Who Is Leading?
It is, perhaps, ironic that on this day when we honor the fathers in our midst, we have the opportunity to talk about one of the worst fathers in the Bible, the great Patriarch Abraham. This is the one who, on a whim (or so it must have seemed), packed up his family and left his hometown at the age of 75. This is the one who did not become a father until the age of 86 and, at that, became a father by sleeping with one of his wife’s servants… when his own wife insisted that he take this woman… her Egyptian slave… as his second wife. This is the one who, when his wife finally had a child at age 90 (and he, by the way, was 100), managed to live in a very turbulent household for the next three years, neither protecting his second wife nor his firstborn son from his first wife’s abuse... abuse so bad that, at one point, Hagar ran away to try to escape from it. And then, when matters come to a head, this man sent his wife, Hagar, and his own son away without any compensation for her years of service… nor any recognition of his son as his firstborn… not even a pack animal to ride from his herd of thousands… and gave them barely enough food and water for three days.
At first glance, this passage from Genesis looks like a story of Hagar and Ishmael, a story of rejection… redemption… and blessing… that, in many ways, seems unreasonable… cruel… and unjust. In reality, this is the story of a promise of God… a covenant with Abraham that is kept by God despite the arrogance… disobedience… and misguided efforts of Abraham and his people. It is a story of humanity’s unbelief and finitude. It is also a story of humanity’s relationship to a powerful and loving God. Ultimately, though, this is the story of the faithfulness of God, and God’s love for one person, Abraham.
The birth of Isaac was a joyous occasion, coming twenty-five years after the promise that God made to Abraham for descendants that were more numerous than the stars. For fourteen years, Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, had been the heir apparent. Sarah had always been barren… reducing her perceived value as a woman and threatening her place as the pre-eminent wife of Abraham. Now Sarah was a beautiful woman… so beautiful that, at the age of 65, her beauty was praised in Pharaoh’s court… so beautiful that, at the age of 75, she was desired by Abimelech. But the duty of a wife in those days was to produce an heir, and Sarah was barren. All this changed with the long-anticipated birth of Isaac.
But Ishmael, Abraham’s first-born son, still lived with him and there was always a chance that he might be adopted by Abraham and supplant Isaac as the heir. Infant mortality rates were high, so it was not until Isaac was weaned… in those days, at the age of three… that Sarah felt secure in her position as mother of the heir. At that point, Hagar’s son, Ishmael was a man of seventeen and Sarah decided that he had to go. Sarah demanded that Abraham expel Hagar and Ishmael. This act, together with Sarah’s earlier oppression of Hagar, has led some people to compare Sarah’s actions toward Hagar to Pharaoh’s actions toward the Hebrew people in Egypt as recounted in Exodus. In fact, it is interesting that the same Hebrew word is used for Sarah’s oppression of Hagar and Pharaoh’s later oppression of the Hebrew people. Sarah does to these children of Egypt…Hagar and Ishmael… what the Egyptians would later do to her children… the Children of Israel.
It is important that we get to know Hagar… for while we recognize that God keeps a covenant with Abraham, we may not see that God also keeps a covenant with Hagar. When Hagar ran away from Abraham’s household earlier to escape from the wrath of Sarah, she was sent back to Abraham by an angel of God. At that time, she was promised a son and descendants too numerous to count, for God heard her misery. Hagar returned to Abraham’s tent, still a slave, but she also returned as the only woman to receive an unconditional covenant from the Lord… a promise that was given because her child was also the child of Abraham. Her son, Ishmael… a name which means “God hears”… was raised in Abraham’s household, and it was Abraham who pleaded with God to secure Ishmael’s position as heir at the covenant of circumcision when he was thirteen. Now, at 17, he is thrown out of the house by his father, because Sarah had a son and because God told Abraham that Ishmael would not be his heir. Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, is once again an outsider… Egyptian by birth… slave by status… superfluous wife by circumstance… and the mother of a child who threatens the legitimate heir.
Even so, the demand for her expulsion was disturbing to Abraham… which is about the only thing that can be said to Abraham’s credit in this entire narrative… a pretty poor track record for a father on Father’s Day. But God speaks to Abraham and tells him not to be concerned. God tells Abraham to listen to Sarah and promises Abraham that his line will continue through Isaac. God also promises Abraham again to make a great nation through Ishmael… as God had already promised to do years earlier. This reassurance from God is sufficient for Abraham to do what needs to be done. So the next morning, in obedience to God, Abraham gives Ishmael and Hagar some bread and water and sends them out into the wilderness.
Hagar, this female slave of a fairly prosperous semi-nomadic tribal leader, is sent away with about three gallons of water and a little bread, and her son. They wander in the wilderness of Beer-sheba and drink all the water from the waterskin. When Ishmael cannot continue the journey, Hagar leaves him under a bush and goes far enough away that she does not have to watch him die. In despair, Hagar weeps. In short order, Hagar has lost her home… her belongings… her friends… her means of survival… her future – which was assured as the mother of the heir of Abraham… and, soon, she will lose her son, her only child. Hagar… the exiled… the outsider… the alien… weeps.
Through no fault of her own, Hagar is an outcast. For the rest of Hebrew history, the word for alien will be a word derived from her name. Just as Kleenex has become a generic word for facial tissues and Xerox has become a generic word for photocopies, Hagar becomes the generic name for alien. Hagar, the alien, weeps… and God hears. God hears. This is a re-affirmation of Ishmael’s name… God hears. Ishmael is Abraham’s son… a son of the one whom God loves. God hears… and God responds and sends a messenger… an angel of God calls to Hagar from heaven.
This was not the first time that Hagar was visited by an angel… it was an angel that sent Hagar back to Abraham when she ran away. That event was notable because it was the first time that a woman was ever visited by an angel in the Bible. Hagar was also the first woman to receive an annunciation… the proclamation of the birth of a son. She was the only woman to receive a promise of innumerable descendants and the only one to bestow a name on God. But all of these “firsts” issue from the fact that she carries Abraham’s child, the child of the human that God loves. But her child is not the promised heir… he is a child introduced to the story through human manipulation. So Hagar is not protected from the abuse of Sarah, in fact she is ordered to return to it. Her position in Abraham’s household does not change, even when she becomes the mother of the heir apparent. Here in the wilderness, God, once again, uses her as a tool to fulfill the covenant with Abraham. The angel speaks to her, telling her not to fear and giving her assurance that God has heard. The angel reassures her that God will fulfill his promise to make a great nation through Ishmael… the fourth time that this promise has been given by God. Then God opens Hagar’s eyes and reveals to her a well of water that has gone unnoticed until now.
In obedience to God, Hagar gets up. She goes and draws water from the well and fills the waterskin. Hagar takes the water to her son, Abraham’s child, and makes him drink, reviving him. And, from this time forward… the Bible tells us…God is with Ishmael. The Hebrew phrase is specific and has limited use in the Old Testament. From that day, God was with Ishmael… in the same way that God was with Noah… with David… and the same way that God is with us… Emanuel… God with us. Once again, God fulfills the covenant with Abraham and stays with Ishmael… even though Ishmael is no longer in Abraham’s house.
Hagar and Ishmael travel south, across the Negev and across the wilderness of Sin, to settle in the wilderness of Paran, near the border of Egypt. Hagar finds a wife for her son from amongst the Egyptians, her own people. Ishmael grows to be a very virile man. He lives to the ripe old age of one hundred and thirty-seven and, in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, he fathers many children… twelve to be exact… a mirror, perhaps, of the twelve tribes of Israel. Like his mother, he remains an outsider, but an outsider who walks with God because God loved his father.
So, the focus of the story is not Hagar and Ishmael, but the covenant that God made with Abraham and the love God had for one human being. While Hagar and Ishmael figure prominently in the text, they actually represent a subplot in the larger story of Abraham and his descendants. Ishmael receives God’s blessing and the promise of God’s presence because he is a son of Abraham, a man loved by God.
Our human finitude and unbelief are revealed in the many ways that humans in this narrative attempt to manipulate God’s plan. Hagar was chosen… not by God, but by Sarah… to fulfill the promise of God to Abraham. Yet, despite this, God not only allowed the birth, but also blessed the child and remained with the child, establishing a nation through him. Sarah abused Hagar and then had Abraham drive her into the wilderness with Ishmael, despite God’s promise to Abraham to establish a nation through Isaac. Two different times, because of Sarah’s abuse, a messenger of God finds Hagar in the wilderness… rescues her… and renews a covenant with her… in order to fulfill the promise God gave to Abraham. Even Abraham does not emerge untarnished in this text. However, despite his lack of faith, God continues to love him and to renew his covenant with him… and, in the end, establishes two nations through the children that are given to him by Sarah and Hagar.
So, why have I spent so much time on the story of Hagar and Ishmael and what does it have to do with us today? How many times do we try to manipulate the story of our lives rather than listening to the voice of God? How many times do we do unchristian things to advance our own narrative instead of waiting for God to lead us… and having faith in God’s promises to us? How many times do we fail to see the gifts that God puts right in front of us… like the well that God put in the desert for Hagar… because we fail to lean on the arms of God? Despite the fact that Sarah’s manipulation worked… Abraham did father a son through Hagar… it was not God’s plan. In the end, it was God’s plan that was fulfilled. But Sarah’s manipulation added a twist that reveals even more of this great God to us. Despite her lack of faith… and Abraham’s lack of backbone…God loved Abraham and so blessed Ishmael, Abraham’s son. Is that not an unreasonable… illogical example of God’s boundless love?
We are loved… in all our human finitude, we are loved… and that love is unreasonable … illogical… boundless. And the One who loves us has a plan for us… if we will only listen and believe… if we will only let God lead. Who is leading in your life? You? Your spouse? Your children? Or God? Perhaps we should all do less… and listen more. Perhaps we should truly be the people of God… before we try to do the work of God. Amen.