Child of the Flesh, Not the Promise – Hagar and Ishmael are Sent Away – Genesis Chapter 21
by Sabrina Dawkins
Sarah had her miracle baby when Abraham was 100 years old and at the time God said the child would be born. And Abraham obediently circumcised his son Isaac on the eighth day. In this chapter Sarah admits that she did indeed laugh at the thought of having a child in old age after having previously denied it (Genesis 18:12-15). And she said that all would laugh with her upon hearing or reading about a couple so old having a baby.
The same day Isaac was weaned, Abraham prepared a feast. But Sarah’s decision to give her husband her handmaid to go into since she hadn’t been able to give him a child came back to haunt her (Genesis 16:2). She saw Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, mocking. So she told Abraham to send Ishmael and Hagar away. But Ishmael was his son, so it distressed him, the thought of sending his son away. But God told him not to worry and to listen to what Sarah had told him because Isaac was the seed of the promise through whom Abraham’s name and legacy would live. God assured him that he would also make a nation of Ishmael because he too was Abraham’s seed. In Genesis 15:5 God told Abraham that his seed would be countless. So Abraham gave Hagar bread and a bottle of water and sent her away with Ishmael.
Hagar wandered in the wilderness. And when the water in the bottle had been used up, she left Ishmael under a shrub and went the distance of a shot arrow away because she did not want to watch her child die, and she cried. But Genesis 21:17 indicates that God heard the voice of Ishmael. And he would not let Ishmael die. He told Hagar that he would make a great nation out of Ishmael and directed her to a well of water. So Ishmael was given water to drink and did not die, and God was with him, and he was an archer in the wilderness of Paran. His mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
God’s goodness is manifested here: He takes care of Abraham’s son who is not of the promise or of the Spirit (Galatians 4:28-29), a son whose descendants aren’t even set to worship him. However, because Ishmael is Abraham’s son, God saves his life and watches over him.
Abimelech, whom God had threatened in a dream for having taken Sarah into his house because Abraham had told him that she was his sister, not his wife, realized that God was with Abraham, so he showed him kindness (Genesis 20:14-16). And he came to Abraham with the chief of his army and made a covenant with him that would extend to Abimelech’s descendants as well. But Abraham criticized Abimelech because his servants had violently stolen a well that Abraham had dug. Abimelech, however, said he hadn’t heard anything about it and that Abraham had not told him until then.
Abraham gave Abimelech oxen and sheep, and the two men made a covenant at Beersheba. Thereafter Abraham called on God in the place where he had planted a grove and lodged in the land of the Philistines long term.