Genesis 21:19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH BROUGHT HER INTO THIS SITUATION, II. THE EFFECT PRODUCED ON HER BY THE DESOLATE SITUATION INTO WHICH SHE IS BROUGHT. 1. It was despair in opposition to God's plain promises. "Let me not see the death of the child," she says. Why, the Lord Himself had spoken to her from heaven years ago, and told her that that very child should live to be a man and a powerful and great one. And this promise He had renewed but a short time before to Abraham, who would naturally mention the renewal of it to her. But in this hour of seeming danger, Jehovah's words are nothing to her; she either does not think of or she disbelieves them. "My child must die," she says, and east him down to die. How like ourselves in some of our trials! 2. The despair of Hagar was despair in opposition to her own experience. This was not the first time she had been in a desert (see Genesis 16). And there, we might have expected, the Lord would have left her to reap the fruit of her rashness; but not so. He is observant of her there. In admiration of the Lord's goodness, she calls the place where she had experienced it by a name implying, "Thou God seest me." But this is now clean forgotten. Ourselves again, brethren. "I know whom I have believed. The experience I myself have had in days past of my Saviour's love and faithfulness encourages me, nay, compels me, to trust Him now." The Lord brings us into a desert and appears for us there. "I can never forget this," we say. "The remembrance of this mercy will be a stay to me all my life long." But we get into the desert again, and what do we say then? All the many proofs we have had of the Lord's power and faithfulness, are as much out of our thoughts as though we had never had one of them. 3. Hagar's despair was despair in opposition to fact also. It was despair in the very midst of abundance. III. Let us look now at THE INTERPOSITION OF GOD IN BEHALF OF THIS DESPAIRING WOMAN, the mercy He showed her. It consisted, you observe, in this one simple thing, He "opened her eyes." He did no more for her, for no more was needed. Wondering, happy woman! we say; but not more wondering or more happy than many a despairing sinner has been, when the Lord has opened his eyes and discovered to him His great salvation, His abounding mercy, the fountain of living waters He has provided for him in Jesus Christ. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. |
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