Genesis 21:15-21. 15When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16Then 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. 17And 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. 18Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19Then 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. 20And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
This is the second time Hagar finds herself alone and desperate in the desert. The first time she ran away, this time she has been sent away. And this is the second time that God finds Hagar and rescues her.
Why does Moses include this story in writings for the Israelite nation? Genesis was written by Moses hundreds of years after it all happened. It was written for the people that would soon enter back into the Promised Land after 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and 40 years of wandering in the desert. Ah yes, now we see. There are clear parallels between Hagar and Israel. Hagar the Egyptian slave will be sent out of the Promised Land with bread, wander in the desert, and face a water crisis. Israel will be sent out of Egypt with their unleavened bread, they will wander in the desert, and face an immediate water crisis (Ex. 13-16).
But the greatest thing that Hagar and Israel will share in common is the grace and compassion of God. It is Ishmael’s voice that God hears in the wilderness. God heard the voice of the boy. The same voice that mocked the covenant promise of God is now heard by the covenant God of steadfast love and faithfulness. God has made a promise to Hagar and Ishmael – “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude” (Gen. 16:10). Ishmael cannot die, not yet. Why not? Because God cannot lie. Ishmael must be saved and he must become a great nation. And so he will.
Promise. Provision. Presence.
These are God’s response to Ishmael the unbeliever. The promise of global impact. The immediate provision of water from the well. The presence of God with Ishmael as he grew and prospered – And God was with the boy, and he grew up. If all of this is true for Hagar and Ishmael, how much more so for the Israelites as they look back on their journey through the wilderness. And if God’s compassion reaches to the Egyptian stranger, Hagar, mustn’t the compassion of the Israelites reach to the strangers in the Promised Land that they too will encounter?
Deuteronomy 10:19. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
This is the great task of the Christian life, to be able to separate from those who reject God’s way of grace, while also loving those who are outside his way of grace. God removed Ishmael from his home in the Promised Land, but then God did not reject Ishmael completely, rather he cared for him intimately. So too the church must be able to separate in purpose from the unbeliever in our midst who, like Ishmael, reject the gospel of grace. These must not be allowed to influence the church’s mission and message. Such warnings fill the New Testament.
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Jude 4. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 2:1. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
At the same time our mission and message is one of love, even love for our enemies. Christ calls us to be the true sons of the Father by this very love, praying for all, calling all to repentance, and serving all with kindness and compassion.
It is not without irony that two of the very enemies of the gospel today that mock it and the truths of Christ are the biological offspring of Abraham, Jews and many Muslims. Both groups reject the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. Paul himself will call unbelieving Jews the spiritual offspring of Hagar, “children of the slave woman” (Gal. 4). Their lack of faith leaves them outside of the Abrahamic Covenant. Muslims too oppose the gospel of Jesus, and Christians aren’t wrong to see both Jews and Muslims as those in need of salvation. But Genesis 21 reminds us that both Jews and Arab Muslims (Arabs being the descendant of Ishmael) are the seed of Abraham and both are loved and cared for by God. Must not we who are in Christ embrace this same spirit of love and mercy?
In Christ, we are the children of Abraham by faith. We are the spiritual seed of the persecuted son. Isaac? Yes, but also Jesus. We are called to share in Christ’s suffering, while never responding to that suffering with hatred, vengeance, or even apathy. We can and must love our enemies from the power of God’s love for us, his former enemy now his beloved child. We can and must bring God’s own comfort and compassion into a world where these things go lacking all around us.
Remember, we are not joining with the “Ishmaels” in our mission and message. But we are caring for the “Ishmael” around us, offering the living water of Jesus to a thirsty world.
You: Do you consider yourself a merciful and compassionate person? Why or why not?
You in Christ: How does our union with Christ allow us to show compassion to all people, even our enemies that our opposed to the gospel of grace?
Christ in you: Where in your life do you need to be separate for the unbeliever in purpose, but joined to the unbeliever in compassion and grace as a witness for Christ?
Prayer: Father, your love and concern for Hagar and Ishmael is astounding. I know that once I was Ishmael, mocking your goodness and grace. Let me be used by you to give the living water of Jesus to all who are thirsty. Amen.
To Live is Christ 