Genesis
21:14 ¶ And Abraham rose up early in the
morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting
it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and
wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15
And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one
of the shrubs. 16 And she went, and sat
her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said,
Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift
up her voice, and wept. 17 And God heard
the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and
said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice
of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift
up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw
a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the
lad drink. 20 And God was with the lad;
and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and
his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Hagar
and her son are put away. It seems strange that a man possessed of such wealth
as Abraham would provide her with such meager provisions. It seems rather
heartless, wouldn’t you say? When all seems lost, though, God does not let
things go too far. To say God heard the
voice of the lad is much like the earlier statements about God remembering.
It doesn’t suggest that He was reading a book and happened to hear Ishmael’s
cry by chance. It means that He responded to the plaintive pleas of Hagar and
Ishmael as He often does not make things better for us until we acknowledge our
need and weakness.
God opened her eyes so
that she could see something that was hidden from her before as He often does
to us although we do not acknowledge that he has done so. There is something in
front of us which should be obvious but we just cannot see it until He reveals
its presence to us. This opening of our eyes is also apparent in understanding.
Psalm
119:18 ¶ Open thou mine eyes, that I may
behold wondrous things out of thy law.
Ephesians
1:18 The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what
the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
The
skilled workman, even the unbelieving, suddenly sees a solution to a problem,
the cunning inventor suddenly has a flash of insight, the student quickly sees
the answer to a dilemma that he could not previously see. Of course, we all
think that this surprising inspiration, this understanding, comes from
something deep inside of us, as if an idea, the problem, or a solution was a
living thing just hanging around waiting for us to pick it. We attribute it to
our superior reasoning ability. But, if we acknowledge that God opens our eyes
things become clearer.
Satan,
as well, can blind men from seeing something that is true.
2Corinthians
4:4 In whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
But,
typically, in the Bible, it is God that blinds men whose hearts are opposed to
Him so that they shall not see the truth because they will not see the truth.
Think about the shall as being a
consequence of the will.
Isaiah
44:18 They have not known nor
understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their
hearts, that they cannot understand.
2Thessalonians
2:11 And for this cause God shall send
them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The
skilled craftsman, the student, the inventor has prepared himself by training,
interest, and vocation to receive something from God, perhaps whom He does not
know, because of God’s purposes, not that person’s own. So, it is that the
person who seeks God prepares his own heart by his or her yearning to know the
truth and then, at some point, God opens that person’s eyes and they believe
that Jesus is and was God in the flesh and that He rose from the dead and our
salvation lies only with Him.
Here,
in this passage, God reveals something to Hagar regarding her and her son’s
deliverance that was not visible to her in her despair.
Ishmael
grows up to be an archer and an Egyptian wife, like his own mother, is provided
for him. The bow, representing the archer, plays a part in the latter days in
that part of the world as the beast arises who conquers bringing death, famine,
pestilence, and much sorrow with him.
Revelation
6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:
and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went
forth conquering, and to conquer.
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