Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #26 of Genesis, chapter 21.  I am going to read Genesis 21:17-21:

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. 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. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

We have seen how God is laying out another spiritual picture of the Gospel regarding this historical parable, which is teaching us about God’s plan at the time of the end during the Great Tribulation when judgment began at the house of God.  It was also the time that God opened the Scriptures to reveal much more truth.  At that time of the end, God let it be known that salvation is completely by grace and by the faith of the Lord Jesus.  It is not by man’s works in any way.  It is not by the keeping of the Law, which Hagar represented.

We have seen through this language that the Lord is indicated that the descendants of Ishmael that come from the Arab nations would represent those that are saved at the end of the world.  A great many of the great multitude would be “sons of Ishmael” or physical descendants of Ishmael.  We saw this in the statement, “And God heard the voice of the lad.”  It was repeated twice.  We know that God intended to save many of Ishmael’s descendants because God said in verse 18 that He would make him a “great nation.”  We looked up many references where the term “great nation” was used regarding Abraham, Jacob and Moses.  In each case, it was the elect of God that were in view.  God did not say of the Babylonian nation that He would make them a “great nation.”  They could be a mighty nation or a fierce nation, but not a “great nation,” because that term is reserved for those that represent the kingdom of God.

We also spent some time in Isaiah 60 looking at Kedar and Nabaioth, who were sons of Ishmael.  We looked at the language God used regarding their blessing.  So, there is mounting Biblical evidence confirming what we previously had learned, but things we have “let slip” a little bit.  We have not focused too much on it, but in Genesis 21 the Lord is highlighting the fact that it was His plan to save many “sons of Ishmael.”  It was already accomplished in the day of salvation.  Since the “sons of Ishmael” are primarily in the Arab lands and are Muslims, it means that God has saved many people in the religion of Islam.

Here, in this historical setting, after God said to Hagar that He had heard the voice of the lad and would make him a great nation, there is a strong emphasis on salvation where it says in 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.

God opened her eyes.  In the Bible, when we think of someone having their eyes opened, we can turn to passages like we find in Isaiah 35:3-6:

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. hen the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

That is where Hagar and Ishmael were located – they were in a wilderness.  And what did she see there?  It was a well of water that she did not see before, until God opened Hagar’s eyes.  The water in the wilderness is a picture of the Gospel going into the dry and thirsty land of this world.  Then it says in Isaiah 35:7:

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

It is wonderful language to illustrate God’s salvation as the pure water of the Gospel would go out into the world.

Also, it says in Isaiah 42:6-7:

I JEHOVAH have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

This is a Messianic reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Again, we see the opening of blind eyes.  We are familiar with that picture in the Bible.  It has to do with spiritual sight – eyes of understanding.  When we read in the Bible of “opening the understanding,” it has to do with spiritual eyesight.  If you do not understand, it is as though you are in darkness.  The Bible says, “…and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” 

The wise have eyes to see, but the wicked do not have eyes to see.

In this same chapter and in the same context of Christ opening the blind eyes, it says in Isaiah 42:10:

Sing unto JEHOVAH a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

To “sing unto JEHOVAH a new song” is language pointing to salvation. The figurative 144,000 sang a new song.  And the elect that came out of the churches sang the song of the Lamb and the song of Moses.  Here, they are singing a new song.  In the context of the opening of the eyes, it goes on to say in Isaiah 42:11-12:

Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto JEHOVAH, and declare his praise in the islands.

Here, we see “Kedar” mentioned again in the wilderness.  So, in this context we see the opening of the spiritual eyes and the singing unto JEHOVAH a new song while in the wilderness, and Kedar is also mentioned.  This is further Biblical confirmation that it was God’s program to save some “sons of Ishmael” among that great multitude.  We do not want to say that everyone saved during the Latter Rain were sons of Ishmael, because the Bible does not say that.  The great multitude is from every tribe and tongue and nation, but the Lord is indicating and making this known, giving hope to those in the Middle East that have had a great deal of misery for quite a long time.  The Bible gives them hope.  The hope is that God could have saved many of them.  There is great potential for that because God was especially working among the “sons of Ishmael,” as well as working across the face of the earth.

The Bible does make this point, but as far as I can tell the Bible seldom presents a chapter like Genesis 21 where in verse after verse, it is indicating God’s intention to save sons of Ishmael.  We do not read that concerning the Chinese, Russians, Africans and so forth.  The Lord covers other nations when He says He saves from every tribe, nation and tongue, so He is not saying He would not save people from all these nations, but God is making a special point to single out the descendants of Ishmael.

When we go back to Genesis 21, we see that God first opened Hagar’s eyes, and then she saw the well of water.  What does “water” represent in the Bible?  One of the first verses that came into my mind (and probably your mind) was Isaiah 12:3:

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

A well has water and it identifies here with salvation.  But this is not the same Hebrew word we find in Genesis 21 when the Lord opened Hagar’s eyes and she saw a well of water.  However, I wanted to read this because it is the same idea.  And we can know that because the word used in Genesis 21 is the same word used in Song of Solomon 4:15:

A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

The Song of Solomon is parabolic, so we wonder what a well of living waters would represent.  We can make the connection when we remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said to the woman at the well in John 4:6-15:

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

The well of water is in Him, springing up into everlasting life.  Without question, it is speaking of salvation.  Even though Isaiah 12 does not use the same word for “well,” the idea of the “well” is salvation, as we saw in Isaiah 12:3.  When we follow the word found in Genesis 21, we went to Song of Solomon which uses the word “well” in such a way that it directs us to the New Testament and the “well” of living water. 

Again, after saying that He would make him a great nation, Hagar’s eyes were opened, and she saw a well of water.  She went and filled her bottle from the well (the well of salvation) and gave the lad drink.  Ishmael drank at what point in time?  We have established that it was after the weaning of Isaac.  Spiritually, the weaning from the milk of the Word of God progressing to the meat of the Word was when God opened the Scriptures at the time of the end during the Great Tribulation and in this Day of Judgment.  It is this time that is in view, so Ishmael is being used as a representative of his later descendants that would drink of Gospel waters that were sent forth into the world (outside of the churches) at the time of the end.  Typically, the world is a dry and thirsty land, but God sent an abundant rain, the last rain He would ever send upon earth.  It was the Latter Rain.  As that rain went forth, His doctrine dropped as the dew.  His Word went forth as the rain, as it says in Isaiah 55, and it accomplished the purpose it was sent forth to do in saving the great multitude.  Included in that number, were many “sons of Ishmael.”

It goes on to say in Genesis 21:20-21:

And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

To tell you the truth, after working through this passage to this point, I did not see the deeper spiritual meaning.  I was simply thinking the Lord had concluded giving us the information He wanted to give us, and it was time to move on with the historical narrative.  But we know that everything in the Bible is a parable.  This is what the Lord Jesus taught us, as the Bible says, “and without a parable he did not speak.”  All Scripture is parabolic because all Scripture hides truth.  I was struggling with verses 20 and 21.  We can understand the well of water and the tie-in to the Gospel, but what can we learn from Ishmael and dwelling in the wilderness of Paran and his mother taking him a wife out of Egypt?  It is very difficult to try to find the spiritual meaning, especially regarding Ishmael and, yet, the word “Paran” is the key that helps us as we look up that word and see how it is used in the Bible.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to search the Bible regarding the name of this wilderness, which was Paran.  We will see even more information of God’s plan to save the “sons of Ishmael” through His use of this word.