Proper 13 (OTA)

Genesis 21:8-21

⁸ And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹ But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. ¹⁰ So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” ¹¹ And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. ¹³ And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” ¹⁴ 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 in the wilderness of Beersheba. 

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. ¹⁷ 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? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸ Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 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 boy a drink. ²⁰ And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. ²¹ He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. (ESV)

Sarah and Hagar were two women who started a war.  Sarah chose to have Hagar sleep with Abraham in order to conceive a Son for Abraham, for the purpose of inheriting Abraham's property.  Hagar obeys her mistress and she has a son named Ishmael.  Ishmael and Hagar have done nothing wrong.  God fulfills the promise which he made to Sarah and Abraham to have Sarah conceive a son, Isaac.  God has certainly done nothing wrong.  Now that Isaac has been weaned Abraham once again listens to his wife to send Hagar and Ishmael away.  Abraham may be a fault for listening to his wife.  But all the blame should really fall to Sarah.

Sarah is no different than most of us.  Sarah has heard the promise from God, but God is just a little slow for her taste so she tries to fulfill his promises on her own.  Sarah then watches as her plans blow up in her face.  Sarah then tries to find another solution to get rid of the problem.  But once again God has a plan for Sarah's mistake.  God makes another promise to Abraham that his son Ishmael would become a great nation.

Our plans will often times blow up in our face.  It is not our job to fulfill God's promises for him.  God has made his promises to people and God has fulfilled those promises.  God made a promise to Adam and Eve, and God finally fulfilled that promise in Jesus Christ death on the cross.  God still has yet to fulfill some of his promises.  But we need to be patient.  God does everything in his own time frame.  You just need to remember God has fulfilled his promises so far.  God promised Abraham and Sarah a son.  God promised Abraham Ishmael would become a great nation.  God promised to make the offspring of Abraham a blessing for the nations.  God has done these things.

Just be patient, there may even be a well very close by that you just can not see right now.  God is still taking care of his people.