Chapter 14. Genesis 21. Ishmael.
WHEN Abraham was one hundred years old, Isaac, the son of the promise, was born. His name means laughter. Sarah was so happy to have this son, that she said: “God has made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” The child grew and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Ishmael, the son of Hagar, was fourteen years old when Isaac was born. He was old enough to protect and care for his baby brother, but instead of doing that he was unkind and persecuted him. This grieved Sarah, who said to Abraham: “Cast out this bondwoman and her son.” God commanded Abraham to do as Sarah. said; and he rose early in the morning, and called Hagar, and gave her bread and a bottle of water, and her son Ishmael, and sent her away. They went into the wilderness of Beersheba.
The water in the bottle was soon spent, for it was very hot, and Ishmael was faint. His mother, thinking the boy would die, cast him under a bush, for she could not bear to see him suffer. She went a little further where she sat down and wept.
But God heard Ishmael’s cry, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, saying: “What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation.” And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle and gave the lad a drink.
What patience, what kindness the Lord had for poor willful Hagar and her naughty son! He looked down upon them in pity, and said as it were: “These poor creatures have brought upon themselves this distress: they deserve it, it is true. But I will have mercy upon them and save them from death.”
And the same God, as full of love and pity now as in the days of Hagar, looked down upon us from above, and saw us in all our sins; He saw the sorrow, the trouble and distress that sin has brought into the world, and He said: “These poor sinners are worthy of death, but I love them, and I am not willing that they should perish; so I will find a way to save them.”
But it was not as easy to do this, as it was to open Hagar’s eyes that she might see the well of water. No, for God is a holy God, and He cannot pass over sin. The wages of sin—death—must be paid, and if we are to live, another must die in our stead. So in His great pity and love, God gave His own beloved Son, the only one He had, to bear our punishment! Was there ever love like His? He saved Hagar from temporal death, but he saves us from eternal punishment. “They shall never perish.” Oh! dear unsaved child. dare you turn aside from such love, and refuse the offered Saviour? You may think you are not very much of a sinner, but God is so holy that one small sin would shut you forever from His presence and send you to everlasting punishment. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”
Hagar gratefully took the water offered her, and gave the lad a drink. And God was with him. and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. He became an archer, and his mother gave him a wife from the land of Egypt, and, as God had promised Hagar when she fled to the wilderness, he became the father of a great nation called Arabs.
ML 04/11/1909