Tickled By The Promises Of God - Genesis 21:1-21 Series

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

The part of Abraham’s story, the perspective of Abraham, the lesson we need to grasp out of this is this: That there are some things in our lives that we need to move out even though they’re hard because they’re hindering our ability to enjoy the promise. That’s the application there.

But let’s go on because I want to take now and look at this from the perspective of Hagar. One of the encouraging things in this passage for me is that there is more material about Hagar than about Abraham and Sarah. God is obviously very compassionate. You’re going to see Him caring for her in a very special way. So let’s look at that now and see this whole story. Now we're going to move over to the perspective of Hagar. How is she looking at this? What is God doing in her life?

So she’s out in the wilderness wandering around with her skin of water. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. She said, “Okay, come over here. You lie down here under the bush here. I’m going to go a little distance away.” Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot (let’s say that’s about eighty yards), where she could still see him over there, but she couldn’t hear him, he couldn’t hear her, and she could have some alone time with the Lord. That’s what’s going to take place here. She doesn’t know that. She’s just going away and she’s going to be crying. It says – And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. She’s just distraught.

Parents, I’m sure there are times in your life where you have been distraught over the choices of your children. Remember in this story Ishmael had laughed. He had caused a problem in the party. It was probably something more than just the party, but this was the last straw for them. So she’s going away saying, “Lord, I’m sad not just for me, I’m sad for my child.” Don’t you feel that way sometimes? Your child has done something wrong, your child has moved in a place that they shouldn’t be, and your heart just breaks. That’s what’s happening with Hagar. Her heart is breaking. Young people, you need to know that when you mess up it hurts your parents too. Parents suffer because your parents have wrapped up a lot of their desires in you. That’s important to understand.

So she’s weeping, she’s sad in the midst of this. She seems all alone. It seems like she’s despairing. It seems like nothing else is around that can help her. That’s what it seems like. And that’s how it feels when we are despairing at times. But that really isn’t the case. Watch what happens here in the story.

And God heard the voice of the boy (interesting how He hears the voice of the boy, but is going to talk to Hagar), 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. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” I have a plan here. I’m working that plan out.