I mentioned below that God is faithful to His character. But this can surprisingly be confusing to us. God often hears our prayers and sends help in distress, but sometimes our experience of spiritual reality is composed only of this occasional distress and occasional help, because in reality we do not know God as a person. We have no idea how he thinks and feels, how he "experiences" things. We push our Ishmael to him and pray that he will receive him. We assume he will surely understand that we had no other choice. God blessed Ishmael, because it is His nature to bless Abraham's sons - the sons of faith - but, as in his case, Abraham had to learn that it does not mean that He agrees or changes His plans. It makes a difference to receive a blessing or to know God.