June 22, 2014, Genesis 21:8–21

June 22, Genesis 21:8–21, Page 16

Our text begins in the middle of a longer narrative. Abraham and Sarah are married. Sarah is barren but asks God for child. Then Sarah encourages Abraham to take her salve Hagar, rape her, and from which Hagar becomes pregnant. This child is Ishmael. Afterward, Sarah too becomes pregnant with Isaac, and Hagar and Ishmael become despised by Sarah. Hagar has already run away once, during her pregnancy, to which God has told her to return, and Hagar praises and names God, “a God of seeing.

Genesis 21:8–21, Page 16

The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 

But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” 

The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, 

“Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” 

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 about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 

And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, 

“What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” 

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 

***

There is a quote going around Facebook that read, “When you are going through a hard time, and wonder where God is, remember, the teacher is always silent during the test.” I thank God, that this not my experience, nor the experience of which our scriptures tell. I know a God who does not administer tests and stand back with arms crossed, lips sealed, red pen in hand, to watch us either fail or succeed. My experience of God, is that when life throws us a test, God hears, and God seeks to provide answers or at least a hall pass. The old adage, that the works of God become more clear the harder our trials, is the quote to which I would rather subscribe. I believe in a present God, and an active God, who works for healing and reconciliation of the universe. And though this scripture makes any school test inconsequential, those hands on, caring, teachers were my favorite anyway, and that same nurturing Spirit is the lens through which I read the character of God in this text. 

I grant that, one could read this text either way. One could see the character of God as encouraging Abraham to send away Hagar and Ishmael into the desert, as if it were a test of faith to the mother, and child, and to their father. Instead, the example provided, is one of care for all. Abraham, our text reads, is distressed on account of his son, and God begins by reminding Abraham that Abraham is accountable for more than his Son. That Hagar the slave woman whom Abraham took is also worthy of care. So much so, that even God promises to care for the slave woman, along with the boy, and that instead of death, the offspring of this slave woman’s son will become a great nation. The outcasts will share in Abraham’s inheritance, the very thing for which Sarah sought to them cast out. God is not a God of the test. God is a God who provides answers of grace when there are only unanswerable questions and dire solutions. 

Yet, still, one could read this text either way. It is easy to picture the scene of Hagar placing the baby Ishmael under the bushes as a test of her faith, as she cries out, “Do not let me look on the death of this child.” It would be easy to pull out the read pen and see the angel’s answer of, “Do not be afraid,” as a correction, one more point knocked off Hagar’s grade. But I don’t think God wants us to fail. I think God is striving for our perfect score, “Do not be afraid,” faith is not about a test, it is about grace and our God is not silent, God speaks. The angel of the Lord comforts Hagar, “God has heard the voice of the boy.” God has answered her cry in the middle of the test, God in fact, answered this cry, from Ishmael’s birth. Ishmael will always be heard by God who Ishmael his name, meaning, ‘God has heard.’ This naming was not a foreshadowing of this test, otherwise it might mean, “God will hear,” Instead, God names Ishmael with the understanding that the weakest and most vulnerable among us need to be intensionally heard. God took special care to name and hear this slave child conceived by the rape of his master and father, raised in by a helpless mother. God knew that their voice would be marginalized, and therefore God was not silent but listened and spoke not in red pen, but with comfort and grace.

Still, once could read this text either way, seeing God’s instructions to Hagar as a reprimand, “Come lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand.” One could read this text as if she had failed the test of faith and was now writing the correct answer on the chalkboard 100 times. But I don’t read this text that way, nor do I expect a powerless mother to hold her baby in her arms and watch it die, perhaps the heaviest of burdens. Instead, I see God offering a powerless Hagar, God’s power, to lift up and quench thirst. God simply opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. This is not a silent, stoic; God, this is a God who responds to life’s tests with an open book of more than one could ever google; this is a God who sees life’s tests as partner work with divine intervention. 

I am not sure how one could get to the end of this text and still see God as silent, and testing. God is a hands on compassionate teacher who teaches that we might graduate and overturn the life’s tests into flourishing in God’s creation. During Ishmael’s childhood, our text reads that, ‘God was with the boy.’ Ishmael grew up and became an expert with the bow, transversing the same distance which once separated he and his mother in their near death. Likewise, Hagar the one who could never be called wife, but was wife with out choice, was given the power to choose her son’s wife from their own people so that it was true wife rather than a slave. These answers God gives are so far beyond the test life gives, beyond extra credit, beyond school, beyond our knowing. They are are the answers from a God who has named us, hears us, empowers us, and is with us. “When you are going through a hard time, and wonder where God is, remember, the teacher is always answers during the test.”