Genesis is God’s book that explains the beginnings of many things. Reading it carefully we see that both the Jews and Arabs are descendants of Abraham. As Abraham (originally named Abram) would believe in the One true God and express that faith through obedience to Him, God promised him his seed (descendants) would be as the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:16) and the stars of the sky (Genesis 15:5). However, as he reached his mid-eighties, he had no children and his wife Sarah (at that time called Sarai) was barren. He did not know it, but it would not
be until he reached 100 years until his wife Sarah would conceive.In the meantime they tried on their own to secure a descendant and Genesis 16 records Sarai suggesting to Abram to have relations with her maid, Hagar. This was legal and sometimes “the thing to do when necessary" under the social laws of their times. Any child born through a sexual union between Abram and Hagar would be Sarai’s because Hagar was her property. However, we must distinguish between what society permits and what God has decreed and from the beginning God made only one woman for the man.
From the union of Hagar and Abram came Ishmael, but after his birth God made it very clear that Abram would have a son through Sarah (Genesis 17:15-16). And it did happen, and according to the command of God they named the child Isaac. When Isaac was weaned Abraham made a great feast. Genesis 21:9 records that Isaac was scoffing, mocking at that time, and Sarah saw it.
Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be cast out (verse 10). God told Abraham to follow through on this but reminded him that Ishmael would also become a great nation (many of the Arabs came from Ishmael). Abraham obeyed. In Genesis 21:14-20a we read the following:
“So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15 When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, "Do not let me see the boy die." And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept. 17 God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him." 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink. 20 God was with the lad, . . .”
As you see, by the grace of God Hagar was delivered from despair. This historical account affirms to us that blessings await any mom, or dad, in today’s spiritual wilderness. What happened to Hagar in the above passage can be thought of in the following way.
I. Hagar’s Hopeless Situation 10, 14-16
While being cast out of Abram’s household meant that Hagar and Ishmael would get their legal freedom, they would be leaving their only known source of security and access to material needs. We are born as sinners, cast out from the kingdom of God, and we have our freedom, or what we think is freedom. We are actually motivated by our sinful desires which seek their fulfillment from the material realm, of which the devil is currently prince.
So, as Hagar wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba each person spiritually wanders in this world, having no real place of rest although one might think they have it. And, if we are objective about it, we would realize the world offers no real answers. In well to do nations, if there is a problem, or a fabricated problem, they “throw money at it.” A great example of this is much of the public school system in the United States. While in school many students are not only subjected to things like having the homosexual agenda or Islam “shoved down their throats”, in some cases teachers and staff are having sexual relations the students. Drugs and violence are in most of our schools. And thanks in part to government involvement, some who graduate high school are unable to read or make change after a sale.
Answers to problems and needs remain scant or non-existent in other areas too. Science keeps changing facts either because they have discovered new data, changed definitions of certain things, or because some follow after money or power. Another area is pharmaceuticals. Whether issued for mental or physical problems, many medications just treat the symptoms and cause entrapment due to addiction and / or correcting side effects issues.
Permit me to give one more example, evident in the United States, but many nations face the same problem and do not know it. There is no real security throughout the U.S. on many levels, but most dangerous is the fact that our national security has been gradually weakened. In my opinion this started in the 1960‘s. In the past few decades security issues have become more shocking and more frequent. I have a computer folder on items I occasionally find. However, the easing of the protective hand of God was seen not only on “Nine-eleven”, but in the presidential campaigns of 2016. If you check back on some of my previous articles I had warned that the top three, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump, were vehicles of the impending judgment of God upon the United States. The top two especially would damage our national security. Trump became President and has, in the least, “ruffled the feathers” of many of our intelligence agencies.
With all of this it could be said that the world is truly a wilderness because there is no recognition of true knowledge and so there also is no moral compass. True knowledge is based in the one true God, for it is written (Proverbs 1:7), “The fear of YHVH (The Existing One) is the beginning of knowledge. Add to this the fact the world has limited resources (depicted by the skin of water that ran out of water in Genesis 21:15a), the world offers no real hope (depicted by the remainder of verse 15).
II. Hagar’s Gracious Revelation From God 17-18
“God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’”
While I am sure God heard Hagar’s weeping it was recorded here that Ishmael’s voice was heard to prophetically point to most likely our time when many Arabs, Muslim or not, are making Christ their Savior. In many cases such have
seen Islam really has nothing to offer whereas true Christianity abounds with blessings, not just for believers but whose lives they touch. And for all of us, God, the Existing One, has plans for each person if they would yield to Him.“What is the matter with you, Hagar?”, speaks to me that God wants us to remember to really trust Him. Genesis 16 records a previous time when God gave her divine direction in a difficult situation that involved another run in with Sarai. As God was with her then, He would be now, so He tells her to “fear not.” He is the God that knows all, is present, and ready to intervene as we call upon Him.
“Arise" almost always devotionally points to living the resurrected life in Christ. We were born spiritually dead and we live in the world of the spiritually dead. The only hope for anyone, not just parents, is Jesus Christ (the Messiah). As I started this article and thinking about world conditions and responses on social media I just had to think of the song whose chorus begins, “Jesus is the answer for the world today, above Him there’s no other. Jesus is the Way.”
Would to God every parent would turn truly to Christ, then firmly take the spiritual hands of their children to guide them away from the satanic {1} slop of this world, especially in our public school systems, and lead them to Christ. Would to God every parent would train their children in the ways of the One true God. And for those that are not parents, would to God they would surrender to Him through Christ and become, in a sense, spiritual parents.
Each Christian should intercede in prayer and take action in some way for the spiritual well being of children. They are under spiritual assault and spiritual child abuse. Think about those children being raised by same-sex couples, cases like where a school system ordered a boy to undress in front of girls in a gym locker room and “make it natural,” and when the homosexual agenda is being pushed in schools instead of Islam.
And, as it was promised of Ishmael, “I will make a great nation of him," let us firmly take hold of the spiritual hands of children and encourage them to enter into the promises of God. Anyone surrendering to God through Christ is made a participant in His Kingdom of priests.
III. Hagar’s Most Blessed Consolation
“Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink. 20 God was with the lad, . . .”
As God opened the eyes of Hagar to discover a well of water in the physical wilderness, God desires to open the eyes of each person in today’s spiritual wilderness. We must realize, and trust in the fact, that He is, and is the rewarder of those who faithfully seek Him (Hebrews 11:6), and will help them, if they let Him, to get their eyes off of hopelessness and on to true hope which is found only in His Son.
Each of us needs to see what God sees, and wants us to see. Opening of the spiritual eyes also speaks to the fact that when someone truly surrenders to God through Christ the Holy Bible suddenly “lights up." Passages once difficult to understand become clear and such blessed revelation increases over the years. One’s spiritual eyes are opened to His workings with them and around them, and to the blessed fact that there are unlimited resources in Him.
Hagar seeing the well speaks of the fact that once one truly becomes a disciple of Christ their spiritual eyes are opened to see that Jesus Christ is that well we need in today’s wilderness. Christ said of Himself in John 4:14, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
For this to happen we must establish an active relationship to God through Christ and cultivate it. We should admit we are sinners by nature, ask God to forgive us, declare that we surrender all to Him, and make Jesus Christ King and Savior of our life. This relationship is based upon love for Him and is nurtured by personal and public worship, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating upon {2} and obeying His written Word, being directed by His spirit, and by His strength and grace keeping ourselves unspotted from the world.
As we grow in Him He empowers us to take godly action to intercede and to bring others, including children, to Him. We will still physically be in a spiritual wilderness, but with Christ within we have Him as an ever abundant well. We will be blessed, but we will also be blessing others.
Notes:
{1} Not capitalized on purpose. Experts Column gives me the freedom to express myself in that way.
{2} The Biblical way of meditation is to repeat the verse or passage to one’s self. Also, please read, Bless Your Mind at http://holybibletreasures.expertscolumn.com/article/bless-your-mind .
This article was written in the form of a sermon (message) outline with comments. God willing by INSERT DATE HERE (hopefully much sooner), you should be able to hear the actual message (sermon) by selecting a link at http://www.sapphirestreams.com/life/audioM.html#M452 .
Unless otherwise noted all Holy Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible changing LORD to YHVH as it rightly should be when the text so indicates and adding “(The Existing One)” to readily express the meaning of His Name without making repeated explanations in articles. * = For other versions the spelling of some words is updated for our time in addition to changing LORD to YHVH as it rightly should be when the text so indicates.
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