Genesis 21:1-21 (ESV)
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.
v.1-2 -This was one of the greatest days of Abraham’s life. There were many, but none like the day Isaac was born. He would have been beside himself, happy, exhilarated. A boy was born to him (age 100) and Sarah (age 90). His boy. Sarah’s boy. God’s boy. I imagine him beaming, popping in and out of the tent, laughing, hugging everyone in the camp. An astonishing miracle! Perhaps based on the last chapter, the Lord had restored Sarah’s beauty and youth preparing her to give birth to the promised son. Two miracles are mentioned here. The promise and the fulfillment. The promise is mentioned 3 times. That was in chapter 18, when the LORD and 2 angelic visitors came down to have a conference with Abraham and he hosted a big barbecue and served his guests the finest steaks. God told the couple they would have a son at the set time, “this time next year”.
Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 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.” And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
v.3-8 – The fulfillment! The son was promised. The son was born. Abraham laughed at the promise. Sarah laughed at the promise. She laughed at the birth. Everyone’s laughing now. So naming him “Isaac” (“laughter”) would always pay tribute to this remarkable miracle in spite of their doubts and skepticism. Two events are recorded concerning Isaac. Circumcision on the 8th day. How easy it is to experience God’s help, God’s answer to prayer, then forget to acknowledge Him or obey Him. The rite was deeply unpleasant and painful for father and son. The knife, the blood, the anguish, the suffering. Abraham’s obedience was a testament to his faith; “this boy is God’s boy, and I am trusting the LORD for every day of his life.” The second event: when he was weaned, Abraham gave a great feast. The boy was growing in the LORD. He was ready for meat.
But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.
v.9 – What a revealing statement….about Ishmael. (“laughing” commonly translated “mocking” is the same Hebrew word to describe Abraham in Chap 17 and Sarah in Chap 18. But it conveys a spectrum of emotion from playfulness, jesting, irony, doubt, to mockery/scorn). Ishmael, now in his mid to late teens, revealed his true nature. Circumcision did not and could not change his heart. No religious rites or procedures can change the heart. Abraham was certainly imperfect, but his worst decisions and actions were before Ishmael’s birth. He never witnessed his father at his worst. He had seen his father’s godly life, walking and talking with God, his father’s faith, his father worshiping the LORD at the altars he built, his father at prayer, his father interceding for Lot’s family. Ishmael was in the camp when God condescended to have the family conference and promised the son to fulfill the covenant. He saw God! He heard God! From his own mother, he knew God was a living God, the God who sees me (Chap 16), the God who had a blessing in store for him too. None of that meant anything to him. His rotted soul mocked the promised seed of God. What a warning to youth. Reaching that age when terrible struggles take over a young person’s life, testing the father’s authority, challenging the father’s beliefs. That cocky, self-indulgent attitude surfaces. The father’s faith is quaint, but out of place for time we now live. So, he mocked, Galatians 4 says the son of slavery persecuted the son of freedom.
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.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 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. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”
v.10-13 – Sarah saw the whole thing, the sneer, the mockery, the contempt. Her demand cut Abraham to the heart. But from the beginning, the relationship with Hagar had been of the flesh, and Sarah was right. The flesh cannot inherit spiritual things. Her attitude seems harsh to us, but God Himself took her side and declared she was right. Sarah was right. She had learned her lesson. Again in Galatians 4, Paul picked up this episode and declared it was a defining example of the flesh (Ishmael) that must be cast away to make way for faith and freedom (Isaac). Ishmael was the fruit of flesh. Isaac was the fruit of faith. But it was entirely up to Abraham; he alone had to take the decisive action. It was hard for Abraham. It is hard for us. But once we see how much the old hates the new, no choice remains.
Abraham faced the harsh reality. Despite his fondness and wishful thinking, Ishmael was not God’s plan. His promptness to deal with this situation demonstrated a new dimension in his life. Fear and doubt were receding and giving way to faith and resolve. It will show in all of its magnificence in the next chapter. Abraham possessed all the promises of God. The surrounding pagans were confounded by him, but had to confess that God was with that man. God gave him new power. Abraham wept over the whole experience. But God affirmed Sarah and the decisive action Abraham must take, yet along with it, God made a promise concerning Ishmael. The LORD would make of him what He willed. So God commanded Abraham, but also comforted him. Abraham’s eyes were now directed to Isaac, to remember the son of promise.
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. When the water in the skin was gone, she put 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, “Let me not 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? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 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. And 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 took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
v.14-21 – Why didn’t Abraham provide more for their journey? He was very rich. Two reasons perhaps: one is a guess, but one is certain. The guess is that resources would endanger their lives among Canaanite savages. The certainty is that God had already promised to provide and make a nation of him. Abraham knew two things about the LORD with certainty….He does not lie! He cannot fail! Hagar and her son were cast out. It would not take long for the water and bread to be consumed, and she prepared for death. On a human level, I wonder what her thoughts were. What thoughts she must have had about Abraham and Sarah. But God was still at work and in wonderful mercy, sought her. He spoke to her for the second time recorded in Scripture. That’s quite a statement about her and God’s dealings with her, when you consider how many people in the Bible hear no direct word from the LORD. He came to her to speak and minister personally to her needs. In His own way, the LORD rescued them and sent them on their way to work out their destiny in the world. They were never completely alienated from each other; Ishmael returns at the end of Abraham’s life to join with Isaac in burying him alongside Sarah, in the tomb he purchased. But Ishmael became a hunter, a man of the world, took an Egyptian bride, and the world to his heart. From that point to this day, there would be hate and hostility between his seed and Isaac’s seed.
Key Takeaways:
– It is easy to forget God’s answer to our prayers, or His help in our times of need, fear, or suffering. It’s always good to take a regular inventory of recent events. Has God wonderfully helped you? Have you acknowledged His help and praised Him? Are you continuing in faith, remembering to obey Him in the next thing He has revealed to you?
– The Lord said, “you must be born again.” Religious rites and proceedings cannot change your heart. Ishmael was circumcised in the flesh, but not in the heart.
– There must be a complete break with the old nature, renounce it, and allow the new nature to occupy our hearts. Our sins (and the penalty) were washed away at the cross, but the LORD leaves the self for us to deal with, work out our own salvation, put to death the deeds of the flesh, die daily.
– How often our view of the Son of promise is obscured because we are so taken with some project or idea of our own desires. It may seem reasonable, justifiable, even a good work, but it’s a project of the flesh and we lose sight of the Son.
– God cannot fail. God does not lie. What He has said, He will do.