Moms and Their Boys

The Old Testament reading today, we're in Genesis 3, verses 1 through 15.

I ask you to please stand for the reading of God's Word. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast through the field the

Lord God has made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of the tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will surely not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman said that the tree, saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a good delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig trees together, and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the

Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.

He said, Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said,

The woman whom you gave to me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman,

What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent,

Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, and above all beasts of the field.

On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. The New Testament reading this morning comes from the fourth chapter of the book of Galatians.

I will begin reading in verse 21. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.

But the son of the slave woman was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants.

One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is

Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.

She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the

Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear.

Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the

Spirit. So also it is now. But what does the scripture say?

Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.

So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman.

Please be seated. So I mentioned before, when

I'm preaching on the second Sunday of the month, I want to go to stories that may be familiar, may be unfamiliar.

And today's story is about two mothers and their boys.

It's a story about strife and promise and all the sorts of things that make up life that God uses.

So before we look at this text about these mothers and their boys, let's ask

God to open our minds to his word. God of heaven, we come to you now realizing our need.

Our need is to grow into the likeness of Christ. Our need is to believe the promises of God.

Our need is that we would trust you, for you are the God who keeps his promises, who is faithful to us.

So I pray now that you would encourage us, help us, convict us if necessary, but God, bring us face to face with you and your faithfulness.

Help us now as we give attention to your word, and we'll thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen. I know this is just a rhetorical question, maybe even a stupid question, but have you ever heard of reveal parties?

Those are amazing to me. I, you know with technology, you know whether you're the baby that's gonna be born is gonna be a boy or a girl, and so, you know, you find that out and everybody comes to your house for a party and suddenly the moment comes and you open the box and all these pink balloons fly up and everybody squeals and cries and claps because everyone's yelling, it's a girl.

It's amazing, these things are amazing to this old man. And today, you know what it used to be? After a baby was born, a few days later you got a birth announcement.

You imagine that, waiting until the baby's born before you know what it is, and then days before everybody else knows what it is, and you get this festive little card that calls you to rejoice and be glad, and you might even respond with a letter of congratulations.

Well, in our text this morning, which is Genesis chapter 21, in our text this morning in Genesis 21, this text opens with a birth announcement, announcing the birth of the long -awaited child of promise,

Isaac. Let's read the first 21 verses. The Lord visited

Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did 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, whom

Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old as God had commanded him.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said,

God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me.

And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have 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 the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, laughing.

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 own with my son

Isaac. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman.

Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also because he is your offspring. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child and sent her away.

And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off about the distance of a 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 Peron and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Now recall with me what the book of Genesis is about. From Genesis three, we see that God's answer to judgment and corruption was the promise of a seed.

Joe read that for us today was the promise of a seed, a seed that would rescue us, a seed that would deal with the serpent.

And you recall, as you read through Genesis, that the corruption in mankind grows to overwhelming proportions.

And we see that God protects that promise of a seed. He protects that seed through Noah and rescuing

Noah and his family. And then after that, we see that God promises to Abraham a seed that will be the channel of blessing to all the nations.

Through Abraham would come one who would bless all the nations. And for 25 years, 25 years,

Abraham and Sarah waited for the promised seed, this son to arrive, a son whose descendants would be the channel of blessing for the entire world.

And now here he is, little Isaac lying in the arms of his mother.

What is this story about? Is it merely the story of the promised child and his irritating older half -brother?

Is that what it's about? No, there's something more here. It's about God. It's about what he does.

It's about what he does to keep his promise. And the first thing you see in these first 14 verses is you can count on the reliability of God's promise.

You can count on the reliability of God's promise. Let's review those verses, verses 1 through 14.

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, whom

Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he's 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 the son of Hagar, the

Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, laughing. 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. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman.

Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.

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. Now you can count on the reliability of God's promises because in this birth announcement,

God declares his faithfulness in keeping his promise in verses 1 and 2.

Now when you would receive or when we would receive these birth announcements, they were these festive things.

They were these decorated festive pieces of correspondence. There would be color and lace and pictures and all kinds of things, giving it a brilliant appearance.

But here in this one, this announcement is a no -frills affair. There's not a whole lot going on here.

You would think that after 25 years of waiting, there would be something big here.

You would think that there would be all kinds of stuff of like, who came to this?

How many gifts came and who sent them? And how did they rejoice at this announcement?

What is going on? But it's very simple, isn't it? There's nothing like that.

It's as if God says, look, I did what I said was going, what I was going to do.

Of course the baby arrived. Does that surprise you? It's almost what it looks like in verses 1 and 2.

It says, the Lord visited Sarah. That is, he had worked in her in a miraculous way.

But notice, it says, as he had said, as he had promised, at the time of which

God had spoken to him. He's reiterating the fact that God had promised these things to Abraham, right?

Embarrassed, we often have to admit that we are indeed surprised when God comes through. But he does.

He always remains faithful to his promises. Remember all the difficulties, the long years of waiting and the impossibility of the situation.

A dad with one foot in the grave and a woman not far behind him. He's a hundred.

She is 75 years old. This is amazing.

But that's exactly how God works. If God promises something, he will follow through, no matter how impossible it looks.

But that is faith, is it not? Taking God at his word. Remember, there's a definition of faith.

Taking God at his word. When it seems impossible, if God has said it, he will do it.

You take God at his word. That's the essence of faith. Surprised or not, when

God fulfills his promise, you ought to respond with obedience, worship, and joy.

And that's how Abraham responds. He responds, first of all, with obedience. The grace of God has been shown him, and he responds with obedience.

He follows through with what God commanded him, right? He circumcised his son as God said he should in the covenant.

He must obey God. You see again, grace leading to obedience.

But Sarah gets most of the press here, does she not? She looks at her little baby,

Isaac. Isaac is the Hebrew word for laughter. And she's reminded of the laughter that came from her.

Now, a couple chapters earlier, in chapter 18, you remember

Abraham and Sarah in this place. And God comes down with two angels.

They look like men. They come down. They visit Abraham. And Abraham's getting everything ready to feed them in the sign of hospitality.

And the angel of the Lord says to him, by this time next year, you're gonna have a baby.

And Sarah, remember, is in the tent. And she hears that. And what does she do? She starts laughing.

You know, like, that's gonna happen. I'll be 75.

He'll be a hundred. Come on. And she's laughing. So that's why she names her son

Isaac. Because it means laughter. It means laughter. But now, a play on words here, now the laughter is a laughter of praise and joy and worship.

Everyone will now laugh in joy and praise to God for his faithfulness to his promise.

Give praise to the God who keeps his promises. You can count on God because he keeps his promises.

But not everyone laughs with joy and praise and worship. Three years later,

Abraham's encampment is noisy with the excitement of a festival.

Isaac has been weaned. Now, don't ask me. Don't ask me why that's a big festival.

Maybe you women could tell us why that's a big time of rejoicing. I don't know. But for some reason, this is a time of great rejoicing.

There's going to be a great festival for Isaac, okay?

A great feast celebrating this milestone in Isaac's childhood.

In the midst of the festivities, Sarah catches the sight of Ishmael. Now, remember who

Ishmael is. In chapter 16, you remember Abraham and Sarah in trying to help

God keep his promise. Sarah gives Hagar, her slave woman, to Abraham as a wife so that through her, she would produce an heir.

And God tells him no, no, no. That's not the child of promise.

The child of promise is going to come through Abraham and Sarah. So here's this boy,

Ishmael. Abraham's boy by Hagar. In the midst of the festivities,

Sarah spies out, spies Ishmael laughing. He's now about 16 years old.

He's laughing at Isaac, not in joy, but in mocking. The word here means laughing in a mocking tone or even more.

And so Sarah approaches Abraham and says, you have to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. Cut them loose.

Send them away. Because Ishmael is never going to be the heir with my son. And the surprising thing here is that God supports her decision.

Why? That seems pretty harsh, doesn't it? It's like me coming home one night.

It's like me coming home one night. And Becca is weeping and crying. I say, what's wrong?

And she says, you know what, Levi? Levi has spent the entire day mocking and taunting and tormenting

Annie. It has been awful. And so there's only one thing to do.

There's only one thing to do with this boy. Give him up for adoption. Give him over to the state.

Maybe we ought to just take him to the park and leave him there. Right? I don't care, but we have to get rid of this boy.

Now that would be harsh and cruel, wouldn't it? But what you have happening here goes beyond personal ridicule and mockery.

The word translated laughing is a play on the word for Isaac and laughter again, because in its

Hebrew form, it means to laugh malevolently or maliciously.

It's almost like the 16 year old boy is standing there looking at his little brother and saying,

Eric, yeah, that's what she's seeing.

That's what she's seeing. Danger lurks in the household is what

Sarah sees. Not just irritant, but danger. In fact, you heard it this morning from Galatians chapter four, where the

Apostle Paul writing about this time said this, you heard it, but just as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit.

There's something more going on than just mocking. There's danger.

There's maliciousness. Something is going on, and Sarah recognizes it. But the greater issue is

Ishmael's attitude towards God's promise in the covenant that he made with Abraham.

His derision, his laughter and his scornful feelings are directed against God and his covenant.

God's promise of redemption and blessing are tiled are tied up in that little child of promise.

This is the one through whom all the nations will be blessed. They don't know exactly all that that means, but there's something great that's going to happen through this son.

And Ishmael's attitude is one that says, I don't care about this magnificent grace of God.

That means nothing to me. He sneers at the promise, as opposed to giving thanks for the promise.

And he mocks and ridicules the covenant and treats God with contempt.

That is the issue. That's what's happening. So Sarah's answer is the right one, not the cruel one.

Something has to be done. Now, Abraham, of course, has a real problem with this. Can you see this?

Because Abraham has spent 16 years with this boy. He's gone through joys and trials with this boys, with this with this son of his.

He spent 16 years, what? Probably going hunting with him, probably herding sheep and goats with him, sitting around the campfires at night, telling him stories.

This is Ishmael, his son. He's been with him for these last 16 years.

He doesn't really like the idea. And so God tells him two things. Number one,

I'll look after your son. You don't have to worry about him. I will look after him.

In fact, I will make a great nation of him as well.

I will bless him, and he also will be the progenitor of great nation. But he must renounce his natural desires in order to embrace

God's supernatural promise. You've got to renounce your natural desires and embrace

God's supernatural promise. The blessings for the nations must come through Isaac.

You must understand that. And so Abraham gives Hagar and Ishmael provisions, probably enough provisions where they can get to a place of refuge.

He gives them everything necessary to get them to a place where they can keep going.

Now, once again, you have to see the reliability of God in his promises. He not only keeps that promise of a seed that will bless the nations, but he takes the necessary steps to protect that promise.

See this here. He not only makes the promise, but he does what he does to protect the promise.

Nothing will stand in the way of God fulfilling this great promise through Abraham to mankind, this seed that will bless all the nations, the seed which eventuates in Jesus.

He's going to do what it takes to protect his promise. Nothing will stand in the way. Nothing will endanger that promise.

And let me remind you if if you never read through the book of Genesis, read through it with this this in mind.

It's the story of the seed and God's seeing that the seed keeps going that it will happen.

And notice, you'll see story after story after story of God protecting that seed so that we would be blessed.

Can you can you think this thought for a moment? If God had not done this, maybe we wouldn't be sitting here today.

If Abraham had not done what God told him to do, then maybe we wouldn't be here because the seed would not have been protected.

Now, in all of this, you see, once again, the hatred that God said would exist between the woman's seed and Satan's seed.

Remember in that promise, he said, I'll put enmity between him and the seed, which is

Jesus and all that are connected to him by faith. There is enmity between those two seeds, and you see it here.

There will always be a division between those two seeds. Conflict is inevitable.

Conflict is inevitable. And so as the promise of the seed finds its fulfillment in Jesus, the ultimate seed of Abraham, what happens?

What happens? Well, you see it in Jesus himself. What happens?

He's crucified, right? There is this enmity towards the most perfect, compassionate person who ever walked the face of the planet.

There's hatred toward him. That hatred is inevitable, and you find that those who do not belong to him, who belong to the other seed, will treat you the same way.

Jesus said that since the world hated him, it'll hate us. That's the history of the seeds.

That's the history of the seeds, okay? Those who belong to the serpent will inevitably hate those who belong to the seed, and we will always be in conflict.

We should not be surprised when we say things in this culture and we are maligned for it.

When we say, for example, God did not intend people to change genders, which is, in my view, impossible, and we will be called bigots, haters.

We will be hated for speaking truth. The conflict is inevitable. Remember again what

Paul said, now you brothers like Isaac are children of promise, but just as at that time he was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the

Spirit, so also it is now. So we shouldn't be surprised.

This is a story of the inevitable conflict that happens between the seed of the woman and the seed of the promise.

The child of promise will always attract hatred, derision, and contempt, but it's interesting that the story doesn't end here, right?

You could have Hagar and Ishmael walking off into oblivion, never to be heard again.

We've seen that God's reliable in keeping his promises. What more do we need to know? Well, it's interesting that the story continues, and we hear the story of Ishmael and Hagar.

Let's look at it. Verse 15, when the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a 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'll 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.

Not only can you count on the reliability of God's promises, you can count on the reliability of God's grace.

You can count on the reliability of God's grace. Hagar and the teen head out into the desert, but they do not find a place of refuge.

And so they wander in the desert under the scorching sun, that relentless, scorching desert sun, until all their provisions run out.

And as the mother and the child begin to fail, Hagar is near total exhaustion. She drags her son to the shade of a bush, and then goes off in a distance, because she does not want to see him die.

And so she goes off, knowing that her son's going to die, and knowing that she's going to die.

And both of them weep as they lay in their respective spots. But God hears them.

God's paying attention, and God rescues her. She hears a voice from heaven telling her that God has heard the pitiful voice of her son, and that she should not fear.

God still intends to keep the promise he had made to her and to Abraham.

And God says that he's going to make a great nation of him.

Verse 13, you see that. Chapter 16, you see that. God has made a promise. So get the boy.

And as she does, he opens her eyes to see that there is a well there.

And so they're rescued by the water from that well. And from that point on, God is with that boy in blessing.

He's with that boy in blessing and gives him a good life. Certainly he lives in the wilderness.

He's cut off from the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, which promises land and inheritance and a seed, a seed of blessing.

But he gives him a good life. He gets a wife. He gains necessary skills.

Now here's what we need to see. Here is grace to those outside the promise.

Grace to those outside the promise. Ishmael, because of his contempt for God's covenant and God's promise, deserves to die.

But God doesn't let him die. God extends grace and kindness to him.

God extends grace and kindness even to his enemies.

Look over at Matthew 5 for a moment. This is Jesus speaking.

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 43.

You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your

Father who is in heaven. What does he mean? Because, why? For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good.

He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the

Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. In what way?

In loving your enemies. Why? Because that is what God does every single day to people who spit in his face every single day.

What does he do? He lavishes them with everything good. He did that with Ishmael.

He not only rescues Ishmael from death, but he stays with him in blessing. He gives him a good life.

He gives him tremendous prosperity and he gives them a numberless descendants.

This is to one of his enemies. This is God's common grace.

What is God's common grace? It's not his saving grace. It's just his unmerited kindness to people who hate him, to people who treat him with contempt.

He showers them with good things. You see, you ever look at your unbelieving friends and neighbors and co -workers?

Yes, you look at them and you see, man, so much of their life is so horrible because they refuse to bow the knee to Jesus.

How much better would their life be? And yet when you look at them, they enjoy a lot of stuff, do they not?

They have their children. They enjoy children. They have grandchildren. They love their grandchildren.

They have food to eat. They have beauty all around them.

God just blessed them with good things. That is the kindness of God and you can count on the reliability of God's grace, of God's kindness.

You can count on that. Well, the war of the seeds continues to this very day, but in the midst of that inevitable conflict,

God keeps his promise of protecting his seed, which includes us. He keeps his promise of protecting you and he will fulfill his purposes through the promised seed of Jesus and all those related to him by faith.

You can count on the reliability of his promises. But as with Ishmael, he extends grace, he extends kindness to many who turn away from him and that kindness is intended to draw you to the one who can save you.

His kindness is intended to draw you to Jesus. I don't know all of you here today.

I don't know your hearts, I should say. I don't know your hearts. Where's your heart when it comes to the

Lord Jesus? Have you bowed the knee to him? Have you cried out to him, asking him to rescue you from God's very own judgment, to give you the life that only he can give?

Look at how God has blessed you. Look at all the good things that you have.

With that in mind, do you think God will withhold any good thing if you say, I'm going to follow

Jesus, even if it means I'm going to be hated, even if it means horrible things may happen because of my allegiance to Jesus?

Do you think with what you have now, he will withhold any good thing from you? So I say to you, those who here who have never come to Christ, who have never said,

I know I'm a sinner, I need a Savior, I cast my lot with Jesus, right?

He's calling to you, he's giving you good things. You keep that in mind and draw close to him and embrace him in faith.

We can count on God's reliability in his promises and in his grace.

Let's thank him for that. Father, thank you for your marvelous grace to us in the promised seed of Jesus.

We are grateful for that. He is our only hope and you bring blessing to us as we embrace him in faith.

We thank you for the reliability of your grace. First of all, to all men, you are kind to all, unbelievably, abundantly, overwhelmingly kind to those who even hate you.

And Father, we can thank you for the reliability of your saving grace that reaches us, shows us

Jesus, converts us, and gives us life. I pray for those today here who have never embraced

Jesus in faith. I pray that you would cause them to look at all the good things you have given them and to realize that there's even better in Jesus.

Thank you for your promises. Thank you for your grace. We offer this to you in Jesus name.