A Promise Fulfilled

Last week we ended with Genesis 19 . We looked at the account of the destruction of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Today we will spend our time two chapters ahead in chapter 22. But for consistency sake I want to summarize for you what happens in Genesis 20-21 because these accounts are important and are referenced in Galatians by Paul as an illustration for law and grace.

At the end of Chapter 19 we see another disturbing act. Lot’s wife while fleeing Sodom looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. So now, only Lot and his daughters survive. Recognizing that Lot has no son and their mother is dead. His daughters come up with a twisted scheme to preserver their fathers line. They get him drunk and have children by him.

These descendent of Lot become the Moabites and the Amorites enemies of Israel.

Note: Notice how Lot’s daughters had also become influenced by their peers. In one generation a family went from faith in God to never recovering from their fathers choice to live in a wicked city.

Mom and Dads, if you do not set the example in following Christ and condemning evil your family line may be forever changed as result.

If You you allow your children to live in environments that are wicked, weather in person or digital, It will affect their minds. One generation is all it takes for the heritage of a family to be completely changed.

Genesis 20

We see that Abraham makes the same mistake again as he did in Egypt. He and Sarah lie about her relationship to Abraham out of fear.

King Abimelech takes Sarah into his Harem as a result. God warns the king in a dream not to touch her and to return her to Abraham. Abimelech does as God commands him too and the household is healed.

Now remember weeks ago we had stated the purpose of Genesis was to correct the narrative of Israel coming our of bondage in Egypt and to encourage them to trust in Yahweh, God.

This brings us to Chapter 21. Look at the first line.

Genesis 21:1 CSB

The Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.

The Lord does what He promises to do.

Genesis 21:2–7 CSB

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him. Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age.”

Now if you are the nation of Israel standing on the other-side of the Jordan river about to enter into the promise land by the command of God along with his promise of victory you would take comfort in these very words.

The Lord does what he promises to do. The Lord does what he promises to do even when it seems impossible.

The nation of Israel who probably new very little of God. Now has the history to know that there very existence is rooted in the miraculous birth of a long awaited promised son.

They are Abraham’s Inheritance preserved, just as God had promised them and since they have been preserved thus far they can have assurance that God will preserve and protect them now.

As a nation of slaves was about to go to war, the people would have heard this message. We have the God who gives life, creates life, judges wickedness and preserves life. He will always do as he promises because he has the power to do it.

In a land where wicked people and wickedness surrounds them, God is with them.

They will seem outnumbered and weak, yet God is with them.

If nations will not repent from wickedness and turn to Him, God is with them and will have his day of reckoning.

If nations rise up against them, God is with them and will ultimately defeat their enemies.

They could believe the promise of God to give them the land. God would be with them.

II. Though the consequences of sin is often steep, God is with us.

God has never promised to solve our problems. He has not promised to answer our questions … He has promised to go with us.

Elisabeth Elliot

Genesis 21:8–21 CSB

The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham. So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!” This was very distressing to Abraham because of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac, and I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.” Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes and went and sat at a distance, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” While she sat at a distance, she wept loudly. God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is. Get up, help the boy up, and grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

This is one of those heartbreaking stories where a child suffers as a result of the sin of the father.

So Abraham and Sarah throw a party celebrating the boys circumcision. The marking of the child for God’s purposes.

Sarah overhears Ishmael mocking his Half brother Isaac and demands that Abraham drive them out of the camp into the wilderness to die. This seems like the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Sarah,already made it clear that she did not like Hagar or her son.

Not only that, they are old by this time. According to ancient near eastern culture the eldest son would stand to inherit. He would be next in the line to lead the family.

If something were to happen to Abraham and Ishmael wanted to assert his birthright, Issac would not be the heir.

Obviously Abraham is distressed by this. After all Ishmael is Abrahams first born son. Abrahams loves Ishmael.

But look at what God tells Abraham to do.

Genesis 21:12–13 CSB

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac, and I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.”

So God tells Abraham not to worry. That God would take care of them. But why would God allow such a thing to take place?

Because as harsh as this is. God’s plan will not be thwarted by man’s sin. God will do as he has promised to do.

How often we want God to intervene in the earthly consequences of our sin instead of in our hearts before we sin.

But God does not abandon us.....

Look what he does for Abraham’s heart and for Ishmael.

Genesis 21:13 CSB

and I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.”

God would take care of them.

Genesis 21:14–21 CSB

Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes and went and sat at a distance, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” While she sat at a distance, she wept loudly. God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is. Get up, help the boy up, and grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Notice this in verse 20. God was with the boy.

Even if your earthly father abandons you. You have an even greater father who is with you and loves you.

All the compassions of all the tender fathers in the world compared with the tender mercies of our God would be but as a candle to the sun or a drop to the ocean.

Matthew Henry (Nonconformist Biblical Exegete)

So We see that God was with Abraham and Ishmael even in the consequences of sin. God is faithful and will not abandon you.

Why?

III. God’s faithfulness is a witness unto himself.

Genesis 21:22–33 CSB

At that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. Swear to me by God here and now, that you will not break an agreement with me or with my children and descendants. As I have been loyal to you, so you will be loyal to me and to the country where you are a resident alien.” And Abraham said, “I swear it.” But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well that Abimelech’s servants had seized. Abimelech replied, “I don’t know who did this thing. You didn’t report anything to me, so I hadn’t heard about it until today.” Abraham took flocks and herds and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock. And Abimelech said to Abraham, “Why have you separated these seven ewe lambs?” He replied, “You are to accept the seven ewe lambs from me so that this act will serve as my witness that I dug this well.” Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba because it was there that the two of them swore an oath. After they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.

Abimelech ,a pagan king , recognized that faithfullness of God in Abrahams life.

God’s faithfulness to his people is a witness to the lost world of His Character and love.

Was God faithful to Abraham because he was faithful? No.

So then why was God faithful to him? Why is God faithful to us?

While Abraham was a very flawed man, what does scripture tell us about God’s view of him? We are very flawed people yet what does scripture tell us about God’s view of us?

Genesis 15:6 CSB

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Romans 4:16–25 CSB

This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all. As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations— in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

In the same way, Our faith in Jesus Christ is credited to us for righteouness. God is faithful to us because we are his through faith in Jesus Christ.

Our flaws and sins have no bearing on God’s promise of faithfulness.

I have heard it said by well meaning people that God can only use clean vessels. And I get what they are trying to say. God doesn’t use people who are walking in sin. Why because according to scripture those who are walking in rebellion are faithless people. They don’t believe the promise of God. They don’t believe his ways are better. The rebellious have no faith.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 CSB

Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

“And some of you used to be like this.”

But for the Christian who hates sin ,yet falls to it. It is your faith that causes you to repent. The faithless walk in sin, but the faithful repent.

If you can find a clean vessel in scripture i’d like to see it. Every person God used was flawed to the core.

Abraham struggled with fear. Sarah with bitterness and hatred, Moses with anger. David with lust. They were not clean vessels but they were men and women of faith. Thier faith was credited to them for righteousness.

Your faith in Jesus Christ is credited to you for righteousness and God has promised you he will be faithful to his own.