Scripture Daily

Context No. 3732 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 21:18-23: in context

18Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand. For I will make him a great nation.” 19God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the container with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and as he grew up, he became an archer. 21He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother got a wife for him out of the land of Egypt. 22At that time, Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. 23Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.”

Hagar, cast out with her son Ishmael, sits weeping in the desert, out of water, expecting the boy to die. But God hears the boy's cry and opens Hagar's eyes to see a well of water that was there all along. The water for their rescue was near; she simply could not see it in her despair, until God opened her eyes.

There is comfort here for our own moments of despair. Sometimes the provision we need is nearer than we can see, and God must open our eyes to it. Hagar's rescue came not from a new miracle but from seeing what God, in his mercy, showed her was already there. And the passage adds, God was with the boy, and he grew. Even Ishmael, outside the line of promise, was not outside God's care. When we feel abandoned and cannot see any way forward, God may be about to open our eyes to a provision that is nearer than we knew, for he hears our cry and is with us still.

In my moments of despair, when I cannot see any way forward, do I trust that God hears me and may open my eyes to a provision nearer than I knew?

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