Verse
of the day: Genesis 21:18 “Arise,
lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great
nation.”
Hagar
finds herself in great distress as she and Ishmael are sent away from Abraham
and Sarah as a result of Ishmael’s mocking of Isaac, Sarah’s demand to send her
away, and God’s confirmation to Abraham that this was what was right to do at
this time. As she travels back toward her home in Egypt, she finds herself
wandering in the Wilderness of Beersheba with no water. In her panic and
distress, she puts Ishmael down and walks away from him, not wanting to see him
perish. What we see take place here is something that happens even to us who
are children of God. We find ourselves in situations that bring us great
distress and we panic, forgetting that we have a God who watches over us, and
has made promises that He will keep, in seeing us through our moments of
difficulties. We allow ourselves to be robbed of our peace, and our joy, when
we are told to bring our cares (anxieties) to God, because He cares for us (1
Petr 5:7). Furthermore, we are told to be anxious for nothing; instead, we are
to bring our concerns to Him in prayer, and He’ll give us the peace that passes
all understanding that guards our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:6-7). God
also promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us, and would be our
Helper (Hebrews 13:5-6). Finally, He tells us that we can boldly go before His
throne to receive mercy, and find grace, in our times of need (Hebrews 4:16).
With all that said, we see that Hagar, in her distress, forgot her previous
interaction with the Lord in Genesis 16:12, where God said to her about Ishmael,
“He shall be a wild
man; His hand shall be against
every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell
in the presence of all his brethren.” Hagar already had confirmation
from God Himself that Ishmael would live. How often we forget God’s promises
when we allow our emotions to take control of our thinking. Emotions are not a
bad thing. God created us in His image, and our God is an emotional God. It is
okay to show emotions, as long as we do not sin in the process. If we are
angry, we are to be angry and sin not (Ephesians 4:26). We are to mourn, but
not like the world (1 Thessalonians 4:13). The bottom line is that when we
allow our emotions to overtake us and control us, we forget the promises that
should bring us peace, and joy, even in the midst of the most troubling of
circumstances. We also see that the Lord was very gracious to Hagar in that He
did not berate her for failing to remember their previous interaction, but was
very gentle with her; by adding to His previous promise that He would make of
Ishmael a great nation. The other observation here is that in the midst of her
distress she failed to see what was before her. How often have we looked for
something and failed to see it, but someone else has walked right up to us and
pointed out that it was right in front of us? I have experienced this many
times in my lifetime. Here, God had to open Hagar’s eyes so that she could see
the well of water that was there within her line of sight. As born again
believers, we must always be ready to encourage other believers who are in
distress by reminding them of what God has promised us in taking care of us and
seeing us through the difficulties in life. Just like God reminded Hagar, we
must continually be in prayer, and in His Word, so that God can remind us of
His promises, even before difficult times come. We must prepare our hearts and
minds ahead of time so that we are not operating in “panic mode” every time a
trial comes. Once again we see God’s mercy and grace in dealing with Hagar and
Ishmael, especially since their troubles were not of their own doing, but the
result of Abraham’s and Sarah’s actions. Sadly, too many people do not see God’s
goodness when they are in the midst of troubling times. As Christians, we must
learn to take our eyes off of our stresses, and put them on the One who is
always bigger than any situation He allows us to encounter.
No comments:
Post a Comment