A Son is Born

I'm normally given two lengthy introductions, but today. I'm not going to I'm going to begin with the reading of the text we're going to read all of chapter 21 and We're going to try to get through the whole chapter today because I do think the whole chapter holds together as one important narrative from beginning to end but as we do always Give honor and reverence to the Word of God.

Sarah Gives Birth to Isaac

Let us stand as we read. 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.

Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him who 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 born 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. But Sarah saw that Hagar, excuse me, the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had born to Abraham laughing.

Ishmael Is Cast Out and God Hears the Boy

So she said to Abraham cast out this slave woman with her son for the son of the slave woman Shall not be heir with my son Isaac. 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. 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.

And when the father, excuse me, when the water and 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 bow shot 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. At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of the army said to Abraham God is with you and all that you do now.

Therefore swear to me here and by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with any 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 and Abraham said I will swear.

When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech servants had seized. Abimelech said I do not know Who has done this thing. You did not tell me and I have not learned of it until today.

So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech the two men and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven new lambs of the flock apart and Abimelech said to Abraham What is the meaning of the seven new lambs that you've set apart?

He said these seven new lambs. You will take from my hand that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well. Therefore that place that was called beer excuse me. Therefore that place was called beer Shabbat because they're both of them swore an oath.

So they made a covenant at beer Shabbat. Then Abimelech and Fico the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in beer Shabbat and called there on the name of the Lord the Everlasting God.

And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. Father as we seek to understand this chapter I pray that you would first and foremost as always I pray God keep me from error for Lord I am a fallible man capable of preaching error and I pray for my conscience and for the sake of the hearers.

Lord those who will hear this message For protection. But Lord, I also pray Lord for open hearts and open eyes and open ears. The Lord we know that we are so apt to be distracted. Lord keep us attentive today to what your word has to say show us in your word what you have for us today and father as Is always the case?

For those who know the Lord may this be a blessing and a time of challenge for them. To further conform to the image of Christ, but Lord for those who know not Christ. That today might be a day of reckoning.

That they might see as Isaac's birth Divided the household of Abraham. So too did the birth of Christ divide this world. Between those who trust in him and those who don't. Lord help us to see this in your word today in Christ's name.

Amen. Jennifer and I got married at the age of 19 and As soon as we were married we wanted to have children. We both wanted to be parents however, as the yield years began to pass. One year two years three years.

No children. Our fears began to rise that perhaps children was not in the plan of God for us after about four years of Being together we had pretty much resigned ourself to the fact that maybe it's just not going to happen and Wouldn't you know it God was so gracious to us that he brought into our lives two beautiful foster children who we were able to then take into our home and adopt and They were our children and they are our children.

Please understand that we were the Foskey for and that was it. We just figured that was what we were going to have. That was it it was gonna be the four of us. But the yearning in my wife's heart To bear a child in her womb never went away and there were times that over the years we would have friends who would Be with child and while we were always joyful for them There was always a sense in her heart of loss that she was not able to enjoy that Blessing then in March of 2012 I was sleeping in.

And I heard a call from the from the bathroom Keith. This is different and what it was was you know because she over the years she had taken many Pregnancy tests and they had always been one line, you know negative 13 years.

Negative tests, but this one was different. I Went in and there were two lines on the test. So I immediately threw on my clothes and drove to the store and bought five more tests. And that's not a lie.

I went I brought him back and I said make it happen. And every one of the tests two lines two lines, you know, there's some of the digital ones. I bought them all I Spent $100 in pregnancy tests. I wanted to know and On April the 2nd 2012 the Women's Resource Center invited us to come and have our first sonogram and They were a blessing to us because the doctor had said oh, you don't need a sonogram until like three months and we're like No, we want a sonogram now, you know.

So the Women's Resource Center was sweet and they brought us in and it was just a little blip. I called it my little rocket ship because it was sort of shaped like a rocket. So that was hope. There's our first picture of hope and Then on November the 12th 2012 we welcomed hope Jacqueline into the world and I only tell that story because as I was reading the text this week and I was thinking about Abraham and his wife I began to think about My wife and I began to think about the 13 years of waiting praying and hoping that we went through and when it happened the elation was just beyond compare and When we began to feel the baby moving in her stomach, it was just it was just you know.

We just lay up at night and and watch her stomach move and it was the joy that was there was beyond compare. Especially since we feared it would never happen. Well imagine Sarah at 90 years old and it has not happened yet.

They didn't have CVS. They didn't have pregnancy tests, but they knew when they were pregnant and she had never been. Never once had her womb been open in 90 years. And so now it has happened. In fact, I thought of something this week.

Do you know how Sarah's introduced in the Bible? She's introduced as the barren wife of Abram. If you go back to Genesis 11 It says an Abraham Excuse me an Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abrams wife was Sarai.

The name of Nahor's wife was Milka the daughter of Haran the father of Milka and Isca now Sarai was barren. She had no child. That's how she's introduced in the Bible as a barren woman. And now here we are 25 years later the Bible tells us Abram left Mesopotamia when he was 75.

So now it's he's a hundred well we read that in the text now He's a hundred and I wasn't great in math, but I can do that 100 minus 75 is 25. So now She's gone 90 years, but the last 25 years she's been following her husband who is hearing the voice of God and Hearing the promise of a nation that would come from his loins.

She had already considered the fact that she was beyond The ability to conceive that the way of woman had departed from her you remember us reading that portion of the text and so she had already convinced him to Try with someone else to go with Hagar the Egyptian handmaiden, but God told Abraham.

No, that is not the promised child. That's not the one that I have for you and the last time we see God and Abraham together is back in Genesis 18 when they were eating under the the oaks of Mamre and God said about this time next year Sarah Will have a child.

That was the same time that was the that was the right before Sodom was destroyed so that's our timeline. Sodom and its destruction has been about a year ago in the story and Now we come to the most anticipated birth.

Up until this point and I would say after this Christ would be the only other one the most anticipated birth in all of human history and it is the birth of Isaac and So we read the Lord visited Sarah as he had said the the idea of God visiting someone the Bible language of visitation Tends to invoke the concept of God's power overshadowing them God intervening in their life.

We think of a visit is not that big of a thing. But imagine God coming to visit. That's the idea the Almighty the one that we sang about I sing the mighty power of God who made the mountains rise. That's the God who visited Sarah in her barrenness and all it took was a visit from the Lord to open the barren womb and she Conceived Isaac through Abraham.

It says in fact if you look at verse 1, it's got the the covenant name of God twice it says Yahweh visited Sarah and Yahweh did to Sarah as he promised so we see the name Yahweh twice and the name Sarah twice and.

The focus here is interesting because up until this point we could argue that God's primary focus has been Abraham. It was God who called Abraham out of her of the Chaldees. It was God who has spoken to Abraham.

It's God who made the covenant with Abraham all of these things Abraham Abraham Abraham but now it's Sarah has been visited by the Lord and Sarah's womb has been open and and the power of God has overshadowed her and again I can't help but to make the connection and if you don't if you can't tell by the title we're gonna make a connection to the birth of Christ because it's God who also visited a young maiden in Nazareth named Mary.

And opened her womb as well in an even more miraculous way because there was not even the intervention of the man. But God did that so the Lord visits Sarah 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 which God had spoken him again.

That's a year past when he ate with him. This is a year later Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him the that Sarah bore him Isaac. What is the name Isaac means it means one who laughs or he laughs?

You say why in the world would they name him that? When Abraham heard that Sarah was going to have a child back in Genesis 17, what did he do? He laughed when when Sarah heard that she would conceive a child in her a old age.

What did she do? She laughed in in unbelief. It says it says that she was she couldn't believe that this was true. And so they named him laughter and laughter will actually become the focus of his of his story here for the next few verses because not only do we know Abraham laughed in Genesis 17 not only though that that Sarah laughed in Genesis 18, but when she gives birth it says the people laughed notice this it says in Verse 6 it says and Sarah said God has made laughter for me and everyone who hears will laugh over me now.

We might think that's odd. But again, this is all a play on words. Because the idea of laughter here is the laughter of joy. It's the it's it's not some kind of giddy. Ha ha ha silly laughter, but it's the oh my goodness.

The 90 year old matriarch who has longed for her life to have life within her has now been visited by the Lord and he has given her a child through Abraham so this is a laughter of rejoicing, but Another laughter is quickly on the horizon and this laughter Will come not with joy but with derision insult and hatred.

Bruce Waltke says this he says after excruciating tension and delay the promised birth arrives. But astonishingly the birth story is reported in only issue a few short verses before the narrative Dashes into more conflict and that's what we see there's only seven verses about the birth and then immediately verse verse 8 begins another conflict and the conflict Arises out of laughter because Abraham chooses to give his son a Celebration on the day that he is weaned.

Now, I don't know about you. But now that we have had three natural born children we've gone through the process of nursing and there is certain excitement and celebration when a child moves from Feeding from the mother to feeding on the food of the table.

And she's now sitting at the table and eating differently and and so for us we don't do celebrations. But we know that we know the milestone. We have we understand the concept of this is a milestone in the life of a child.

So on the day it says in verse 8 the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned now according to John Currid the process of nursing a child was lengthy in the ancient world in Babylonian practice and in the Bible and in literature from the intertestamental period.

Nursing could continue up to about three years or even longer. So Isaac is no longer an infant from from verse 8, I'm sorry from verse 7 to verse 8 we've jumped ahead several years. That that's an I'm just trying to keep your mind in the we went we went one year.

From when God visited Abraham and ate with him to the birth of Isaac. Now, we're a couple of years ahead of that. And I want you to just imagine What it was like To have Isaac in the camp. Because this was the long-awaited child.

This was the promised child. This was the child who? Abraham and Sarah longed for and now by the way, they're the most important people in the camp. He's the head. He's the patriarch. She's the matriarch.

They're the they are the head of the people and now they've got this child. You gotta you gotta imagine that he was kind of Spoiled a little now when I say spoiled spoiled usually is like in a negative for what I mean.

You gotta imagine he was doted over. Maybe that's the better term. That every time he did anything it was a big deal. You know, he took his first step. Oh, oh, you know. Everybody's so excited. I kind of was thinking as I was reading this way.

I thought about little Lord Fauntleroy, you know. Just he's got it or just oh just always the always the focus of attention Is little Isaac and rightfully so this is the child they've been waiting on this is the exciting thing that both of them have longed for and so there's this child who's being doted over and We come to verse 9 and there's a new laughter and it is the laughter of Isaac's older half-brother.

It says in verse 9. But Sarah saw that the son of Hagar the Egyptian who she whom she had born to Abraham laughing. By the way important note, I ishmael's name never once comes up in this chapter. He is not named.

He is only called the son of the handmaiden. His name is not mentioned once in this chapter. But it says the son of the bondwoman Laughs. Now here's the thing to think about how old? Is Ishmael. Because you might think Ishmael is you know, only a couple years old.

No, Isaac is a couple of years old the last time we saw Ishmael. It was when he was circumcised. He was 13. Now we're three years at least past the birth of Isaac was the weaning. So he is at least 16 years old possibly 17, by the way.

This is going to play a big part into the later story where Hagar takes him out puts him under the bushes. A lot of people picture that I'm using like like books that have a picture of her putting an infant Under the bush thing what it was.

This is a it's a half-grown man. I mean, this is a 16 year old kid who in the ancient world would have been seen like an adult. Right, okay. So just so yeah, so so understand this this is not a two-year-old laughing at a baby.

This is an almost grown man. Mocking a three-year-old child. You might say even that doesn't seem to warrant what's about to happen. Okay. Well, let me just add this for your consideration when Paul interprets this to the people of Galatia he interprets this as persecution.

I Read it to you Galatians chapter 4. It says he who was born according to the flesh. That's a that's Ishmael Persecuted him who was born accorded to the Spirit. So Paul sees this as more than just teasing brothers having giving each other a hard time.

Paul sees this as the the son of the handmaiden persecuting the son of Sarah and Sarah says no. This will not happen. The the bond woman's son will not persecute my child and So she tells Abraham cast her out.

Now Abraham's response and remember this. Abraham loves Ishmael. That is an important part of the narrative. Abraham Loves his son. He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to cast her out and honestly, this is part of the story I struggle with too.

Because I mean, you know, I read these texts I read the commentaries everybody has ideas. Commentaries are really just other men's ideas. They're not they're not scripture. So you have to kind of take it in but you know deal with it as it comes.

You can't count on everything they say to be a hundred percent. But there's so many different ideas of what's going on here and and the thoughts behind we. Abraham loves Ishmael. He doesn't want to do it.

But God says Sarah's right and all of us kind of go. Wow. Wait a minute. Um. Didn't you save Hagar like three chapters ago? Did back in chapter 16 didn't you? Didn't she try to run away and you made her come back.

Didn't you meet her by a well and and bring her back? Now she's being cast out and I Again, you may have different sensibilities to me. It strikes me hard and and difficult to understand. But then I go back to how Paul interprets it and Paul helps me here.

Because what I think is Happening based on what Paul said about the persecution. I think had the two boys been raised together The persecution would have only increased. That it would have only been worse and worse and God has a plan for Isaac.

That does not involve Ishmael not in the sense of God has a God is Isaac. Remember this. Isaac is not. I'll use it brother Andy ism. Sorry. There's a brother and he's got he's not the tip of the spear.

I like that phrase use Ishmael's or Isaac's not the end right. Isaac's not the tip of the spear. Isaac's pointing forward to someone else. Isaac's pointing forward through Jacob and through this the Israel through to Christ.

There's bigger fish to fry. So God tells Abraham look I'm gonna make a nation out of this boy, I Know you love him and it's gonna be okay, but they're not going to grow up in the same house. Now one might could argue that the motivations of Sarah were somewhat worldly and fleshly.

And I'm not going to debate that because I think probably so. But the motivation of God is Righteous and holy and when he tells Abraham listen to your wife he's doing it because God knows the plan that he has for Isaac and Leaving Ishmael in that home does not go with that plan.

So now we understand a little better what's going on. You say it still seems awfully harsh. God is not going to abandon Hagar. We're gonna see that in just a moment. He says send her away and again, by the way, we don't have time to get in this today.

But Paul uses all of this as an analogy of those who are born of faith and those who are born of works. If you go to Galatians read Galatians this week especially chapter 4 because it's all about the son of the free woman the son of the bond woman the one who is born according to grace the one who was born according to works and he makes this Giant distinction and he says cast out the bondwoman and Paul uses that as an analogy for Casting out the ideas of justification by works and trusting in the grace of God through faith.

So this whole thing creates a picture for us later in the redemptive plan of God. So now we feel better now now that we understand a little better. Can we move on and see God's grace to Hagar because he does give her grace because we get to we get to verse 14 and I know we're jumping happy.

We got it. We got a lot of verses to get through. So I'm moving quick we get to verse 14. And in verse 14, it says Abraham arose early in the morning took a bread and a skin of water. He gave it to Hagar putting it on her shoulder along with the child by the way.

This is one of those times where it kind of does seem like they're talking about a little child because they ain't putting a 16 year Old on her shoulder. I there's got to be a distinction there. It's not both of them going on her shoulder.

He's putting it on her shoulder and with the child this just to be clear. Unless she was doing like some weird, you know, I don't think so. This is a this is 16 year old kid and Sent her away and she departed wandering in the wilderness of Beersheba now keep that place in mind.

Beersheba is mentioned here for the first time, but we know this isn't the last time. Beersheba will become a very important place. In fact further you get into the Old Testament. You'll start hearing the phrase from Dan to Beersheba from Dan to Beersheba.

What that means is from the north to the south that Dan was the highest point north you could go. Beersheba was the furthest point South so it literally meant from the north to the south or the it was it was marking out the land.

So Beersheba is in the south it is Approximately 270 miles from what Dan would be so it's it marks out the marking posts of Israel. This is the southernmost point. It's within the Negev. Which we talked about last week.

It's a desert area and It says verse 15 when the water in the skin was gone. She put the child under one of the bushes. Again, this is a big child, but she's still his mother and she still cares for him.

She says lay down under this bush and then she goes away as far as a bow shot. Which is a pretty good distance and she weeps because she doesn't want to hear him die now for a moment. God's not gonna let this child die.

Because God just a few verses earlier promised that this child is going to become a nation. But that promise was given to Abraham so Hagar may not know that. But if we go back to chapter 16 Hagar was given a promise that her child would have many descendants.

So she does have a promise from the Lord. But isn't it true that in our deepest times of distress? We often forget the promises of God. That's what and that's what happened. Hagar has a promise from the Lord her child is going to have many descendants.

So he can't die at 16. He doesn't have any children, but she doesn't realize that in a moment of distress she puts him under a bush to try to hide him from the harsh rays of the Sun and she moves away and weeps and the Lord Comes to her again.

God is gracious to the handmaiden again. And he says what troubles you Hagar what we know what troubles her. The the fact that they're out of provisions. Abraham had given them a skin of water which as I looked up I tried to find about how much that would be in skins.

Or different sizes, but it would have been a couple of gallons enough to get them through but not enough to get them by. Right just through to where they were going. But now they're in a place where they don't have Anything and he says fear not.

For God has heard the voice of the boy interesting. God has heard the boy's voice has heard the boy crying out. Up lift up the boy hold him fast for I will make with your hand for I will hold make him a great nation.

Now the promise that he gave to Abraham just a few verses earlier goes to Hagar this child will have a nation. Why why does why does Ishmael get anything. I would say it's because his relationship to Abraham.

Even though he was brought into this world in a way that we would consider to be unseemly and and wrong. God is blessing him because of his relationship to the man who God promised to bless so God promises He will have a nation and we'll see this nation later on chapter 25.

We'll see them when Abraham dies. He and Isaac bury him together. So he comes back into the story later but for now we are left with only this it says and 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.

God was with the boy and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness. He became an expert with a bow and he lived in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took for him. Why from the land of Egypt why Egypt?

That's where she was from. That's what remember that's where Hagar is from. So she goes to Egypt gets a wife for her son and now he has a life and it does say something important. It says God was with him.

Says that in verse 20 says and God was with the boy and he became a mighty hunter, you know. What do we know of I of Ishmael. Not a lot, but we know God made him into a nation. We know he was a wild donkey of a man according to scripture and his hand was against his brothers.

We know that too. As the text tells us that. But the key in all of this the key is to see that God is is remaining gracious. Even to someone who in a sense is not part of the part of the covenantal plan that he has provided.

He's got this plan that he's doing through Isaac, but yet he's still gracious to this person. Hagar and Ishmael, you know, sometimes we we get really caught up in In God's especially in reformed churches we get really caught up in God's justice God's holiness God's wrath and all those things we should because so many churches have abandoned those right.

So sometimes though the pendulum tends to swing the other way and we get so caught up in the justice holiness and wrath of God that we forget that we serve a God who is at his nature and in his nature love and His disposition is love.

The The heart of God is Displayed here and by the way, you might have wondered as we were reading earlier later on in This chapter we're not going to go through. There's a lot at the end of this chapter that we could spend time on but as I'm wanting to move through some I'm not going to just go through every verse but later.

There's a portion about Abimelech and Abraham and They're debating over land and they end up entering into a covenant and then what's one of the parts of the discussion a well a Well that was dug by the servants of Abraham.

Read the text where was the well. It was in Beersheba. I don't know this for certain and I could be wrong and maybe a better scholar than me will prove me wrong one day. But could it be that the well that Abraham's servants dug was the very well that God pointed out to Hagar.

So God had in his grace through Ishmael's father Provided the water for the child. So we see this that's and people say how does this narrative fit in there? I think that's part of how it fits because this is all one story and The story about land rights and water rights doesn't seem to make sense until you go back to here and you realize oh, wait a minute.

Water is really important in this story because water is what is needed to keep Abraham's son alive and To fulfill the promise of God, which is that this child will make and become many nations but what we have in this story is We have the birth of a child That brings division into a home.

Isaac Points to Christ, the Promised Son

The birth of Isaac Is the turning point in the life of Abraham. You say wait a minute. The turning point was chapter 12 when God called to him in error of the Caldees and called him out of Mesopotamia and told him To go to the promised land.

Yes, that moment was certainly important, but that moment had a promise. The promise was I will bless you and I will make you a great nation. I will make you a great nation and it isn't until chapter 21 that that promise the the Inkling and in light of that promise dawns with the birth of Isaac.

Now from a theological point of view Isaac's birth Can then be compared and pointed to the greater birth of the son of Isaac the son of Jacob the son of Judah the son of David Jesus Christ as Isaac was the son of the promise He was also the promised son.

Jesus was the son of the promise and also the promised son. There was no greater birth expected Up until the time of Isaac. There was no greater birth expected up until the time of Christ Isaac. Isaac was a type of Christ the seed which God had so long ago promised through holy men and was now seeing fulfilled.

God would again do that through his son Jesus Christ as Abraham looked with expectancy to the day that God would bless him. So too did the prophets look with expectancy to the day that God would bless the world With the birth of a child.

You remember what Isaiah said? For unto us a Child is born. Unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders. And the name that will be given to him will be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father the prince of peace.

That's Jesus Christ. That's the son. That really makes the birth of Isaac that much more important. Because Isaac's not the tip of the spear. Isaac's life points to Jesus Christ and As Isaac was born in the midst of conflict.