A promise Fulfilled
Genesis 21 · Vern Peterman · Aug 10, 2008
Genesis, No. 31
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492619195854

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be stepping into the passage that Courtney started off for us here. And here in Genesis chapter 21, we'll be proceeding chapter by chapter through the rest of the month here. And this particular chapter, as we've seen as a pattern among some of them, has three parts.

And I'll describe it as three completions here. And in view of the Olympics, we'll show it that way. Three completions. And the way this will work here is this. Each of these parts is really the completion of something that had begun either in a prior chapter or in some cases several prior chapters. And it's sort of a wrap-up chapter from that standpoint in that it brings some conclusion or resolution to those three different areas.

Let's step our way through them. One is the birth of Isaac as God has promised. This started off back in Genesis chapter 12 and now we see it actually concluded here in the first eight or so verses. The next one is the sending away of Hagar and Ishmael and that's the middle part of chapter 21 and a covenant made between Abraham and Abimelech.

Abimelech is you may recall was in chapter 20. He was the one that Abraham had created a problem with by telling Sarah, now you tell him, you tell Abimelech and anybody that follows him that you're my sister. And so Abraham and Abimelech have a pretty shaky start. Abimelech, frankly, just really gets scared by what the Lord tells him and does. And it seems like Abimelech is still a little bit concerned, is this guy going to tell me the truth? And so we see him come with his general and say, hey, let's have you swear and get this thing settled. We don't want to have any hiccups on this. Although I don't think they're worried about hiccups. Okay. Each of these three events is not only a completion and a wrap-up, but also the start of something else, as we'll see as we go through the book of Genesis.

Now, there's something, no, there's a couple of things at least wrong with this picture. Can you identify them? I'll give you a second or two to work on that one. Well, let's see. That's not coffee she's carrying on her shoulder. The problem is that, as we'll see in the account, that it's a skin, that is they've taken animal skin and make that into a bag for carrying water and not a pot that she should have with her. And the secondly is this little kid Ishmael, and by the way, I cut it off on the bottom because he didn't have any clothes on, but that kid is actually about 14 years old and that's a little bit young and he probably had some clothes on, not naked. Anyway, that's what's wrong with the picture.

Let's go on to the next part. As you'll see on page one of your handout here, Isaac had been promised by God that this fulfillment would come about with increasing clarity. Initially there was the implication, and then eventually it came to telling him, here's the time and here's the name. And no, it's not through that one, it's through Sarah.

First he tells them in Genesis 12-2a, I will make you a great nation. That is, you will indeed have descendants to the point that a great number of people will come from you. Farther on in that same chapter, verse 7, reference to your descendants. You will have descendants. Next one in chapter 15, one which will come forth from your own body, not just some sort of a substitute heir like the servant, Eleazar, but actually one who will be descended from you.

The next one here, Sarah your wife will bear a son. So it's you and Sarah will have a son. That clear. You shall name him Isaac. And then finally, in chapter 18, at this time next year, so He actually gives them a time frame, Sarah will have a son. Now, as we look at this, the chapter tells us Sarah conceived and bore a son, as God had said at the very time God had said. Now, both Sarah and Abraham thought the time was way, way too late. But it was perfect by God's timing. Ever have that experience? Abraham named his son Isaac just as God had told him. Now, what they were discovering here is that yes, God is faithful. Isn't that amazing? Yes, God is faithful. Well, what do you know? He actually did give us a son. What do you know?

This is astounding. And it was from Sarah. Who would have thought? And then, in faith, and this may not seem like much of an act of faith, in faith, Abraham named the son Isaac. What a surprise, right? Now, the name Isaac means laughter. Okay? Just so you know. The name Isaac means laughter. And that's actually not incidental. That's significant.

On hearing that they would become parents, and the laughter comes independently for Abraham and for Sarah, each of them took turns laughing, because they are recorded as laughing at different events and different times in Genesis 17 and 18, as you have on the slide and on your handout here. They each took turns laughing at this news that at Sarah's time beyond the normal childbearing years, and here at Abraham approaching 100, that they would have this child between the two of them. As a matter of fact, I went through the passage and just kind of took the places where there was laughter, either in a name, or directly stated. And so here we have in verse 3, Isaac's name, laughter, okay?

Repeated again in verse 4. In verse 5. And then Sarah said in verse 6, God has made laughter for me. Okay? Here is the word laughter again. Everyone who hears will laugh with me. And then further on, Sarah saw the name Isaac again in verse 8. Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, mocking. That's also laughter. It's only the context that tells you it's mocking. And then finally, the repetition of the name Isaac. There are multiple instances here. of laughter in this passage. And I can't imagine the rabbis reading this with a straight face.

Anyway, Isaac was circumcised at eight days, just as the Lord had told Abraham to do back in Genesis 17. And Ishmael was not, however, circumcised at eight days because he was already born. And so he was circumcised just to kind of catch up with things. And so you can imagine the incidents here. This is actually the first time in Abraham's family that they had done the eight-day circumcision.

You have on page one of your handout a chart that we've made use of, but we want to point out something specific here. At age 100 for Abraham, Isaac is indeed born. And that's what's recorded here in these first half dozen and a few more verses of Genesis chapter 21. In verses 6 and 7, I ordinarily don't put all the verses up on the front, but here I thought it would be interesting to put it up there particularly.

As you look at this, not only is the aspect of laughter stated here and mentioned particularly, but the other thing that you see is Who does Sarah give credit for this birth? I mean, after all, she was the one that laughed, and I think with some degree of skepticism.

Here, she gives the Lord full credit for this birth. God has made laughter for me. She gives the Lord credit for this. And then in verse 7, She says that there was a surprise that she would bear a son and nurse a child, and yet that is exactly what God had been telling them all along. She's laughing in surprise, and the Lord had been telling them all along, why was it a surprise? Because she had been skeptical all the way along. The Lord had made it increasingly and abundantly clear. And yet now, what do you know? means what he says, right? Now, what's astounding here in verse 8, Abraham threw a weaning party. Now, how many of you have thrown a weaning party for your kids? I haven't seen that. I don't know. If you run across any weaning party invitations, show them to me. I'd be interested in seeing them. All right.

Now, we get to laughter of a different kind. We've kind of alluded to it in an earlier slide here. the mocking that Ishmael begins here. Sarah is laughing and Sarah is talking about the laughter and talking about others laughing with her, but this turns a corner. Here's Ishmael laughing at Isaac particularly. I'm not sure what he said. I cannot imagine aside from not knowing exactly what he said. You get the idea, though, that Sarah is not liking this. Okay? She's not liking this at all.

Ishmael isn't named in this account. And here's what's interesting. After the time that Ishmael is circumcised, his name is not mentioned again in the book of Genesis until Abraham's death. And not in this account. Ishmael is not even named. He's referred to instead as the son of this maid or the son of the maid. That's all he gets.

Ishmael's mocking of Isaac really created a problem. Not only did Sarah not like it, but it also stirred up other issues. It would in fact not gain him anything. Instead, that mocking would draw attention to the fact that, hey, this Ishmael guy being around is a problem now. Because we came up with the scheme before, now we've got somebody who would threaten Isaac as an heir. And so we've got to get him out of the picture.

Sarah now sees the problem that's been created. Remember, she at once treated Hagar badly. Now, she's wanting to treat Hagar and Ishmael badly and get them out of there. Her scheme had birthed a problem. She told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Get them out of here.

Of course, Abraham's wondering, is this a good idea? Is this the right thing to do? At one point, Abraham had even presented that Ishmael was the promised child. So here's what happens. According to the ancient laws, if Abraham would send Ishmael away, Ishmael would not be the heir and Isaac would be then the sole heir. So God assured Abraham at this point that this action would be okay. He was wondering, is this the right thing to do? Ishmael, the Lord told him, would have a future and he would become a nation. Don't worry. Go ahead. I'll take care of it." So, Abraham gets up early. I'm not sure why he got up early. It may be he couldn't sleep. It may be he said, well, we've got to get this thing done.

Whatever, he got up early and he sent off Hagar and Ishmael with some bread and this skin of water, not the pot like it shows, They would take a sheep or a goat and they would kind of take the skin and sew up all the holes. So you'd have just one place to put in the water and they'd fill it up and use that for carrying water. So some bread and the skin of water. That's not going to last very long out in a hot desert like that. And this action put them out of Abraham's household and put Ishmael out of lineage as the heir. So here is Hagar and Ishmael. They are out in a desert area.

The bread and the water supply, as you would well imagine, get exhausted. Matter of fact, if you eat the bread, I can't imagine, but you're going to want to do anything but drink some water along with it. And out there in a place like that, the water goes quickly.

Finally, she expected that she was going to die. And she said, I don't want to watch my son die. And she wept. Well, at that time the Lord appeared to her, and as you may recall, back at the time when she was first sent out into the desert, the Lord appeared to her then. God assured her that her son would have a future. No, he's not going to die. He'll be okay. He'll be alright. God was with the lad, is what the Bible says.

Isn't this interesting? God was with the lad, but wait a minute, wasn't this the lad that was a problem? Wasn't this the one that was mocking? Wasn't this the one that was a result of human schemes and inventions? God was with the lad, is what it says there. What's interesting is, I find nowhere else in Genesis where it says God is with somebody. The closest to it is four times in chapter 39, it says the Lord was with Joseph, or similar kinds of things. The Lord was with him. And so we'll get to that eventually. But very interesting, what does it mean to have the Lord with you? It means where people would say, good luck. It isn't luck. Okay? It isn't luck. It's the Lord's deliberate favor. The Lord's deliberate intervention on someone's behalf. Here is a satellite map of Israel and the surrounding region. It's one we looked at last week.

The one thing that we'll point out that we've added to it is here's the area of Paran, sometimes called the wilderness of Paran. And it include this city of Kedesh that you see marked on the map as well. So it was a fairly large area there on the kind of Northeastern Sinai. Here's a larger map and I think it probably would have frightened Abraham and Ishmael and anyone to see it from this elevation. So here's the Dead Sea that we've taken note of in earlier chapters. Here's the Sinai Peninsula.

And by the way, I had a friend who was stationed there in the military not too many years ago. It was a kind of a peacekeeping action. And so he was stationed there and he said it was quite a time there. He says regularly got 130 in the shade. But he says you get used to it. I don't know how. I'm not sure I would.

And here's the wilderness of Paran or sometimes just called Paran. And that region that he's located in. And here is Egypt. What you see in the green area is the Nile which is that ribbon of green. And then the right by the Mediterranean, the Nile Delta. So that's Egypt. That, by the way, is where Hagar is from. So for Hagar, that's home turf. Just to give you an idea what kind of country it is, this is a more fertile area in the wilderness of Paran.

And by the way, what you see there is with the trees, if you look carefully, there's a village there. Okay? You notice that? All right. Now, just to show you that it is possible for something to live there, this area in here actually has some sheep trails in it. Okay? So amazingly, people do eke out an existence there. This is where Ishmael started off and where Hagar was with him. It's also the place where very likely Hagar found a wife, an Egyptian wife, because that was her background, right? An Egyptian wife for Ishmael.

There are maps, last I checked anyway, maps that are out on the cabinet to the right. I think a few more of those are available if you didn't get one last week and would like one. Kind of give you an idea where some of these different places are that we're talking about when we go through the book of Genesis. Now, moving on to Abraham and Abimelech. Remember, this is part three. This is the third part. Abimelech, as you recall from chapter 20, was one that basically Abraham and Sarah had together tricked him.

And Abimelech got a message from the Lord that was so clear that I think it frankly scared him. And so when he saw, okay, Abraham's there, he's living nearby, you can imagine him thinking, I do not want Abraham to trick me ever again because that was scary. I don't ever want that to happen again. So Abimelech with his general comes up and approaches him. Quite a past, and so Abimelech didn't want to continue the problems. He didn't want any similar incidents like what had happened before. No wakings in the night with the Lord telling him, you know, you need to do this and this or you're going to die and the rest of your kingdom.

Okay? No more of that. I'd probably feel the same way. Abimelech came with his general, Phicol, and so that also tells you that he didn't just show up and say, hey, Abraham, old buddy, old boy. Okay? But he said he comes up with the general, make sure everything was okay. You know, we're all right.

You're going to tell me the truth. You know, everything's fine, right? And Abraham swore then that there would be no more falsehood. I will tell you the truth. There's no problem between us. But Abraham said we have a bit of a problem. I lost the well here. We've got this well problem. And so that's where we get on here. Well, well, well. Okay. This, by the way, according to tradition, is Abraham's well, is the well that was constructed there. I don't know that there's any way to confirm that, but there it is, and it seems to be in the right place.

Nothing in the way of evidence against it that I'm aware of. Abraham gave sheep and oxen to Abimelech. Which sounds, if you read the story back in Genesis 20, like he just gave the animals back that Abimelech had given to him. And maybe that was sort of a comfort to Abimelech. Yeah, yeah, I don't want to take anything from you. I'll tell you the truth. Just leave me alone. Abraham also gave Abimelech seven new lambs. And the lambs were basically a witness, a testimony. that Abraham had indeed dug this well, and that that was his, and that that was the place he was going to settle. And that was a place called, and it's often called Beersheba, and it has nothing to do with beer. But the Hebrew word that's be'er, with an apostrophe, means well. And so it's likely that this word here means well of the oath. he planted a tamarisk tree. And so this is what you see in the picture there is a tamarisk tree next to a well.

It's a reconstruction. It's not likely Abraham's well, but it's one reconstructed in Beersheba. Here you have a map that we showed you previously and last week as well. And it's Beersheba or Be'er Sheba. As we see right here. This is a place where Abraham settled for quite some time as the account tells us. Now here's Beersheba.

There's been quite a bit of excavation. So we see some of the excavation close up. There's another area that shows the mound or tell where the excavation has been done. And then of course off in the corner the well that's been marked off as Abraham's well.

Something else that happens here is in this account here in 2133, Abraham calls God the everlasting God or the God of eternity and that's El Olam. And there is this supplement also available just on the cabinet to the right that has the names of God throughout the Bible and where they're located. And you may want to take advantage of that. So feel free to do so. It includes this El Olam, or the everlasting God, as we see here in this passage.

Let's think for a minute about what Abraham and Sarah did on their own that brought them up to this point. And the doing things on their own started back in chapter 12. They told the ruler, and in the first case it was Pharaoh, and in the last case it was Abimelech, that Sarah was just Abraham's sister. Matter of fact, in chapter 20, Abraham discloses that that was his strategy That was his strategy since he left Haran. He says, when I go out here into these places, I'm just going to tell them that she's my sister and that way I'll keep out of trouble. That's all he thought.

They came up with a scheme also, since Sarah didn't seem to be getting pregnant in the time that they would like, they came up with a scheme on their own and in their own way, in their own time, to make a baby. Here's Hagar. Make a baby with her. They came up with their own scheme to fulfill what God had promised and what they deeply wanted. Sarah and Abraham each took turns laughing at the idea that when God would give them a son through Sarah, it was beyond the normal childbearing years. They did things on their own. They decided, I know how I am going to preserve myself.

Rather than depending upon God's promise, you will have descendants. You will have nations come from you. I will bless you. Rather than relying on those promises, Abraham came up with his own scheme and Sarah cooperated. rather than relying on God's promise, you will have these descendants.

They came up with their own scheme. Here's how we're going to do it. God gave us a promise and we're going to help Him fulfill it. So what about what Abraham and Sarah did on their own? What about that? Abraham and Sarah certainly did what seemed like the right thing to do.

I mean, it sure seemed like the right thing to do. At the time it was good anyway. I would suggest to you that they even felt like it was right. That it felt like it was the right thing. Right? They felt good about it maybe. And after all, the culture was in solid support. At least some of the culture was in solid support of the things that they did. And it seemed right. It felt right. The culture says it's right. Of course it's right, right?

Well, maybe not so much. Each one of the best efforts that they came up with was done apart from the Lord. How many things does the Lord want us to do apart from Him? Tough to come up with any, huh? Right? It is amazing. It is amazing. We look at this and we say, well, of course, you know, dummies. But then when you back up and you ponder it, everything seemed right from the way it felt. It seemed like it was right. Everybody else in the world seemed to say it was right, pretty much.

But in the end, the Lord doesn't want us to do anything apart from Him. So what are we to think? What are we to think about those times when we do the right thing and things still turn out into a mess? What do we think about those times? And what about those times when we do the wrong thing and it turns out okay? Did we figure out right and wrong wrongly or rightly? the world will often tell us, see the world talks, the world will often tell us that what matters is how we feel about it, whatever it is.

Trust your gut. I got too much to trust anyway. If it turns out okay, then that shows we must have done the right thing after all. Ever heard that? If it turns out okay, then we must have done fine, we must have done the right thing. I think scripture would say, no, it is walking by faith. What did God say? Do we count on it or do we look to how it feels, how it seems and what the world says?

It's his word that counts. Another lesson I think that comes back to us through this, when we've taken the wrong turn, there is a way back. And it's not as circuitous as this picture would imply. There is a way back. It is God's intent, very clear from Scripture, it is God's intent that we walk in fellowship with Him.

If we have wandered from that place of fellowship with Him, how long does it take to get back in fellowship with Him? Days? Weeks? Months if what you've done is really, really bad? Years maybe? Or are we totally, totally off the path ever and ever? What this would tell us here in Scripture, this passage is one case in point. We can immediately return back to a place of fellowship with the Lord. There is no waiting period. The Lord doesn't say, you've been bad, you've got to do a time out. The Lord wants us to immediately return to fellowship with Him. How does that happen?

1 John 1.9 says, if we confess, and that isn't sit there and make an inventory and take a digital picture for the record of each and every sin, and ponder it and think about it and meditate on it and look at it and talk about it.

No. If we agree with God, kind of the analogy that I like to use is, you know, we go to the trash. And if the trash is full, I say, Nancy, is this thing ready to go out? Yeah. We both agree it's trash and we dump it. That's it. We don't sit there and look at it and put it on the table and take pictures. Right? We agree with God that the sin is trash and we dump it. Okay? That's it. We can count on Him to do all the forgiving and the cleansing. We return to fellowship with Him. All we do is we agree that's trash. We turn to Him. That's it. It's that simple. God wants us in fellowship with Him.

He does not insert any kind of a delay, a timeout, or some lengthy process for returning to fellowship with Him. Abraham and Sarah finally saw that God was indeed faithful and credited God for their son Isaac. It may be that once we come to that place of returning to fellowship with the Lord that there are still consequences. That does not mean a delay in returning back into fellowship with Him. It doesn't mean a delay in returning back into fellowship with Him. The consequences may last.

But Abraham had to send Hagar and Ishmael away. He had to take action as a consequence of his wrong doing before. He still had to deal with the consequences of what he had done on his own. Abraham had made Abimelech very concerned about his truthfulness. I can't blame him. Ultimately, he had to pay Abimelech back, I don't know if it was all, but it seems like it might have been, with the animals and to swear an oath promising no falsehood. He had to deal with the consequences of what he'd done wrong. So what does God want? Okay? What does God want? Very important question here. God has deliberately, in His Word, revealed Himself. Through Jesus Christ, He has revealed Himself in order that we have eternal life.

That eternal life is not just, now I'm going to live forever, but the eternal life is knowing Him. John 17 makes that clear. Knowing Him, knowing Him, knowing Him. It is not first about time, it's first about Him. God's will is that we walk in intimate fellowship with Him. That means walking by faith. Faith in what He has said.

We don't need to do the Abraham thing of, here's my scheme. Here's how I'm going to make God's promises work out. As a believer, if God has told me something, I don't have to work to make it happen if He said He's already done it. How much work and effort and scheming and thinking about it and planning do you have to carry out in order for you to be in Christ? How much of an effort is that on your part? Nobody's raising their hand. That's because there isn't any. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. It is God's doing that you are in Christ Jesus.

He does it. All he did was believe. All Abraham had to do was believe. And instead he did, I'm going to tell this story, and I'm going to tell that story, and he had to get himself squared away with Abimelech twice. Here, instead of believing God, he had to come up with a scheme for how he's going to make a baby, and then he had to deal with the consequences of his scheme. As a matter of fact, we're still dealing with the consequences of his scheme. That's why we've got people over in the Middle East.

But, as we look at this, all God wants us to do is rely on what He's revealed to us. He said it, do we believe it? That's as simple as that. If God says it, if He tells us it's true, we believe it. That's all He's asking. People sometimes grope and traumatize over, oh, I wish I knew what God's will was. God's will is that we walk by faith. We walk by faith in the facts He's revealed.

It's that simple. It's that simple. What He has conveyed for us in the truth is the path that He intends for us to walk. Walk by faith in what He's revealed, not in what we see, not what seems right, not in what we feel, and not in what the world says. He wants us to have intimate fellowship with him by believing him. And it's that simple. We don't need to come up with a scheme. Isn't that wonderful? We're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And I had not scheme one about any of that. Not that would do any good anyway.

Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Lord, as we look at this passage, as we look at the truths that you've laid out here before us, We ask that you would make the path clear in front of us. It's your intent, your hope for every breath that we take, for every day we live, that we walk in fellowship with you, that we simply believe what you have said. And we pray that you would draw our hearts and minds to see that, in fact, it's really quite simple. It is only our inventions, our listening to the world's messages that makes it so very complicated. We look to you, Lord, to teach us and to bring these things home to our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.