Hagar and Ishmael are Cast Away Genesis 21: 8-21 – 2024/6/9

June 9, 2024

Anything but Ordinary
“Hagar and Ishmael are Cast Away”
Genesis 21: 8-21

Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl

Genesis 21: 8-21

The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

 

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Hagar and Ishmael are Cast Away Genesis 21: 8-21

And you thought your family had issues! I say that tongue in cheek but I do appreciate the fact that our sacred text does not try to clean up this family’s relationships. It shows us that relationships, especially familial relationships, are messy. They are complicated. It also shows us that there is no one way to be family.

Even today, family is not defined as husband and wife and 2.5 kids. Today, families come in all different shapes and sizes…marriage, divorce, re-married, stepkids, stepparents, adoption, in laws, out laws, parents living with adult children, adult children living with their parents, grandparents raising grandchildren. It is becoming more and more common for 3 generations to be living in one household in our society because of the cost of care: child and elderly, the cost of living, and just the need for support for all people. I love that our sacred text recognizes and reminds us that there is no one way to be in relationship as family. It shows us that families are filled with human-imperfect, flawed beings who are called to support one another.

By our sacred story laying it all out there with one the first families of God, we are reminded as people of faith once again that our faith is not about perfection. It is about connection. It is about relationships. It is about becoming the people that God created and called us to be. Yes, it is messy. Yes, it is complicated because it is not a one size fits all plan. Our faith is a process and like Hagar and Ishmael, we are called to trust it, to trust in it, to open ourselves to God’s Spirit moving in and among us. 

Now I’ll be the first to admit that it is easier said than done. That’s why we say it is a faith journey, not a faith day trip. And part of being on that faith journey is spending time with the text, opening our hearts, minds and spirits to its word and wisdom, even if we assume that it has no relevance for our world today. So I’m going to ask for a little bit of pastor privilege as I invite us to spend a little time looking at this text in context.

Previously, what led us up to this point is that Sarah and Abraham have been promised a child. It wasn’t happening on their terms so took matters into their own hands which resulted in the birth of Ishmael, Abraham’s first-born son.

What we haven’t named or talked about is the scene which happens after Sarah and Abraham decided all this. In those verses, we are told after Hagar discovers she is pregnant, she runs away and encounters the angel of the Lord. The angel tells Hagar that she will bear a son whose name will mean “God hears”, and that this son will have more descendants than can be counted. Sounds familiar, right?  Sounds a lot like what was told to Abraham a few verses before this. After the encounter with the angel, Hagar is then told to return to Sarai. 

Fast forward several years, Sarah has had the promised child. And this is where we pick up as we hear the rest of Hagar’s story. The family is having a big party, celebrating a milestone in Isaac’s life. Then in verse 9, we get this really weird verse: But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac”.  In the Hebrew Bible, the phrase, “playing with her son Isaac” does not appear. It was added later.  In reality, this verse is a play on words, which is common in Hebrew. The thought being that Ishmael was simply laughing or it can also be argued that Ishmael was playing at being Isaac, meaning he was imitating Isaac. Sarah sees this. She realizes that Ishmael is technically Abraham’s first-born son and according to custom, is entitled to double portions of Abraham’s wealth. So right or wrong, that’s another sermon for another day, Sarah decides again to take matters into her own hands and gets Abraham to send them away. 

For me, I’ll let you all do your own research and draw your own conclusions about verse 9. All that really matters is that for the sake of the covenant, Ishmael has to be removed from the picture so that the storyline of God’s promise continues. 

The fascinating thing is that this section could have ended right here.  It could have easily skipped from verse 14 to verse 22 without the storyline being disrupted but instead, we get this interlude about Hagar and Ishmael’s time in the desert. And as you have heard me say many times, if the author puts it in, we need to pay attention.

In the next verses, we are told that Sarah’s plan is distressing to Abraham, but God tells Abraham that it will be okay. So, Abraham sends them out with a little bit of water into the desert. Side note…I know we lift Abraham up as this great person of faith, but I have some serious issues with some of his actions. But again, that’s another sermon for another day.

Okay, back to the text. We are told that when the water runs out, Hagar realizes that they have nothing. They can’t go back because they have been kicked out. They don’t have enough supplies to go forward because they are not near any town. So they have both been left to die. Hagar places the child under a bush and moves away because she cannot bear to see her child die. And she begins to weep.

Then something amazing happens. In verse 17, we are told God hears the voice of the boy. Remember what I said about the meaning of Ishmael’s name…God hears. The angel of the Lord hears the voice of the boy and tells Hagar, to not be afraid.  God opens Hagar’s eyes, and she sees a well. We are then told God is with the boy and he grows up, that he becomes good with a bow, lives in the wilderness and his mom gets him a wife from the land of Egypt.

After these few verses, we are never told about Hagar again which brings up the question: if she is seen as a minor character in the story of the covenant, why does the authors add this part in the first place? Like I said, we could have easily skipped from verse 14 to verse 22 and been none the wiser.

Well, that is if our God was anything but ordinary. Notice again, the promise God gives Hagar. It echoes the promise God gave her when she discovered she was pregnant. It echoes the promise that God gave Abraham time and time again.  The promise that God gives Hagar is that this world would not have the last world, that the story does not and will not end in death.

You see, for me, as I spent time with Hagar and Ishmael’s story this week, I was reminded once again that our God is one who sees, our God is one who hears, our God is one who remembers. Through Hagar and Ishmael’s story, we as people of faith are being reminded that we don’t get the final say of what the covenantal promise entails. God does. And yes, God says the covenant will be fulfilled through Isaac, fulfilled through God’s chosen people. But God doesn’t leave the others out. God includes Ishamel and his descendants. Both covenantal promises, the one made to Abraham and Sarah and the one made to Hagar, are true. Neither one diminishes the other. 

For me, what Hagar and Ishmael’s story teaches is that our God is bigger than the boundaries we put around our God to control, to manipulate, to create God in our own likeness. What Hagar and Ishmael’s story teaches us is that there is more to our faith than what we assume, that it never was about excluding people but rather including people. Our faith is about repairing what is broken especially when the brokenness happens at the hands of those who have all the power. Our faith is not about us knowing everything. Rather it is about us seeing each other as Beloved Children of God, embraced and loved more than we could ever imagine.      

By adding Hagar and Ishmael’s story to our sacred text, the author gives us a gift, and that gift is an expansive glimpse into God’s Beloved Community where grace, love and welcome abound because ultimately Hagar and Ishmael’s story, and so many other people’s story who are like them, people who have been left out, people who have been excluded, people who have been hurt by their families, their story teaches us that God sees us, that God hears us, that God is with us. Their story tells us that this world with all its labels and separations will not define us as people of faith, that ultimately, the story does not and will not end in death for us as people of faith because our God is anything but ordinary.

Amen.

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