The Birth of Isaac, God Protects Hagar and Ishmael

Story: The birth of Isaac, God protects Hagar and Ishmael

Passage: Genesis 21:1-21

Characters: Sarah, God, Abraham, Isacc, Ishmael, Hagar

Summary: The Lord kept his promise and Sarah gave birth to a son when God said she would. They named him Isaac. Sarah said that people would laugh over her when they hear her story. Abraham threw a feast to celebrate his son being weaned, but Ishmael mocked Isaac. Sarah wanted Hagar and Ishmael gone. God told Abram to listen to Sarah so he cast them out. They wandered and ran out of water so Hagar left the baby to die under a bush but God spoke to her and promised to make Ishmael into a great nation. She saw a well and they drank. She raised Ishamel in the wilderness and he became good with a bow. He married an Egyptian woman.

Notes: God came through and Abraham followed through on his side of the deal. He named his son Isaac and circumcised him like he was told to. It is obvious that Abraham favored Isaac. We see no mention of a feast celebrating Ishmael, but here he throws a feast for Isaac. I’m not really sure what Ishmael was doing to deserve Sarah’s wrath. The ESV says he was laughing, which is fitting since Isaac’s name means “he laughs”. NIV seems to see it as a mocking laughter. Either way, Ishmael can’t have been very old at this time and I feel like his attitude can’t have been too intentionally harmful. But Sarah seems to have dealt with jealousy. Her first attempt to scare Hagar away had failed, and now she turned to Abraham to take care of it. She referred to Hagar and Ishmael as “this slave woman and her son.” This is very impersonal considering it was Sarah’s idea to let Abraham marry Hagar. She comes right out and says she doesn’t want Ishmael being Abraham’s heir. Abraham didn’t know what to do! From previous chapters we see that he liked Ishmael, but his wife hated Ishmael. God stepped in and said to do what Sarah suggested. Sarah was being selfish and hateful, yet God told Abraham to follow her advice. God can work through bad situations and even bad motives. God told him that his offspring would be named through Isaac, but Ishmael would also become a nation. God made this promise to Abraham a ridiculous number of times! So Abraham cast them out. Hagar loved Ishmael and could not bring herself to watch him die when they ran out of water. She put him under a bush and then went far enough away so that she wouldn’t have to watch. The fact that she was able to just set him down and not have him follow her tells me Ishmael was likely still very young. God heard her weeping and promised her that her son would become a great nation. He opened her eyes to see a well. This tells me that God had somehow made it so that she could not see this well right in front of her! This is a little weird to me, but God did it for a reason. Maybe He wanted her to cry out to Him. This is the first mention of a weapon. And it is in the hands of Ishmael who lived alone in the wilderness, whose descendants were going to be militant. God was already fulfilling his prophecy. Hagar found an Egyptian woman to marry him. This sounds like an arranged marriage to me. Also, Egypt is later used to represent sin. This might be another way that the passage contrasts Ishmael’s life with Isaacs. It is interesting to read the stories of people not in the line of Israel. The fact that they are mentioned means they are important, but the brevity of the stories about them shows that they are not the main characters in the story.

Questions: Why did God use Sarah’s attitude and motives to accomplish his purpose? Did Abraham regret sending Hagar and Ishmael away? Was Hagar glad to finally get away from Sarah? Why did God hide the well from Hagar? Ishmael was not a main part of God’s redemptive plan for the world, but he is included and God showed Himself to Hagar and Ishmael after they had separated from the main plot line. Why? And did God do anything else miraculous in Ishamel’s life? In other words, did God continue to directly provide for Ishmael?

Lessons: God can use wrong motives and bad situations. Just because something goes wrong or seems broken and sinful does not mean that God is unable to work through it. In this story, God separated Ishmael through Sarah’s sinful jealousy. There is no situation to dark or messed up for God to be found in.