Genesis 21:9-21
Cast Out the Bondwoman and Her Son
(A Picture of the Day of Pentecost)
Introduction: Reading the stories in the Old Testament often leaves us wondering about why they’re in the Bible. With each new account, we need to re-ask it again. Why was the story of Cain and Abel there? What about the story of the Tower of Babel? Why is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah given?
Today, we’ll look at the account of Hagar and Ishmael as they leave the home of Abraham and start life apart from them. While we’re looking at the account, we have to remember that it’s a part of what God decided to include in His word and therefore it must be relevant to our understanding of how He interacts with His people.
We looked at the overall purpose of Hagar and Ishmael’s inclusion in the Bible before, and today will be a partial review of that. We’ll include some things that are new too. One of the interesting studies that we’ve looked at, and that we will continue to look at, concerns the people who are somehow later included in the genealogy of Jesus – like Lot’s girls.
Interestingly, though some pretty sketchy people are found in His ancestral records, there is no one from Hagar or Ishmael to be found leading to Jesus. The key to understanding why is in understanding the grace of the Lord in salvation apart from works of the law.
There are no works of the law which will save us, and as we’ll see, Hagar and Ishmael are pictures of the law and therefore they are excluded from Jesus’ genealogy. Such are the dealings of God with man. The Bible is a beautiful story of redemption from sin which comes solely by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text Verse: 29 These are their genealogies: The firstborn of Ishmael was Nebajoth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 30 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, 31 Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael. 1 Chronicles 1:29-31
Hagar bore Abraham a son named Ishmael. That son then bore 12 sons of his own. But unlike Isaac, who was born of a promise, Ishmael was born in the normal way. Sarah and Isaac are a picture of grace while Hagar and Ishmael are a picture of the law. The law cannot save; only God’s grace through our faith saves and so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.
I. Cast out the Bondwoman and Her Son
Last week’s sermon gave details about the birth, circumcision, and weaning of Isaac. The last verse we looked at was verse 8 which said, “So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.”
The next verse is our first verse today which is verse 9…
9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.
The “son of Hagar the Egyptian” is Ishmael, and he’s not mentioned by name, but rather by his mother’s name and nation. This is to show the contrast between Isaac, who was named in the preceding verse and Ishmael. Saying “the son of Hagar the Egyptian”, rather than “Ishmael”, is to remind us that as the Israelites were never to return to Egypt, we as Christians are never to return to the bondage of the Law.
Isaac is now the center of attention, the son of promise, and the inheritor of Abraham’s estate. In contrast, the older son is still just the son of a maid and is excluded from the spiritual and land promises that God has revealed to Abraham.
His scoffing occurred during the feast mentioned in the previous verse. Isaac is now three years old and this is his initiation from being a baby to being a young boy who can feed himself. For whatever reason, Ishmael was scoffing at him.
We can let our imaginations run wild about “why” because nothing else is given. Maybe he was dressed up in a cute little ceremonial outfit. Maybe he was still struggling to feed himself. Maybe he was getting all of daddy Abraham’s attention and this made Ishmael jealous. Ishmael is about 17 at this time and … well, you know how teenagers get.
Whatever the reason, he’s scoffing. This isn’t mere “laughing” though. A different word is used than the word yitsak which is the laughing connected to Isaac’s name. Instead, the word me-se-heq is used.
The meaning can vary in intensity, but a stronger and less happy meaning is certainly intended. This becomes all the more certain when we see what Paul writes about this account in the New Testament. There, in the book of Galatians, he says this –
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Galatians 4:28, 29
Paul calls it outright persecution and therefore Ishmael’s laughing was contemptuous at best and possibly threatening toward his younger half-brother. Sarah saw this and was appalled. A seventeen year old mocking someone’s precious baby in any generation would be enough to upset a mom. How much more when they lived in the same camp!
Because Paul labels it persecution, and because of the timing of what has occurred, this then is the beginning of the fulfillment of a verse we looked at many, many weeks ago in Genesis 15. At the time God declared Abraham righteous and then confirmed His covenant with him, He spoke these words to him –
“Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. Genesis 15:13
This concept of Ishmael persecuting Isaac is critical to understanding the timing of this statement from God to Abraham. From this account today, it will be 400 years before the Israelites will be led out of Egypt and from the hard bondage that they had suffered both there and in their time in Canaan.
This then is about 30 years after the promise to Abraham. Little details like these, in what are otherwise sentences of relative obscurity, become instrumental in understanding God’s promises, and His faithfulness in keeping them.
Talking about faithfulness to His promises… a few weeks ago we looked at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and how it pictures the coming rapture. Do you think that God would put those hints of what He will do into his word from an account over 4000 years ago if he didn’t really intend to follow through with the plan?
I know it seems like our lives are often out of control and that there is nothing firm or stable to hold onto, but that is the farthest thing from the truth. God has a plan which is so detailed, so minute in what it reveals to us, and intends for us, that we have every reason to stand firm in our hope and hold fast to our convictions.
The thing we should take away from these details is that He is a God of details. Every sore back, every lost loved one, every sleepless night… all of it – He has it all under control and He will complete what He has started. If Jesus can overcome the cross, we can overcome through Him. Stand firm on that.
10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.”
Of course, about 50% of the people who read this verse come away with the sense that Sarah, and even Abraham, have committed some type of great offense by both thinking this and eventually following through with it, as we’ll see in a few minutes. But the context of the account, and the rest of the Bible, make it clear that Sarah is both right and just in her words – “Cast out this bondwoman and her son.”
The word she uses for “cast out” is garesh and it is used elsewhere, such as in Leviticus, to indicate an actual divorce. This is probably exactly what Sarah is implying. Even though she calls her a “bondwoman” she is also labeled elsewhere as being Abraham’s wife.
So what Sarah is asking is for something of a legal and formal declaration that Hagar is out…not just as a slave, but also as a wife of Abraham. The second half of the verse assures us that this is so – “for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son.”
Now listen to what Paul says about the rights of the heir in Romans 4, remembering that Ishmael is a picture of the sons of the law and Isaac is a picture of the sons of grace –
“For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,”
Before we go on, we’re going to revisit Galatians 4 again, as we have several times already, to understand why this account is in here and what significance it has both to you and to all people who are free from the constraints of law because of the work of Jesus –
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children Than she who has a husband.” 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Now that we’ve seen the purpose of the actors in the play, we can look again at Ishmael’s laughing and make more connections. This is exactly what God wants us to do because he specifically notes it in His word.
The first is that Ishmael probably looked at this little boy and couldn’t believe that he would be the father of many nations and the son of promise. He probably wondered how a little boy, so small and helpless, could ever meet the Lord’s purposes.
But Paul, in the New Testament reminds us of how this is so –
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
This scoffing of Ishmael then is a picture in itself. Just as Hagar and Ishmael point to the law and Sarah and Isaac to grace, Ishmael’s scoffing points to the scoffing of Israel at the coming of the Holy Spirit –
Explain the lead-up to this part of Acts 2 –
12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”13 Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.
The older brother, Ishmael, is a picture of the people of the older covenant – the bondage of the law and those who held to it. He scoffed at his younger brother, just as those in Jerusalem scoffed at those under the New Covenant grace found in Christ.
Even more amazing is that they both occurred on a feast day. The first was at the weaning of Isaac, when he moved from milk to solid food, and the second was at the weaning of God’s people at Pentecost when they went from spiritual milk to spiritual solid food.
And then we need to look again at that unusual word garesh or “divorce” that was given to Hagar. Why is this so specifically included? We don’t even need to leave the Law of Moses to understand the implications of this. Here is Deuteronomy 24. Listen carefully –
When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, 2 when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, 4 then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
There was a marriage contract at the time of the law and we were divorced to that through Christ. The symbolism of Hagar is absolutely clear. We are never to return to the law. Paul explains this marriage concept in Romans 7 to help us understand clearly –
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (vs. 4)
Can you see now how important it is to have the foundation of all things as are recorded in the book of Genesis? It is a marvel, a glory, and a testament to the wisdom and the power of God for all who believe.
God included this story of a boy laughing at his younger brother as a type or shadow of those under the law laughing at their younger brother of promise – the church, at its own feast of weaning.
11 And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son.
It’s quite evident from the previous accounts in Abraham’s life, that he is a truly honorable, non-confrontational, and family-oriented man. He took Lot along when he travelled to Canaan. He gave him the choice of choosing what portion of the land to take when they needed to separate.
He went after Lot and rescued him when he was taken captive. He pleaded with Lord before the destruction of Sodom for them to be spared if at all possible, certainly because he knew Lot was there.
These things and others we’ve seen all point to Abraham’s character and conduct. So when he heard what Sarah was proposing, it had to be really tough on him. No matter what the situation between him and Hagar was, Ishmael is his son and he’s been raised as such for 17 years.
And now he’s being asked to cut this tie and send his son out into a hostile and unforgiving land. The Jewish writer Pirke Eliezer notes that of all of the evils which came upon Abraham in his long life, this was the hardest and most grievous in his sight.
12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.
Whatever misguided notions people think or teach about what Sarah proposed and Abraham followed through with, God had no problem with it. It’s always best to think tough issues through and try to understand “why” things occur and what they lead to rather than make emotional and knee-jerk assumptions.
Even in America we kick young adults out of our homes when they cause problems. I’m guessing, although I can’t speak for how they’ll respond, that one…. oooor both, of my children will testify to this.
So what is the point of this verse being here? Like the symbolic nature of the entire account as we looked at in Galatians 4, this verse is cited by Paul, in the book of Romans, to remind us about God’s election –
“But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” Romans 9:6, 7
God spoke to Abraham and told him not to worry. He’d already given a promise about Ishmael several years earlier. “Abraham, don’t you remember? I told you he would become fruitful and multiply and that he would be the father of 12 princes. It’ll all work out as it should.”
13 Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.”
This promise is repeated to Abraham from Genesis 17:20 and it will be confirmed in Genesis 25:16. God told Abraham that Ishmael would have 12 sons and we find out later that he did. And this is the reason for the text verse I gave today from 1 Chronicles. In that genealogy of the people of the world, Ishmael is remembered even there.
Through the sons of Ishmael will come a chain of events which will eventually lead to the deliverance of the Israelites 400 years later. It was his descendants who bought Israel’s son Joseph from his brothers and then sold him to Potiphar the Egyptian.
If this didn’t happen, Joseph would never have ascended to the right hand of Pharaoh. Every detail of history is carefully and minutely woven together to lead to the fulfillment of God’s marvelous plan.
Likewise, through the law, which Ishmael pictures, will come the deliverance of the world when Jesus comes and fulfills that very law on our behalf and then sits down at the right hand of God. The patterns laid down in this simple account about Ishmael are astonishing…
II. Wandering in the Wilderness
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
Again, like other times in the Bible, it is noted as “early morning.” God probably spoke to Abraham in a dream, and like every other time He speaks to him, he immediately obeys. There’s no dallying in the life of Abraham. When God speaks, he listens and acts.
If you read this verse in some versions, like the King James or the ESV, it’s almost confusing what’s going on. Here’s the ESV –
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.
Because of the wording, it almost sounds like Abraham put the bread, the water, and Ishmael on Hagar’s shoulder and sent her out. The implication is that this poor lady with a little boy is being sent out to wander around in the wilderness. This isn’t at all what you should imagine, but because of the confusion, most depictions of Hagar and Ishmael show her with a little boy.
He is, as I said earlier, about 17 years old. Abraham gave the bread and water to her to carry because that’s the job of the women in the Middle East – carry stuff around. This is found throughout the Bible and even to this day if you go over there, you’ll see women… carrying stuff around.
Plus Abraham had a boy to hug and probably cry over. If he’d given the stuff to Ishmael, the bread would get smushed and the water might get spilled. Putting the stuff on Hagar is both expedient and right. The parting had to be a heartbreaker, but obedience is what he’s been called to and he is a man of obedience.
No matter how sorrowful to our human nature, anyone who is fearful and devout will walk in his ways and will, like Abraham, obey immediately, even when it concerns family or loved ones. As the Geneva Bible cites, “True faith renounces all natural affections to obey God’s commandment.”
Remember, this is a picture of the law and grace. We are asked to cut our tie to the law. Not in part, but in its entirety. We are to be obedient to what the Lord has accomplished for us by setting aside the law in exchange for grace, just as Abraham has done with Ishmael.
15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs.
Based on Ishmael’s age of 17, this verse might seem a bit improbable. How could a 17 year old be in the condition he’s in before his mom who is much older? The answer is found in our genetic make up.
Men are about 60% water weight and women about 50%. But, men are about 3-5% body fat and women are about 10-16%. The percentage of body fat for women is greater than that for men due to the demands of childbearing and other hormonal functions.
Because of this, men burn off water more quickly and ladies hold it in. Ishmael’s loss of water was enough to make him weary before her, and so she put him under a shrub to get him out of the sun.
16 Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.
Bowshot – only time in OT kim-ta-kha-ve. A bowshot is a long way, about a half a mile. Hagar couldn’t bear the thought of being close enough to hear Ishmael dying or even calling out for water and so she went far enough away so that she not only wouldn’t see him, but she wouldn’t hear him as well.
Not only that, she also didn’t want Ishmael to hear her own cries too. The expression to “lift her voice” means that she really sobbed over what was happening and she didn’t want her boy to hear. This is a really, really sad and desperate scene which will be repeated throughout the Bible – people facing death.
In fact, it’s something that simply can’t be missed. Death is something everyone will face – both in others and eventually in them. The wages of sin, after all, is death. And thus we are all destined to die because we are all sinners. We each need a Savior.
The thing that I needed to know was why… why does God include this verse? Why is her immense weeping mentioned? It’s there for a reason and this isn’t arbitrary. On Monday as I was practicing this sermon for the first time, it came to me. It is a picture of the end of the tribulation period when Jesus and His church return to rescue the people of Israel.
According to Daniel 9:24-27, God has reserved 7 more years for Israel after the rapture of the church. This is the final 7 years of the Law of Moses in Israel. At the very end of this period, when Christ returns to His people, we read this in Zechariah 12 –
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
Hagar is a picture of the law, she is mourning over the coming possible death of her son. The same mourning will be seen in Israel at the death of the law through the death of Christ, when the grace of Christ is bestowed upon them. The proof of this is coming in the verses ahead.
III. God Hears
17 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.
Here we have a play on words – v’yshma or “and heard God” the voice of the lad whose name is Ishmael – God hears. This reminds us of the promise made all the way back in Chapter 16 when God told Hagar to name her child, Ishmael. Why? Because God heard then, God hears now, and God will always be there to hear.
And here He is, “the angel of God” calling out to Hagar – “What ails you, Hagar?” In other words, why are you crying… “Don’t you remember my promises of the past? Here I am ready to fulfill them to you now. Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad…”
God heard their cries then, and God will hear the cries of His people Israel and He will respond. I hope you can see the parallels of what God is doing, and why these verses are here – God is returning to tend to Israel after their time in the wilderness. He is ever faithful to His unfaithful people.
18 Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”
Once again, this goes right back to Genesis 16 and the original promise to Hagar before Ishmael was born. “Don’t you remember Hagar? I’m right here tending to every detail.” And so He tells her to walk back the half mile or so she’d wandered away and to hold the boy because what He promised will come about – Ishmael will become a great nation.
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.
Hagar trots back and once she gets there, her eyes are opened to see a well of water. There are two possibilities about this. The first is that she missed this well the first time and it’s the entire reason he told her to go back. Where she laid him was right where the water was all along.
The second option is that God just opened up the earth and made water appear as He does elsewhere in the Bible. He did it for the Israelites in the wilderness, He did it for Samson after a battle, and He continues to do it for His people when the need arises. Isaiah almost mirrors the need of Ishmael when he wrote these words in his 41st chapter –
“The poor and needy seek water, but there is none,
Their tongues fail for thirst.
I, the Lord, will hear them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in desolate heights,
And fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
And the dry land springs of water. Isaiah 41;17, 18
The answer to the question is that the Water of Life has always been there, but the well was hidden and so Hagar had missed it. God directed her back to her son first and then to the waters which would take care of them and sustain them for the rest of their journey. And this is what will happen for Israel in the years ahead.
The Water of Life, Jesus, has been there all along, but in order for salvation to come to the gentiles as Paul tells us in Romans, their eyes were blinded to it. But God will direct them to it as it said in Zechariah 13 – “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.”
The amazing story of God’s grace reaches to all of the people of the world and God fully intends to fulfill His promises to His beloved people, Israel. And this is how He will do it. But understand, this is really what He does for each person who is saved by Jesus.
He directs us to His Son first and then He gives us the spiritual ability to see that where He is, is also the spot where the Water of Life is. And then, astonishingly, He gives us the choice to drink that water or to reject it. The funny thing is that despite the thirst every human has, not everyone will drink from the Water of life.
20 So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
God has His purposes and He has made His plans. There is no thing which will thwart them, though we think we can. Atheists love to pretend He isn’t there, people work hard to remove His presence from society, and at times, even believers attempt to suppress the knowledge of Him for a spell. But God is there.
He was there at the creation. He was with Noah for the long days of the flood. He was there with Abraham as he waited for a son to be born, and God was with the lad, Ishmael. And because He was, the boy became a man of the wilderness and an archer.
And he certainly taught the skill of archery to his own sons because more than a thousand years later, Isaiah spoke of the clan of Ishmael’s son Kedar, noting their skills as renown archers –
For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail; 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.” Isaiah 21:16, 17
A thousand years in time and God was still there watching and guiding the streams of human history. And he is doing it to this day – even in your own life. He is there and He is tending to you…
21 He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Without a father to set him up with a wife, Hagar stepped in and made the selection. As she was from Egypt, so is her daughter in law, Ishmael’s wife. Both the root and the branch of Ishmael proceed from the same people.
The place where they settled is called the Wilderness of Paran. This place is so absolutely barren and wild that being an archer makes all the sense in the world. You can’t be a very successful farmer in a place like this. It’s around the area of Mount Sinai and is just as unforgiving as any place you’d ever want to visit. (Paran – place of caverns – explain)
Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian said that his 12 sons and their descendants after them came to inhabit all the country from the Euphrates to the Red Sea and called it Nabatene. They are an Arabian nation, and at least until the time of Josephus, they named their tribes from the 12 sons of Ishmael.
In the end, this story of Ishmael is one that ultimately points to the amazingly glorious work of Christ in fulfilling the law that we cannot fulfill. Let me explain to you the significance of this…
NEXT WEEK Genesis 21:22-33 (The Well of the Seven)
God Hears, God Remembers, and God Responds
Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian Hagar
Whom she had borne to Abraham
Scoffing at Isaac, BUT this didn’t go very far
Because she asked her husband to make them scram
Cast out this bondwoman and her son
For her son will not be an heir with Isaac – he’s the only one
And the matter was displeasing in Abraham’s sight
Because of his son, he didn’t think it was right
But God said, “Don’t let this be displeasing in your sight
Because of either the lad or because of your lady servant
Whatever Sarah has said, treat it as right
Listen to her voice, for in Isaac to your seed I will be observant
Yet, I will also make a nation of your son Ishmael
Because He is your seed it will come about
So Abraham rose early in the morning before the breakfast bell
In the word of his God, he never held a doubt
He took bread and a skin of water and put it on her shoulder
And he gave the boy to Hagar and sent her away
Then she departed and wandered through shrub and boulder
In the Wilderness of Beersheba where only the donkeys bray
And when the water in the skin was completely gone
She placed the boy under a shrub she found there
And she went as far as an arrow is shot when drawn
For to see the boy die is something she couldn’t bear
So she sat opposite him and lifted her voice and wept
Into anguish of soul was her whole life swept
And God heard the voice of the lad
Then the angel of God called out of heaven to her
“What ails you, Hagar? Things aren’t all that bad
Fear not for God has heard the cries and will handle this for sure
“Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand
For I will make him a great nation
Then God showed her a well of water in the desert sand
And she was certainly filled with joy and elation
So she went and filled the skin with the water
And gave the lad a refreshingly long drink
It was probably better than eggs and a bagel with butter
Even better than a 7-11 slurpee I would think
So God was there tending to the boy
And he dwelt in the wilderness after he grew
Becoming an archer his arrows he would deploy
The life of a hunter is the life that he knew
He dwelt in the wilderness of Paran
And from Egypt his mother took for him a wife
And in the Arabs today his name lives on
Because God looked after Ishmael’s life
In the same way, God is there with you
And He will always lead if you don’t know what to do
When things seem helpless and out of our control
That is the time on Him all our cares we should roll
God loves His people, the proof is in His Son
Our Lord Jesus, who came to show us His Father’s heart
And through His cross and the empty tomb the battle has been won
It is through calling on Him that our new life can start
Fellowship with our Creator is restored through His life
Yes because of Jesus all things become brand new
Between God and man, there is no longer strife
Because the devil’s work, Jesus did undo
Thank You Lord, let us shout out Your praise
And worship You in holiness for eternal days
Hallelujah and Amen…