The promises of God

God always keeps his promises.

1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.

This is a big idea in this chapter and book. God did what He said He would do. God makes miracles.

ILL How many people do you know that don’t do what they say? Kids promise to clean their rooms and don’t. Friends promise to go out with you and cancel. Coworkers promise to meet a deadline and skip it.

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.”

That is “everyone will ‘isaac’ now!”

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.”

God always keeps his promises to His Children.

EXP

ILL

APP

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.

The context seems to be that Ishmael was laughing with Isaac the child. It doesn’t mean “mocking”, this tells us more about Sarah than Ishmael. But the use of the word “laugh” reminds us that the promise through Isaac and Sarah sees the other heir laughing too and is triggered.

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.

English Standard Version Genesis 21:10

Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac

Neighboring civilizations said that children of slave women would have 1st rights. There was also a law that the Father could set the slave woman free, which would also free the child and release them from being an heir. That is what Abraham chose.

He divorces her. She doesn’t want it. This is painful for her. She is dazed.

English Standard Version Genesis 21:17

And God heard the voice of the boy

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.

Ishmael’s name isn’t uttered in this chapter, but it is remembered. Ishmael means “God hears”. God heard Ishmael.

God never left Ishmael.

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.

God always keeps his promises to the down and out.

EXP Ishmael lives out a fulfilling life. God never left Ishmael. He always heard him in the wilderness

ILL

APP

Here is the promise of his presence. You are never beyond God. Things never get that bad from you when you are a child of God. Hagar was a divorced, single mom who was on the verge of giving up. She thought her son was done. She thought she was done. But God made her a promise more than 17 years ago that he would be for her. He would hear her.

Perhaps you feel down and out. You think God isn’t going to hear your prayer. This is a promise for you. He is with you and if God is with you, He will sustain you. You will get through this.

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.

God always keeps his promises to the faithful.

EXP

This wanderer now has a legitimate claim on the land. He is a part of an official treaty. This is a big deal. It has taken almost 3 decades, but God fulfilled it.

ILL

APP

There are promises that God has made to you and I that are going to be fulfilled. We have the promise of eternal life in Jesus, we have the promise that he will feed and clothe us like he does the birds of the field. He gives us the promise that we wi

Trusting in Jesus means trusting in God’s promises!

It is vital to remember how Paul interprets this chapter. He reminds us that Ishmael is the result of Abraham not trusting God to fulfill his promise, but trying to make it happen on his own. This is what happens when we follow religion or as Paul calls it, “following the law”; the rules. When we “go to church”. When we try to “be a good person”. We never measure up. God instead wants us to trust Him. Following Jesus, according to Paul, is trusting in the promise of Abraham.

Genesis & Exodus Genesis 21:1–21

Paul’s use of this account in the book of Galatians is insightful (Gal 4:21–31). He reminds the readers that Ishmael was born by the flesh through the slave wife (Gal 4:29–30), whereas Isaac was born as the fulfillment of the promise and was therefore the heir. He suggests that these historical figures illustrate a truth about the new covenant: That which represented the bondage of the law at Sinai had to give way to that which represented the freedom of the promise fully realized. Accordingly, when Christ, the promised seed, came, the old covenant with its law was fulfilled in him and no longer binding. To go back under the law would be to threaten and even undo the fulfillment of God’s promise

English Standard Version Romans 9:6–9

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham obecause they are his offspring, but p“Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but qthe children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: r“About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Anyone who has faith in Jesus is a child of the promise; a child of God. See also Romans 9:4-5 to discuss Paul’s view that faith leads to the real children of God.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

As we read Genesis and the life of Abraham, we see God beginning a story that continues to this day. He is inviting us to follow Him as sons and daughters, not as subjects who obey out of fright and fear, but sons and daughters who love Him and desire to be with Him.

In your faith in Jesus, Jesus covered your sins. Paul says in Galatians 3:12-14 “12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

When you trust that Jesus died on a cross and God raised him from the dead, you are trusting in the same promises of God that he would bless Abraham. Faith in God is more than belief that He exists; It is confidence that He will do what He said he will do!

Promises of God for us.

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior1

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Is 43:1–3). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.