Genesis 21:8-17: a reflection

8The child grew and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. 10Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.” 11The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son. 12God said to Abraham, “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your servant. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For your offspring will be named through Isaac. 13I will also make a nation of the son of the servant, because he is your child.” 14Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a container of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15The water in the container was spent, and she put the child under one of the shrubs. 16She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, “Don’t let me see the death of the child.” She sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice, and wept. 17God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

This is a scene of desperation. Hagar and her son Ishmael have been sent away into the wilderness, the water in the skin is gone, and she cannot bear to watch her child die of thirst. She sets him under a bush, walks a little distance off, sits down, and weeps, saying, let me not look on the death of the child. It is about as low a place as a person can be, an abandoned mother watching her son die.

And then this: God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God calls to Hagar, do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Notice who God hears. Not the chosen line, not Abraham and Isaac, but the cast-out servant and her dying child, the ones sent away, outside the covenant family. Their cry reaches heaven, and God acts to save them.

There is deep comfort in this for anyone who feels cast out, abandoned, at the end of their resources with no one to help. God hears. He heard the voice of a dying boy in the wilderness whom others had sent away, and he did not overlook a desperate mother's tears. Wherever you are, however far outside you feel, however abandoned, God hears your voice where you are. You are not beyond his notice. Cry out; the God who heard Ishmael hears you.

Lord, you heard the voice of a dying boy in the wilderness and did not overlook his mother's tears. When I feel cast out, abandoned, at the end of my resources, remind me that you hear my voice where I am. I cry out to you; hear me as you heard Ishmael.