An old hymn I love says, “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform He plants his footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm.” I thought about that hymn as I looked at our text for today in Genesis 21. There is a mystery about this text, which is not easy to explain.
In our recent sermons, we have been looking at Abraham. You will recall how God called him to go to Canaan, a land he had never seen. You will recall how God told Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation and that he and Sarah would bear a child in their old age. But in our last sermon we find Abraham and Sarah questioning God about his ability to permit Sarah to bear a child in her old age. God comes back and says, is there anything too hard for God? You may remember that Sarah had told Abraham to have relations with her servant girl named Hagar, and Hagar bore Abraham a son by the name of Ishmael. They thought they were helping God out.
How many times do we think God is too slow? So we go on our own strength trying to do what only God can do. I’ve been there and maybe you have too. But we can’t hurry God up. We have to wait on God. God works by his own time table. We may think he is late, but he is always on time. You had better wait on God. Somebody say, Wait on God.
Nevertheless, Sarah in fact did have a son in her old age. The son’s name was Isaac. In the earlier part of Chapter 21, Abraham and Sarah are celebrating the birth of their son Isaac. That brings us to our text for today. They are all living in the same household which includes Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, the servant girl Hagar and her son by Abraham, Ishmael. But there is tension in the household. There is bad feeling between Sarah and Hagar. Sarah is jealous of Hagar because she had a child and Sarah was unable to have one until Isaac was born. In those days a woman almost felt cursed if she did not bear a child. There had been bad feelings between Sarah and Hagar before. When Hagar found out she was pregnant she ridiculed Sarah because she did not have a child. Sarah became so angry with Hagar that she kicked her out of the house even though she was pregnant. Abraham permitted her to do this even though Hagar was pregnant with his child. But God intervened and told Hagar to go back to the house. Therefore, there was a history of bad feelings between the two.
Now this brings us to our text tor today. Some commentators have said that this is a very difficult text because there are some things here that are hard to understand. But let us see how the story unfolds. One day Sarah sees Ishmael and Isaac together. Ishmael must be about 10 or 12 years old. Isaac is a small boy. Gen 21:9 says that Sarah saw the son of Hagar mocking. He evidently was mocking Isaac his half-brother. Now the Hebrew word for mocking can mean playing, mocking, making sport of. There is a difference of opinion as to what the word means here. Translations translate the word differently. Was Ishmael just playing with his half-brother as brothers do? Or was he making fun of Isaac or teasing him, laughing at him. We don’t really know. But anyway when Sarah saw Ismael and Isaac together all of her hatred, jealousy, and anger against Hagar come to the surface. She told Abraham that she would not have that servant be heir with her son Isaac. According to the law, Ishmael and Isaac could be co-heirs of what Abraham possessed. This would also include the promise that Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation. She was determined that that boy not be on an equal footing with her son.
We can imagine her coming to Abraham and saying, “That woman and that son of yours have to get out of my house. I never did like her. I can’t stand her anyone. I wanted to get rid of her before. I want her and that boy out of here right away.” I suppose we can understand Sarah’s jealousy. But the thing about it was that Sarah was responsible for Abraham having a child by Hagar. It wasn’t Abraham’s fault. He was true to his wife. It was Sarah’s idea. Hagar was wrong when she ridiculed Sarah because she could not bear a son. But two wrongs never made a right. But Sarah was wrong at being jealous of Hagar because Hagar’s son was Abraham’s son. Didn’t she realize that Abraham loved his son? But poor Abraham is in the middle of the mess. Both Isaac and Ishmael are his sons. He loves both of them equally. They are part of his flesh.
We see this problem often today with blended families. A woman marries a man who has children from a previous relationship. Or a man marries a woman who has children from a previous relationship. This situation is as old as the Bible. Trouble is likely to rear its head if the couple doesn’t deal with it off the bat. Either one might not get along with the other’s children from a previous relationship. It takes a lot of prayers and hard counseling to ensure that the relationship in the family can be worked out. Many of us have had experiences similar to this. Go into such a relationship recognizing the possibility of conflict arising. But Sarah wants Hagar and her son out of her house. She doesn’t even care what happens to them as long as they get out of her house.
On the other hand, can you imagine how Abraham feels? He is between a rock and a hard place. He loves his son Ishmael but he knows how Sarah feels about his son. We can imagine he tries to reason with Sarah.” Now baby you know I love you. God knows I do. But you are trying to kick my son out of the house. I love you but I also love my son. Why can’t we come to some agreement on this?” But Sarah is persistent. “I want that woman and her son out of here. Tomorrow is not soon enough. I want them out of here now.” Abraham continues trying to reason with her. “But baby that’s my son. Don’t you care what happens to him? I love my boy. He is my oldest son, my firstborn son.” How would you feel if your husband or wife said that you would have to cast your child from a previous relationship out in the street? Can you feel or understand what Abraham is going through? He probably thinks I love her but this is a hard woman. What am I going to do? Verse 11 says that the whole thing was grievous to Abraham because he loved his son. Abraham loved both of his sons but in different ways. Ishmael was his firstborn son. But Isaac was the son of his old age. Both of them had miracle births. Abraham was 85 years old when Ishmael was born. He was almost 100 when Isaac was born. Granted that Ishmael’s mother was a young woman, but how many 85-year-old men do you know producing babies? And Isaac was an even greater miracle as both he and Sarah were over 90 years old. Both of his sons were miracles. However, all births are miracles.
In fact, conception itself is a miracle. What are the odds that sperm from a man will fertilize an egg from the woman? Millions of sperms are deposited in the woman. But only a few thousand will get to where the egg is. Only one of these few thousand will actually fertilize the egg. The sperm and the egg fuse to form one cell. One cell! And this one cell will go through an incredible amount of change before resulting in a mature baby about 40 weeks later. We come from one cell out of millions of possibilities. Don’t tell me that is not a miracle. The fact that we were born is a miracle. No wonder Psalm 130 speaks about us being “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Getting back to Abraham’s dilemma, what shall he do? Shall he cast his son out of the house into the wilderness with nowhere to go? Should he stand up to Sarah and put his foot down? Should he risk a breakup of his marriage? What shall he do? Sarah doesn’t have any semblance of mercy. How could she be so cold and cruel to cast a woman and her child out of the house? Doesn’t she realize that boy is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh? Some of me is in that boy. He is my son, my older son, and I love him very much.
What would you do in that kind of situation? Would you show mercy on your son and his mother? We need to understand that these people in the Bible are real people although they lived thousands of years ago. They are real people just like you and me. They have real problems just like you and me. But assuming Abraham prayed to God about the situation, what would God say? The last time there was a situation like this God intervened and sent Hagar back home. What would God say this time? Abraham probably thought he knew what God would say. Abraham believed in a kind and merciful God. Abraham was far ahead of his time. Abraham believed that God cares about everybody. Surely God would tell him not to cast his son and his mother out of the house. God is merciful. God is kind. God is compassionate. Abraham was sure he knew what God’s answer would be.
But you know you can’t always figure God out. You never know what God is up to. To Abraham’s dismay, God tells him to do as Sarah asked. He tells him to let his son Ishmael and his mother leave the house. He tells Abraham that Sarah is right. Let the son and his mother go. Can you imagine how surprised Abraham was? How could a kind and loving God permit something like that? What a strange way for God’s mercy to act. That just doesn’t sound like God, does it? Surely God would have mercy on a mother and her son. You see sometimes there is a mystery to God’s mercy. God doesn’t always act as we think he should. God is a merciful God. But sometimes there is a mystery to his mercy. Have you ever been troubled by the mystery of God’s mercy? Why does God sometimes act in contrast to his mercy? What is God up to? If God is merciful why doesn’t he heal me of my illness? If God is merciful why is my life so hard most of the time? If God is merciful why did he take away my child? Whitney Houston’s daughter may be asking if God is merciful why did my mother die at the young age of 48? God is merciful. But sometimes God’s mercy is hard to understand. There is a mystery to God’s grace and mercy. We don’t know why God acts the way he does at times. Why did God tell Abraham to cast his son out in the cold? Most of the time, we don’t know why God does what he does. That is why his mercy is a mystery. Most of the time we don’t know what God is up to. But there is something we can say about God’s mercy.
God’s mercy must always conform to God’s overall purpose. In verse 12 God tells Abraham why he must let Ishmael leave the house. God says that Isaac is the one who will be Abraham’s heir. God’s purpose is that Isaac alone is the one who will be Abraham’s heir to the promises of God. Ishmael doesn’t fit into God’s purpose. Through Isaac would come God’s promise that he would make Abraham’s seed as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sands on the seashore. God tells Abraham not to worry about his son Ishmael. God says I’ve got Ishmael covered. I’m going to do something great in his life too. I haven’t forgotten about him. But my purpose is to fulfill my promise to you through Isaac. Isaac, the son of your old age, is the one who stays. Ishmael must go. He will not share in the inheritance with Isaac. Sometimes God’s mercy is dependent upon God’s overall purpose. God knows what he is doing. His mercy seems mysterious to us because we don’t know what God’s purpose is. All God asks for us is to trust him. Have faith that God knows what he is doing. His purpose may be a mystery to us, but God knows what he is doing. Trust God. We must trust that God knows what he is doing. Just trust him. Although we don’t understand what he is up to, trust him anyhow. Even if what he does is a mystery to us just trust him anyhow. God knows what he is doing. He doesn’t do things in a haphazard way. Life to God is not a jigsaw puzzle. He knows how to put the pieces together according to his will and purpose. Just trust him. Somebody say, Just trust him. That’s what Abraham did, His heart was heavy. It must have hurt Abraham to the very core, but he got up early in the morning, took some bread and a bottle of water, gave it to Hagar, and sent her and the boy into the wilderness. It seemed like a harsh thing to do. It seemed like a merciless act. But Abraham obeyed God. Abraham obeyed God all through his life. Now he does one of the hardest things he has done. He sends his son out into the wilderness not knowing what shall happen to him, not knowing if he will ever see him again. Yet I believe that Abraham trusted that God would take care of his son. When the rubber hit the road, Abraham believed that God would take care of his son.
There is a second thing we can learn from God’s mysterious mercy. The first thing was that God’s mercy must always conform to his purpose. The second thing is that God’s purpose will never exclude us from his mercy. Abraham knew down deep in his heart that God would take care of his son. God had told Abraham that he would make a great nation out of Ishmael. Abraham knew that God’s purpose would not exclude Ishmael from God’s mercy. In the final analysis, God would take care of Ishmael, his son. We don’t know that God’s purpose or destiny is for us, but we know that nothing can separate us from God’s mercy. Leave God’s purpose up to God. Sometimes his actions make us wonder if he does care for us. But God’s purpose will never exclude us from his mercy. We still serve a merciful God. Sometimes it seems as if God has forgotten how to be merciful to us. But God has not forgotten us. We don’t understand the mystery of his mercy but hold on and realize that God’s purpose will never exclude us from his mercy. God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. We must believe that God will be merciful to us no matter what.
Then the third thing we can say is that God’s mercy is available to all who call upon him. We see this illustrated in the closing verses of this passage. Soon that bottle of water and the loaf of bread gave out. Hagar brought her child and put him under a bush. Then she went away a little way because he could not bear to see her son die. She wasn’t so much concerned about herself, but she was concerned about her son. That’s just the way mothers are. So she sat there not wishing to see her son die. She began to weep. Then the Bible says that the Lord heard the voice of the boy. The mother was weeping but the boy had enough sense to cry out to God. God didn’t respond to the mother who was crying, but he heard the voice of the boy. Why did God respond to the voice of the boy, and not the weeping of the mother? God doesn’t want us to cry and weep over a situation. He wants us to call out to him. We don’t know how old Ishmael was. There is a dispute as to his real age. Some say he was of older age, and others say he was of a younger age. But whatever his age he had enough sense to call out to the Lord. Don’t sit there bemoaning your situation. Don’t sit there in the midst of your own pity party. Call out to God. You may bemoan the fact that you are in a wilderness without any visible means of support. You may not understand why you are in a situation such as this. But call on the name of the Lord. The Lord will hear your call. God’s mercy is available to all who call on him. You don’t have to understand the mystery of God’s mercy. You don’t have to figure God out. His ways are past finding out. But call on the Lord. He will hear your call. While on others he is calling, he will not pass you by.
Then the Lord called out to Hagar and said, “What’s wrong with you Hagar? What are you afraid of? Why did you sit there crying? Don’t you know that I am the Lord your God. Don’t you know that nothing is too hard for me to do? Don’t you know that I will never leave you or forsake you?” Then he said, “Open your eyes” And when she opened her eyes, she saw a well of water. She went over to the well, filled the empty bottle with water, and gave it to her son.
Some of you may be like Hagar this morning. Hagar may have wondered why God allowed her and her son to be in the wilderness. She didn’t understand the mystery of God’s mercy. She didn’t understand why God would put her in this situation. You may be in some wilderness experience. But cry out to God. Don’t be concerned about the mystery of God’s mercy. Don’t worry about it. Fear not. Call on the Lord. He will hear your call. You may be in some wilderness now. But call on the Lord. He will hear your cry. Whitney Houston’s funeral was yesterday. I suppose many of you saw it. She sang a song in the movie, The Preacher’s Wife, which can apply to us today. If you love the Lord, just call upon him. “ I love the Lord, he heard my cry and pitied every groan. Long as I live while troubles rise, I’ll hasten to his throne.”
In your wilderness now, God will hear your cry. He will pity your every groan. As long as you live while troubles rise, hasten to his throne. You don’t know why you are in the wilderness now. Don’t worry about it. You may wonder about the mystery of God’s mercy. Many people before you have pondered about the mysterious mercy of God. Job and David and many others wondered about the mysterious mercy of God. You might ask does anybody care that I am in the wilderness of trouble and woe. Does anybody care what happens to me? But the answer comes back loud and clear. Jesus cares. O yes, he cares. His heart is touched with our grief. When the days are weary and the long nights weary I know my Savior cares. When you are in a wilderness, you have nobody else but God. When perplexed by the mystery of God’s mercy, you can do as our ancestors did in years past and say, “Father, I stretch my hands to thee. No other help I know. If thou withdraw thyself from me ah, whither shall I go?” There is a mystery in God’s mercy. But God still hears those who call upon him. He still moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. He can still plant his footsteps on the sea and ride upon the storm. He can still do it. Trust in his mysterious mercy.
