CENTRAL TO THE PLOT
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture: “And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.” Genesis 21:20, ESV
Theme: The same God who took care of the outcast Ishmael and the outcasts in Jesus’ generation cares for those far from Him today.
CAST ASIDE
We know the story of Abraham and Sarah and their son Isaac, who became a patriarch of the Jewish faith. We hear far less about Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah’s Egyptian slave and the son she bore to Abraham. Why? Many people might argue that Hagar and her son Ishmael weren’t central to the plot. After all, God’s covenant with Abraham was to be established through Isaac, not Ishmael. And all the stories of the Hebrew people are a direct result of God’s blessing on the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; not Ishmael and his offspring.
Yet we can find a compelling story about Hagar and her son Ishmael in Genesis 16 and 21. We learn there that, multiple times, God saw them in their distress and rescued them. In fact, we know that Hagar was the first person in all of Scripture to give God a name, El Roi: "The God who Sees." While God’s covenant would be established through Abraham’s younger son, Isaac, God remembered Hagar and Ishmael and made them God-sized promises, too. He saw them. They may have been cast aside by Abraham and Sarah, but they were not cast aside by the Lord.
INCLUDED
Do you ever ask yourself why certain stories were included in Scripture? That’s one of my favorite ways to wrestle with the text. Moses, the likely writer of Abraham’s story, could’ve left Hagar and Ishmael out altogether. Or he could have used their story only as an example of how we shouldn’t try to take God’s promises into our own hands. Instead, their brief story is also a redemptive message: God cares for the outcast. Sarah hated Hagar and Ishmael, but God saw them, and God promised that He would make a great nation from Ishmael, too. Abraham and Sarah’s story would’ve moved along just fine if Hagar and Ishmael had simply been cast out with no redemptive arc, so why did God choose to include so many tender details about them?
We could also ask...
- Why did God’s story include the Bleeding Woman? (Mark 5)
- Why did God’s story include the Ninevites? (Jonah 1-4)
- Why did God’s story include Naaman? (2 Kings 5)
- Why did God’s story include the Roman Centurion? (Matthew 8)
- Why did God’s story include Rahab the prostitute? (Joshua 2; Joshua 6; Matthew 1)
- Why did God’s story include the Ethiopian Eunuch? (Acts 8)
- Why did God’s story include the Samaritan man with leprosy? (Luke 17)
THE GOD WHO SEES
God didn’t skip or sanitize these stories or any of the dozens more like them. He chose to share the messy parts because He is El Roi. He is the God who sees the outcast. He is a God who includes the excluded. He is a God who crosses lines to restore dignity. He is a God whose story has always included the outsider—from the time of Adam to the time of Jesus, to this very moment we are living in right now. God’s story tells us that perhaps the outsider isn’t an ancillary character after all; perhaps, instead, the outsider is absolutely central to the plot.
Make it Personal: God looks directly at the people we are inclined to look away from, and He sees them, loves them, and is for them. If you find yourself cast out, take heart, friend: Jesus has chosen time and time again to stand beside you. Look for those who have been cast out. Jesus beckons us from the other side of that line.
Pray: I thank You, Lord, that when I feel dejected and alone, You are standing right beside me. Like Hagar and Ishmael, You hear the cries of the outcast. Give me eyes to see when people are being cast out, ostracized, mistreated, and ignored, and let me heed Your invitation to stand next to You, next to them. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Read: Luke 4:18-19, 7:22; Matthew 25:40; Genesis 21:1-21
Weekly Memory Verse: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8, ESV