Fulfilled in Christ - Part 2 — Duane Troyer

May grace be with you all, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Very good to be gathered with you all again, and I appreciate the reading there in the opening. It is very much the topic that I want to talk about today, a lot of it, a lot of Paul's thoughts there.

Let's stand for a word of prayer. O kind Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your goodness and all your mercies to us, and for your guidance and your direction, for the word we have that we can read.

Give us understanding, Lord, for the spirit you have to guide us. We thank you for all you've done for us in Jesus, and we pray, Lord, that we can walk worthy of such a high and eternal calling. So help us, Lord, strengthen us and guide us, and today, just be here with us, and as we look into your word, we pray for wisdom from above and understanding from you, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

The Old Testament as a Promise Pointing to Christ

Well, I just want to continue this series of messages that I started last week. I decided to title these messages Fulfilled in Christ, or the series titled Fulfilled in Christ. For those of you who were not here last week, I wanted to do a teaching on the Sabbath, and the more I studied it, the more I thought, well, to do justice to the subject of the Sabbath, there's so much to understand about the covenants, and rather than try to...

And I just... There was so much I was learning as I... The more I looked into it, the more... And I decided not to try to cram it all into one message, but stretch it out. And so, last week, we talked about the covenants, and if you remember, I just...

We were mostly in the Old Testament, and I said, we're just kind of putting a skeleton out there that I'd like to put some meat on today. And I thought about how, you know, okay, so, we have this practice, try to have this practice, we've had it for a long time, where on Sunday afternoons or evenings when we're gathered together with family, I'll ask my children, what do you remember that was shared today at the meeting?

It's just a good exercise for them, and sometimes causes good discussion. And one of them said something about, made mention of the talk about the skeleton, and then said, I'm just so curious what comes next.

And I thought, that's what I was trying to do. At least it worked on one of my children. But in a bigger picture, like, that's what the whole Old Testament is. It's like, it's this promise, this pointing of something that's coming, right?

I think in a sense, it's Israel's story, like, they go through their, you know, from Abraham, they go to Moses, they go to the judges, and they go to the kings, and all this while, like, Israel knows that there's a promise for something, and they speculate about what that is, and they think they maybe understand how that is, and it's a little bit like scientists digging up the bones of something like a dinosaur, and they stick all these bones together, and they speculate about how this creature looked, and they probably just have to add a lot of imagination, and they're probably pretty wrong about some things.

But hopefully, hopefully after today, we'll start getting a better picture of this whole redemptive story. In the first message, we looked at the five main covenants that God made in the Old Testament.

It was the covenant that he made with Adam, and then with Noah, and with Abraham, and with Moses, and then with David. And there's other covenants, but those I believe are the five main ones. And then we ended with some of the main promises about the new covenant that God's going to make.

In the second century, Justin Martyr wrote, If therefore God proclaimed a new covenant, which was to be instituted, and this for a light of the nations, we see and are persuaded that men approach God.

And then he said, Moreover, by the works and the attendant miracles, it is possible for all to understand that he, Jesus, is the new law, and the new covenant, and the expectation of those who out of every people wait for the good things of God.

I know we all believe that. My intent in these messages is not to persuade you guys that Jesus was the fulfillment of these things. I am pretty confident that you all believe this. My intent of these messages is more to try to show what effect does this new covenant have on the commands and the laws that were instituted in the old covenants.

In today's message, I mostly want to look at that in a real broad way. What are the words, what are the terms, and what are the types that Scripture uses to express this transition? And then, hopefully, in the next and final message, Lord willing, we'll look at it from a closer and a more practical standpoint, specifically about the Sabbath.

Jesus as the Fulfillment of the Old Testament

I found this study beyond interesting. I found it exciting. I think we could do half a dozen messages or more on how Christ fulfills the old covenant and the Old Testament. I think we've only scratched the surface.

But if I can... I don't want to do that. I don't want to make it so extensive that you get tired of it. But if I can whet your appetite and help you realize how this whole story is about Jesus, it's about Him, and can get you to dig in deeper, I would encourage that.

I would encourage you guys, if these things are on your mind, read the book of Hebrews with this in mind. Sometimes when you have a certain thing in mind and you read a book, stuff jumps out that you just miss if this particular subject is not on your mind.

But Jesus is the fulfillment of, I hesitate to say everything, but nearly everything in the Old Testament. He is what it is pointing towards. Paul says in Ephesians, he said, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth, in Him.

And then you go to the end of that chapter and he says,. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Creation as a Type of the Two Covenants

Okay, I want to start way up in the beginning in Genesis 1 and read a little portion of the creation story to you. And you may wonder what this has to do with covenants. And I don't know that I would have ever caught on to myself, but Leo Eby once said that he thinks here in this little story is already a type of the two covenants and the more I've thought about it, the more I think, oh yeah, that's a beautiful type of the new covenant here, or the two covenants.

Verse 14 of Genesis 1, he says,. Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, for illumination to divide day from night. Let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. Let them be for illumination in the firmament of heaven, and give light on the earth.

And it was so. Then God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven, and he gave light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good. So evening and morning were the fourth day. If I can get your imagination spinning for just a little bit, let's imagine that for a span of our life, let's say from the time we were born until we were 15 or 20 years old, we had never ever seen the light of day.

We were totally creatures of night. Every night, well after the sun went down and the sunset totally faded away, we would come out from underneath some thick, dark blanket, and then we would see the night.

And we would see everything about the night. But well before the first rays of sun came up in the morning, this thick, dark blanket went back over us. And so for a long span of our life, we would only know what the sky and the earth is like from what we can see at night without artificial lights.

And that's the case with all of us. We can't talk with anybody who's ever seen the light of day. I know this is not quite possible, but let's try to imagine that. And we would see the moon. We would see the glory of the moon.

We would be thankful for the moon. We would see how it is silver and how it gives light. And that light would create the outline of trees and hills. And there's times when that moon would be totally dark and we couldn't see it all.

But then there's times that it creates some light and we would think it's glorious. And in fact, we don't know that there's more to know. This is all we've ever known. We would see, when the moon does shine, we would see shadows.

We would see silhouettes. We would see forms. We would see shapes. We would think we know how things look. We would think we know how the trees look. We would think we know how the water looks. We would think we know how the hills look.

In fact, like I said, we wouldn't grasp that there's anything more to know. And we do a lot of speculating as well. Why does the moon seem to have one side is light and the other side is dark? And then I guess we would probably speculate that it turns itself.

Because sometimes the light is on the left side. Sometimes the light is on the right side. Sometimes it seems to be straight toward us. Sometimes we spend the whole night and we don't see the moon at all.

We would wonder about how it goes through these turnings and phases and changes. And we could basically, with this limited amount of knowledge, we could only do a lot of speculating. Imagine how much we'd speculate if we saw a lunar eclipse and tried to figure that one out.

But then, one night, something very, very amazing happened. As we come to the end of the night, this thick, dark blanket doesn't go over us. And all of a sudden, the eastern sky starts to light up. And we start seeing colors that we didn't even know existed.

And eventually, this big, bright, round ball of light would come up over the horizon. And we'd just look at the earth and be like, whoa, here's color and depth and dimension and details that we didn't even know existed.

We would look at the world and be like, oh, we had it all wrong, what we thought was wrong. We would also maybe look around and be like, well, where's the moon? Where's the stars? They were just there an hour ago.

What happened to them? Did they get destroyed? Did this light burn them up? We can't find them anymore. It would be one of those moments where we would go like, man, I've been wrong all my life. But eventually, we would understand and we would be like, okay, the moon didn't get destroyed.

The glory of the sun surpassed it to such an extent that it faded away and we can't see it anymore. Eventually, we would realize that unlike the moon, this sun, it has no dark side to it. There's no variableness, no shadow of turning.

It's just one consistent brightness. And we would eventually realize like, oh, and the moon, it didn't even make out its own light. Whether it was on the right or the left or whatever it was, it was always just pointing toward the real light.

We would soon find out that unlike the moon, this greater light, we can actually feel it. We get warmth from it. We would find out that unlike the moon, who just created an outline of the trees and the plants, this sun actually puts forth an energy.

It doesn't just make them more visible, it makes them grow. It makes them produce fruit. I'm thinking you probably all know where I'm going with this. The sun is the source of everything visible. It is light itself.

It is the substance and everything that we had been seeing was reflections and shadows and figures and it was not the real thing. Brethren, I think that is what the New Covenant does to the Old Covenant.

The New Covenant and the Glory of the Spirit

The prophet Malachi says,. And that sun is spelled S-U-N. And it says,. In light of those ideas, let's look at what Paul wrote here in 2 Corinthians 3. I'll start in verse 4. But our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.

But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory so that the sons of Israel could not look intently on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.

For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech and are not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.

But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.

But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

The old covenant, with its laws that were written in stone, wasn't destroyed. God is the source of those laws, and he didn't destroy those things. The covenants didn't get destroyed. What changed is that the veil was lifted and we could see God, the very visible image of God we could see in Jesus Christ.

The Hebrew writer says, God, who spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has now spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, who brings the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholds all things by the word of his power.

Like that imaginary story about the night and the day, the moon didn't change, the trees didn't change, the hills didn't change, nor did the sun change. What changed is the blanket was removed and we could see things in a whole different light.

Christ in the Covenants and Old Testament Types

As we read through these Old Testament stories about the events, the commands, the covenants, we start realizing, and like I say, we've only scratched the surface, but we start realizing it's all talking about Jesus.

It's all pointing toward him. You read about Eden and how Adam and Eve were set there to rule over creation, and you're like, oh, that's talking about Christ and his church ruling creation. You read about the covenant he made with Adam and the bruised heel and the crushed head, and you're like, oh, that's talking about Jesus.

It's talking about the ransom that he paid and the death that he would die, but the victory he would have at the end. You read about Noah and the ark and in light of Jesus, it's like, oh, that's talking about Jesus who will save us from the judgment he's going to bring on the earth.

Read about Abraham and how in his seat all nations will be blessed, and Paul expounds on this. I think Leroy read it this morning already, but, oh, that seed is talking about Jesus. He doesn't talk about, you know, we all had this idea that like he's saying, Abraham's seed will be like the stars, innumerable for a multitude, and it's like, no, in his seed, Jesus, all nations will be blessed, and these stars are not innumerable because of their glorious multitude, but because of his glorious brightness.

In the covenant with David, and you read about how he makes this covenant with him and says there won't fail to be one from your loins to reign and to be king, and you realize, oh, that's talking about Jesus and his reign.

It's not talking about Solomon and Rehoboam and Abijah and those. Some of these things, it is talking about him in a shadowy way, but what it's really communicating is Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the fulfillment of all these things.

Time would not allow me if I wanted to expound to you about the priesthood and the altar and the tabernacle and the serpent on the pole and the cities of rest in the temple and on and on and on, the things that Jesus is a fulfillment of.

The apostles and the early believers saw Christology in all these things. These things are what the New Testament refers to as shadows. Paul says in Hebrews, for the law, since it has only a shadow of good things to come and not the very form of things.

We'll get into more of that later. Colossians, Paul says, therefore no one is to act as your judge in regards to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Jesus Fulfills the Law and the Prophets

One of the prophecies we looked at in the last message is that prophecy that Moses gave in Deuteronomy toward the end of his life where he said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him you shall hear.

Jesus came. He is that prophet. Jesus himself says in Luke 16, the law and the prophets were until John. Now the kingdom is preached and every man presses into it. In Matthew 5, Jesus said, I did not come to destroy the law and prophets, but I came to fulfill them.

And people who are inclined to, like the Messianic Jews that I've talked with over the years, people who are inclined to try to keep portions or all of the Mosaic law, quickly go to this verse and say, see, Jesus said he did not come to destroy the law and the prophets.

But depending on what kind of translation you use, like the NASB that I have here, it says, do not think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets. The King James says to destroy the law and the prophets.

And then if you go back into some of Paul's writings, Paul uses the word, depending on what translation you use, he'll use the word abolish, as if the law that was written in stone was abolished. But the short little word search I did, there's two different words.

And though they have similarities, they mean two different things. The word that is used here in Matthew 5 is a Greek word pronounced probably katalou. And it means, it has the meaning of, like, demolish.

Okay? But when you go back and look at that word Paul would use, the word is probably pronounced katarogo, I'm not sure. Anyway, it says that that meaning is more like to render idle or useless or to make void.

Although they have similarities, they have a different meaning. And what Jesus is saying here, I did not come to demolish the old law. I came to fulfill it. And even just the very fact that he says, I came to fulfill it, is showing, like, oh, so it wasn't full?

There was something missing? It was lacking? It was wanting? Yes, it was. And he came to fulfill it. If we look at this passage, and I know there are some things in here that have caused debate about what Jesus meant.

In Matthew 5, verses 17 to 20, he says, Do not think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. I think when he says here, whoever then annuls, in verse 19, whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

I think what he is saying, whoever annuls one of the least of these, not those, not the ones Moses gave, but these, that I am giving you right here, right now, the beatitudes that I just got done telling you, and the sermon that I'm giving you here on the mountain, whoever annuls one of the least of these shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

And then if you look at verse 20, and here's one of the verses, even among us here I know we've debated or maybe even disagreed what Jesus is saying. He says, for unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Some people tend to think that he is talking about what is commanded in the law, and others think he's possibly talking about the fact that the scribes and Pharisees weren't, they were hypocrites. I am inclined to think, because of the context, that he is talking about the Mosaic law.

In this context, he is not trying to expose the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees. He is, in fact, trying to establish the difference between the old law and what he is saying here. He goes right on after that to say, for you have heard that it has been said, and then he quotes Mount Sinai, but I say unto you, and he quotes his new law.

I'm inclined to think that that's what he's saying. In fact, I have recently been impressed. We talked about this prophecy in Isaiah last week, in Isaiah 2, where he says, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.

He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his path, for out of Zion shall go forth his law. As long as I've had any opinion about this, I believe that that was a prophecy of Jesus. But recently, I have been more impressed that I am inclined to think it is more specifically a prophecy of the Sermon on the Mount.

He says in that prophecy that the people and the Gentiles will say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and there his law is going to come forth. And here Jesus goes up on this mountain. He sits down, and he gives this message that is for all people, Jews and Gentiles.

And what does the prophecy further say? It says, and we shall beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. What is at the heart of Jesus' message on the Sermon on the Mount? He's saying, stop this hating your enemies.

Stop this retaliating when you get struck. Stop this condemning and judging one another. It's like this message in which we get the idea we're going to beat these instruments of destruction into something that's fruitful, into something that's useful, into something that builds each other up and helps each other.

That could be a message in itself. My main point in that is Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy and is establishing a transition. He's establishing a change. I'd like to look at the Mount of Transfiguration.

The Transfiguration and the Supremacy of Jesus

I'm going to read it out of Mark 9, verses 2 to 8. He says, six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his garments became radiant, and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

And Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

For he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified. And then a cloud formed over them, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, This is my beloved son, listen to him. And all at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone.

Moses represents the law. Elijah represents the prophets. And here Jesus goes up on this mountain with these few disciples, and he gets transfigured into a brightness. And then all of a sudden here's Moses and here's Elijah right beside him.

And Peter's like, wow, this is great. We got Moses, we got Elijah, we got Jesus, we got the three greatest men who ever put foot on the earth here. Let's make us three tabernacles and let's all live together.

And then something happens. As soon as Peter suggests that, there was this voice. And according to Matthew's account of this, it was so terrifying that Peter and James and John fell on their faces. And this voice said, This is my beloved son, listen to him.

And they look up and what happened with Moses and Elijah? They disappeared. And there was only Jesus there. I think there's just a lot being communicated right there. There's a lot to be compared between Moses and Jesus.

Similarities, but some significant differences. And today I'd like to talk about the differences. If we go to Hebrews chapter 3, verses 1 to 6, say, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession.

He was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in all his house. For he had been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. But Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

I think in verse 2 and 3 it indicates that, there's this indication of Moses is, he is the builder. If you would attribute a builder in a house, or the builder to the house, like Moses is the builder of the old covenant, Jesus is the builder of the new covenant.

Though Moses and his house had glory, Jesus and his house had far more glory. And I take special note of verse 5 here, where he says,. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.

Moses, Joshua, and Entering the Promised Land

Let's even consider how that Moses did not enter the promised land. Moses did not enter the land of Canaan. And I think, allegorically speaking there, I think there is a real rich type here. You've got Egypt, which is the world.

You've got the wilderness, which is the testing and the schooling. And then you've got Canaan, which is the fulfilled life of a people who are conquering. Now Moses is a representation of the law. His leadership is that of a schoolmaster.

He is a figure. Moses is a figure who is capable of bringing slaves into freedom. But he is not a figure who is able to bring free men into a life of conquering. For that, it takes a Joshua. I find it interesting that Joshua and Jesus really have the same name.

I guess from Hebrew it got the English translators translated Joshua, and from Greek they translated it Jesus. But it's Joshua, and it means Jehovah saves, or Yahweh is salvation. Moses can bring us from negative to ground zero, but he cannot...

When I say Moses, I'm talking about Moses as a representation of the law. He can bring us from negative to ground zero, but he can't take us above that. That's why I think that Moses was able to lead the children of Israel from the bondage in Egypt all the way to the borders of Canaan.

That was it. He could not lead them into the land of Canaan. Now, I know there's lots to the story, and in fact I want to look at the story. I think even what happened that cost him that has a lot to say.

We look at this story and we're like, wow, this is almost not fair. Moses endured so much, and there's not much doubt in my mind whether Moses will be in the eternal kingdom of God or not, but remember, these things are written for us.

These things are for us, for us to learn from. Let's look at that count in Numbers, chapter 20. The thing that cost Moses his entrance into Canaan. Starting in verse 7 of chapter 20, he says, the Lord then spoke to Moses saying, take the rod, you and your brother Aaron, gather the congregation together, speak to the rock before them, and it'll give its waters.

Thus you shall bring them water out of the rock and give drink to the congregation and the cattle. So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as the Lord ordered him, and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock.

And he said to him, hear me, you disobedient ones, must we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses then lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and the cattle drank.

But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe me to sanctify me before the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land I am giving them. This was the water of contention because the children of Israel scoffed before the Lord, and he was sanctified among them.

So remember a few things. First of all, 40 years have gone by since Moses started to lead the children of Israel. He was dealing with a new generation. He was dealing with all the people, with the exception of Joshua, Caleb, Aaron, and a few of Aaron's sons, with the exception of a few people.

All the people who had been slaves in Egypt were dead. All the people who had believed the false report when the spies came back the first time and had doubts about getting into Canaan, all those people were dead.

All the people who rebelled with Korah, all those people were gone. This was a new generation. I think it is a type of the regenerate person. But Moses takes the approach of someone dealing with the old man, and he says, you stiff-necked and rebellious people.

And he takes his rod and he does the same thing that he had done nearly 40 years before with the old generation. He goes up and he hits the rock. He was supposed to do that back then, but this time he was asked to speak to it.

But he did the same thing to it that needed to be done for the old generation. Now think about this for a little bit. Paul says that Jesus is this rock. He is the rock in the wilderness where the water comes from.

Jesus was struck once. He needed to be struck once. He died. He was crucified. He had to be crucified for the old man. But Jesus does not need to be crucified twice. He ought not be struck again. He now is to be glorified.

And if we as a regenerated people of the new covenant who have received the water of life from Christ, now go back and try to get life from the old covenant, from Moses in Sinai. What are we doing? We're crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame.

That's why Paul and the apostles fought so hard to keep the believing Jews from trying to bind the Sabbath and circumcision and the dietary laws and all these things on the Gentiles and the believers.

He said, as Leroy read this morning, that's what a lot of the Galatians letter is for. And he says, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Having begun in the spirit, do you think you're going to be perfected in the flesh?

It's one thing. If you began in the flesh and through the law you came to this point where you could then be perfected in the spirit. But you guys started in the spirit. Now you want to go back to the flesh and be perfected in the flesh.

It would be like as if the children of Israel, after they've conquered Canaan and after they were eating the milk and the honey and being blessed by the land of Canaan, if they then said, we need to get back into the wilderness.

It's an utter rejection of God's promise. These types and allegories fascinate me. There's another one. There's Sarah and Hagar. God had promised from Abraham's loins will come the promised seed. But then there's Hagar.

Sarah, Hagar, and the Two Covenants

There's this Ethiopian maid that Sarah has. And while Abraham was probably in his upper 80s, if I have my calculations right, he had a child with this Ethiopian maid servant and they named him Ishmael.

Now, Abraham was super fond of this son. You can about imagine, here's Abraham who never had a child. He's an old man. And he finally has this little son of his own. Somehow, I picture Ishmael, this really cute little mulatto boy who he was just fond of.

He tagged along with him. But some 13-ish years later, Abraham had another son when he was 100 years old from Sarah. And they named him Isaac. Now, when Isaac was weaned, Abraham made this feast and he made this celebration.

He had this feast and I would, you guess, I'd say Isaac was probably 2 or 3 years old. Ishmael, 15, 16 is my guess. And as they were having this party there, Sarah was watching these two boys play and she saw Ishmael mocking Isaac.

And she said that Abraham cast out this maid servant and her son, for the son of my maid servant shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And Abraham was grieved. This Ishmael was his bride in joy. But God told him to.

God said, listen to what she says and put her out. I mean, surely Ishmael had brought him much glory. Often. Now he's not only being asked, think about this, Abraham is not only being asked to regard Isaac as greater than Ishmael.