And I think Sarah kicks Ishmael out because she knows the story of Cain and Abel. She’s afraid.
I think this is also a cipher. The text points back, not just to give us some extra character detail, but to tell *us* to look back at what is happening.
Ishmael and Isaac are linked to Cain and Abel.
We wonder about Cain’s offering and how God feels about him, but the text isn’t clear. We know that Cain left the face, or presence, of God, and God placed a mark of protection on him.
Does God love Cain? Is Cain in God’s heart, despite Cain’s wandering?
Perhaps this story of Ishmael’s exile gives us a clue.
Hagar and Ishmael are גָּרַשׁ (garash) “driven out” from Abraham’s household. It’s this same word in Gen 3:24 when Adam and Eve are exiled from the garden. It’s also the same word Cain uses when he wanders in Gen 4:13.
If these stories are linked, the way God treats Ishmael tells us how he viewed Cain and how he viewed Adam and Eve.
God heard the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
And God was with the boy, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Genesis 21:17-21 (NASB)
And perhaps how he views us when we wander.