Let's read it together, Genesis 21:8-21 (ASV)
"8 And the child grew and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Drive out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar putting it on her shoulder and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.16 And she went and sat her down over opposite him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over opposite him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.
17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him firmly in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
20 And God was with the lad; and he grew up, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt."
The banishment of Ishmael is extremely troubling : it carries the sting of racism, bullying, and some might even say- a hate crime, life-threatening expulsion of a minor based on prejudice. It’s not Ishmael’s fault that he was born half Iraqi, half Egyptian. It’s not Ishmael’s fault that he was a strong-willed child, “a wild donkey of a man” – the angel predicted (Gen 16:12). It is normal for a teenager to act out once in a while but Sarah lost it. So early in the darkness, before anybody else woke up, Ishmael is pulled out of bed and so tired he can’t think or even stand up straight, is put on his mom’s back and sent away by a millionaire dad with nothing but one loaf of bread and a container of water for both. And what did dad whisper in Hagar’s ear? God made him do it.
WHAT? What kind of God rips children from their fathers? What kind of God rejects a young man for who his mother is? What kind of God supports a petty jealous privileged fair skinned "Karen" against a poor, enslaved colored mother and now, her fatherless son? Rejected by family, his faith community, and now even God Himself, there are plenty of reasons to hate them back and reject them too.
But what I find remarkable in this story is that Hagar doesn’t reject the God who kicked them out of their home and church, she wails to Him to shield her breaking heart from the sight of her dying child. What I find even more remarkable is that Ishmael called out to his father’s God from under the bush as he lay dying, called out to God, who had singlehandedly turned his own father against him! And here, did you catch it? Here in the narrator’s words, comes the divine culmination of this desperate boy’s identity – “God heard the voice of the lad”. The Angel repeats it to Hagar, “God has heard the voice of the lad, where he is.” Ishmael - God hears. This is the main point that most sermons focus on, God as the hero who rescues Ishmael from death, but would you call someone a hero for rescuing a child from the railroad tracks of an impending train if, if…if you saw from the recorded video tapes that they put the child there in the first place? Always stay honest to the text!
Why? Why does God personally orchestrate this horrific ordeal? Where is God’s love in this story? Let me show you. Every time Abraham and Hagar deal with or talk about Ishmael, they call him child (yeled). The same term used for Isaac. Now, Isaac is about 3 years old and Ishmael is about 17. Really now? Then Abraham puts (shem) water on Hagar’s shoulder/back and or with the child. Now, every commentator rejects this plain reading of the Hebrew text, even though they always admit that the straightforward reading of the Hebrew text indicates that Ishmael was piggy backed because by all calculations Ishmael is about 17 years old by now and no theologian accepts that a 17 yr old would really be carried about like an infant! So they translate it or explain it away. Leave the text alone! First or all, it is physically possible, mountain porters male and female routinely carry several hundred pounds on their back and the average weight of a 17 yo male is 160lbs. Second, he was the exclusive sole heir of Abraham for 14 yrs and is the apple of his mother’s eye- she would do anything for him! Third, both his mother Hagar and his dad Abraham always refer to him even at 17 years old as a “child.”
And we know he must have been on her back because when they run out of water, Hagar doesn’t “place, set, put” (shem) him under a bush, she “flings, throws, casts” (shalak) him under a bush, she literally dumps him off- with some force over distance. This exact same verb in the same form is used for a woman who “flung” down a millstone on Abimelech’s head crushing his skull (Judges 9:53) and I can assure you, that was not a gentle, tender placement!
But notice this, every time God refers to or deals with him- the narrator changes to the term “na’ar” which means “lad” or “youth”, Ishmael as himself a “youth”, not Ishmael as the “child” of Abraham and Hagar. I am convinced God is trying to bring out of this spoiled strong-willed teen, his own personality and sense of agency (self-determination). We hear later that he is capable of hunting in harsh environments, honing his skills to provide for his mother instead of being carried around by her. Instead of being overshadowed by his father’s religious visions and his mother’s prayer warrior faith, God needs this teen to own and embark on his own spiritual journey.
So, God WAS telling Abraham, let him go, I’ll take over the parenting from here and I promise you that I make him into a nation. A nation can never happen as long as you two keep carrying him around on your backs like a baby! Now, listen to the new, very specific instructions given to Hagar by the Angel in verse 18- “lift him up and seize him strongly by the hand!” No more piggy backing! I think Hagar hears what is meant by this. For in the next verse, verse 19, the narrator describes her actions as “she went, and filled the bottle with water and gave THE LAD drink!” Did you catch that switch? Then, this whole event is summarized in verse 20 as “God was with THE LAD and he grew up.” May I suggest this is a wilderness coming-of-age story? At 17, Ishmael has turned from a “child” to a “young man” of God!
Ishmael becomes a great archer, ready to start his own family, and the next time we encounter him in Gen 25, he is a proud and fearless father of twelve sons who are twelve tribal chieftains with their own great settlements. Ishmael has become a man of God and looking back, he must have forgiven Abraham and Isaac for he does go back to the family and faith community that rejected him and honors Abraham by burying him side by side with Isaac as the two sons of Abraham Genesis 25:9 “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite”.
So, the God of Hagar (God who sees) and Ishmael (God who hears) DID love them and protect them. In fact, in protecting them - God may have needed to separate them from Abraham who was infantilizing Ishmael, and Sarah who would always be nervously suspicious of their motives. Home was no longer a healthy environment for Ishmael to grow up in. It was in love for all four persons that God intervened and led each one in different ways.
So, where do you see yourself in this story? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?
1. Are there toxic people, or even good people who bring out the worst in you, that you need to separate from as Sarah needed to do, as supported by God?
2. Are you Abraham and is God asking you to stop smothering and worrying about someone and release them emotionally, to let them go in God’s care?
3. Are you Hagar, and is God asking you, instead, to accompany that troubled person but to stop enabling so they can hit rock bottom, painful as that may be, and reach out to God for themselves? To stay near to lift them up and hold them strongly by the hand when they are ready to grow in a healthy way?
4. Are you Ishmael, is God shutting all the usual doors and expelling you from your comfort zone – in order to forge a new unconventional spiritual journey in the wilderness, depending on Him alone?
What is God calling you to do? I don’t know, but what I can tell you is that from the Bible, emerges an incomparably wise picture of God, full of boundless compassion, unafraid to epitomize tough love when it’s needed. The God of Hagar and Ishmael is a God you can fully trust even if you are outside the box, out of the closet, out of the institution, or even, dare I say it, out of your current faith community. For God is bigger than all of those. God's love is wider than all of those. And the God who sees and hears will always be there for you.
