And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a flask of water, and gave [it] to Hagar, putting [it] on her shoulder -- and the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
At dawn Abraham obeys a hard command: send Hagar and Ishmael away with bread and a skin of water. Two questions follow — why did the slave's son have to go, and what became of the two Abraham sent out?
The command cut against Abraham's heart, yet he did not argue or delay. One writer reads the early start as the measure of his faith.
Here was a severe test for Abraham. The thing was very painful to him because of his son. Yet he responded to it. The renunciation was made. "So Abraham rose early in the morning" — here we see the energy of his faith (Genesis 21:11, 14).
Scripture itself reads this household scene as a picture. The two mothers stand for two covenants, and the two sons cannot share one house.
Abraham's two sons should speak to every believer. One was by a slave, the other by a free woman. One was born after the flesh, the other by promise. The mothers answered to the two covenants: Jerusalem that was in bondage with her children, and Jerusalem above, the free mother of the free... the sentence of Scripture is: Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. Grace refuses partnership with law or flesh. The child of promise alone inherits.
One writer turns Abraham's grief on the reader. Giving up the works of our own hands feels like a loss, and he says peace waits on the far side of that loss.
It was 'grievous' indeed for Abraham to cast them out; it went against his feelings and affections to do so. But it was no more grievous for Abraham to do this than it is for us to turn the law out of doors. It clings to us so tightly. It seems so hard for us to give up the works of our own hands, and to renounce what we have prided ourselves on most. But until Hagar is gone, there is and can be no peace in Abraham's house. Until we fully renounce the law, and every expectation from it, there is no peace in the soul. "Being justified by faith, we have peace."
Abraham sent them out with real supplies, but not many. One writer reads the emptied water skin as a picture of what life under law could give.
The water in the skin was soon used up. This pictures life under law. There was some ministry of the word of God, but a very limited measure, so that in the end the law itself would lead to death (compare Romans 7:10).
Hagar left with no directions, and the name of the desert she wandered into carries weight.
He gave her food and a skin of water, but no direction as to where to go. She wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, which means "well of the oath." It is like Israel, wandering in their present state of independence from God. Yet they wander in the very place that should remind them of God's oath: He will bless them yet, without fail.
Another writer reads the same wandering as Israel's condition today, and says it does not end there.
Cast out, they wander in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, and are nearly perishing of thirst. This I take to be the present condition of Israel. The water, the word of life, is spent for them, and they do not see the well. Yet the oath of God, the covenant with their fathers, secures it for their final possession. Their eyes shall yet be opened to it.
Hagar's name suited her: she became a wanderer. But being outside the house of faith did not put her and her son outside mercy.
True to her name the poor woman became a wanderer in the wilderness. Soon all their slender supplies were gone, and the boy came almost to the point of death... Hagar and Ishmael carried this unhappy meaning in the picture, and in themselves they belonged to the world, not to the house of faith. Yet they were needy creatures, and as such objects of mercy.
- Sent early — Abraham rose at dawn, though the command went against his affections. That early start is the energy of his faith.
- Cast out — the slave's son could not share the inheritance. Grace and law cannot run one household, and the child of promise alone inherits.
- Spent — one day's bread and one skin of water show how little the law supplies, and where it leaves those who lean on it.
- Wandering — she is lost in Beersheba, "well of the oath": the very ground named after the promise she cannot yet see.
- Seen — outside the house of faith, they were still objects of mercy. The well was there all along, and one day they will see it.
And the water was exhausted from the flask; and she cast the child under one of the shrubs,
Hagar's water runs out in open desert. With nothing left to give her son, she lays him down under a bush and steps away. The scene raises two questions: why did God let the bottle run dry, and how could a well be so close and yet unseen?
Hagar carried everything Abraham could send with them on her shoulder, and it soon ran out. One writer notes that the empty skin brings the boy to the edge of death, and that God's mercy is what the scene shows:
True to her name the poor woman became a wanderer in the wilderness. Soon all their slender resources were gone, and the boy came almost to the point of death. The Apostle James tells us, writing about Job, that the Lord is "compassionate and merciful." We see it shown here.
The bottle held real water — just not enough. Commentators read that limited supply as a picture of what life under law can offer:
The water in the skin was soon used up. This pictures how it was under law. There was some ministry of the word of God, but only a very limited measure. So in the end the law itself would lead to death (compare Romans 7:10). In her utter desolation Hagar thought that Ishmael was dying, and she left him under a shrub.
One writer traces the picture back to Abraham's two sons and their mothers:
In Galatians 4 the apostle shows the Galatians their folly in leaving grace for law. One son of Abraham was by a slave, the other by a free woman; one was born after the flesh, the other by promise. The mothers stand for the two covenants: Jerusalem in bondage with her children, and Jerusalem above, the free mother of the free... Grace refuses partnership with law or flesh. The child of promise alone inherits.
Several writers take the wandering pair as a picture of a whole people. The detail that carries the weight is not only the empty bottle but the unseen well:
Cast out, they wander in the wilderness of Beersheba, and are nearly perishing for thirst. This I take to be the present condition of Israel. The water, the word of life, is spent for them. They do not see the well, although the oath of God, the covenant with their fathers, secures it for their final possession. Their eyes shall yet be opened to this, and Hagar herself become a means of blessing to them (Deuteronomy 30:1-3).
A second writer adds that being cast out does not mean being outside God's care:
Yet, as cast out of the land, Israel is still the object of God's providential care even as God provided for Hagar and her son.
The well was there all along. One writer shows how far Hagar had to be brought down before she saw it:
God gave Hagar no supply until this point. Weary and footsore, with an empty water-bottle, she had cast her child under a shrub in the desert and gone away, so that she would not watch him die, and so that she too might die. She had not only come to the end of her efforts, but to the end of herself as well. God then opened her eyes and she saw a well of water in her "valley of Baca." (Genesis 21:14-19). The well had been there but she had not been able to see it. How often have we in times of trial allowed nature to obscure our spiritual vision, and we have failed to find a well in the valley!
If a bottle always runs dry, then trusting one is the mistake, however good the bottle:
Are we depending on the bottle, perhaps trying to squeeze some drops from its dryness? Hear the Word of the living God, "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." Discard the bottle and rejoice in the fountain. The bottle may even be some favourite preacher, some religious service, something that may be right in its place, but it is not the fountain and it will run dry and disappoint. The fountain is inexhaustible, it is Christ.
- Bottle — What Abraham could give soon ran out. Every supply carried on human shoulders runs dry in the end.
- Law — The limited water pictures a limited ministry under law. It held out for a while, but the law itself ended in death.
- End of self — Hagar reached the end of her efforts and the end of herself. Only then did God open her eyes.
- Well — She wandered in a place named for God's oath. Nothing new was made there: the well stood ready, her distress hid it, and God opened her eyes.
- Fountain — Cast-out people are still objects of God's care. The cure for a dry bottle is never a better bottle, but the inexhaustible fountain, Christ.
and she went and sat down over against [him], a bow-shot off; for she said, Let me not behold the death of the child. And she sat over against [him], and lifted up her voice and wept.
A mother sits a bowshot away from her dying son, and she chose that distance so she would not watch him die. She does not know that water is near, or that her tears are not the only voice God hears.
The water ran out one verse earlier. One writer reads that empty skin as a picture of what the law could give.
The water in the skin was soon used up. This pictures life under law. There was some ministry of the word of God, but a very limited measure, so that in the end the law itself would lead to death (compare Romans 7:10). Hagar was desolate, and she thought Ishmael was dying. She left him under a shrub and went a little distance away and wept. She could not bear the sight of her son's death (v. 16).
Hagar's cry is the first time Scripture uses one particular word. One writer notes the setting of that first use.
The first mention in the Scriptures of the actual word itself shows the bitterness and sorrow tied to it. Hagar cries out, "Let me not look on the death of the child" (Genesis 21:16).
She had nothing left to try. That, one writer says, is when God acted.
Hagar got no help from God until she had reached this point. She was weary and footsore, her water-bottle empty. She had cast her child under a shrub in the desert and gone away, so that she would not watch him die, and so that she too might die. She had not only come to the end of her efforts, but to the end of herself as well. God then opened her eyes and she saw a well of water (Gen. 21:14-19). How often have we in times of trial let nature cloud our spiritual sight, so that we failed to find a well in the valley!
The verse records the mother weeping. Yet one writer notices whose voice the account says God heard.
Years before, God had sent an angel to help her. Now again poor Hagar is at the end of her resources and weeping in her misery. A second time God steps in by an angel to deliver. It is remarkable that while the record says she "lifted up her voice and wept," it adds that "God heard the voice of the boy." Ishmael must now have been about fifteen years old. He had raised his voice for help, since he was dying for lack of water. The deliverance came in a simple yet unexpected way. God opened Hagar's eyes so that she saw a well of water. It was there all the time, but she had not had eyes to see it.
Her distress fixed her eyes on what had failed — the water-skin, which older translations call a bottle.
Hagar's bottle soon ran dry in the desert. Her distress and disappointment at this may have blinded her eyes to an unfailing spring close at hand. Anyhow, she is a forlorn and pathetic figure crouching on those desert sands, about a bowshot from her dying boy. Cast out from her home, her son was her world and her life. Now that "the water was spent in the bottle," what was left for him and for her but death? But Hagar's extremity was God's opportunity, and He turned her eyes from the empty bottle to the inexhaustible spring.
The same writer turns this on the reader.
Are we depending on the bottle, perhaps trying to squeeze a few drops out of its dryness? Hear the Word of the living God: "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." Throw the bottle away and rejoice in the fountain. The bottle may even be a favourite preacher, or a religious service. Such a thing may be right in its place, but it is not the fountain. It will run dry and disappoint. The fountain is inexhaustible; it is Christ.
Another writer sees a whole nation pictured in this wandering mother and son.
Hagar and Ishmael wander in the wilderness with the water spent. This may picture where Israel stands today. Israel sought to gain the blessing under law, and so rejected Christ the promised seed. The earthly people of God are cast out of their land and have become wanderers in the world. Yet even cast out of the land, Israel is still the object of God's providential care, just as He provided for Hagar and her son.
- Empty bottle — The empty water-skin pictures a supply that runs out. Commentators read it as the limited ministry of law, which ends in death.
- End of self — Help arrived only after she had come not just to the end of her efforts but to the end of herself.
- Her tears — She wept a bowshot away, unable to watch her son die. Scripture's first use of the word "death" carries all its bitterness.
- His ear — The record says she wept, yet it was the boy's voice that God heard where he was.
- Opened eyes — The well stood there the whole time. God changed her sight, not her circumstances. So leave the dry bottle and drink from the fountain, who is Christ.
And God heard the voice of the lad. And the Angel of God called to Hagar from the heavens, and said to her, What [aileth] thee, Hagar? Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad there, where he is.
Hagar and her son are in the desert, and their water is gone. She has laid the boy under a bush to die, and she is the one weeping — yet God hears him, and the answer from heaven comes back to her with her name, a question, and a command not to fear.
God had already rescued Hagar in the desert once before. This time His ear is on someone else.
Years before, an angel had been sent to help her… A second time God steps in by an angel to deliver her. It is remarkable that while the record says she "lifted up her voice and wept," it adds that "God heard the voice of the boy." Ishmael must have been about fifteen years old by now. He had raised his voice for help, since he was dying for lack of water.
Commentators read that raised voice as prayer.
And what of the boy? It seems he too lifted up his voice — not to weep, but to pray. He was to be a wild man (Gen. 16:12), and perhaps he was a "wild boy." But he had not lived all those years with his dear old father without learning something of the value of prayer. And you remember his name means "Heard of God."
This is the boy who had been mocking Isaac. God meets him at the exact spot his own behaviour left him.
But perhaps some little boy may say, "I have mocked, and now I am afraid the Lord will not listen to me." Ishmael did not mock when he was lying exhausted under the shrub with death staring him in the face… Left all alone, Ishmael "cried," and God "heard the voice of the boy." God, who had been so displeased to hear Ishmael mock, was "very gracious" to Ishmael at the sound of his cry… What a good thing it is in all our troubles to cry to God.
The angel's first word to Hagar runs right through Scripture. It comes to people who stand alone under pressure.
This word "Fear not" comes again and again. It is the assurance of the believer who stands alone in the middle of difficulty and distress and the world's hatred. Abraham, Hagar, and Isaac are examples (Gen. 15:1; Gen. 21:17; Gen. 26:24).
God Himself had told Abraham to listen to Sarah and send Hagar away. In the desert she never asked Him for help:
But the God who ordered her expulsion is the God of grace… At such a time, why did Hagar show no faith in God by appealing to Him? But if not, God would still hear the complaint of her son. The legal principle always leaves one to himself and to his own strength, which must fail. But God in grace tells her to rise and lift up the boy, "and hold him fast with your hand." That is, she was to hold him up so he would not fall. Does it not remind us that God, by His grace, holds up every believer — "for the Lord is able to make him stand" (Rom. 14:4)?
God's care did not stop at the well. It reached into Ishmael's future:
She may have forgotten God's promise that a countless multitude would come from her, and that Ishmael would live in the presence of all his brothers. But God remembered him, and declares that He will make him a great nation. So it has been.
God's answer was not a new well but opened eyes. Commentators turn that into a warning:
Is there not a parable for today in this? Ishmael was dying of thirst within a stone's throw of the life-giving water. Many today are going down to spiritual death with the means of spiritual life right in front of them. The trouble is they have no eyes to see it. God opened her eyes, and at once the need was met.
Some read the wandering pair as a picture of a whole nation:
Hagar and Ishmael as wanderers in the wilderness, with the water gone, may picture the present position of Israel. That position is the result of seeking to obtain the blessing under law, and so rejecting Christ, the promised seed… Yet, cast out of the land, Israel is still the object of God's providential care, just as God provided for Hagar and her son.
- Cry — Hagar wept, but the verse says God heard the boy; his raised voice was a cry for help, and his name itself means "Heard of God."
- Heard — God hears him "where he is," not where he should have been. He answers the mocking boy at the spot his own conduct brought him to.
- Fear not — The first word from heaven removes the fear before it supplies the water. It is the standing word to the believer left isolated in distress.
- Held — Law leaves a person to his own strength, and it fails. Grace tells the mother to lift the boy and hold him fast — a picture of the God who holds up every believer.
- Seen — The well was there the whole time. Rescue came by opened eyes. People can die of thirst within reach of the supply God has already given.
Arise, take the lad, and hold him in thy hand; for I will make of him a great nation.
Hagar's water is gone. She has laid her son under a bush and walked off, unable to watch him die. God's first word to her is not comfort but a command: lift the boy up and hold him, because he has a future.
The angel speaks at the exact point where Hagar has nothing left. One writer notes how long God waited:
God did not sustain Hagar until she was weary and footsore, with an empty water-bottle. She had cast her child under a shrub in the desert and walked away, so that she would not watch him die, and so that she too might die. She had not only come to the end of her efforts, but to the end of herself as well. God then opened her eyes and she saw a well of water in her "valley of Baca" (Gen. 21:14-19). The well had been there, but she had not been able to see it.
The command is physical: she must take hold of the boy she had left to die. One commentator reads it as steadying him, and finds in it a picture of how God holds up every believer:
But the God who ordered her expulsion is the God of grace. He heard the voice of the boy (v. 17), then spoke directly to Hagar: "What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is." … The legal principle always leaves one to himself and to his own strength, which must fail. But God in grace tells her to rise and lift up the lad "and hold him with your hand." That is, she was to hold him up so that he would not fall. Does it not remind us that God, by His grace, holds up every believer — "for God is able to make him stand" (Rom. 14:4)? This is true, no matter how distressing our circumstances may be.
Verse 18 answers a cry. It was the boy's cry, not the mother's weeping, that God heard. One writer ties that cry to the meaning of his name:
And what of the boy? He too must have lifted up his voice — not to weep, but to pray. He was to be a wild man (Gen. 16:12), and perhaps he was a "wild boy." But he had lived all those years with his dear old father, and he had learned something of the value of prayer. And indeed you remember his name means "Heard of God."
Years earlier, at a well, God had already told Hagar about her son's future. Now she has forgotten all of it, and God repeats the promise anyway:
Yet it is moving to know God's goodness to Abraham's seed according to flesh. When the mother gave in to despair and laid her son down to die at a distance from her, "God heard the lad's voice"; and His angel tells Hagar to hold him in her hand. Had not Jehovah called his name Ishmael, because He had heard her affliction? Even if she forgot God's promise of a countless multitude to spring from her, and that Ishmael would live in the presence of all his brothers, God remembered him and declares that He will make him a great nation. So it has been.
One writer reads the scene as a picture of a larger story: the son of the slave woman put outside, yet kept alive:
Hagar and Ishmael as wanderers in the wilderness, with the water gone, may picture the present position of Israel. Israel sought to gain the blessing under law, and so rejected Christ, the promised seed. The earthly people of God are cast out of their land and have become wanderers in the world. Yet, as cast out of the land, Israel is still the object of God's providential care, even as God provided for Hagar and her son.
God did not make a new well. What changed was her sight, and one writer turns that into a warning for people today:
Is there not a parable for today in this? Ishmael was dying of thirst within a stone's throw of the life-giving water. There are many today going down to spiritual death with the means of spiritual life right in front of them. The trouble is that they have no eyes to see it. God opened her eyes, and at once the need was met.
- Emptied — God's help came when Hagar had reached the end of her efforts and the end of herself. The empty bottle was the doorway, not the disaster.
- Heard — the cry that moved heaven was the boy's, and his name already said it: "Heard of God."
- Held — "hold him fast" means steady him so he does not fall. God Himself keeps every believer standing the same way.
- Remembered — Hagar forgot the promise. God repeated it without being asked, and has kept it ever since.
- Opened — the well was there the whole time. People die of thirst beside the supply until God opens their eyes.
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the flask with water, and gave the lad drink.
Hagar and her son have been cast out, and their water is gone in the desert. She has walked away from a boy she expects to die.
God's answer is not a new supply of water but a new ability to see. One writer notes what that means: the well never had to be made.
The deliverance came in a simple yet unexpected way. God opened Hagar's eyes so that she saw a well of water. It was there all the time but she had not had eyes to discern it.
Her eyes open only after everything she carried has failed. One writer ties that moment of sight to the end of everything she had.
Hagar got no supply from God until she was worn out and footsore, with an empty water-bottle. She had laid her child under a shrub in the desert and gone away, so that she would not watch him die, and so that she too might die. She had not only come to the end of her efforts, but to the end of herself as well.
Hagar does not find the well by searching harder. One writer likens her blindness to people who die of thirst with the message of life close by.
How often people are dying of spiritual thirst because the legality of their own thoughts blinds them! They do not see that God's source of true refreshment is near them: "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart … if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:8-9). But people's eyes are not opened to this naturally: this work must be done by God's sovereign operation.
Hagar is not shown praying or seeking God. What she receives comes from His side, and it reaches beyond that afternoon.
In personal history Hagar is an example of the dealings of divine grace with a helpless and despairing sinner… She is dying of thirst, yet there is a well of springing water at her side. She does not seem to remember God nor seek Him, but He sends His angel with the gracious question, "What troubles you, Hagar? Arise." She is blind to the means of salvation, until God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. God not only saves her from suffering and death; He also gives her (in her son) future possessions and blessings, and directions for her own conduct.
Years earlier Hagar had met God at a well named after Him. One writer sets that well beside this one.
The mother gave way to despair and laid her son down to die at a distance from her. Then "God heard the voice of the boy", and His angel tells Hagar to hold him up with her hand… She had once been by a fountain called Beer-lahai-roi, the Well of the Living One who was seen (or, who sees me). The name came from the name of Him who spoke to her (Gen. 16). In the same way, God now opened her eyes to see a well of water, and she gave the boy a drink.
One writer reads the scene beyond Hagar herself. Cast out and thirsty beside a well she cannot see, she pictures a nation whose blessing is sure but still unseen.
Cast out, they wander in the wilderness of Beersheba, and are nearly dying of thirst. This I take to be the present condition of Israel. The water, the word of life, is spent for them, and they do not see the well. Yet the oath of God, the covenant with their fathers, secures it for them to possess at last. To this, therefore, their eyes shall yet be opened.
The empty skin gets filled at the well. One writer presses that choice on the reader.
Are we depending on the bottle, perhaps trying to squeeze a few drops from its dryness? Hear the Word of the living God, "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." Discard the bottle and rejoice in the fountain. The bottle may even be some favourite preacher, or some religious service. It may be right in its place, but it is not the fountain. It will run dry and disappoint. The fountain is inexhaustible, it is Christ.
- Empty bottle. Her water ran out before God gave her sight; she came to the end of her efforts and to the end of herself.
- Present well. God made nothing new — the water had been beside her the whole time, unseen.
- Opened eyes. God gave sight by His own sovereign work, not as a reward for searching; she is not even shown asking.
- Given grace. God rescues her, and gives more: blessing for her son, and direction for her own conduct.
- Lasting spring. Every bottle runs dry — a preacher, a service, anything we lean on. The fountain is Christ. Israel's eyes, too, God will yet open to their own well.