“Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar an animal skin full of water and some bread. Then he put the boy on her shoulder and sent them away. They wandered around in the desert near Beersheba, and after they had run out of water, Hagar put her son under a bush. Then she sat down a long way off, because she could not bear to watch him die. And she cried bitterly.” Genesis 21:14-16

Hagar is abused, manipulated, and then cast out. She was a purchase, meant to serve and meant to serve whatever whim those who owned her wanted.

When Abraham and Sarah did not have a child, Sarah decided that she would have a child through her slave girl and claim that child as her own. And Abraham, Abraham goes along with Sarah’s plan. He gets Hagar pregnant. She is just a slave girl, not a woman, helpless in the midst of other people’s decisions. But she loves this child fiercely, Ishmael her beloved son.

Tensions between Hagar and Sarah existed from the time Hagar got pregnant. They escalated after Sarah’s son Isaac was born. Sarah wants her gone and Hagar’s son disinherited. She wants no memories of the pregnancy she forced on her.

The scripture tells us Abraham was upset, but apparently not upset enough to get her situated and to know that his son and his son’s mother were safe. Abraham does nothing to settle Hagar in a new place, with Ishmael so young a young child, Hagar carries him on her shoulders. Abraham sends no servants to assist her on the way. Giving her only food and water for a short journey, without directions or introduction to a safe place.

God, knowing Hagar’s need to be free, tells Abraham to send her out, but does not tell him to send her out with so little, unaccompanied, and with a scarcity of food and water. I find it hard to understand Abraham’s action. It is cruel and inhumane, much like the treatment of immigrants, by people claiming to be Christians  in today’s world.

Hagar despairs, after being abused and manipulated, into having a child, she’s now abandoned by those who orchestrated the pregnancy, using her body to get what they wanted. There’s nothing in the story that makes either Abraham or Sarah look good. The only excuse of these ancient pillars of the faith, is ignorance of the law and prophets.

While Abraham and Sarah cast her out, God does not abandon Hagar or Ishmael. In her despair, God calls to her hearing her cries. “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? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’” Genesis 21:18

Stumbling through the wilderness, Hagar had stopped at a place, where her tear filled eyes could not see the lifesaving water of a well. Wandering through the wilderness, Hagar learns that God is not just the God of Abraham and Sarah, for God is also her God and is with her.

In moments of despair, when hope is dim, our eyes filled with tears, God still comes, calling to us. Reminding us, we are not alone. God will never abandon us, and will walk with us, wherever our journey takes us, through all the days of our lives . . . Until one day, we are welcomed on the other side.