God creates. God invites us into family. God changes us into God's own people. We respond with faith, love, and hope. Or we respond by being faithless, fearful, and despairing.
Truthfully, we respond in both ways just as our ancestors in faith did. Today I invite you into a story about our ancestors Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar.
As a hot summer turns into autumn we can look back with a bit of nostalgia to July and August. Warm sunshine, blue skies, children running, butterflies flittering, flowers nodding in the breeze. No need for us to remember the mosquitoes, the sweating from just sitting in the lawn chair, the storms, the broken trees, and the power outages.
This is a good time of year to reread chapter 18 of Genesis. It is a story about a hot lazy day in the life of Abraham and Sarah:
Genesis 18: 1,2,9-10,12-15
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest time of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing across from him. When he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. ... Then they asked him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" He replied, "There, in the tent." One of them said, "I will surely return to you when the season comes round again, and your wife Sarah will have a son!" ... Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, "After I am worn out will I have pleasure, especially when my husband is old too?"
The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh ...? Is anything impossible for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son." Then Sarah lied, saying, "I did not laugh," because she was afraid. But the Lord said, "No! You did laugh."
Now we see the faithfulness of God. Sarah did laugh but God is not deterred. Sarah and Abraham do have a son and they do name him Isaac. God has brought laughter to their home.
Genesis 21: 6
Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."
The boys grew. They are still young but based on Abraham's age when each was conceived Ishmael might be as old as 13. When we pick up the story again, Isaac had just been weaned (which might mean any age from 2 to 7 depending on the customs of the time).
And Sarah hears Ishmael mocking Isaac.
Ishmael mocks: What might he have said? They are little boys! Maybe he said "Isaac can't even shoot a bow!" Maybe he said "His real name is not 'he laughs'. His real name is 'he makes ME laugh'!"
What did Hagar say to Ishmael? Did she say "You should not always be picking on Isaac." Did she say "Isaac is just a little boy. He is trying to be a big boy like you but he hasn't had time to grow up yet." She might have said "You make funny jokes, Ishmael, but it is more important to love and care for your half-brother." Or perhaps she said "Don't you go bad-mouthing Sarah's son! You know she is your father's wife. We will get in trouble."
What did Sarah say to Isaac? Did she say "Ishmael is pretty funny. Did you laugh when he said those things?" Did she say "It would be nicer if Ishmael didn't always make his jokes about you." Did she say "I know Ishmael is older than you but he is still just a boy and doesn't understand how much growing up he already did before you got started." We do not know. All we have on record is what Sarah said to Abraham.
Genesis 21: 10
"Banish that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave woman will not be an heir along with my son Isaac!"
Sarah as much as said "Maybe fathering Ishmael was my idea but now I have my own son I regret what I started. I am too jealous to include both your children in the family; I am afraid Isaac will look bad next to Ishmael, I am afraid there will not be enough wealth for both boys when you finally die, I am afraid God can not keep all God's promises."
Sarah almost said "I am not capable of being faithful. Plus all this fear keeps narrowing the scope of my love."
Abraham was pretty human too. Was he faithful to the promises God had made to him? No, he kept right on trying to make his own future. Did Abraham love both his sons? Yes!
Genesis 21: 11
Sarah's demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son.
Abraham wished for something better but he did not love so well that his love drove out all his fears. Abraham is afraid Sarah's jealousy will tear the family apart. He may be afraid her fears about God's faithfulness are right. And he is also afraid of what could happen to Ishmael if the family splits.
Life as it is lived is not always the same as life as we would wish it to be.
Genesis 21: 12-13
But God said to Abraham, "Do not be upset about the boy or your slave wife. Do all that Sarah is telling you .... I will also make the son of the slave wife into a great nation, for he is your descendant too."
Genesis goes to great lengths to show us that Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac are people like us. I never met Ishmael but I can imagine him attending West High School, being part of the tutoring program, telling me about life in his family just as other teenagers have. I imagine Ishmael learning the lesson Genesis sets in front of us:
We are invited to become family. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. Even when we fail to be family, the invitation does not go away. We are still invited to become family.
Abraham's family fails at this moment of the story. The promise of laughter has died away. Fear and despair take over -- but not entirely.
Genesis 21: 14
Early in the morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child, and sent her away. So she went wandering aimlessly through the wilderness of Beer Sheba.
I think Abraham did what he thought was needed in the circumstances. He made sandwiches and filled the water canteens. When I was young we never used skins for water so I imagine them setting out with a canvas water bag. (The slow evaporation from the bag keeps the water cool and the flexible bag is easier to carry than a metal can.) I imagine Abraham is thinking, "This will get them safely to the next oasis. If there is no one there, they can fill up the water skin and move on to the next after that."
But Hagar is unprepared in ways besides having a day's food and water. The story tells us "she went wandering aimlessly through the wilderness". Wandering aimlessly is not a good way to find the next oasis. I can identify with Hagar here; if I were dropped off in the drylands I might also wander aimlessly. I have wandered aimlessly in the temperate woodland which is a far less dangerous proposition.
I doubt Abraham ever considered this; he lived most of his life wandering safely from place to place. He may never have wandered aimlessly in his century of life.
Genesis 21: 15-16
When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved the child under one of the shrubs. Then she went and sat down by herself ... for she thought, "I refuse to watch the child die." So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably.
Hagar is in despair. She can not see any other future for her son than dying of dehydration. Hagar has no hope. She responds to their situation with despair.
Genesis 21: 17-19
But God heard the boy's voice. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Don't be afraid, for God has heard the boy's voice right where he is crying. Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand ...." Then God enabled Hagar to see a well of water. She went over and filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink.
Hagar was cast out from her family, she is lost in the drylands with her son, and Ishmael is crying from thirst. Despair is understandable. But we are called to become God's own people. God's own people are people who will reach out to the boy, help him up, hold his hand. Whether he lives or dies we know we are God's people and so we hope.
When Hagar does reach out, when she holds Ishmael's hand, then she is also able to see more clearly. Her aimless wandering has brought her to the oasis. She went to the well, "filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink."
Genesis 21: 20-21
God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer. He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
God creates, God redeems, God blesses. Or we might say: God creates. God invites us to become family. God changes us into God's own people. But we -- like Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, our response is faithless, fearful, and despairing.
Here is the good news. Here is the gospel already visible in Abraham's life with God: