Three Prayers: Provision in Time of Desperation, Genesis 21:5-21

In the prayer meeting sessions I have been leading, we have been considering the examples of Abraham and Lot in their respective sojourns in the land of promise. Lot we have found to be a disappointing example on many counts due to his worldliness. In Abraham we have some remarkable examples of faith, obedience, courage—take for example his attacking of the five kings to save Lot—and cowardice, cowardice of such a degree that leads him to prostitute his wife on at least two separate occasions. The sending away of Hagar and the unborn Ishmael into the wilderness was likewise a reprehensible act instigated by Sarah, even though the Lord had a covenantal purpose in it. We are going to move forward in our reading by a couple of chapters, skipping elaborations of some of this behavior on the part of Abraham and Lot, except to mention it. We’ll talk about Abraham briefly, and we’ll come back to him in later messages, but tonight we will consider mainly this episode in the life of Hagar and Ishmael.

Hagar’s predicament

Back in Genesis chapter 16, we considered the case of Sarah’s giving her handmaid to Abraham as a work-around to God’s covenant promise. It resulted in envy, scoffing, jealousy and separation. We have a very similar thing going on here in chapter 21. Man’s violation of the law is never an innocuous, harmless sort of thing. Even in just this life, it leads to great misery. Earlier it was Hagar, when she found that she was pregnant, despising her mistress—then Sarah, dealing harshly with her. Now, it is Ishmael despising Isaac, and Sarah reacting the same way. Hagar and Ishmael are cast out and find themselves in an inhospitable wilderness, ready to die of thirst and starvation.

Their dire state of affairs has brought them to the end of themselves. As the bottle of water diminishes, they wander for a while, apparently lost. They don’t find their way to the Philistine villages to which they are somewhat near. They despair and prepare for death.

Whose fault?

Where does the fault for this lie? There seems to be plenty of blame to go around. Sarah, unable to conceive children, conceives this wicked plan to have children by Hagar. Abraham, in his weakness, goes along with it. Hagar probably participated in the scheme willingly, thinking to better her own lot in life. She and Ishmael demonstrate proud and haughty spirits against Sarah and Isaac. Sarah compounds her earlier sin by cruelty to those whom she brought into this disgraceful affair.

But God, rather amazingly, has a purpose and plan in all of it. He is not the author of sin—in other words, he is not a sinner himself, he does not approve of sin in any fashion, he is not the originator of sin. Nonetheless, he foreordains sin, and in his providence, through the agency of the devil, he brings it to pass. He does it to demonstrate his character and glory by way of contrast. In this case, the sin of Sarah, of Abraham, of Hagar, and of Ishmael is orchestrating the creation of a nation that will play an important role—not a positive one to begin with, but an important one—in the covenant of grace. One day, this nation will sing forth the praise of God for salvation in Christ, after having been a staunch opponent of Christianity for its entire existence.

Three prayers

There are three prayers in this passage. Two of them we know only by inference.

Abraham

The first is Abraham’s prayer as he is grieved by having to send Ishmael and Hagar away. We don’t have Abraham’s prayer, but we have God’s answer: “Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman.” Abraham loved his son, and it seems that there was at least what we might call an apologetic affection that he maintained for Hagar. He knew that they had been, and were being, wronged, and that this separation was a permanent thing. God answers and comforts Abraham, assuring him that they would not die in the wilderness as a result of this sending away.

Hagar

The next prayer is that of Hagar. It is a prayer of despair. She has almost no hope, at least none to express explicitly. Hers is a hoarse cry in the midst of tears. One commentator thinks that she was completely without hope, and that’s why the text says that God answered Ishmael’s prayer instead of hers. We must admit that it is an unusual way that this interaction between God and Hagar and Ishmael is reported. Hagar lifts up her voice and weeps in verse 16. Then the text says, Genesis 21:17, “And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven.” We hear Hagar’s words first, God is said to hear Ishmael, and then he speaks to Hagar in reply.

Let’s keep two things in mind. First, Hagar utters a cry through her parched lips. There is a cry in the midst of this wilderness where there is no one to hear it. It might not be spoken in a manner most demonstrative of faith, but it’s obvious who Hagar is speaking to. She is speaking to God from out of her misery. She lifts up her voice, and weeps. Sometimes that’s the most we can do, and I find it a little hard to blame her much. There was at least a shred of hope in her heart or she would have blasphemed or said nothing. Instead she lets her sorrow be known. That she was a woman of faith we know from chapter 16. It is from Hagar that we have the name of God אֵ֣ל רֳאִ֑י (El-roi), the God who sees (Gen 16:13).

The second thing we have to bolster our case for the value of Hagar’s prayer is that God answers Hagar. “And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven.” To be sure, he reproves her mildly, v. 17, “What aileth thee, Hagar?” But he follows it up with comfort, “Fear not.” God answers such prayers. If you find yourself in deep misery, remember Hagar. Try to lift up your head and express some faith in God, but if you can’t do that, let him know how you feel. The Lord is good and gracious. He will not let you die in hopelessness.

Ishmael

The last prayer we consider tonight is that of Ishmael. It’s not known what Ishmael said. This is one of the prayers that we know only by inference because the Bible here says that “God heard the voice of the lad.” We have not heard Ishmael’s name in this passage at all. He is called Abraham’s son. He is called “the lad.” Hagar calls him “the child.” But do you remember what Ishmael’s name means? He was named by the Lord himself the first time Hagar fled into the wilderness. Genesis 16:11 “And the angel of the Lord said unto her, . . . thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.” That’s what his name means, God shall hear. Here in verse 17 it says that God (אֱלֹהִ֛ים - Elohim) heard (שָׁמַ֧ע - shama) the voice of the lad. Do you hear it: Shama-el? The name means God hears, and he hears Ishmael’s prayer in his time of distress.

Our conception of Ishmael is colored by our knowledge and experience of Ishmael’s descendants. We do have good reason to think that the likeness is not far off. From Gen 16:12, God says that he will be a “wild man.” But he is a wild man that God hears. It’s not impossible that Ishmael himself is one of God’s own people. I would like to think that he is, and that he and Abraham are in fellowship with one another yet today.

Who does God hear?

In closing, only let me say that what we have read this evening teaches us that God hears sinners like Abraham. He hears the hopeless, like Hagar. He hears wild men like Ishmael. Will he not hear you? Will he not hear his own son as we pray in his name? We have a God who hears. Let’s make sure that we are people who speak to him, people, in other words, who pray. God is listening.