Genesis 21:1-21
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Background
We’re doing things a bit differently. Ordinarily, I go verse by verse, chapter by chapter, in order. Last week, though, we jumped around a bit and observed the last portions of chapters 21 and 22. We finished Abraham’s story with Abimelech and saw the covenant they made with one another, and also saw Abraham’s extended family.
1 Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised.
2 So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.
3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
4 Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
5 Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
8 The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
We now see at last the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, the birth of the son of promise, Isaac.
TIMELINE
TIMELINE
Abraham had been given the promise of an heir all the way back since Gen. 12.
2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;
15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.
4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.”
5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
19 But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
14 “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
25 years have passed between these verses, in which Abraham had to wait as a man of faith. And here now is Isaac born to a 90 year-old woman and a 100 year-old man.
The significance of this cannot be overstated:
God is faithful to fulfill the promises He has made.
God is faithful to fulfill the promises He has made.
God’s timing is perfect here, bringing Isaac into the world and insuring he would live during an appointed time and in a specific location.
This applies to us, too.
Aside, this birth is a miracle that only God could perform.
The child of promise would bring about the lineage of descendants that will possess the promised land.
As we’ve seen before, those who are children of Abraham are children of faith.
17 (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb;
20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”
It was also promised that through Abraham:
3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
This eventual blessing would come through Jesus Christ.
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Abraham had Isaac circumcised according to God’s command on the 8th day.
This was mentioned before, but the 8th day is the perfect time for a male to be circumcised.
Isaac means “laughter” in Hebrew.
Children in those days were weaned between 2-5 years old, and it was a celebration because it meant the child could now fend for itself and was no longer dependent on the mother.
9 Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.
10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.
12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.
13 “And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.”
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.
Once again, we see the contention within the household between Sarah and Hagar.
This all went back to Sarah’s insisting of Abraham to take Hagar as a concubine so that she might bear him a son.
This again shows how volatile a home will be where polygamy takes place.
An interesting note: the word mocking is actually the root word for “Isaac,” which can be translated laugh, mock, or make sport (play). It is the word that is used when both Abraham and Sarah laughed at the possibility of having a son.
Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, with no regard for the fact that Ishmael is still Abraham’s son.
This proposition grieved Abraham, because of Ishmael.
God’s intervention communicates several things:
God cares about the things that distress us.
God can use people to give us His instruction.
God has a plan for your life and future.
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.
23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.
24 This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.
28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman.
Ishmael will still a nation also because of Abraham.
Abraham made preparations for Hagar and Ishmael to leave, but he personally attended to them and saw them off.
Early in the morning, to beat the heat of the day.
Hagar wandered in the same area we talked about last week, where Abraham had dug a well, Beersheba. Recall that this name means “well of an oath.”
15 When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.
16 Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me see the boy die.” And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.
17 God heard the lad 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 lad where he is.
18 “Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.
20 God was with the lad, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Hope seemed lost for Hagar, and she knew that without water, she and her son would not survive. She didn’t want to watch him die of dehydration.
God once again meets Hagar near a well of water, though she did not know it.
10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”
13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”
14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
God reiterated the promise he had made to her about Ishmael, and showed her a well of water.
Before, He was the God who sees, now He is the God who hears.
God knows our future and cares about our lives.
God knows our future and cares about our lives.
Though Ishmael was not the child of promise, God still cared, and cares, about those who are living outside of His covenantal promise.
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
They did not go back to Egypt, but instead lived in the wilderness, which was east of Egypt.
Ishmael became an archer, whose primary role would be for hunting and warfare.
While they did live in Paran, Hagar found him a wife from her homeland, Egypt.
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
God is faithful to fulfill the promises He has made.
God knows our future and cares about our lives.
Next week, we will continue the story of Abraham and Isaac.