Ishmael: God Will Hear

Now we must return once more to Hagar and her son Ishmael. Remember that Ishmael’s name, “God will hear,” came from God (Genesis 16:11). Ishmael would have been around 15 years old when Sarah gave birth to Isaac. We are told in Genesis 21:14 that Sarah saw Ishmael mocking Isaac and thus made certain that Hagar and her son were sent away.

This time Hagar wasn’t running away. She had been sent away and the angel of the Lord found her wandering in the wilderness of Beersheba (again, along the way to Egypt) sitting a bowshot away from her son Ishmael. She had run out of water and couldn’t bear to watch her son die so she separated herself from him and they both wept. But guess what…

God heard them and then asked Hagar this question

What is the matter with you, Hagar?

Hagar had good reasons to cry. She had needs and didn’t know how they would be fulfilled. She couldn’t offer her son what he needed to live. They both needed water and there was none around. Perhaps all those years she endured Sarah’s jealousy, she had endured for the sake of her son and now they had both been sent away and Abraham was no longer providing for them.

The angel of the Lord didn’t wait for an answer to His question. He went on with compassion to say, “Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” God restated His promise that she had heard years ago when she ran away the first time while pregnant with Ishmael.

Rather than scolding her, God offered compassion. He didn’t wait for her to come up with an answer to her woes, but rather reminded her of His promise to her. Hagar had either forgotten or disbelieved God’s promise that she would have many descendants.

Hagar and her son survived. God was with the boy as Hagar raised him in the desert. She later found a wife for him from Egypt. Ishmael went on to have twelve sons, noted in Genesis 25:12-18, and just as the angel of the Lord had said, Ishmael lived in defiance of his family.

We’ve probably all had our Hagar moments; times when we want to go back to the way things used to be. We may want to run away from our roles, escape from our difficulties or simply get back home, however we may define it.

Or there are times when circumstances send us packing, through no desire of our own, and we see no future. Like Hagar, we forget what God has told us or else just flat don’t believe it anymore – if we ever did. We focus on the circumstances we see in front of us and then just can’t bear to look anymore. Instead of running away only physically, we run away emotionally, mentally and/or spiritually. We give up and prepare to lose everything.

In any case, what God has said, He will do. Sometimes, we have to be reminded that He is the God who has heard and will hear.