Word of Encouragement (02/16/2022)

‍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.” (Gen. 21:15-18)

This passage is about Hagar and her son Ishmael. Hagar bore Ishmael to Abraham (at that time, Abram) at the urging of Sarah (at that time, Sarai). As there was no sign of a son God promised, Sarah and Abraham got impatient. So, Sarah came up with the idea that she would get a son through a surrogate, her maid from Egypt, Hagar. But things didn’t turn out as expected. When Hagar conceived, she began to look down on Sarah to her consternation. (What may seem good in our eyes is not necessarily so.) With Abraham keeping his hands off, Sarah started to deal harshly with Hagar and Hagar ran away. But the angel of the LORD appeared to her and commanded her to go back, promising to multiply her offspring (Gen. 16:10). She did and gave birth to a son. Abraham named him Ishmael as the angel of the LORD instructed Hagar.

Things turned sour again between Sarah and Hagar after Isaac was born. Sarah no longer considered Ishmael as Abraham’s heir. In fact, she loathed the idea of Ishmael sharing Abraham’s inheritance. So, she urged Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Even though Abraham did not like the idea, the LORD told him to listen to Sarah. So, Abraham sent them away with some supplies. When we come to today’s passage, the supplies ran out in the wilderness and Hagar feared that she and her son would die there. So, she wept bitterly.

That’s when the angel of God spoke to her. Interestingly, the narrative says that God heard the voice of the boy, not Hagar. This was not to say that God only heard Ishmael’s cry, not Hagar’s. She knew the God of Abraham. She had lived in the household of Abraham for many years. During that time, she witnessed how God had protected and prospered Abraham. She even saw, to her shock and fear, the miracle of Isaac being born between Abraham and Sarah! And when Abraham sent her and her and Ishmael away against his wish, he most likely told her why he had to do this and what God had promised for her and Ishmael. That promise was something she received herself when she had an encounter with the angel of the LORD earlier when she fled from Sarah. So, it’s not hard to imagine that she cried out to God. But the text doesn’t say she prayed: she simply lifted her voice and wept.

That is why it is more puzzling that God is said to have heard the voice of the boy even though God responded by speaking to Hagar! This may be to highlight God’s tender mercy toward the young, especially. By this time, Ishmael was around 14 (cf., Gen. 16:16, 21:5). So, he was far from being a little child. But he was no adult, either. We don’t even know whether Ishmael actually prayed to the LORD. He was certainly born to Abraham. He was raised as the heir of the family. He was even baptized (Gen. 17:23). So, Abraham must have taught him the things of God. But we can be sure that he did not have a saving knowledge of God; he was not of the elect. But that doesn’t mean that he did not cry out to God, either, as he faced death. Or, maybe he did not. The angel of God said that God heard the voice of the boy, not prayer. That makes God’s response all the more amazing.

So then, God’s response was not on account of anything Ishmael or Hagar had done. We must go back to the reason that God chose to bless Ishmael in the first place. God said to Abraham, “I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring” (Gen. 21:13). Remember how God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (“the Father of many nations”)? God was fulfilling His promise to Abraham. In blessing Ishmael, God was physically and literally fulfilling His promise to Abraham. This was, of course, a picture of the spiritual fulfillment of His promise to Abraham regarding the salvation of the Gentiles under the new covenant.

What a wonderful reminder as to why God will not fail to hear our prayers! If God heard the voice of Ishmael because he was Abraham’s son, will He not hear our prayers when we are His beloved children in Jesus Christ? Even when “we do not know what to pray for as we ought..., the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26). What a terrible loss it is not to pray! May I encourage you to start praying again if you have not prayed for a long time? And may I encourage you to continue to pray with diligence and persistence if you are praying? May the Lord bless all of us to be prayer warriors and witness how God can use our feeble prayers for His wonderful works!

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