HAGAR AND ISHMAEL, NOT FORGOTTEN
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: GENESIS21:8-21
KEY VERSE
“God heard the boy crying; and the angel of the Lord called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him”.
Genesis21:17-18
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
This Lesson aims to teach us that we must believe what God says and trust Him completely. God makes promises and sometimes they are not fulfilled immediately. Sometimes it takes some times for things to work as God had promised. The extent of our love of and trust in God is therefore very important for even if we are not always faithful to God, He will be faithful to us. Whatever He promised will come to pass even if it takes some time.
The problem for us is that we sometimes think that God takes too long to fulfill His promises and so we in our human way try to speed things up. This always end in disaster and what follows when we try to help God creates more problems for us and the people around us than we think.The problem for us is that weGod also has done great things for usG
In this story we learn that God had called Abram and his wife Sarai to leave the bright lights of their home in Ur of the Chaldees. This was a most important and sought after city to live in but it was a pagan city where the people worshipped idols included the Moon goddess. GodWhen they were captured and taken into exile away from their countryWtold Abram and Sarai to leave and go to a Land that He would show them. Their descendants would own that Land. God would also make Abram the father of a great nation. He and his wife would have a Son who we know would be one of the ancestors of the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. Through him all the nations of the world would be blessed. Abram and Sarai believed God and God considered them righteous people for their faith in Him.
We would think that they would not make mistakes but would always trust God to fulfill His promises but sadly they slipped. Abram was almost 100 years old and Sarai was close to 90 years old, well pass the age of having children. But God had promised that they would have this miracle son when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old. That miracle birth had never happened before in human historySometimes people who should know better
They decided that they would help God fulfill His promise for giving them a son, so Abraham and Sarah decided to follow the custom where if your slave had a child with you, that would be your legitimate son. Abraham and Sarah decided to followed this practise even though God never approved of it.
Abraham and his slave Hagar had this son together and his name was Ishmael. Sarah changed her mind about this and treated Hagar badly. When God finally fulfilled His promise and she had a child of her own named Isaac Sarah was very happy and she laughed at her good fortune brought by the supernatural act of God for she knew that a woman her age should never be able to have a child.
When the son named Isaac was born Abraham and Sarah were extremely happy. Sarah got jealous and angry when she saw her little son and the now 16 year old son of Abraham and Hagar playing and she demanded that Abraham throw our Hagar and Ishmael. Now Sarah’s bad decision was catching up with her. She should never have demanded that Abraham have a son with Hagar to fulfill the promise of God. She should have trusted God and waited onHim to bring His promise to pass.
Abraham was very upset and did not want to throw out Hagar and Ishmael for he loved Ishmael. He refused but God told him to listen to Sarah. Abraham obeyed God and sent Hagar and Ishmael away with a little bit of water and food for he knew God would look after them.
When the food and water ran out Hagar and Ishmael thought they were going to die and they cried. They were helpless and despaired of living.
But God had His plan to look after them and He called and told them not to fear. He had heard the cries of Ishmael. God opened Hagar’s eyes and she saw a well of water so she got water to prevent them dying of thirst. God provided food and everything they needed and Hagar and Ishmael grew up safely as God had promised. God had promised made Ishmael have many sons and that led to the growth of many nations. He was blessed for he was the son of righteous Abraham, a friend of God.
God will never forget His promises. He did not forget His promises to Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael. It took some time for this to happen but it did come to pass.
So we learn that God loves us and has made special promises to each one of us. We should trust Him and be patient as He guides, protects, and leads us for He will do what He has promised us in His time. God is wise so we must learn to wait on Him. We must not try to do things to help Him fulfill His promises for we will always make bad mistakes, and bring a lot of pain and problems on ourselves and others. So let us heed the warning of this Lesson.