Ishmael and Hagar leave Abraham's camp

So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food for the journey, and strapped a container of water to Hagar's shoulders. He sent her away with their 16 yr old son, and she walked out into the wilderness of Beersheba, wandering aimlessly, all that time in the desert and she had still not learned her way around and she wasn't willing to listen to Ishmael's directions. When the water was gone, she left the boy in the shade of a bush.


Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. "I don't want to watch the boy die," she said, as she burst into tears.

Then God heard the boy's cries. He didn't choose to hear Hagar's cries, she was insubordinate and not the voice you would want to listen to if you were God, but he heard Ishmael's cries. Ishmael, at 16, schooled by Abraham himself was perfectly capable of crossing the desert, but his mom was having a total breakdown. He was crying out to God to save Hagar.

So God responded. The angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, "Hagar, what's wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy's cries from the place where you laid him. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants."

<= = = Sir, who is the angel of God?

Insightful question Izzy. He is a part of Elohim, God, that chooses to express characteristics suitable to interacting with the human race. If Jehovah God appeared before any man, that man's life would be over instantly, vaporized by His greatness, His glory. He did allow Moses to see a bit of his back, but not his face. The angel of God will appear three times in the stories of the patriarchs. More commonly as you clearly noted, is the term angel of the LORD. Here he is helping Ishmael keep his mother from losing it in the desert.

Then God opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well and her panic attack ended. She immediately filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. After this, Hagar decided it was wiser to follow the boy's lead and they continued to travel through the desert without further incident. And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness of Paran, the place where the Israelites will wander for 40 lost years. Ishmael became an expert archer, he had his father's business sense and began to assemble herds of sheep and cattle and his mother arranged a marriage for him with a young woman from Egypt, a lovely Hyksos girl, not a true Egyptian. Thus was Hagar's father, Pharoh granted double success in his plan, Abraham indeed did have the mark of God in his life who helped him, he would sire nations and now, his first son would be half Hyksosian and by marrying a Hyksos girl, their bloodline would be established until the end of the earth.