Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand. For I will make him a great nation.” God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the container with water, and gave the boy a drink.”
(Genesis 21:17-19)

The boy in question was Ishmael. He wasn’t a small child. He was almost twenty years old. And in this time of trouble, he was doing what his father Abraham had taught him to do: he was praying to God. Ishmael was connecting with God.

Hagar should have been holding onto the promise God gave her almost twenty years previous in her encounter with Him (Genesis 16:7-14). But she wasn’t. She was not trusting in God. She was busy despairing. If she had been trusting from the start, their experience would have been much different. But God didn’t respond to them because of her trust. God responded because of His promise. God honoured His promise and God responded to Ishmael’s prayers. The first thing He did was remind her of His promise. Remind her that He can be trusted and SHOULD be trusted. Everything we get from God comes from that point (Hebrews 11:6).

God didn’t create this well out of nothing. He didn’t make it appear. He helped Hagar see it. Which means it was already there. Hagar had been blinded to it – perhaps by her despair. We know that God responded to Ishmael and opened her eyes to it. He reminded her of the promise He had made and He gave her instructions as to what to do. We need to hold to God’s promises and trust in Him. We also need to obey when He gives us instructions. Prayer is the BEGINNING of our interactions with God, not the end point. God works with us much more than God ever does things for us – He saves that for when things are impossible for us.

The sage Ramban writes: ‘WHERE HE IS. He shall be judged according to his present deeds, and not according to those actions which he may do in the future. This was because the ministering angels laid charges, etc. Thus the words of Rashi quoting from the teachings of our Rabbis.
The correct interpretation, in line with the simple meaning of Scripture, appears to me to be that the verse is stating that G-d heard the voice of the lad in the place in which he was. He informed her that she will not need to go from there to a fountain or well for in that very place he will quench his thirst immediately. He thus said to her, “Arise, lift up the lad after you will have given him to drink, for I will make him a great nation. Similarly, the word sham (there) in verses, Where he sunk, there he fell down dead;And where the slain are, there is she, alludes to the place.’

The sage Bekhor Shor writes: ‘An angel of God from heaven: Angels that appear to people on the earth are in the image of people; it is not known that they are angels, as it is not the way of the Holy One, blessed be He, to reveal [them]. But it is known that the one that is speaking from the heaven is an angel [and not God], since he said, “because God has heard the voice of the youth”; and he did not say, “I heard.”‘

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 17. God has already heard your child, there where he lies struggling. Had you put your trust in God, had you not thrown your child there but laid him gently down, had you not left him but had you remained by him as becomes a mother, then you would already have seen the well, there just where he is. V. 18. First get up and take the lad again as a strong never-despairing mother, for only as such are you worthy of God’s help; then give him to drink. החזיקי ידך בו, not החזיקי בידו which would be “hold him tight, support him with your hand”, but: “Let your hand keep a firm hold on him”. Be a strong and firm support and guide to him, for I have destined him for a great future.’