirst, and cannot bear the thought of watching her son perish.” So in her moment of desperation, what does Hagar do? Well first she prepares for the worst, but most importantly, is what she does next. She calls out to the LORD.

Once again, at the end of verse 16 we read, “She lifted up her voice and wept.” Now, it is here that we find something interesting. The beginning of verse 17 reads, “And God heard the voice of the boy.” There are several speculations about what is happening here. One speculation is that Hagar was not necessarily praying but weeping because of all that had happened. Whereas Ishmael was praying. In addition, may it be noted that Ishmael’s name means, “God hears.” This may have also been why God responded to Ishmael and not Hagar. David Brown writes, “The groans and vehement heaving of fevered and almost expiring nature. Though Moses speaks of the lad’s voice being heard in heaven, and not the mother’s loud sobbing in the violent manner, it was not that the son was more sorrowful, or uttered the prayer of faith more than the mother; but “God heard the voice of the lad” because of his relation to Abraham, and of the promise made respecting him and as I said earlier, Ishmael’s name means, “God hears.” And indeed He does.

Following God’s hearing of the boy’s crying and desperate situation, we read, “and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Just within the nick of time, God hears and God acts. Just as He always does. David Guzik writes, “Despite the desperate problem in the wilderness, God’s promise gave Hagar and Ishmael reason to fear not. God showed special favor to Ishmael because he was a descendant of Abraham.Though Ishmael was not the son to receive the covenant promise, God was not against him. The descendants of Ishmael became a great nation, the Arabic people.”

The last three verses of our text for this morning read, “Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. I loved what Spurgeon had to say about this. He writes, “The same God who divides the Red Sea and makes the Jordan dry up also opens a poor woman’s eyes. The same God who came with all his chariots of fire to Paran and with all his holy ones to Sinai and made the mountain utterly to smoke in his presence is he of whom we read, “And God opened Hagar’s eyes.” God, by opening Hagar’s eyes, secured the existence of the Ishmaelite race, which even to this day remains: from the little comes the great. There may be persons present who need but little to enable them to enter into eternal life; they need only that their eyes should be opened. May the Lord grant them that favor! O that he may now bid many a Hagar see his salvation! Why should the thirsty souls wait any longer? Everything is ready. They are on the borders of salvation, but they need their eyes to be opened.”

So I ask you this morning, has the LORD opened your eyes or are you still blind to Him and His ways? Which are you ore familiar with, the ways of this world or the ways of the LORD? Today, as we prepare to close our time together, may we reflect on this text of Hagar and Ishmael. As we think back about the text for this morning, may our hearts and souls be filled with trust in Christ Jesus. May we remember that no matter how desperate our situations in life may be, that God is always there. We need only to call out to Him. So this week, as we go about our days and as stressful moments are bound to happen, may we remember that God is always near. We need only to call out to Him. He cares and He knows. Rest in the promises of God this day. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!