Genesis 21:1-21
Book of Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Just imagine 25 to 30 years of being reminded of a promise. Many ups and downs. Hard days followed by good days. Constant travel and moving from place to place with this one hope of a future child which would bring forth a blessing that would impact the entire world! Days where your faith was weak, followed by days where your faith was unshakable, just to have it shaken the next day. Abraham was following a God that was making an amazing promise that was impossible without an extraordinary God. This makes me think of you and I.
How many of us have been given a promise by a parent or boss that did not come true. Maybe it was not your parents fault but things that your parents could not control happened. You might get upset, you might lose your trust in them. Sometimes those events in our life can make it so we do not trust people or even God because we have been let down so many times.
Sometimes we try to preserve ourselves by just not believing anyone. This can even effect our relationship with God. Is God really able to do what He said? Is God going to walk away because I was not good enough? I can’t go through the disappointment again so I’m just going to assume none of these things are going to happen. This mindset can leave us hopeless and depressed. Honestly its kinda normal because people fail us all the time so we just get used to it. Today we are going to read Gen 21 and see, once again how our God is different than anyone or anything else.
1 And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.
God came through to Sarah just as He Promised. Look at the end of verse 2 here is a key part. “at the set time of which God had spoken to him”. God completed exactly what He promised he would, in the perfect timing that was determined by God.
Remember after 10 years of walking with God, Abraham and Sarah tried to help God because things were not moving. This ended up in problems, God’s promises will be completed just as God says without missing 1 part, including the timing that God knows is perfect.
Sometimes we get confused with Gods timing and think maybe God changed His mind or maybe something happened that God didn’t expect.
After all the ups and downs, Gods perfect timing came and God fulfilled his promise and now they are filled with Joy. Sarah laughs with the joy of a new child that is only here because the power of a great God. God is building a divine nation that would be impossible without the power of God!
Just as our messiah, Jesus Christ, had to come from God Himself, the very nation that God used to bring that Messiah, is proven to come directly from the hand of God. No one can claim credit for the nation of Isreal or the Messiah that was to follow, Except God!
8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
When Isaac was born Ishmael would have been about 13. The normal age for weaning a child in those days would be around 3. This puts Ishmael about 16 years old and Isaac at around 3. I’m not sure of all the family dynamics but knowing how Sarah reacted when Hagar got pregnant and seeing the disrespectful way Ishmael was acting towards his very young half brother, I think its safe to say, Ishmael’s upbringing was not the most stable. In any case, by this time Sarah had finally had enough and demands that Abraham get rid of Hagar and her son.
Just as a quick reminder, this whole thing started with Sarah’s idea, Abraham was not innocent as he went along with it. The lack of faith from 16 years ago has led to much heart ache.
11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.
Abraham is not happy about this. He loved his son, even though it was not the promised son, He did not want his son to leave. Let’s see what God says when Abraham gets faced with this choice.
12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
God tells Abraham to go ahead and send them away. It is true that the main inheritance and the promises would be fulfilled in Isaac. God is telling Abraham to focus on His promises and let God take care of Hagar and Ishmael. God is giving another promise, even though Isaac would cary the main blessing, God will take Ishmael and produce a nation from Him. At this time, God is asking Abraham to put his 16 year old son into the care of God and let him go. This is vary interesting and we will mention again once we get to the next chapter.
14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
Abraham follows through, takes Hagar and the 16 year old boy and sends them off with some food and water. as they go through the desert eventually they run out of water and have no provisions left. Hopeless and facing death, she has Ishmael sit in the shade of a bush as she went of a bowshot away (approx 25+ meters). she has decided to give up and wait for death to take them, but that is not what God promised would happen. but what other possible result could there have been? The best part of God’s promise was for Isaac. Did God forget about Ishmael? Did God not realize what would happen when they went off into the dessert?
17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
God heard the voice of the boy, right where he was. even in the most barren terrible environment, on the brink of death, God heard the voice of the boy and came to them!
God asked her “what aileth thee?”, What is wrong? Did God not know what was wrong? of course he knew their situation! God was brining Hagar and Ishmael to the same place that He had taken Lot, Abraham, Sarah and all of us. Obviously not the location on the map, but to that spiritual location. God was taking them to the place where they saw their own weakness and realized that they could not survive without God.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. 19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. 20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
There is so much packed in this! God opened her eye’s and she saw the well. She was saved. God could have made the well visible from the start so she never thought death was coming. God could have supplied anything at any point, but God wanted them to know exactly where that water came from. God did not want any debate or confusion as to who supplied what.
all through Gen so far we have seen several patterns of God and how he deals with mankind. Today’s pattern I want to point out is that God must bring us to a point where we can no longer provide for ourselves, in order to get us to humble ourselves and look up to God for provision.
Your right, God could take away all our problems and make everything perfect, but if that were to happen, would we truly know what God is doing and how much he cares? Would we truly know how much we need Him for everything in our lives?
God has promised us several things in the Bible and we can be sure that those things will come to pass in God’s perfect timing. Even when we are required to wait till it seems like there is no more hope. Even when it looks like God has forgotten about us, we can be sure God is still there, God is still watching and God is still working.
1. What are you holding on to that you are not willing to trust God with?
2. What would you sin to keep? God asked Abraham to give up his child.
3. Sometimes following God means giving up things or even people so we can truly lean on God and learn how to trust God.
Ishmael had to leave the comfort of his fathers house to learn to become dependent on God and to grow in his relationship to God.
What about you? Where is your faith? what is standing in the way of you growing and becoming more like Christ?
What do you need to let go of?
What promises of God do you need to be reminded of?
