God and Hagar: Promise and Provision (Gen. 21:12-21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 09/29/2006

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  God & Hagar:  Promise & Provision

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Genesis 21:12-21

 

            Message of the verse:  “12  But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.  13  ‘And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.’

14 ¶  So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.  15  When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.  16  Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, ‘Do not let me see the boy die.’ And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.  17  God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.  18  ‘Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’  19  Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.  20  God was with the lad, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer.  21  He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.”

 

As I read this section of Scripture it may seem a bit harsh as to what Abraham did to Hagar and Ishmael, yet it was what God wanted him to do, for if they would have stayed with Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac there would have been in more trouble, and as I look at it for Paul’s writings in the letter to the Galatians I can see that this was what the Lord wanted done.

 

This seems like it would be a test for the real test that Abraham would go through that is recorded in the next chapter, that of offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice to the Lord.  Abraham was very distressed over what he had to do to his son Ishmael, yet the Lord had told him to do as Sarah wanted done.

 

Earlier in the book of Genesis Sarah was being mean to Hagar and she left them and was about to die in the wilderness, but the Angel of the Lord came to her and made a promise to her that her son would be the father of a great nation, and now as she had to leave Abraham and goes into the wilderness and runs out of water, she seems to have forgotten that promise.  She must have told the story to the Ishmael for he seems to be praying and the Lord answers the prayer by reaffirming the promise that He had made earlier to Hagar about Ishmael.  The Scripture says that because Ishmael was a son of Abraham, that is why the Lord would make a great nation out of Ishmael, and he is the father of the Arabs, for he too had twelve sons who were the father of all of the Arabs of today.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look around at the world situation today it has very much to do with the descendents of Ishmael, the Arabs, and all of the trouble that they are causing has affected most every country in the world today and I wonder why the Lord has allowed all of this to happen.  Yet I know in my heart that God has a plan, and there are many times when I, as a believer in Him, do not know all of the details of that plan, yet I know that cannot make any mistakes, and there is no one who will cause the plans of the Lord to change, so because of all of this I can have faith that the Lord will care for me as He has promised and so I must trust Him to keep His promises.

 

The Word of God has brought great challenges to my heart as I read and studied His Word this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To trust in the promises of the Lord, that He will never leave me nor forsake me, that He will not do harm to me, and will provide for my wife and myself.  These are days of great instability for me as I look at the situation that I find myself in with the situation at Ford and the situation of our investments, yet I must believe that the Lord will never leave me nor forsake me, and has everything in His hands.