20230702 Genesis 21: God's Promises Fulfilled
Genesis: Looking Back in Order to Move Ahead Spiritually • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Genesis 21:1 (ESV)
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.
1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over 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 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” 11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 13 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 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 boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.” 25 When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/3-things-genesis
Most modern readers do not view Genesis as a carefully composed work of literature. We have become accustomed to reading it piecemeal. The public and private reading habits of Christians mitigate against the idea that Genesis should be understood as a single, coherent book. As a result, important aspects are missed. Let me mention three significant features of Genesis that need to be observed.
1. Genesis was composed to trace the history of a unique family line.
1. Genesis was composed to trace the history of a unique family line.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph
But, the line of Judah that produces the true
2. God establishes an eternal covenant with Abraham making him the father of many nations.
2. God establishes an eternal covenant with Abraham making him the father of many nations.
Second, building upon the patriline of Genesis, God establishes an eternal covenant with Abraham, stating that he will be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4–5). Most readers of Genesis, and many scholars, focus on the covenant of Genesis 15, which is about Abraham being the father of the one nation of Israel. However, the covenant of Genesis 17 is considerably more important and, subsuming the earlier covenant, extends Abraham’s fatherhood to the nations. This fatherhood is not biological in nature but spiritual.
3. The theme of blessing is linked to the patriarchal line that will eventually lead to Jesus Christ.
3. The theme of blessing is linked to the patriarchal line that will eventually lead to Jesus Christ.
The third feature of Genesis that is frequently not appreciated is the way in which the theme of blessing is linked to the patriline that will eventually lead to Jesus Christ.
We want to skip the less exciting stuff. We skim over Gen 21 because Gen 22 gets all of the attention- a baby is born versus a child sacrifice
(1) The Lord fulfills His Promise (21:1-3)
(2) Isaac receives the sign (21:4-5)
(3) The Lord gets the last laugh (21:6-7)
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
(4) Ishmael is cast out (21:8-14)
Once again sin causes separation which eventually leads to violence
(5) The Lord rescues Ishmael (21:15-21)
(6) Abimelech gives glory to God (21:22-34)
22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.
The promises of Genesis
The promise of eternal life - you will not die
The promise of a redeemer - Gen 3:15
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The promise of a child
Which of the promises could you actually see?
The promise of eternal life The promise of a redeemer - The promise of a child
We are inclined to want to actually have the money in our hands before we hand over what we’re selling
Yes they could hold the child, but it wasn’t immediate. They had to wait. 25 years.
We have been given:
The promise of eternal life - John 3:16 - believes in Him
John 3:16 (ESV)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
We have a redeemer - 2 Cor 5:21 - in him
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 1:19 (ESV)
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ… was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.