Genesis 21.12-14-Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael
Thursday March 2, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 21:12-14-Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael
Lesson # 109
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 21:1.
This evening we will study Genesis 21:12-14, which records the expulsion Hagar and Ishmael from the home of Abraham and Sarah.
Genesis 21:1, “Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had promised.”
Genesis 21:2, “So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.”
Genesis 21:3, “Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.”
Genesis 21:4, “Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.”
Genesis 21:5, “Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”
Genesis 21:6, “Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’”
Genesis 21:7, “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.’”
Genesis 21:8, “The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.”
Genesis 21:9, “Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.”
Genesis 21:10, “Therefore she said to Abraham, ‘Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.’”
Genesis 21:11, “The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.”
The battle with Ishmael was not merely from the personality conflict between Sarah and Hagar as it was over the inheritance.
Ishmael legally had the right to a double portion of the inheritance because he was Abraham’s first-born son.
However, a son by a slave woman, which Ishmael was, could forego his inheritance claim in exchange for freedom.
Sarah does not want Ishmael to have a share in the inheritance because she does not like Ishmael and she resents Hagar (see Genesis 16).
God has told Abraham in the past that He would make His covenant with Isaac and not with Ishmael (see Genesis 17:19-21).
Therefore, what Sarah is demanding from Abraham is according to the will of God even though her attitude toward Ishmael and Hagar is not.
Genesis 21:12, “But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.’”
“God” is the noun Elohim, which emphasizes that God has sovereignly determined to intervene in the life of Abraham and Sarah and direct Abraham to do as Sarah demanded and send Hagar and Ishmael away from their home.
Abraham was greatly distressed about Sarah’s demand since he loved Ishmael dearly and did not want to disinherit him and see the boy leave his home.
The thought of sending the seventeen-year-old Ishmael away broke Abraham’s heart.
Abraham has a huge problem in his home between Sarah and Hagar and Isaac and Ishmael.
He loves them all but they cannot get along with each other.
Abraham needs to know God’s will in the matter and he turns to the Word of God for such guidance as indicated by the phrase “God said.”
The phrase “God said” is a reference to the Word of God, which gave Abraham comfort, encouragement and guidance in the midst of this adversity he was experiencing in his home.
Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
The Bible is “God-breathed” and therefore, is the Word of the Lord and not of men (Ex. 9:20; Num. 14:20; Isa. 16:13; Jer. 1:4; Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Jonah 1:1; Micah 1:1; Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 2:10; Zech. 1:1; Mal. 1:1).
2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
2 Timothy 3:17, “so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
“Inspired by God” is the noun theopneustos, which is a compound word derived from the words theos, “God,” and pneo, “breathe, breathe into” and therefore literally means, “God-breathed.”
The doctrine of inspiration contends that, God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human authors of Scripture, that without destroying their individuality, their literary style, their personal interests, their vocabulary, God’s complete and connected thought towards man was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture.
The original languages of Scripture contain the very words of God, and therefore, bear the “authority” of divine authorship.
The Bible in its original languages is the exact record, the mind and will of God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 reveals that there are four categories of benefits from the Scriptures:
(1) “Teaching”: The Bible is the Mind of Christ, and therefore, divine viewpoint.
(2) “Reproof”: The Bible tells us where we fail when we hear it.
(3) “Correction”: The Bible tells us how to correct and solve our problems.
(4) “Instruction in righteousness”: Involves the entire scope of the Gospel and demonstrates how God can take a sinner and make him righteous through the work of Christ.
So the Word of God is giving Abraham guidance and direction and comfort in his adversity.
All fathers and mothers should turn to the Word of God for comfort, guidance and direction when faced with a problem with their children rather than turning to their own human intellect or human rationalism or human experience or the world’s way of doing things.
The Word of God solved Abraham’s problem.
Abraham is emotional at this point in the narrative, but he cannot solve his problems from his emotions or how he feels since emotion cannot think but is the responder in the soul to what is in the mentality of the soul.
Abraham needs objective truth at this point to solve his problems.
He must set aside his emotions and execute God’s will, which is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the pages of Scripture.
Abraham received direct revelation from the Lord since he did not have the completed canon of Scripture as we do today.
Genesis 21:12, “But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.’”
“The lad” is a reference to Ishmael who is the son of Abraham and Hagar.
Ishmael is seventeen at this point in the narrative since Genesis 16:16 records that Abraham was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born and was one hundred when Isaac was born according to Genesis 21:5.
This would make Ishmael fourteen when Isaac was born.
Genesis 21:8 records that Isaac was weaned and we know that a child was weaned at three years of age.
Therefore, we can conclude that Ishmael was seventeen at this point in the narrative.
“Your maid” identifies Hagar as Abraham’s female servant rather than his wife indicating that the sexual union between Hagar and Abraham was not according to the will of God.
Genesis 21:12 contains the first recorded instance in the Bible where God said to a man to listen to his wife.
Abraham was told to obey Sarah’s demand to expel Ishmael from their home because it was according to the will of God.
Husbands should only obey their wives requests if they are in accordance with the will of God, which is revealed in the Word of God by the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 16 records Abraham got into serious trouble because he obeyed his wife Sarah’s command to use Hagar her slave girl as a surrogate to solve their problem of childlessness, and which command was against the will of God.
God agrees with Sarah because the human nature of Jesus Christ would come through Isaac and not Ishmael.
Sarah was not thinking as God was thinking but rather she wants Ishmael out of her home because she does not like Ishmael or his mother Hagar and so we see that she was right in her presumption but wrong in her attitude.
The promise “through Isaac your descendants shall be named” indicates that the Promised Seed, the Savior, Jesus Christ would come through the line of Isaac rather than Ishmael.
Genesis 17:19, “But God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.’”
Though God would bless Ishmael, He emphasized to Abraham that His covenant with him was with Isaac alone and his seed.
Genesis 21:13, “And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.”
God is giving Abraham reassurance regarding the future of Ishmael.
Though Abraham will no longer be able to take care of him, God will.
The promise recorded in Genesis 21:13 reiterates the promise that God made to Abraham that is recorded in Genesis 17:20.
Genesis 17:20, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.”
Genesis 17:20 records God’s promise to Abraham that Ishmael would become the father of “twelve princes” which would comprise the “nation” referred to in Genesis 21:13 and 18, which would be the Arabs.
This nation, which would originate from twelve princes, corresponds to the nation of Israel, which originated from the twelve sons of Jacob whose great grandfather was Abraham.
The statement “because he (Ishmael) is your descendant,” means that God would bless Ishmael because of Abraham and not because of anything meritorious in Ishmael.
Ishmael was “not” a spiritual descendant of Abraham but rather a “biological” descendant of his whereas Isaac was both a “biological” and a “spiritual” descendant of Abraham.
So we see in Genesis 21:11-12 that Abraham is all emotional and upset because Sarah wants him to remove Ishmael, his seventeen year old son from their home because he was mocking the three year old Isaac.
Then we see in Genesis 21:12-13 that God assures Abraham that he will take care of Ishmael and prosper him and tells him to do what Sarah demanded and send Ishmael away.
Abraham has to now make a decision to either obey God or to disobey him.
Abraham is being taught by God the spiritual principle that one must set aside one’s emotions and feelings for family members in order to do the will of God.
Luke 14:27, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
Genesis 21:14, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.”
Genesis 21:14 records that Abraham set aside his affection for his first-born son Ishmael in order to do God’s will.
Abraham’s experience here in Genesis 21 of sending away Ishmael prepares him for another test, which is recorded in Genesis 22 where God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in order to test his obedience and love for God.
Abraham learned how to set aside his emotions in order to obey the will of God in a situation that did not seem to make sense.
Genesis 21:14 records that Abraham did not waste any time or procrastinate in any way in doing God’s will since it says that he arose early the next morning and obey God’s command to send Isaac away.
Abraham’s obedience to the will of God demonstrates his faith in the Lord meaning that he took God at His Word and trusted that God would do as He promised.
In view of Abraham’s great wealth, it appears stingy of him to provide Hagar and Ishmael with only some bread and skin of water as they departed for the desert but this actually demonstrates Abraham’s faith in that the Lord would take care of the two.
Also, Hagar who became a believer eighteen years before, which is recorded in Genesis 16, must learn to trust in the Lord as well and would supply her and her son’s needs.
A skin of water would hold approximately 3 gallons.
Abraham gave them enough provision to last until they reached the next settlement, which according to archaeological studies indicates that there were many settlements in the vicinity of Beersheba.
The statement “she (Hagar)…wander about in the desert of Beersheba” indicates that Hagar got lost.
The name “Beersheba” means, “well of seven” and was located in the flat southern part of the Negev, which extends roughly from a line drawn from Gaza through the modern political boundary of the southern West Bank, extending south to the mountain ranges of the Sinai and through the Arabah to the Red Sea.
The occasion in which it received its name is recorded in Genesis 21:28-31 where Abimelech’s servants seized a well that Abraham’s servants had dug and to settle this dispute Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from his flock.
He then asked Abimelech to accept the animals as a witness that the patriarch had dug the well, which was in question.
Both men swore an oath there and consequently, the place was called “Beersheba” meaning the “well of seven” or “well of oath.”
Genesis 20 and 21:22-34 indicates clearly that Abraham was living in Gerar at this particular time in the narrative, which was near the coast about twelve miles south of Gaza and about fifty miles south of Hebron, in the land of the Philistines.
Therefore, it appears that Hagar is moving in a southeasterly direction toward northern Arabia, later inhabited by some of the Ishmaelites (cf. Genesis 25:12-18).