Mysterious Mercy

An old hymn I love says, “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform He plants his footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm.” I thought about that hymn as I looked at our text for today in Genesis 21. There is a mystery about this text, which is not easy to explain.

In our recent sermons, we have been looking at Abraham. You will recall how God called him to go to Canaan, a land he had never seen. You will recall how God told Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation and that he and Sarah would bear a child in their old age. But in our last sermon we find Abraham and Sarah questioning God about his ability to permit Sarah to bear a child in her old age. God comes back and says, is there anything too hard for God? You may remember that Sarah had told Abraham to have relations with her servant girl named Hagar, and Hagar bore Abraham a son by the name of Ishmael. They thought they were helping God out.

How many times do we think God is too slow? So we go on our own strength trying to do what only God can do. I’ve been there and maybe you have too. But we can’t hurry God up. We have to wait on God. God works by his own time table. We may think he is late, but he is always on time. You had better wait on God. Somebody say, Wait on God.

Nevertheless, Sarah in fact did have a son in her old age. The son’s name was Isaac. In the earlier part of Chapter 21, Abraham and Sarah are celebrating the birth of their son Isaac. That brings us to our text for today. They are all living in the same household which includes Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, the servant girl Hagar and her son by Abraham, Ishmael. But there is tension in the household. There is bad feeling between Sarah and Hagar. Sarah is jealous of Hagar because she had a child and Sarah was unable to have one until Isaac was born. In those days a woman almost felt cursed if she did not bear a child. There had been bad feelings between Sarah and Hagar before. When Hagar found out she was pregnant she ridiculed Sarah because she did not have a child. Sarah became so angry with Hagar that she kicked her out of the house even though she was pregnant. Abraham permitted her to do this even though Hagar was pregnant with his child. But God intervened and told Hagar to go back to the house. Therefore, there was a history of bad feelings between the two.

Now this brings us to our text tor today. Some commentators have said that this is a very difficult text because there are some things here that are hard to understand. But let us see how the story unfolds. One day Sarah sees Ishmael and Isaac together. Ishmael must be about 10 or 12 years old. Isaac is a small boy. Gen 21:9 says that Sarah saw the son of Hagar mocking. He evidently was mocking Isaac his half-brother. Now the Hebrew word for mocking can mean playing, mocking, making sport of. There is a difference of opinion as to what the word means here. Translations translate the word differently. Was Ishmael just playing with his half-brother as brothers do? Or was he making fun of Isaac or teasing him, laughing at him. We don’t really know. But anyway when Sarah saw Ismael and Isaac together all of her hatred, jealousy, and anger against Hagar come to the surface. She told Abraham that she would not have that servant be heir with her son Isaac. According to the law, Ishmael and Isaac could be co-heirs of what Abraham possessed. This would also include the promise that Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation. She was determined that that boy not be on an equal footing with her son.

We can imagine her coming to Abraham and saying, “That woman and that son of yours have to get out of my house. I never did like her. I can’t stand her anyone. I wanted to get rid of her before. I want her and that boy out of here right away.” I suppose we can understand Sarah’s jealousy. But the thing about it was that Sarah was responsible for Abraham having a child by Hagar. It wasn’t Abraham’s fault. He was true to his wife. It was Sarah’s idea. Hagar was wrong when she ridiculed Sarah because she could not bear a son. But two wrongs never made a right. But Sarah was wrong at being jealous of Hagar because Hagar’s son was Abraham’s son. Didn’t she realize that Abraham loved his son? But poor Abraham is in the middle of the mess. Both Isaac and Ishmael are his sons. He loves both of them equally. They are part of his flesh.