God Extends Blessing

In the years leading up to that visit, it had seemed to Abraham and Sarah that God could not or would not fulfill the promise of giving them a child, so they had taken matters into their own hands.

Genesis 16. Sarah gave her slave woman, Hagar, to Abraham as a secondary wife and surrogate child bearer. A practice not unknown in the ancient near east.

By Hagar Abraham begat a son, called Ishmael.

After the birth of Ishmael, tensions between Sarah and Hagar were high, as Hagar despised Sarah for using her as she had; and Sarah resented Hagar for being the mother she was herself not able to be.

(Ishmael and Abraham, other the other hand, seemed to have been close. Genesis 17. Ishmael was circumcised on the same day as Abraham when God gave that symbol of covenant to Abraham.)

Then Genesis 18. Sarah finally was granted the child that the LORD always intended to give her — her own son, Isaac.

We pick up the story now in Genesis 21.

Text

Genesis 21:8–21 “The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” 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 about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 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? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.”

Introduction

Exegesis

Story begins with a happy occasion. A weaning celebration for Isaac.

Isaac has reached a first mile stone maybe a first birthday. Abraham puts on a great feast and everyone is invited.

In the midst of party, Sarah sees Ishmael, the son of Hagar and Abraham, by then a young boy, playing with her toddler son, Isaac.

Sudden clarity: Brothers and Ishmael are brothers and Ishmael is the elder.

Things take a decisive turn.

Sarah resolves in her mind that Ishmael — once an option to continue the family line — is a threat to her own son’s prosperity.

Sarah’s view: Abraham has become wealthy and powerful over the years. The first born son always recieved the lion-share of the inheritance.

For Sarah this was unacceptable. Isaac was the promised child. In hindsight: Hagar, Ishmael were a mistake.

Sarah demands that Abraham cast Hagar and Ishmael out.

Cast out this slave woman with her son…her son shall not inherit along with my son Isaac. (Genesis 21:9)

Abraham is distressed at this proposition…for the sake of his son, Ishmael. (Genesis 21:11)

Love Ishmael. Cared for Hagar as a wife, even if she was only in a functional capacity.

Sending them out into the desert could as good as a death sentence.

Abraham does not take action right away, but delays for at least a day, for God speaks to him in the night and gives him guidance.

God reminds Abraham of the promise God had made about Ishmael years ago. (Genesis 17:20) God said, “Although Ishmael is not the promised child, he is still your child, and I will bless him.” (Genesis 21:13).

Implication: Abraham can send Ishmael into the wilderness…as unpleasant, unfair, as that may be…Ishmael is not going to die. God is promising to look after him and Hagar.

So that is what happens. Abraham sends them off.

The one family splits into two.

And God does takes care of Ishmael and Hagar. Miraculously so.

They come to the point of death, but God intervenes to save them and bless them.

God hears the boy crying. Ishmael = God hears.

God sees Hagar and speaks to her by name.

God reiterates to Hagar the promise he had made to her when she first discovered that she was pregnant with Ishmael: that Ishmael will he the father of many nations. (Genesis 16:11)

God opens her eyes to see a well. Which is to say, God provides a well. Water in the wilderness.

Then we are told only the summary of the years that follow.

God is with Ishmael. Genesis 21:20.

Ishmael is the only person outside the covenant line about whom Scripture states that God was “with”him.

Ishmael becomes blessed in the wilderness, a great archer.

Hagar gets him a wife from Egypt.

Later in Genesis we are told that Ishmael becomes the ancestor of 12 princes. Genesis 25:12-16. A source of great satisfaction for the formerly enslaved Hagar, as well, now a matriarch of many descendents.

(There is no record of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael ever reuniting.)

(In time Ishmael joins Isaac to bury their father Abraham. Genesis 25:9.)

Ishmael dies at the age of 137 and is buried with his people as a great ancestor. Genesis 25:17-18.

God blessed Ishmael…without impinging on Isaac’s inheritance at all, as was Sarah’s fear.

Interpretation

I want us to see in this story two different frames of reality.

The reality of Sarah and Abram is one of limitation.

Sarah’s view is that God cannot or will not give her children. God ability to bless her is limited. So she manufactures the blessing. Uses Hagar to obtain a child.

Neither she nor Abraham consulted God about it. They moved not in faith, but in fear.

Then, when Isaac is born after all, Sarah views Ishmael as a threat because the inheritance is limited. She fears that God cannot provide for both sons. So, she and Abraham cast out Hagar and Ishmael.

Sarah general fear that God is limited and so are his blessings. So she seeks to produce and hoard God blessings drives a story of great hurt and brokenness.

For God’s mindset is very different. God does not work from scarcity but from abundance.

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,”

Psalm 50:10–12 “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.”

Psalm 89:11 “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.”

God’s ability to carry out his promises and to bestow blessings is not constrained by any circumstances.

Ishmael was not the child that God promised to Abraham and Sarah, but when he is conceived, God promises to bless him in addition to Isaac.

When Hagar and Ishmael are cast into the wilderness, God can see and hear them and provide for them any resources they need…even a well of water…without abandoning Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac.

God blesses Ishmael with an inheritance in addition to Isaac and his inheritance.

He does not take from the one to give to the other.he just gives more.

God extends blessings. He freely offers blessings and he intensifies the blessings because he cannot run out. Infinite good.

I have a plan. You deviate or complicate the plan. I still accomplish the plan AND extend blessings in ways you can’t anticipate.

It is not too hard for the LORD to bless his people, even when things are complicated or threatening for them.

We see this same characteristic in Jesus, God the Son.

Luke 8:40-9:2. Jesus heals a woman and Jairus’s daughter. Man says come heal my daughter. Jesus say, okay. Goes. On the way, a woman with bleeding touches him and receives healing. He stops and engages with her. In the meanwhile the child dies. They send word. Don’t bother. O the grief. And the guilt of the woman who had been healed. Jesus response: Don’t worry, just have faith. He goes and raises the girl from the dead. A greater miracle than they had asked for before.

Nothing is too hard for the LORD. He is not limited in his ability to bless. He extends blessings.

Application

What frame of reality are we living in right now?

One very natural stance is to live in a frame a scarcity.

We go through life worrying about what getting in the way of feeling blessed by God. If it were not for….i would feel more blessed

my work,

my health, age,

my spouse, children, parents, my family,

my culture, my society, politics.

If it weren’t for situation in the church, religion

When we are thinking that way, we are believing in a small and limited God, with small and limited blessings.

Let me get that out of the way. God says no I can work with that.

So we can make a different choice. We can live into Gods abundance. Extend blessings.

Parents of a conceived. Down’s syndrome. a special needs child. Cannot do this. Limited resources. Grace is sufficient. Divine parent. We will do this. Turns into more of a blessing than they would have imagined. More about the tender love of God. Glue of the family.

What circumstance are you in? God is not too small. Nothing is too hard. Have to widen our faith. Blessing capacity.

Gloves that loosen and fit. So god can reach in.

Abraham and Sarah missed out on what could have been between themselves and Hagar and Ishmael, and Isaac, for so many years.

Let us operate from a stance of plenty. Infinitude. So we can see God’s ability to extend blessing.

Conclusion

Sarah and Abraham from scarcity.

We have a tendency to operate from scarcity.

God is not limited. Takes care of them and Ishmael and Hagar.

God desires to extend blessings to us in our circumstances, co,placated as they may be.

Stretch our faith in our God.

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