Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.
God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
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 21:14-19).
Hagar and Ishmael had left Abraham’s camp with water and food, but they were in the desert long enough for the water, at least, to have run out. The text doesn’t tell us why. Were they staying away from other settlements on purpose? Had they gotten lost? It’s an interesting question, but there’s no answer, which means that it’s not important for the point that the Holy Spirit wanted to convey.
What is important is that God heard Ishmael crying and provided water for the pair. But notice the way he did it: he opened Hagar’s eyes to see a well that was already there. The water she’d needed had been there all along, but she didn’t see it until her son cried out to God.
There is something of a parallel between this passage and the story of Elisha’s servant being unable to see that “those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). But there’s also a difference, in that the horses and chariots of fire that the servant in that story didn’t see are clearly supernatural beings, which would have been invisible to most people. There’s no suggestion that the well in this passage is anything other than an ordinary well. Not a miracle, but the hand of God just the same. It was only Hagar’s preoccupation with her and her son’s predicament that kept her from seeing it.
The solution to Hagar’s problem was there the whole time, but she hadn’t seen it. All she saw was the problem. And then the problem became so overwhelming that she couldn’t even look at that anymore. And yet, some thirteen years earlier, God had said to her, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count” (Genesis 16:10).
Think about that for a moment. Hagar was despairing for her son’s life, but not only had she heard God’s promise of a future for him, the solution to their current problem was right there in front of her. But she was looking so intently at the problem that she didn’t see God’s provision. She didn’t see it because she wasn’t looking for it. God had not shut Hagar’s eyes; she’d done that herself.
How often do I miss the solution to a problem because I’m not looking for it? And how often do I desperately plead for a miracle to do something that God’s ordinary providence has already done? May he open our eyes to see the grace he has already given us.
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear (Isaiah 65:24).