“So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. And the water in the skin was used up, and she cast off the boy under one of the shrubs. Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.”

What kind of mother would take her son and “cast him off”(shaw-lak in Hebrew)? Why would a mother do something like that? Wouldn’t you think she would have stayed with her son in his final moments of life? Wouldn’t she want to comfort her son? What Kind of mother was Hagar?

As Ishmael laid there under that tree, having no one to comfort him, no one to help him he began to cry. Verse 17 tells us that, “G-D heard the cry of the youth” and that is the key to this story.

When all else has failed, all my recourses are gone, I have just eaten the last of my bread, it is then and unfortunately only then do I cry out to the only one who can help me… and He does.

Elkanah loved Hannah but Hannah was barren, she and Elkanah had no children together. He prayed for her, that G-D would bless her with children. Whenever the time came for Elkanah to go to the temple to make an offering, he would give a double portion to Hannah for her offering. Then one day she heard the words from Elkanah she thought she would never hear “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” Elkanah had given up on the fact that he would ever have a child with his beloved Hannah.

It wasn’t until Hannah was in bitterness of soul that she prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish. While she was in prayer, Eli the High Priest saw her and after a brief dialogue between the two of them Eli said to Hannah, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.” And she said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

Whether you have lost everything and find yourself homeless, or childless, or whatever that “thing “ is in our life that is missing; when we finally come to the that point in our life, to that place in life, where and when we finally lay our burdens down and cry out to the L-RD, can we be comforted to know HE will hear our cry like He did Ishmael and we will hear the words that comforted Hannah “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”