The God Of Hagar And Ishmael

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.”