“Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink” (Genesis 21:19).
The OT has two parallel functions:
-the history of the Jewish nation and a pointer to Christ (Galatians 3:24).
No doubt, we are more familiar with the story of the Jewish nation. We know the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel.
As children, we listened to the story of Abraham, taking his son Isaac to the top of the mountain to bring him as a sacrifice.
The story of Abraham sending his eldest son Ishmael and his mother away, was rarely told. Yet it offers us a snapshot of life.
That part of life when the good times, hard as they were, are over and life becomes miserable. Not only that but life itself becomes more precious than anything else. We read about a father, a mother, a son, some provisions; an exhausting journey through the desert; the scary realisation that the provisions are being used, that life may cease.
Famine and thirst are two of death’s best friends. (Even today, people are dying of famine and thirst).
But, every snap shot of life, has an un-seen element; a life-giving element; a hope-birthing element, and that is God.
“Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink” (v.19).
Here it is where Hagar and Ishmael’s story gets its happy ending.
Certain things cannot be seen with the naked eye. Some things are hidden in plain sight. “They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” (Matthew 25:44).
Let us ask God to open our eyes to see the life-giving resources around us and the road ahead that leads to eternal life..