Problems Solved Genesis 21:8-21

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As we go through our lives, sometimes we can think that God is far off.
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It is common to think this way. Most people in our world probably think that God is far off and not close.
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But this is not the case. The Bible teaches that God is everywhere at all times.
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It is hard for us to fathom this, but this is what the Scripture teaches. Psalm 139, 7 -10 says,
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God is everywhere at all times. When you come to this realization, it is quite shocking.
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God is in this room right now. God will be there when you get home.
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God will be there when you go to work. God will be there during your leisure times, your family times.
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The reality of this ought to inspire us to live for Him, knowing that our great God is watching everything that we do.
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This also ought to lead us to great comfort, knowing that the greatest being there is knows all the details of our lives.
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The Lord provides for us as He knows the smallest details of our lives. He always knows what we need.
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He is able to help us in difficult situations, and He is able to help when suffering comes our way.
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As we continue our sermon series through Genesis this morning, we will see the
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Lord's provision in difficult circumstances. What we will see is that God helps by doing exactly what needs to be done, as He deals with the messy situation of two families that have come from Abraham.
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This sermon is titled, Problems Solved. I encourage you at this time to turn with me to Genesis chapter 21.
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We'll be looking at verses 8 -21. If you are using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page 18.
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Our big idea, our proposition this morning, is the Lord shows Himself to be a wonderful provider.
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The Lord shows Himself to be a wonderful provider. We're going to see two examples how in this text.
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The first example how the Lord shows Himself to be a wonderful provider is by detailing a plan to solve a messy domestic situation.
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Last week we looked at the fulfillment of the promised offspring finally come to pass.
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This narrative at the beginning of chapter 21 displayed the glory of God in three ways. The first way was that the
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Lord delivered on this promise with precision. This promised child Isaac was born exactly the way the
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Lord said he would be. He came through Abraham and Sarah. This child was also born at the exact time the
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Lord said he would. The application for us was that this should lead us to praise God, that He says what
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He is going to do long before it happens, and then later fulfills it exactly the way
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He said He would. The second way the Lord was glorified in the text we saw last week is by letting
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His people bounce back from sin. We saw Abraham's major blunder two weeks ago when he lied to King Abimelech by saying that Sarah was his sister in order to protect himself.
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But in our text last week we saw Abraham follow the instructions the Lord gave him a while back. He named this promised child
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Isaac and he circumcised him on the eighth day. The application for us was that we should follow
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Abraham's example by bouncing back when we fall into sin. The Christian life is not one of perfect progression, but it is one of progression.
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We should see growth and holiness as we walk with the Lord. And the third way the
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Lord was glorified in our text last week was by producing joy in His people through His gifts. Sarah recognized
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Isaac as a gift from God, and she was so happy that it led her to a joyful laughter.
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As we look at the gifts that God has given us in our lives, these are meant to make us joyful in God, as He is the source of these.
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And the gifts point us to the giver. Now we transition to our text today.
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We are brought back to the story of Hagar and Ishmael. As a reminder of how
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Hagar and Ishmael entered the story, back in chapter 16, Sarah came up with the plan for her servant woman
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Hagar to have sexual relations with Abraham in order to have a child. They did this in unbelief, thinking that this must be the way
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God is going to accomplish this offspring promise. Because of course, they were past the age when a married couple can bear a child.
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But of course, we saw how the Lord accomplished this promise last week through Isaac. Now that these two families are together,
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Sarah and Isaac, and Hagar and Ishmael, things get messy.
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Sometimes domestic issues are messy. This is a domestic issue on steroids.
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We will see how the Lord wisely handles it, showing His provision over it. Let's read verse 8.
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And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
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Let's pause right there. We saw the birth of Isaac last week. Now we see that he is a little bit older.
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A child was typically weaned at the age of two or three. As mothers know, for a child to be weaned means that he or she is taken off breast milk and given solid food as sustenance.
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So from the birth we saw last week to the weaning today, two or three years has passed. To mark this day,
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Abraham throws a great feast. As these two families are together, we see a problem arise.
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We see jealousy come out in the older son. In verse 9. And Sarah sees it.
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But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.
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So Sarah sees Ishmael laughing on this feast thrown for Isaac.
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We have seen this word laugh show up quite a bit over the last few chapters. In Genesis 18 .12,
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Sarah laughed in unbelief when she was told by the Lord that she would bear a child in her old age. This is why
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Isaac is named Isaac. Isaac means he laughs. Last week we saw
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Sarah's laugh turn from unbelief to a joyful laughter. And now today we see a different kind of laughter.
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This laughter should be understood as mocking. The context of this passage tells us why this
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Hebrew word for laugh should be understood as a mocking kind of laugh. One of the reasons is
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Sarah's response, which we are about to see. Another reason is the Apostle Paul in Galatians 4 .29
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wrote that Ishmael persecuted Isaac. So Ishmael is laughing at his half -brother on this big day of celebration for the little boy.
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I know that parents in this church have thrown parties for their little ones on their birthday. Could you imagine if an older child mocked out of jealousy at the little ones on their big day of celebration?
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The parent of the older child would be right to take that child aside and say, this is unacceptable.
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This is precisely what Ishmael is doing. He is mocking because he is jealous. Ishmael would have known that Isaac is the promised child.
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He would have known that the chosen line goes through him. He is jealous that the attention is on him on this big day.
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And as you might expect, the mother of Isaac, Sarah, is not too happy about this, as we will see in verse 10.
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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
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Isaac. Sarah already had animosity toward Hagar and Ishmael, as we saw back in chapter 16.
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When Hagar became pregnant from Abraham, Genesis 16 .4 says that she looked with contempt on Sarah.
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Sarah responded to this by dealing harshly with her. As verse 6 in that chapter says, now that Sarah sees
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Ishmael laughing at Isaac on this big day of celebration for him, this is the last straw.
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She has had enough. That is why Sarah says to cast out Hagar with her son, so that Ishmael cannot be heir, the heir of this family along with Isaac.
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Abraham is caught in a difficult situation. He's caught in between the conflict between these two families that come from him.
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In chapter 16, Abraham took Hagar as his wife and had Ishmael, and now he has his other son,
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Isaac, with his first wife, Sarah. Even with the promised child born, Abraham still has loyalty toward Hagar and Ishmael.
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We see this in verse 11. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.
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We need to feel the pain that Abraham feels here. Hagar and Ishmael are family.
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They came about through odd and sinful circumstances, but they are still family. His wife,
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Sarah, is saying they need to go. We can't live under the same roof together.
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Some of you may have grown up in homes where there was dysfunction of one kind or another, or this may be your experience right now at home with your family.
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It is a difficult situation when there are multiple spouses involved or half -siblings involved through broken marriages.
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I witnessed this firsthand with relatives on my dad's side. One thing we need to see here is that Abraham is a very godly man who has made some mistakes along the way, one of them being taking
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Hagar as a wife and having this child, and he finds himself in the middle of this messy domestic situation.
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Difficult family situations are all too common in our fallen world. We can take comfort in knowing that Abraham, who is described in Scripture as a man of faith, was right in the middle of a messy domestic situation, and the
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Lord provided for him by navigating him through it. If you have experienced or are experiencing dysfunction of one kind or another, you know the pain that is there.
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You can take comfort that if you belong to Jesus Christ, God is standing with you through it.
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He will guide you through it as you trust him. Now, we see the
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Lord help Abraham deal with this difficult situation in verse 12, and we see the
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Lord's wisdom in how he handles it. But God said to Abraham, Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman.
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Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
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This is fascinating. Sarah's anger toward Ishmael was justified. She should be angry that he laughed at Isaac on this big day of celebration for him.
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However, it may have been a knee -jerk reaction to say that Hagar and Ishmael needed to go, but whether it was a knee -jerk reaction or not, the
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Lord agrees that this is the best solution to this sticky situation.
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We see the Lord's compassion and comfort over Abraham as he says to him, Be not displeased.
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The Lord has been very kind to Abraham. He is kind to him even though the situation was brought about through his sin by going along with Sarah's plan of having a child through Hagar.
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Even though Abraham sinned in this way, it is right for him to still love
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Hagar and Ishmael deeply. In my own family,
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I had a cousin who came about through an affair out of wedlock.
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And it was incredible to see how my dad handled it.
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Because instead of treating my cousin like the black sheep of the family, like no one wanted anything to do with him, my dad did an excellent job including him in our family.
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We used to see him once a month. He would come and spend the weekend with us. And he would come to church.
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And our family knew him very well. And he wasn't a second -class family member. My dad loved him as his nephew just like he loved his other nephews and nieces.
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If we find ourselves in a position that did not start from a good place, that started in sin, we should make the best of it.
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We should love the people involved in the way the Lord calls us to love them. Now at the end of verse 12, the
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Lord gives Abraham the reason why he should listen to Sarah and send Isaac away. God told
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Abraham, The chosen line in the inheritance goes through Isaac.
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He is the one who will live under Abraham's roof. And the Lord will bless he and his future offspring abundantly.
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This is why the Lord gives Abraham permission to send the other son Ishmael away.
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But this does not mean the Lord is not good to Ishmael. He is very good to him.
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This is what the Lord says to Abraham about Ishmael in verse 13. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.
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The Lord is kind not only to Abraham in comforting him and guiding him through this difficult domestic situation, but he is also kind to his non -chosen offspring.
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This is what Abraham would want. As he departs from his life, he wanted to know that his own son would be taken care of.
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I personally hate goodbyes. I'm sure you do as well. My sister and her two sons were with us last weekend.
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And yesterday we went down to Mound to see them. We were with them one last time and we said goodbye.
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When you say goodbye to family that you love, you want to know that things will go well with them as they go on their way.
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The Lord provides Abraham with this comfort. Abraham is comforted by hearing that a nation will come from his son
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Ishmael. This tells Abraham that the Lord is going to take care of him. Now Abraham goes to sleep that night knowing that the next morning is probably the last time he will ever see
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Hagar and his son again. And this is how they depart in verse 14.
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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.
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And she departed and wandered into the wilderness of Beersheba. So what we see here is that Abraham wakes up early in the morning and gathers bread and fills up a skin of water to provide temporary provisions to Hagar and Ishmael on their journey.
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Ishmael is about 14 years old as they are sent away. You might wonder, should
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Abraham have given them more? The end of verse 14 says that they were being sent out into the wilderness of Beersheba.
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Shouldn't they get a lot more if they're going to be going out into this dangerous wilderness? Beersheba is located in the southern part of the land of Canaan, which of course became known as the
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Promised Land. We should not see Abraham's actions here as negative but actually as positive.
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He gives them what they need for a little while and then trusts that the Lord is going to take care of them. The Lord already told
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Abraham that a nation would come from Ishmael. And so he knows that God is going to take care of him.
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We see the faithfulness of Abraham demonstrated here. He is sad to see them go but he knows that this is the right thing to do.
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He listens to the Lord and sends Hagar and Ishmael off, trusting that the
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Lord will take care of them. And the Lord's plan of provision is put into effect.
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This is the first example how the Lord chose himself to be a wonderful provider. He details a plan to solve a messy domestic situation.
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The third and final example how the Lord chose himself to be a wonderful provider in this text is hearing...
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Actually, sorry, I said third and final. I meant to say this is the second. We're not done yet.
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There's two examples here. The second example how the Lord chose himself to be a wonderful provider is by hearing the cries of those who are suffering.
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So in this two -point sermon, this is number two. Hearing the cries of those who are suffering. We'll see this in verses 15 through 21.
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Once we arrive in verse 15, Hagar and Ishmael are already on their journey in the wilderness of Beersheba.
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And so we see this in verse 15. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.
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We do not know how much time has passed, but we know that enough time has passed for the water to run out.
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This could not have been more than a few days. The exact amount of time depends on how much bread and how much water was given.
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You can imagine what it would be like in a desert region, either from your own experience going to a desert or seeing one on TV.
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When my father was in the Air Force, he spent about six months in the country of Kuwait. And for those of you who don't know,
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Kuwait is located on the Persian Gulf right next to Iraq. Kuwait is a desert country.
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And my dad said that the temperature could get up to 130 degrees in the sun on a hot day.
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It puts things into perspective with the heat that we've had this summer, 85 and humid. It doesn't seem so bad.
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As Hagar is out in the heat with Ishmael, she does what a good mother would do. She puts him in the shade.
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But in verse 16, she does something that was well -intentioned but probably not a good thing. Verse 16 says,
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Then she went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot.
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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.
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So she placed Ishmael under the bush and she went about a bow shot away.
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She puts him in a place where you can shoot an arrow that far. But it is still a good distance away.
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The second half of verse 16 tells us why she put Ishmael under a bush a far distance away.
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Hagar says, Let me not look on the death of the child. She thinks that her child is doomed and is going to die in the wilderness.
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She does not want to witness the death of her child. Not only is
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Ishmael in danger, but Hagar is as well. Death is threatening both of them.
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Facing her own suffering is difficult enough. She does not also want to see the suffering of her teenage child.
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She is so overwhelmed by the suffering they are facing that she shouts out her pain and weeps as the end of verse 16 describes.
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As they face the suffering, they need someone to step in and help. And what we will see in verse 17 is that the
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Lord, the wonderful provider, steps in. And by doing this, the Lord is delivering on his word.
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Verse 17, And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her,
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What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
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Not only was Hagar crying in sorrow over being stranded in the wilderness without water, but so was
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Ishmael. God heard their cries and was intent on doing something about it.
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The beginning of verse 17 says specifically that the angel of God called Hagar from heaven.
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We have seen in Genesis that when God communicated with humans, he often did so as the angel of the Lord. This is known as a theophany, when
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God appears as an angel or as a human in some circumstances. God comes as an angel many times.
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And in scripture, the angel of the Lord is God himself, appearing to mankind. When the text says an angel of the
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Lord, God sends one of his angels out to accomplish his purposes. So the angel of the Lord is
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God. An angel of the Lord is an angel that is sent out. This angel of God appears to her, and the text says that this angel is from heaven.
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The reason this is mentioned is to show that God is sovereign over everything. In this context, he is sovereign over the sufferings of humanity.
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He sees Hagar and Ishmael suffering, and he is there to answer.
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To help them in times of trouble. The Lord has a special closeness to those who face suffering in their life.
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Specifically, he is close to believers as they suffer. Psalm 34, 18 says the
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Lord is near to the broken hearted. He saves the crushed in spirit.
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I remember about eight years ago when I was facing suffering in my life. That psalm was very precious to me.
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Knowing that the Lord was with me through my trials brought great comfort to me. People who are suffering need to know that the
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Lord is close because it can feel like he is far away. Hagar probably thought that the
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Lord was far away. But once he appeared to her, she knew just how close he was.
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She was so overflowing with joy knowing that he was that close all along.
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He never left her side, nor does he leave yours in your battles through suffering in your life.
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We just saw the Lord comfort Abraham, now we see he comforts Hagar and Ishmael. He asks her a question in the second half of verse 17.
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This is a rhetorical question. We have seen the Lord do this before. He does this not to learn new information.
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God never learns new information. He knows everything. By asking her the question, what troubles you,
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Hagar? He is saying, nothing should trouble you because I am going to take care of you and your son.
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At the end of verse 17, the Lord says, fear not. We have already seen fear not show up in Genesis when the
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Lord told Abraham not to fear in Genesis 15. Remember, there are 365 times that the
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Lord says do not fear in the Bible. One for every day of the year.
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He knows that we are a fearful people and oh how fearful we are.
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I see it in my own life and I am sure you see it in yours. This is a great application for us.
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This text right here, this second point. The Lord knows what you are going through.
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Many of you in this room are probably facing some kind of trial in your life. Life in a fallen world is full of trials.
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1 Peter 1 .6 says that believers face various trials.
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The way that the Lord deals with Hagar should teach us that he knows what you are going through and he has a handle on the situation.
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Our all powerful God has the strength to deal with our problems.
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Through it all, he takes care of you as he cared for Hagar and Ishmael. The Lord tells
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Hagar that she has nothing to fear. There is going to be a great future for her son. He is not going to die in the wilderness.
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As God commands Hagar to go get her son, he tells her of his future in verse 18.
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The Lord tells
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Hagar what he told Abraham in verse 13. From the son will come a great nation.
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The nation will become known as the Ishmaelites and their line is described in Genesis 25.
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The Lord gives her the big picture. He is going to take care of Ishmael over the long haul. In order for him to experience this blessing of having a great nation come from him, of course the
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Lord is going to take care of him in the present by giving him water and giving him food and taking care of him so that this line that will come from him will come to pass.
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We see the Lord's immediate provision in verse 19. Remember, this is in a desert region.
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A desert -like region does not have water flowing through it. There would have been man -made wells all around.
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This well would have been near their vicinity, but she did not see it. The Lord turns her attention to it, and she is able to get water for herself and Ishmael.
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So the Lord provides for them in the wilderness. Now in the final two verses of our text today, we see the
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Lord's provision over Ishmael's future. In 20 and 21,
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The beginning of verse 20 says that God was with the boy. Later on in Genesis, the same wording was used to describe the
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Lord's relationship with Joseph. In Genesis 39, the author Moses says on several occasions that the
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Lord was with him. It was because the Lord was with Joseph that he rose to be the governor of Egypt, the number two man behind the
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Pharaoh. Right here, it is because the Lord was with Ishmael that a great nation was able to come from him.
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One thing we need to highlight is that Ishmael is not known as a good man in Scripture. Genesis 16 .12
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describes him as a wild donkey of a man. I take that to mean he probably was not a believer.
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If someone's called a wild donkey of a man, that's not a good thing. So why does the
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Lord treat Ishmael like he is a believer? Why was he with them like he was with Joseph?
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I think the reason is the Lord was good to Ishmael because of the promise he made to Abraham. Genesis 12 .3
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says those who honor Abraham will be honored. Now, Ishmael's mother Hagar honored Abraham by returning to him as the
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Lord commanded her in Genesis 16 .9. God blesses Ishmael because of his association with Abraham through Hagar's past actions.
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However, it might even be simpler than that. It may be that Ishmael is blessed simply because he is the son of God's chosen man.
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He is the son of Abraham. So either way, it's because of his connection to Abraham that he is blessed.
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So he's kind of treated like a believer because of that. What we know about Ishmael's life as described in verses 20 and 21 is that he is an expert in the bow.
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Having expertise with the bow would have helped him kill a wild game for food. Mark is very good with the bow.
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I've seen him last year at the fall men's retreat. He was able to hit the center of the target with precision.
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And then when it came to be my turn, I couldn't even hit the board with the arrow. So I was very impressed with Mark's ability.
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And so Ishmael had this ability, and it came in handy because he was able to live because he was an expert with the bow. We also see that he lived in the wilderness of Paran and Hagar chose a wife for him from Egypt, which would not have been too far away from where they lived as they resided in the region south of the promised land.
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Ishmael was able to live his life in this region because the Lord abundantly provided for him. He grabbed him from the pit of suffering and enabled him to prosper because of his association to Abraham.
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This is the second example how the Lord chose himself to be a wonderful provider.
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He hears the cries of those who are suffering. To summarize our sermon this morning, the
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Lord chose himself to be a wonderful provider. And what we have seen is two examples how this provision has been shown.
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The first example how was the Lord detailing a plan about how to solve a messy domestic situation.
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The second example how is that he hears the cries of those who are suffering, from the point we just saw.
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If you find yourself in a difficult family situation or a difficult situation in general, the
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Lord is there to comfort you and guide you through it. He provides his help. If you find yourself in suffering right now, you can have confidence that the
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Lord is near to you, as he was near to Hagar and Ishmael. He provides help as you suffer.
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The Lord is near to the broken hearted and he saves the crushed in spirit. What we have seen in this narrative is that the
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Lord is indeed a wonderful provider over everything in our lives. Next week,
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I will preach a sermon. We're going to take a little, just a one Sunday break from Genesis.
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I'm going to preach a sermon from Romans 6, verses 1 -14. One theme we have seen in Genesis is
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Abraham's rocky battle with sin. And not just Abraham, but other people as well.
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This will fit into our understanding of what the life of following the
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Lord looks like. The Apostle Paul explains this well in Romans 6, 1 -14.
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So I think it's appropriate to look at how are Christians to deal with their sin?
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How are they to think about their sin when they do sin? And what about the freedom we have in Christ?
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What does that mean? So that's what we'll look at next week. So that when we see these people battle this sin in Genesis, these righteous people like Abraham, we can say, okay, that's why he's doing this.
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And that's why I still fight sin as well. So we'll look at that next
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Sunday. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you for the treasure that it is.
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Thank you, Lord, that you provide in so many ways in our lives. You provide for us.
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And when we're in a perplexing situation, you give us a plan. You detail a plan and guide us through it.
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Just like you did with Abraham in this messy situation. You do the same,
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Lord, when we suffer. You provide for us when we suffer. And I thank you for that as well.
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And Lord, I pray for our church. I pray that we would grow closer to you. Each passing week, that we would grow together.
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That's our goal, Lord, that we would grow together. I pray that we would be a mature church, looking more like you day by day.