Blinded by Despair While Searching for a Well

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. [Genesis 21:14-20]

Sometimes, when we are in the depths of our grief or despair [feel free to insert any strong, negative emotional experience, really], we are blinded to what God has already provided right in front of us. We are so focused on what caused our circumstances - and the mental/emotional/spiritual state that came along with them - that we miss what God is saying or doing, or even what He has already done knowing what deep grief was waiting for us.

In the text I opened with, the context is this:

Sarah has given Abraham a legitimate son - Isaac - who would be the fulfillment of all that God promised Abraham back when he was Abram. The problem is, before that, she talked her husband into having a son with Hagar - Ishmael. Now that Sarah has Isaac, she wants Abraham to send Hagar away with Ishmael. It didn’t sit well with him, but he did it because God told him it would be okay (not morally right, but okay in the sense that He wouldn’t forsake them as Sarah had so bitterly done - see verses 11-13).

And so with God’s reassurance, we pick up with Abraham’s response in verse 14.

Quickly, we see that Hagar had succumb to hopelessness as the water runs out. So hopeless, in fact, that she places her child away from her so she wouldn’t have to watch him die (verse 16) because that was the only outcome she could foresee when she evaluated their circumstance.

This isn’t the first time Hagar found herself in this situation. In Genesis 16, after Sarai concocted the plan to have Abram impregnate her and then dealt harshly with her, Hagar fled. An angel of the Lord found her - near a spring, ironically, considering the nature of her problem in Genesis 21 - and gave her hope. It was then that she referred to God as El Roi, the God who sees. What’s interesting, though, is that the Bible doesn’t say she was seeking the Lord here. It says she lifted her voice and wept. When God answers her weeping, what He says is that He heard the boy (Ishmael). I don’t have a specific point, but there are several things here worth pondering in my opinion.

So God calls out to Hagar:

17 “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.”

Another fun side note - this is SO similar to how God responds to Joshua’s distress in Joshua 7. He asks him why he’s on his face, and then calls him to rise.

God hears the cries of her son - who was the reason she was [very] wrongfully sent away if you recall - and meets her where she is with four things I think you will find pretty common in how God graciously and gently handles man throughout all of Scripture:

1. Encouragement - “Fear not”

2. Reassurance - “…for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.”

3. Instruction - “Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand…”

4. Promise - “…for I will make him into a great nation.”

Now remember, Hagar’s despair was seemingly caused by a lack of water; a surface-level problem. But God knew better. When He speaks to her, He speaks to her heart. He lifts her Spirit, reassures her heart and communicates His promise regarding her son.

And it was THEN that “God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.”

If I can just offer this summary of how God is speaking to Hagar in this moment, in my own words. I hesitate because I don’t ever want to speak for God - He doesn’t need help being clear. But I just want to share how I am hearing what is happening here between God and Hagar:

“You’re seeing what led you to this place and you’re feeling hopeless as a result - to the extent that you can’t even see I’ve already provided a way beyond this. But I heard the cries [of your son], and I’m giving your heart what it needs so you can see that I already provided what you’re failing to see.”

Let’s pause for a moment on this main point because there are three things I feel pressed to point out to you:

1. In neither scenario did Hagar call out to God on her own. In Genesis 16, the Lord sent an angel to minister to her [“The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water…”] In Genesis 21, it says “the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven…” This is the pattern of Scripture - the Gospel, really - that when man did not go to God, He came to us. As my pastor has been saying during our current series, “Man fell, but God drew near.”

   
   

2. In both scenarios when God did speak to her through the angel He sent, notice the lack of condemnation. He doesn’t say, “Hagar, again? Don’t you know by now that I can make a way?” Or “Why aren’t you calling out to me? Why are you just sitting there hopeless?” Perhaps that has become the voice and tone we hear in our lowest moments because that is the voice playing in our heads from poor religious experiences or our childhood or something, but it is not something we ever see from God in the Bible. When He ‘finds’ her, He is gracious and compassionate. It’s not that God never offers correction in those moments - but correction doesn’t have to be harsh. It can be gentle, which He demonstrates (John 6 is a great example between Peter and Jesus). But it seems that is not what it is needed here based on how He speaks to her and how she actively responds.

   
   

   And this makes sense, doesn't it? Because the first time in the Bible that God describes Himself to His people He says this:

   
   

6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; 7 who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished…”Exodus 34:6-7

God describes Himself as compassionate and merciful, among other things, and is careful to note that is He is still just (which I love). And we get to watch God be consistent with who He says He is from Genesis to Revelation in the way He interacts with people - including Hagar.

3. I just find it interesting that in both scenarios where He meets Hagar, there is water involved. In Genesis 16, it was a spring of water. In Genesis 21, there was a well. As we know, Jesus refers to Himself as the living water in John 4 when He goes out of His way to meet the woman at the well.

   
   

Ok so back to our original discussion…

The problem wasn’t the water. If Hagar wasn’t so discouraged at heart, she just may have seen the well of water on her own and kept trekking along. And even if she didn’t, she may have been able to reason with herself that calling out to God and trusting him to fulfill her needs and the needs of her son was a good next step. The problem was the hopelessness that had started to consume her.

And so I circle back to how I opened this devotional:

Sometimes, when we are in the depths of our grief or despair [feel free to insert any strong, negative emotional experience, really], we are blind to what God has already provided…we miss what God is saying or doing, or even what He has already done…

Friends, don’t let what your heart is burdened with cause you to miss the well of water. It’s there. If you can’t see it right now, don’t despair and give up hope.

Call out to God.

He’ll hear you the same way He heard “the boy” in Genesis 21 and open your eyes to wonders anew.

~ Alyssa