“The Birth of A Promise”
Genesis 21:1-23
It took God twenty-five years to shape that man to whom He could entrust Isaac. After twenty-five years, in the fullness of God’s time, God gave Abraham and Sarah the promised son. God is never late!!
I. THE COMPLETION OF A OF A PROMISE
21:1-7
“And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. (2) For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. (3) And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac. (4) Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. (5) Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. (6) And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.” (7) She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”
This miracle would be the source of joyful reflection and discussion for years to come. Sarah and Abraham name their son, Isaac, which means laughter. At first Sarah laughed in derision at the suggestion that she would give birth to a son, after the normal years of childbearing are so far gone. But now she says, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.” She is laughing in joy at the fulfillment of God’s promise. Laughing in joy because of the goodness of God.
The joy that Sarah experienced is really the kind of joy that you and I as Christians should also be experiencing. Tony Campolo expresses it well when he writes, “Joy in Christ requires a commitment to working at the Christian lifestyle. Salvation comes as a gif, but the joy of salvation demands disciplined action. Most Christians I know have just enough of the Gospel to make them miserable, but not enough to make them joyful. They know enough about the biblical message to keep them form doing the things which the world tempts them to do; but they do not have enough of a commitment to God to do those things through which they might experience the fullness of his joy.” (Tony Campolo. Seven Deadly Sins. p. 21)
Sarah’s reason for this joyful laughter is not just the birth of her son, but joy at all that she has learned about God. Let’s examine the lessons to be learned from it.
A. SHE LEARNED THAT GOD IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL TO
HIS PROMISES
Three phrases in verses one and two, “as He had said,” “as He had spoken,” and and “which God had spoken” pinpoint the theme of promise and fulfillment. God had performed that which He had promised. Three times the passage points out that these things happened as the Lord has promised.
B. SHE LEARNED THAT GOD IS SO POWERFUL THAT
NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR HIM.
You will remember that when Sarah was told in Genesis 18 that she was to bear a son, she responded with laughter. The angelic visitor responded to Sarah’s laughter with the question, “Is there anything to hard for God?” (v. 14). “Too hard” means not only too difficult but also too extraordinary or too marvelous.
At least part of what Sarah learned concerning the power of God was that we are never too old to do a new thing for God. Moses was eighty years old when he began to lead the people out of Egypt. Abraham would live another seventy five years after the birth of Isaac and he would later father six more sons. As the insert in your bulletin says, “The world seems to worship youth and is terrified of aging. But there was a time when getting older was associated with wisdom and experience. In fact, some of the greatest accomplishments in history came from people who were further along in life.” Dr. James Dobson. Family Bulletin. Vol.13, no 12. Focus on the Family)
Even if you are retirement age, God may well have important work ahead for you to do. The facts are that those in the retirement years have more free time and more disposable income than any other group. The notion that you should be winding down your life at 55 or 60 years of age is crazy.
C. SHE LEARNED THAT GOD DOES NOT HURRY BUT
NEITHER IS HE EVER LATE!
The hardest lesson that many of us to face in life is the what seems to be delays in God’s answers to our prayers. We not only have a need, we have a time schedule by which we would like those needs met. When we become so frustrated that we attempt to help God achieve what we have ask for, we are demonstrating doubt either about God’s ability or his timing. As Abraham’s actions have taught us anytime we attempt to do God’s work through human effort, there is disaster. The consequences of our sins do not simply go away they have to be dealt with.
II. THE CONFLICT BECAUSE OF PAST SIN
21:8-21
If the birth of Isaac meant the fulfillment of God’s promise, it also meant conflict for Ishmael, son of slave girl Hagar. The incident that led to the separation of Hagar and her son from the household of Abraham was the feast given when Isaac was weaned. Isaac would have been about 3 or 4 years of age at this point and his brother Ishmael was in his early teens (somewhere between the ages of 13 and 15).
“So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.(9)And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.” (vv. 8-9)
The text only tells us that Ishmael “scoffed or laughed” at his brother. But Galatians 4:29 which is a New Testament commentary on this passage says that he “persecuted him.” I believe that the attachment of Abraham to Ishmael was so great that a crisis had to be reached before he was willing to come to grips with the situation. It may be that Abraham had his own plans for Ishmael, and that he saw him as a backup plan in case something happened to Isaac. This God would never allow.
“This raises some interesting personal questions. If you have served God for any length of time, you know that God has sometimes led you into situations like this. He requires separations, things you have to turn you back on – friends, occupations, pastimes, whatever it may be – and when you are in the midst of the struggle you look at these things and say, “What is wrong with them? Aren’t they all right.” [James Montgomery Boice. Genesis: An Expositional Commentary. Vol 2 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985) p. 202]
It certainty seem to be the case here that Abraham must choose, God’s best or second best. This separation may have been a preliminary for the supreme test he would soon face.
“Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.” (11) And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. (12) But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. (13) Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.” (vv. 10-13)
Abraham faces the issue that Hagar and Ishmael must be sent out. Not all of the decisions in life will be easy ones. Sometime doing right will be hard, especially if it dealing with the consequences of something we have done wrong!
“So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. (15) And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. (16) Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.” (vv. 14-16)
Eventually however the provisions that Abraham had provided ran out. Not wanting to see her son die, Hagar left Ishmael some distance from her under whatever shade was available.
“And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. (18) Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.” (19) Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. (20) So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. (21) He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.” (vv. 17-21)
I think that it is interesting that it says that God heard “his voice.” As a son of Abraham he too had the promise of divine protection. The text says that, “God opened her eyes.”
The solution to Hagar’s problem was already present. Through her tears she could not see what God had already provided. God then enabled her to see things as they really were, not as she thought they were and she and the boy were refreshed and revived. I would if that is not also true of us.
God’s answer to our problem is often the solution which has been there all along, but our anxiety and worry has kept us from seeing it.
C. THE CONFLICT BECAUSE OF PAST
DECEPTIONS 21:22-23
“And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. (23) Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.” (NKJV)
Abraham deception was rebuked in the words of the king. How would you feel if a king or even his minister flattered you by acknowledging that God was with you in a very special way and then made you promise not to lie to him any more? Ablimelech apparently respected Abraham’s God more than he did Abraham’s credibility.
Conclusion
God had taken at least thirty-five to forty years to bring Abraham to this point in his life before Him. The Final Test of the kind of faith that God was looking for, to be the pattern of faith for all time, was ready to be undertaken.
