Genesis Lesson 43 April 7, 2002
Read Genesis 21:1-21
Illustration: Elisabeth Elliot, whose first husband, Jim Elliot, was one of the five missionaries killed by the Auca Indians in 1956, and whose second husband died of cancer, tells of visiting a shepherd in the mountains of North Wales. One by one, he would grab the rams by their horns and fling them into a tank of antiseptic. They would struggle to climb out, but the sheep dog would snarl in their faces to force them back in. Just as they were about to climb up the ramp, the shepherd would catch them by the horns with a wooden implement, spin them around, and force them under again, holding them completely under for a few seconds. The sheep didn’t have a clue about what was happening.
Source: THE JOY AND PAIN OF A LIFE OF FAITH
Genesis 21:1-21 By Steven J. Cole, November 3, 1996, Copyright, 1996
Mrs. Elliot observes, "I’ve had some experiences in my life that have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor rams--I couldn’t figure out any reason for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted. And He didn’t give me a hint of explanation."
Source: (World Vision, 4/77.)
She found out something that all of us have learned by experience. The Christian life of faith and obedience to God is not always or even usually easy. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, doubt and unbelief get into our hearts when we wait and wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled, but we fail to see results. We pray consistently and we believe to the best of our abilities but trusting God becomes a real challenge because of the long delays in experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promises.
Another reason it is sometimes difficult to maintain a life of faith and obedience is because God often directs our lives in ways that make no sense to us. He may tell us to do things that seem detrimental to our own lives and through His sovereignty he often chooses to guide our lives in mysterious ways. Even though we are often confused and ask "Why?” God rarely decides to explain to us what he is doing or why he is directing us the way he is.
Certainly Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael could relate to this confusion about God’s ways and the difficulties in trusting and obeying him. This story is important for many reasons and I will discuss the different reasons in today’s message. The one thing I will you to understand very clearly from this story can be summarized in the following sentence.
Summary Sentence: You should trust and obey God because He is faithful to His word, even though He often works in unexpected in unexplainable ways
In other words you should trust and obey God in every type of circumstance even though you may not understand what God is doing or why he is doing it or even when he will fulfill his promises to you.
Read verses 1,2
That text tells us that the "Lord was gracious to Sarah." That word "gracious" can also be translated as "visited", as it is in the King James Version. The word means to experience divine intervention in order for God to accomplish his will and in this case refers to the supernatural birth of a child to 90 year old Sarah. The text strongly emphasizes that God does and did fulfill his word with phrases like, "as he said", "did what he promised", and "at the very time God promised."
Finally, after 25 years of waiting and wondering, God fulfilled his word - his promise to them. What took so long? Why the heart wrenching delays? Certainly these questions would have been on Abraham and Sarah minds but God does not tell them why. We can see and understand in hindsight some of the reasons for God’s delay but they knew nothing. The important thing to remember is that God’s word and promises are reliable.
Summary Sentence: You should trust and obey God because He is faithful to His word, even though He often works in unexpected in unexplainable ways
Sometimes in your faith walk you, like all the saints, are going to experience the same kind of confusing divine postponement as you pray and look for the fulfillment of God promises. It may be a long delay in the salvation of a loved one. It may be your prayer for the healing of your body that goes unanswered despite your faith and obedience. It may be in seeking God’s provision for your needs but seeing no answers on the horizons, or it may be in some other area of your life. There will come a time when God does not work when or how you expect him to. God does not explain himself to us and he does not work on our timetable. Yet you can be sure of this, God’s word is reliable and he will accomplish his promises. It may not be immediately but will be ultimately.
Summary Sentence: You should trust and obey God because He is faithful to His word, even though He often works in unexpected in unexplainable ways
Got had his reasons for working this way even though Abraham and Sarah could not begin to see them at this point. We ourselves do not know all of God’s reasons for waiting 25 years to fulfill this promise but we do know one reason. Isaac was a type of Christ and a type of salvation. This means his birth and life and elements about them that were figurative. The delay was necessary in order that the birth of Isaac would accurately represent the birth of Jesus and the supernatural element of salvation.
Examples of ways that Isaac’s birth was a type of Christ: He was the promised seed. He came after a long delay. His birth was a supernatural work of God.
Examples of ways that Isaac’s birth was a type of salvation: His birth was a supernatural act of God and not the result of human effort like Ishmael’s birth. Isaac was born of a free woman and Ishmael was born of a slave woman.
Read Galatians 4:21-26, 28-31 and briefly comment.
We must understand that God will never accept the work of men’s hands. This was demonstrated in the Garden when God rejected the fig leaves covering. It was demonstrated in the sacrificial system which was based on the sacrifice of an innocent animal, not human works. It is demonstrated in the rejection of Ishmael who was the result of man’s work and the acceptance of Isaac who was born by the power of God.
So we see that God does having his reasons for what he does even though they are sometimes hidden from us.
Read verses 3-7
Even though we are mostly focused on God’s faithfulness to his word, we should not overlook Abraham’s obedience to God’s word as an example to us. In earlier chapters we read how God instructed Abraham to name the promised child Isaac and have God instructed Abraham to circumcise every male born into his household on the eighth day. (Genesis 17:12) Abraham did not consider himself or his son an exception to the rule and he did not make excuses but rather he completely and promptly obeyed God’s word. As it says in verse 4 Abraham obeyed "as God commanded him."
Abraham recognized God’s right to direct every area of his life, including the naming and raising of his children. Abraham obeyed and everything whether large matters like being willing to sacrifice Isaac or seemingly small matters like naming a child. This is an example to us. We are to obey God in every detail of our lives whether we understand the reasons for God’s direction or not.
Read verses 6, 7
There may the long times of confusing delay as you wait on God’s divine intervention in your life, but when he does act he brings joy to your life and praise to himself as we see in these two verses. Think back to when Abraham and Sarah did not wait on God but chose to intervene themselves and help God out by impregnating Hagar. Sarah got what she thought she wanted when Hagar conceived but she experienced sorrow rather than joy, trouble rather than triumph. This is a word of exhortation to all those who may be tempted to grow inpatient and through distrust not wait on God to act. For example in trying to get a lost husband saved you may resort to pressure instead of waiting on God. Or in your need for financial provision or blessing you may resort to human methods. Maybe you desire to grow your ministry and therefore resort to worldly methods. In all these examples you may get what you want and which you never had.
It seems best to wait on God so that we experience true joy and so they he is praised because when God does the work it will be in such a way that everyone will have to acknowledge that what we have is from God. As Sarah said, "who would have said (expected) that Sarah would nurse children?" Only God could account for this and therefore he received all the praise.
Read verses 8-10
Isaac grew and sometime between the ages of three in five years old he was weaned off Sarah’s breast milk. This was an important and joyous occasion because a child that reached this age was far more likely to survive to adulthood. In most ancient cultures and in third world countries today the infant mortality rate is high. So the family celebrates this event with a great feast but there was trouble brewing just under the surface of this family celebration.
Ishmael, who by now was a young man between sixteen and eighteen years old, would not have seen this as a reason to celebrate because Isaac’s survival meant that he would not receive Abraham fortune or God’s covenant blessings. So Ishmael begins to "mock"- i.e. persecute (Galatians 4:29) Isaac and Sarah rightfully sees this as more than childish play. She understands that as long as Ishmael is around he will be a threat to Isaac’s inheriting God’s promise and blessing, so she says to Abraham "get rid of that slave woman."
Now there is a lesson for us in this response. Anything in our lives that interferes with receiving God’s best should be gotten rid of, if a can be done so in a biblically permissible way. If a friendship or other relationship is interfering or is likely to interfere with your relationship with God you need to get rid of it. If your job or career choice is interfering with a walk of holiness and faith you need to get rid of that. You do not take a risk on receiving God’s blessings! Now back to our main point.
Summary Sentence: You should trust and obey God because He is faithful to His word, even though He often works in unexpected in unexplainable ways
In the next few verses you will see God working in ways that do not seem fair or explainable to us but you will also see that God is faithful to his word.
Read verses 11-13
"The matter distressed Abraham" understandably. Abraham loved his son Ishmael and certainly he did not want to kick him out of the family. Sometimes it is very difficult and painful to obey God! Great sacrifices sometimes have to be made, although it should be noted that this sacrifice was a result of Abraham earlier distrust and disobedience.
God tells Abraham "listen to whatever Sarah tells you." Hey, sometimes wives can be right. Abraham is to send Hagar and Ishmael away but God in verse thirteen promises Abraham that he will take care of and bless Ishmael, so this is not an unloving act although it is a necessary one. It is important to realize that Abraham could not understand how God will provide for Ishmael in the desert or how come Ishmael cannot stay with the family to begin with. This is a challenge we all face as people of God. We all are called to obey and trust what we do not understand why or how God is going to work.
Summary Sentence: You should trust and obey God because He is faithful to His word, even though He often works in unexpected in unexplainable ways
Read verses 14-21
Here we see the fulfillment of God faithfulness to his word. He did not abandon Hagar and Ishmael even though they were not the ones who would inherit God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants. The promise to Abraham and his descendents through Isaac are unique and included the land of Israel and the promise of being a blessing to the nations. Nevertheless God still cared for Hagar and Ishmael and therefore he heard their cries, met their needs, and provided for them. He does the same for the Arabic people today who are the descendants of Ishmael, even though the land of Israel belongs to the descendants of Isaac (Jews). God watched over this boy who grew up, prospered, and was married.
God fulfills his word to Abraham and the word he gave to Hagar earlier but he does so in an environment and setting that no one would have expected. God’s blessings often come at times and in ways we would never choose or expect. His ways can confound us but we are still to trust in him because he is trustworthy.
Summary Sentence: You should trust and obey God because He is faithful to His word, even though He often works in unexpected in unexplainable ways
Illustration: Dave Dravecky, a one-time major league baseball player (some of you might remember that name, he is very open about his faith, a wonderful Christian man), developed cancer in the soft tissue of his arm and had to have it amputated. Of course, he had to give up his career in baseball. He learned a lot about suffering, and said, "Looking back, my wife Jan and I have learned that the wilderness is part of the landscape of faith and is every bit as essential as the mountaintop. On the mountaintop we are overwhelmed by God’s presence. In the wilderness we are overwhelmed by his absence. Both places should bring us to our knees -- the one in utter awe, the other in utter dependence."
Source: http://www.bridgewood.org/Sermons/sf_sermon_past_mistakes.htm
Closing prayer
