Desert Wandering

WALKING WITH GOD. No.5

Gen 21:14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba .

We need to carry on the story of Hagar. Previously we saw the circumstances that brought Hagar to a place of distress where she was running away – walking fast with urgency. Since that time about fourteen years have passed [Abram was 75 when he came into the land – 12:4. Ten years had passed when he slept with Hagar (16:3), i.e. he was 86 (16:16), and he was 100 years old when Isaac was born (21:5) so Ishmael is 14]. The circumstances outside Hagar’s control that still affect her have moved on – Sarah has conceived and Isaac has been born.

Ishmael is a teenager and teenagers don’t always have good attitudes as they try and find their place in life. We are told he ‘was mocking’. Presumably he knew about the tradition of the eldest son being the most important, the son who took the main inheritance, and so he derides the baby who has just been born. Perhaps his mocking was in the form of, “He’ll work for me one day!” Sarah hears it and is upset and tells Abraham to send he and his mother away (v.10). This upsets Abraham because, after all, Ishmael is his son (v.11), but he’s a godly man with an ear open to the Lord, and the Lord tells him not to worry because Isaac is His chosen one, and anyway He will bless Ishmael and make him into a nation.

These are the circumstances that have preceded our verse above. It’s always important to see that things don’t ‘just happen’ out of the blue. There are reasons, things that have gone before. Thus we find that Hagar and Ishmael are banished from the wealthy merchant’s home and are now wandering in the desert.

Now ‘wandering’ is walking without a purpose. A desert is a dry, arid, inhospitable and unfruitful place. Circumstances outside of Hagar’s control have brought her here. Ah, but were they beyond her control? Yesterday we read how that when she became pregnant she despised Sarai. Now we have noted that Ishmael is mocking. His mother has not brought him up to have humble respect, because it was a character flaw in her so, yes, she did in fact contribute to the circumstances. However, yes, the big players were stronger than her and their attitudes created the end product, so it is a mixture of other people’s actions and her own actions that produced the end result of her wandering in the desert.

If we’re able to be honest, this is always the truth – our less-than-perfect motives, thoughts, words and deeds probably contributed to bring about the present. So here we are, wandering, purposeless, wondering what life is about, disillusioned by the Christian life even, somewhat cynical of things we see going on ‘in church’. There have been a lot of such people in the past decade who, because of ‘the circumstances’ have dropped out of church and are even now, if they can be honest, wandering in a desert.

But see what happens. Hagar feels that they are at the end of their lives. Resources are few, hope is absent, and they cry. At this point, God intervenes again. For a second time, at the second crisis point, God steps in and reassures her (v.17,18). But reassurance is not enough – God brings revelation of resources and she finds a source of water that is sufficient to keep them going (v.19). Suddenly there is hope. They continue to live in the desert but it became a place where they can live and survive, not a place of death. There is hope.

But there is more. The Lord had promised that the boy will become a nation. That’s a big promise and it starts small – there’s got to be a first child and for that Ishmael needs a wife. Hagar travels to her home land, Egypt, and gets him a wife. The ball starts rolling. He will become a nation.

Wandering in a desert place? Seek God for reassurance and provision. This is a place of divine opportunity – places of crisis always are. Recall what God has promised. Receive His provision and take the first step towards the fulfilment of the promise. There is hope and hope leads to the first step of your destiny.