Genesis 21: Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.

 Abraham held a big celebration on the day that Isaac stopped drinking his mother's milk. During the feast, Sarah saw that Ishmael, the son born to Abraham by Hagar, was mocking her son, Isaac. She told Abraham in verse 10, "Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a co-heir with my son Isaac!" This may seem a little harsh, but the whole time Sarah was barren, she probably grew bitter as she saw Hagar's son, Ishmael, grow up. So, when she saw Ishmael mocking her son, this fueled her bitterness and anger even more, and told her husband to drive out Hagar and Ishmael. 


Of course, this is hard for Abraham to do, because Ishmael was his son. To help him, God told him to do whatever Sarah told him to do. God tells Abraham in verse 12 that his "offspring will be traced through Isaac." But, God will not forget about Abraham's slave son, and will also make a nation of Hagar.


In this situation, Ishmael is the son of flesh, because Abraham and Sarah took the situation into their own hands in order to give Abraham a son. Isaac, on the other hand, is the son of faith, because they had faith that the Lord would provide Abraham a son. God is telling Abraham to chose the son of faith over the son of flesh, and Abraham obeys. Early the next morning, he gives Hagar and Ishmael bread and a waterskin, and they leave. They wandered until they reached the Wilderness of Beer-sheba, and at this point, they had run out of water. Ishmael, thinking that they would die soon, hid her son under a bush, and sat "about a bow shot away." In verse 16, she says "I can't [bear to] watch the boy die!" 


God, hearing what was going on, sent an angel. In verse 17-18, the angel of God said to Hagar "¹⁷What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is. ¹⁸Get up, help the boy up, and sustain him, for I will make him a great nation." God showed favor to Ishmael, probably because he is a descendant of Abraham. He opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well of water. Verse 20-21 says "²⁰ God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. ²¹ He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt."