The Promise Kept and the Promise to Come

And good morning, church.

We're going through the book of Genesis.

! We've been going through Genesis, Abraham's story.

! For the last two months, we've been tracing through Abraham's story.

!

And this week, we've been waiting for something.

We've been waiting for something the last two months.

And this week, we're finally here.

We finally made it.

We're finally here.

In Genesis chapter 12, two months ago,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

we started hearing about Abraham's call

God called Abraham in Genesis 12

to go leave his father's house,

leave the land that he came from.

And God gave him a promise.

I will bless you.

I will make you a great nation.

I will give you land.

And we see later in Genesis 15

that he will have offspring.

He will have a son from his own flesh

that God will make into a great nation.

The problem, though, was that Abraham

Abraham was 75 at the time that God called him.

His wife, Sarah, was 65.

They were old.

They didn't have child.

They were barren.

Who has a kid at 75?

Who can have a kid for the first time at the age of 75?

But that's the promise that God gave them.

They're forced to wait.

But they grow impatient.

In Genesis 16, 10 years afterwards,

they're tired of waiting.

And we heard how Abraham and Sarah,

they take matters into their own hands.

They do it themselves.

Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham.

And they have a son, Ishmael.

They have a son.

So did their plan work?

Did Abraham's plan to take God's promise for himself work?

It looks like it.

They had the son they wanted, Ishmael.

But we read 13 years later in Genesis 17,

God says, no, it's not through Ishmael

that this promise will come.

Ishmael is not the son that was promised.

The promise will come through Sarah's son.

And you will name him Isaac.

And we've spent two months going through the story.

We've been waiting two months,

exploring this theme of waiting in faith for two months.

It was two months for us,

but it was 25 years for Abraham and Sarah.

25 years of waiting.

25 years of disappointment.

And when you wait for something so long,

there's expectations that come with it.

There's anticipation, excitement builds, hype builds.

So actually myself,

I'll be flying off to Toronto tonight for a few weeks.

Toronto is where I'm from.

I'm going back to visit home.

Which reminds me of actually when Jollibee's opened in Toronto

for the first time in 2018.

You guys know what Jollibee's is?

Fried chicken chain from the Philippines.

And when it opened,

the hype around it was crazy.

It was insane.

I heard the first,

I didn't go because I'm not Filipino,

but the first guy in line at Jollibee's,

he waited,

he set up a tent in the freezing cold,

literally sub-zero temperatures,

waited there for 17 hours.

17 hours for some fried chicken.

Not just him.

Thousands of others waited in line.

Not just on the first day,

grand opening day,

but for weeks,

literally weeks,

you'd have to wait a few hours in line

to get some fried chicken.

Why is that?

Why?

It's because in the Philippines,

Jollibee's,

it's not just chicken.

It's not just fried chicken.

JP knows.

It's pride.

It's identity.

It's a national treasure, right?

Are you really Filipino

if you don't defend chicken joy with your life?

And so,

the guy in line who was interviewed,

one person in line was interviewed,

and he said,

they asked him,

why are you waiting?

Why are you waiting so long here?

And he said,

it's because he's been away

for the Philippines for years.

He was from the Philippines.

He moved to Canada.

He's been away for years.

And finally,

he's able to have a taste of home.

At last,

years later,

he can finally have a taste of home.

And that makes that 10-hour wait worth it

for a taste of home.

And that's the kind of anticipation

we've been building.

There's this wait,

years of waiting,

leading up to Genesis 21.

And finally,

the wait is over.

It's time for Isaac to be born.

It's time.

The promise is here.

But will it live up to the hype?

Will it live up to the expectation,

anticipation that's been building?

Let's see.

And I'll,

we'll,

let's stand together

as we read from Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

I'll invite Annabelle and Teresa

to come up to read for us, please.

We'll be reading the whole of chapter 21,

when Isaac is born.

Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

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 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 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,

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 and 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 Paran

and his mother took a wife for him

from the land of Egypt.

A treaty with Abimelech.

At that time,

Abimelech and Phicol,

the commander of his army,

said to Abraham,

God is with you

in all that you do.

Now therefore,

swear to me here by God

that you will not deal falsely with me

or with my descendants

or with my posterity.

But as I have dealt kindly with you,

so you will deal with me

and with the land

where you have sojourned.

And Abraham said,

I will swear.

When Abraham reproved Abimelech

about a well of water

that Abimelech's servants had seized,

Abimelech said,

I do not know who has done this thing.

You did not tell me

and I have not heard of it until today.

So Abraham took sheep and oxen

and gave them to Abimelech

and the two men made a covenant.

Abraham set seven ewe lambs

of the flock apart.

And Abimelech said to Abraham,

what is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs

that you have set apart?

He said,

these seven ewe lambs

you will take from my hand

that this may be a witness for me

that I dug this well.

Therefore,

that place was called Beersheba

because there both of them

swore an oath.

So they made a covenant at Beersheba.

Then Abimelech and Phicol,

the commander of his army,

rose up and returned

to the land of the Philistines.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree

in Beersheba

and called there on the name of the Lord,

the everlasting God.

And Abraham sojourned many days

in the land of the Philistines.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please take a seat.

So again, Abraham and Sarah,

we've been waiting 25 years.

They've been waiting 25 years for Isaac.

And it's been a wild ride.

We've been going through

the last 10 chapters or so.

It's been quite a wild ride.

They laughed.

They cried.

They lied.

They fought a war to save Lot.

And it's all building up.

It's all building up to Isaac's birth.

And if this were a movie,

you would expect like drama,

detail, music, fireworks, anything,

because this is what it's been building up to.

But when it comes to the actual event,

when Isaac is born,

the description we have,

all we get is this.

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.

There's no drama.

There's no description.

It's like,

this thing just happened.

We've been building up to it,

and then it just happened.

He's born.

Let's move on.

It's not quite what you'd expect from the climax

if this were a movie.

It's like what we're getting is this EDM song that builds,

but then there's no drop.

Or it's like when LeBron James,

he hyped up this TV special,

The Decision,

and then he just slipped in.

I'm going to take my talents to South Beach.

There's all this anticipation,

and it's a letdown.

Or our very own dear,

not LeBron James,

he's, you know,

he's always talking about matcha lattes,

these strawberry matcha lattes.

So one day,

I went to try it.

I went to try it.

And this is probably the last sermon he'll let me preach,

but I'm sorry.

It was,

it wasn't that great.

It was fine.

I have nothing against strawberry.

I have nothing against matcha,

but it's not,

it wasn't worth the hype.

And that's what I feel like

when I read the description in Genesis 21.

Because after 25 years of waiting,

why is there so little detail?

We just get that Isaac is born.

Why does it feel so uneventful?

And I think reading this,

meditating on this,

it's,

I think it's because

God doesn't want to distract us

from what's important in these verses,

in this event.

He doesn't want us getting caught up in the details

because there's only one detail that matters here.

And that is,

the Lord fulfilled his promise.

God did what he said.

Notice the repetition here in these verses.

As he had said,

as he had promised,

at the appointed time,

that's when Isaac was born.

25 years of waiting,

anticipation built up.

It wasn't to Isaac's beautiful baby shower.

The flowers,

the decorations,

the cupcakes.

He looks so cute.

No, there's one point only here.

The Lord did exactly what he said he would do,

exactly when he said he would do it.

And that's all we need to know.

God fulfills his promise.

Isaac was born as God had said,

as he had promised,

at the time that he said.

That's what God does.

He says it,

and he does it.

We can take God at his word.

God fulfills his promise.

And so that's what we'll be exploring today.

We can trust God

because God is trustworthy.

We can have faith in God

because God is faithful.

And we see this in the three stories

that we have today.

We read three sections

in Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

Isaac is born.

That's what we've been waiting for.

Also, we get this,

the scene of Ishmael,

Abraham's other son,

being cast out,

kicked out of Abraham's family.

What do we make of that?

And also, Abraham,

he makes a treaty with King Abimelech

at the end of the chapter.

And in all these stories,

in all this,

we see that God is good.

He is faithful.

He can be trusted.

And so we can put our faith in him.

We see that as Isaac is born.

It happens just as God has said.

It happened just as God had promised.

Even though it seemed impossible.

At this point,

Abraham was 100 years old.

Sarah was 90 years old.

And for someone to be born,

for a child to be born,

for the first time,

from parents that old,

it's simply not possible.

It's biologically not possible.

It's a miracle.

It's a work of God.

And that's why Sarah says

in verse 7 here,

she says this,

Who would have said to Abraham

that Sarah would nurse children?

Who would have thought?

Who would have imagined this possible?

Yet,

I have born him a son

in his old age.

A 90-year-old woman given birth.

That's the most ridiculous thing

I've ever heard.

Who would believe it?

And that's why Sarah laughed.

Remember in chapter 18,

in Genesis 18,

when God told Abraham and Sarah,

I will return to you

about this time next year.

And Sarah will have a son.

And when she heard it,

she laughed.

I'm old.

I'm past menopause.

It's not possible.

She laughed.

I can't have a kid.

And then we read that scene.

And then God asked her,

why did you laugh?

And she said,

no, I didn't laugh.

God said,

yes, you did laugh.

Sarah laughed a laugh

of skepticism,

bitterness,

unbelief.

Sarah,

you'll have a son?

Me?

No way.

That's what Sarah thought.

And so here,

it's funny that God

told Abraham

to name his son Isaac.

Because there's a play on words here.

You'll see a footnote

in your Bible

that the name Isaac

means he laughs

in Hebrew.

Yitzchak.

He laughs.

The name Isaac

is from the word laugh.

To laugh is to Isaac.

There's this word play here.

So as we read this,

we can replace the word laugh

with Isaac

to see what's going on here.

Like Abraham called his son Isaac.

Abraham circumcised Isaac.

He was 100 years old

when Isaac was born.

And Sarah said,

God has made Isaac for me.

He has made laughter for me.

Everyone who hears

will Isaac over me.

There's this repetition of laughter

throughout this passage.

Isaac's name

is a reminder of laughter.

But now,

it's a different sort of laughter.

It's a redeemed laughter.

Sarah,

in chapter 18,

that was a laughter

of bitterness,

incredulity.

Will this actually happen?

I can't believe it.

But God turned

that skeptical Isaac

into this Isaac of joy,

this laughter of joy.

God made Isaac for Sarah,

and now everyone

will Isaac enjoy it with Sarah.

He took Sarah's laughter

of discouragement and despair

and turned it into Isaac

who lives as proof

that God keeps his promise.

He is good for his word.

He does the impossible.

A hundred-year-old,

a nine-year-old woman

bearing a child.

He does the impossible

for our joy

and for his glory.

And that's what God does.

He takes what's irredeemably broken

and redeems it.

He takes our sorrows

and turns it into joy.

True joy.

Eternal joy.

Solid joy.

And I love the verse

in 2 Corinthians 4,

2 Corinthians 4:17

verse 17.

It says,

this light,

momentary affliction

is preparing for us

an eternal weight of glory

beyond all comparison.

It's not that,

and notice what that verse says.

It's not just that

the reward we have

is greater than

our suffering now.

But that verse says

that our suffering

is preparing for us.

It's working for us,

creating for us

incomparable glory.

What we're going through now

is preparing glory for us,

preparing joy for us.

Because if Sarah,

if laughter,

if Isaac was born to Sarah

at the age of 30,

she wouldn't laugh

the same way she does now

at the age of 90.

She wouldn't have

that same joy.

She wouldn't see

God's hand

the same way

as she does now.

But in the decades

of waiting,

she learned

that God keeps

his promises

and he does

the impossible.

That waiting

prepared her

to receive

her laughter,

to receive Isaac

and give glory

to God for it.

And it's true for Sarah

just as it's true

for us.

And we said before,

waiting time

isn't wasting time.

Even if we don't laugh

in this life,

in our waiting,

in our heartbreak,

we have this promise

of God

that he is preparing

for us

an eternal weight

of glory

beyond all comparison.

That's his promise

and we can take God

at his word.

God's faithful

makes us respond

both with joy

and laughter

and also

with obedience.

And that's how

Abraham responds.

Seeing God's promises

fulfilled,

he obeys

God in faith.

Look at verse 3.

In verse 3,

Abraham called

the name of his son

who was born to him,

who Sarah born

to him,

Isaac.

Abraham obeys

what God told him

to do

in chapter 17.

When God gave

Abraham the promise,

he told him,

you will have a son

and told Abraham,

you will call

his name Isaac.

And Abraham

here obeys.

Because why

wouldn't he obey God?

Why shouldn't

he obey God?

If God is a God

who turns sorrow

into joy,

then why

wouldn't Abraham

want to obey

and have a reminder

in naming his son Isaac,

that is a reminder

that God gives him

that he gave

Abraham laughter.

Why wouldn't Abraham

want to obey

and have this reminder

of God's faithfulness?

And that's the same reason

why we obey God.

Why we obey God

in faith

and pursue things,

for example,

like spiritual disciplines,

to read the word,

to pray,

to gather together

in worship

as we do today.

It's in faith

that God

brings us joy.

God is worthy.

He's worthy

of our trust.

He's worthy

of our worship.

Abraham wasn't like,

oh man,

I have to name him Isaac.

Man,

he's forcing me

to name my son something.

No,

Abraham's attitude is,

God has given me laughter

and I will hold

onto that joy

and obey.

Abraham also obeys

in verse 4.

It says,

Abraham circumcised

his son Isaac

when he was

eight days old

as God

has commanded him.

Do you notice that?

As God has commanded him.

That sounds like

something we read before.

Abraham did

as God has commanded him.

It's flipped around

of what God did.

You see,

God,

the Lord,

did as he had said.

And if God

does as he has said,

then we also

can do

as he had said.

If God acts

as he has promised,

then we can also

obey

as he has commanded.

That's what Abraham did.

God can be trusted.

He keeps his word

and so we can keep

his word.

That is our good.

We can trust God

and obey.

And so,

that's Isaac's birth.

That's the long-anticipated,

awaited birth.

It's been built up

to show us

that God fulfills

his promise.

He's good for his word.

And so we can rejoice

and obey him.

God took Sarah's

bitter laughter

and turned it into

joyful laughter

of Isaac.

He fulfilled his promise.

But,

when God brings joy

to our life,

sometimes

our past mistakes,

they can come back

and challenge it.

And we'll soon see here

a different sort of laughter

from the results

of what Abraham and Sarah

did in chapter 16.

Let's read in verse 8.

Isaac grew

and was weaned.

And Abraham made a great feast

on the day that Isaac

was weaned.

So weaning,

we like to throw

100-day parties

when you have a baby.

In Hong Kong,

we like to throw

100-day parties.

Well, Abraham threw a party

when Isaac was weaned.

That's when babies

start eating solid food

instead of drinking milk.

That's what it means

to be weaned.

And they did that

a bit later

when babies were

a bit older back then,

about when Isaac

was two or three years old.

So Isaac's about

two or three years old

at this point.

And that's when we see

another sort of laughter

in verse 9.

It says,

Sarah saw the son

of Hagar the Egyptian

whom she had borne

to Abraham laughing.

The son of Hagar

was laughing.

So that's Ishmael,

the son of Hagar.

He laughs.

And what is this laughter?

He is,

it's not an innocent laughter.

It's not a happy laughter,

a joyful laughter.

He's making fun of Isaac.

He is laughing at Isaac.

He's laughing in mockery

as the footnote

in your Bible says.

He's laughing in mockery.

We know Ishmael's up to no good.

It's not a good laugh

because in the New Testament

in Galatians 4,

Galatians 4:29

verse 29,

it clarifies that Ishmael,

born according to the flesh,

was persecuting,

attacking Isaac,

who was born

according to the spirit.

So there's this competition

that happens.

We saw this earlier

in chapter 16.

There's this conflict,

competition between Sarah

and Hagar.

And we see this again

between the son of Hagar now

and the son of Sarah,

between Ishmael and Isaac.

And so Sarah is furious.

She's upset.

And she sees what Ishmael

is doing to Isaac,

that laughter.

And so she says to Abraham

in verse 10 here,

she says,

cast out the slave woman

with her son,

for the son of the slave woman

shall not be heir

with my son Isaac.

Now, this isn't the first time

that Sarah got mad at Hagar.

It happened in chapter 16.

And remember,

this is after Sarah

had this bright idea.

It was Sarah's idea

in the first place.

Hey, Abraham,

you go sleep with my servant Hagar

to have a son.

We're going to do it ourselves.

We're going to do it our way

to take hold of God's promises

for ourselves.

They did it their way.

And that led to conflict back then.

And it's coming back

to bite them again now.

And so Sarah says to Abraham,

get rid of Hagar and Ishmael.

But in verse 11,

this was very displeasing to Abraham.

It was very displeasing to Abraham.

I mean, of course it was

because Ishmael was Abraham's son.

He wasn't Sarah's son,

but he's Abraham's son.

And Sarah is asking Abraham,

get rid of your son.

Kick your own son,

your firstborn son,

out of your house.

So obviously,

Abraham is displeased.

He doesn't like that idea.

But surprisingly,

God tells Abraham

to listen to Sarah

in verse 12.

He says to him,

be not displeased

because of the boy

and because of your slave woman.

Whatever Sarah says to you,

do as she tells you.

Do as she tells you.

Now think of what God

is asking Abraham to do.

He's asking Abraham,

send your firstborn son,

not just kick him out of the house.

Like here,

if you're kicked out of the house,

I'll maybe rent a hotel.

I'll go to a friend's place.

But they were in the wilderness.

They were in the desert.

To kick Ishmael out of the house

is to send him into the wilderness,

into the desert,

where he's going to have

to fend for himself,

where he'll be in danger,

where who knows

what's going to happen to him.

It's a dangerous thing.

But we see that God

has three good reasons

to ask this of Abraham.

It seems harsh.

It seems maybe even cruel,

even when we hear about this.

Think of what Ishmael and Hagar

will go through.

But we see,

even in this event,

God is faithful to them all.

And God has few good reasons

to ask Abraham to do this.

Which, in a way,

all relate to actually

what we'll be reading next week

in the next chapter.

Because we talked about

how Isaac's birth

was hyped up and anticipated.

We've been waiting 25 years for it.

But when we read through

a bit further,

we see that Isaac's birth

isn't actually

the climax,

the peak

of Abraham's story.

That comes

in the next chapter,

in chapter 22.

What we call

the binding of Isaac

when Abraham

is asked by God

to sacrifice

his son Isaac

as a burnt offering

on the altar.

I mean,

there's a lot to that.

We'll unpack that more

next week.

God actually

eventually stops Abraham

from going through with it.

But what we see,

what we can keep in mind today

is that

God has in store

for Abraham

an even greater

test of faith

than he's going through

today in this story.

And in preparation

for that,

first,

God removes

any backup plans

in Abraham's mind.

He gets rid of

any plan B's,

any safety nets,

any backup plans

in Abraham's mind.

God tells Abraham,

the promise

will come through Isaac,

not Ishmael.

That's what he says

in verse 13.

Whatever Sarah

tells you to do,

do as she tells you

for through Isaac,

it is through Isaac

that your offspring

will be named.

It's through Isaac

that's the son of promise.

And because remember,

after Ishmael was born,

it was only another

13 years

before God

appeared to Abraham

in chapter 17

and told him

that Sarah

would have

a son of her own,

Sarah would bear Isaac.

So possibly

for 13 years,

Abraham operated

under this assumption

that the promise

was for Isaac.

He could have thought that.

He could have thought

that his own efforts

to do it himself,

it actually worked.

He actually got

what he wanted.

He had the son.

Ishmael was born

and they made it

happen themselves.

But God tells,

he makes clear

to Abraham now,

it's not Ishmael

but Isaac.

My blessings

to you will come

not by your own efforts,

not by any works

of the flesh,

but by my promise

and my power alone.

And so,

in chapter 22,

when God tests him,

Abraham can't rely

on the son born

from his human efforts.

All he can do

is trust God

at his word,

trust God's promise.

With Ishmael

out of the picture,

there's no plan B.

It's do or die

for Isaac.

Abraham can't rely

on his works

and only can rely

on faith in God.

God takes that

plan B

out of the picture.

Second,

God gives Abraham

here practice

in obeying him.

It's not easy

always for us

when God commands us.

God calls us

to trust and obey.

Abraham's something

difficult to do.

He had to send off

his firstborn son.

He didn't want to do it.

It was difficult

for Abraham.

It was even more difficult

for Hagar and Ishmael.

Abraham knew that.

That's why it was hard

for him.

But yet,

Abraham obeys.

In verse 14,

rising up early

the next morning.

In verse 14,

he rose up early

the next morning

as soon as God

told him

to do what God

told him to do.

Next week,

when we read

chapter 22,

you'll see that phrase

again,

that Abraham,

when God called him,

commanded him

to go with Isaac,

he rose up early

the next morning.

when God called him

to act.

This is practice.

This is preparation

for what he'll do next.

And so Abraham obeys

and sends Hagar

and Ishmael

off into the wilderness

with just a little bit

of bread

and a bottle of water,

a skin of water.

And they go around

and wander

in the wilderness.

And soon enough,

we hear that the water

they took with them,

it runs out.

They only had

a skin of water,

a little bit of water.

And soon enough,

it runs out.

And here,

we might not think

that much about water

because we can always,

we can turn on the tap,

you can go to the store,

buy a bottle of water,

but they're in the desert.

There's no faucets

in the wilderness.

There's no 7-Eleven.

And without water,

in the heat,

you die.

And now here,

they've all run out.

So what are they going to do?

What can they do?

Slowly,

they lose their strength.

They're getting thirstier.

They're thirstier.

They're getting weaker.

And there is really no hope.

There's no option.

They can't do anything.

They're going to die.

They have no water.

And they're going to die.

And so Hagar,

they're in despair.

Hagar,

in verse 15,

she thinks it's the end for him.

She puts Ishmael down

by the bushes.

Reason is,

she can't bear

to watch him die.

As a mother,

she can't bear

to watch her son

take his last breath.

And so she goes off.

She says,

let me not look

on the death of my child.

She sets in the bushes

and she walks off.

But not too far,

only the distance of a bow shot.

Because on one hand,

she loves him too much

to watch him die.

But on the other hand,

she loves him too much

to just leave him there

alone and die.

So she goes off

into a short distance.

They're in despair.

She cries out

and wept.

And they wept.

And once again,

we see that God

is good for his word.

We see that God

is faithful.

He is good to us.

Verse 17 says,

God heard the voice

of the boy.

In their moment of despair

when they had nothing to do,

Isaac and Hagar,

they cried out to God.

And it says,

God heard the voice

of the boy.

And there's also

some wordplay here too

because if you remember

Ishmael's name,

Ishmael's name

means God hears.

It means God hears.

And we don't see

Ishmael's name

mentioned here,

but we see

that God heard

the voice of the boy.

Ishmael happened

to Ishmael.

That's what,

that's what happened.

God heard Ishmael.

And so in,

in verse 17,

God opened her eyes.

God opened Hagar's eyes

and she saw

a well of water.

That was a miracle.

They,

they're in the desert.

There's no water

and suddenly they looked up

and there is a well

there the whole time.

And she,

she filled the skin.

She filled the bottle

of water,

gave the boy to drink.

God was with the boy,

it says,

and he grew up.

So when we look at this,

do we see God's grace here?

See God's grace

to them here.

And there's,

there's something here

because Ishmael

wasn't the child

of promise.

Ishmael was the one

that God asked even

to cast out of the house,

send Ishmael away.

He was the kid

that,

who,

who mocked,

despised Isaac,

the chosen son.

But still,

even still for Ishmael,

God shows grace to him

and saves him.

And not only that,

but he fulfills that promise

as he promised

in verse 13,

I will make a nation

of the son of the slave woman

also because he is

your offspring.

Even to the one

who was cast off

out of Abraham's house,

God was good to.

And,

and this is what

we're meant to see here.

That if God

was gracious to Ishmael,

who was outside

of the covenant,

who was kicked out

of Abraham's house,

if he was good to Ishmael,

then how much more

will he be gracious?

Will he be good to Isaac?

Who is the child

of promise?

If God provided

for Ishmael,

then how much more

will God bless Isaac

through whom

the promises

to Abraham will come,

through whom all

the families

of the earth

will be blessed?

And so later,

when Abraham,

he can look back

on this example

of God's faithfulness,

that if God

would protect Ishmael,

if God was good

to Ishmael,

excluded from the covenant,

how much more

will he protect Isaac

when God calls him

to give him up?

God didn't abandon Ishmael.

And yeah,

he opened Hagar's eyes

to see this well of water.

And this leads us

to the final scene

here.

Hagar needed water,

but also Abraham

needs water

to survive

in the wilderness,

in the desert.

And here in this final scene,

he'll have to negotiate

with King Abimelech

and fight over a well

that he had dug up.

Look at verse 22.

It says,

At that time,

Abimelech and Fickle,

the commander of his army,

said to Abraham,

God is with you

in all that you do.

So Abimelech and Fickle,

they come to Abraham

and they notice this.

God is with you, Abraham,

in all that you do.

Now,

think back

to last week

in chapter 20.

Remember that name,

Abimelech.

Who is Abimelech?

Abimelech was the king

that Abraham

had lied to.

Last chapter,

we talked about the cycles.

Abraham fell into

the same sin

that he committed

in Egypt

in chapter 12.

Did the same thing again.

He was afraid.

He was fearful

of what Abimelech would do.

And he thought

that Abimelech

would think Sarah

was very beautiful

and take him as his wife.

And so he lied.

He said this half-truth

and said,

Sarah is my son.

My sister.

And so that brought

God's judgment

upon Abimelech

and on his whole kingdom.

That's what we read

last week in chapter 20.

But yet,

Abimelech comes back

and says to Abraham,

God is with you

in all you do.

And yeah,

we talked about

the cycles

in our spiritual life

of the highs and lows

in our lives.

We see ourselves

slipping into the same sins

again.

Abraham was a coward

who sold his wife out.

But yet,

God was with him.

Yet,

God was with him.

And that shows us

it's not by

our efforts.

It's not the strength

of our

walk with God.

By our efforts.

That's not why

Abraham,

God was with Abraham there.

No,

Abraham sinned.

He was fearful.

He was afraid.

He didn't look to God.

But,

God was still with him.

That's the promise.

That God shows us grace

despite our sins.

That's the good news.

That's what Abraham

was met with.

Yet,

God's grace

doesn't just forgive us.

It transforms us also.

God meets us

in our sin,

but he doesn't

leave us there.

Abraham lied

to Abimelech

in chapter 20.

But now,

Abraham,

Abimelech comes to Abraham

to make a treaty with him.

He's looking to Abraham

to keep his word now

right after Abraham

lied to him.

Abraham's becoming someone

who can be trusted.

God's faithfulness

to us

produces faithfulness

in us also.

And,

before they make

their treaty,

Abraham takes

this opportunity

to hash out

this dispute

with Abimelech

about water.

Water's important

because they're

in the wilderness.

And just as Ishmael

ran out of water

without a well,

Abraham

will also run out

of water.

He won't be able

to stay in that area

without a well

and he'll have to

move out of that land

somewhere else.

He can't stay there

without a well,

without water to access.

And it says that

Abraham had earlier

dug a well

in that area,

but Abimelech's servant

took it.

And so Abraham

confronts Abimelech

about it.

And they come to

an agreement.

Abimelech agrees

that he will

recognize that the well

is Abraham's.

They deal kindly

with one another.

And as a witness

to this,

Abraham offers

seven eulams

to Abimelech.

In verse 30,

it says,

these seven eulams

you will take

from my hand

that they will

be a witness

for me

that I dug

this well.

And therefore,

that place

was called

Beersheba

because they,

they're both

of them

swore an oath.

And there's,

there's a bit

more wordplay

here also.

Beersheba

means well

of seven.

So Sheva

is seven,

but it can

also mean

oath.

So they settled

this oath

with seven eulams

and say,

they call this

Beersheba,

well of seven,

well of oath

as a witness

that the oath

was made

between them.

Now that name

Beersheba

also tells us

something important

about where

Abraham is

at the moment.

Beersheba

is a name

that comes up

later in the Bible.

It marks

the southern

border

of the promised

land.

Later,

for example,

in Samuel

chapter three,

verse 20,

it talks about

how all of

Israel

from Dan

to Beersheba,

all of Israel

from Dan

to Beersheba

in Samuel

three.

It's kind of

like saying,

if I say

all of Hong

Kong

from Saikong

to Lantau,

right,

Lantau on the

west,

Saikong to the

east.

Beersheba

is on the

edge of the

promised land

in the south.

And that's

where we find

Abraham here,

on the edge

of the promised

land.

Now,

remember God's

promise to

Abraham.

He promised

to give

Abraham a

son,

to make him

into a great

nation.

There's a

promise of a

son,

and there's

also this

promise of

land.

There's also

the promise

that he will

have land.

So,

in the 25

years of

waiting,

in the 25

years,

we see

part of

God's promise

fulfilled.

We see

it's fulfilled

in part,

that Abraham

now has the

promised child.

He has Isaac.

God gave

him Isaac,

just as he

had promised,

as he had

said at the

time that he

had said,

but yet,

we see the

other part of

the promise

is not yet

there.

Abraham still

doesn't have

the land.

He still

doesn't have

the promised

land.

Abraham,

he has his

well in

Beersheba,

but he's

still a

foreigner.

He's still

this foreigner

who has to

negotiate with

this foreign

king for

water.

The promise

is fulfilled

already on

one hand,

but on the

other part,

not yet.

The promised

child,

but not

the promised

land.

But yet,

let's see what

Abraham does.

Let's see what

Abraham does

in verse 33.

It says,

Abraham planted

a tamarisk tree

in Beersheba

and called

there on

the name

of the

Lord,

the everlasting

God.

Planted a

tree in

Beersheba

and called

on the

name of

the Lord.

So he

planted a

tree.

Why a

tree?

I have a few

plants at home

and I'm not

an expert at

plants.

I actually

forgot to water

them this

week.

But you

don't have

to be a

gardener to

know that it

takes time for

plants to go.

It takes years,

decades.

Trees don't

grow overnight.

Trees take

time to grow.

And once they

grow, they

could last for

50 years,

100 years.

There's something

future looking,

forward looking,

from this act of

planting a tree.

It will be years,

decades before he

can sit under

the full shade

of the tree.

And this tree

will provide,

it will be good

for future

generations,

for decades,

for years.

And that's why

he plants it.

Why does he do

it though?

It's because he's

planting it in

faith.

He's planting it.

Even though he's a

foreigner, even

though he doesn't

own this land,

even though he's

just a sojourner,

he has to negotiate

with a foreign

king.

He trusts that

God will fulfill

his promise.

God will give me

the land.

He will be good

for his promise.

And not only

did he plant

the tree,

he worships

there and calls

on the name

of the Lord

there, the

everlasting God,

El Olam,

the everlasting

God.

That is also

an act of

faith, trusting

that God in

the future

will do what

he promised.

The everlasting

God can fulfill

everlasting promises.

Even if this

tree takes time

to grow and

Abraham doesn't

fully see it,

even if this

tree outlives

him, God's

promises will

outlast his

lifetime.

He planted this

tree in faith.

He was sitting

on the edge

of the promised

land, holding

the child of

promise, but

still foreigners

living in

tents.

He had the

promised child,

but he was

waiting for the

promised land.

And that is

exactly where we

are today, too.

That's our

situation here

today.

Because if

waiting 25 years

for Isaac seemed

a long time,

the world, we

waited thousands

of years for

the true child

of promise,

for Jesus to

come into the

picture.

And we see that

Jesus has already

come.

He came 2,000

years ago.

We have this

promise on one

hand.

Jesus came in

the flesh.

He died on the

cross for our

sins, just as

God has said.

And he rose on

the third day,

just as God had

promised.

And all the

promises of God

are yes and

amen in Christ.

We have this

already because the

promised child has

come.

God's promise

of the

already and the

not yet.

We have God's

promise already,

but also not

yet.

The kingdom of

God is here

already, but we

don't see it fully

in its entirety.

We know we have

the Holy Spirit.

We have this

guarantee of our

inheritance.

We have access to

God through faith in

Jesus.

But we know just

like after Isaac is

born, there's still

conflict.

There's still

brokenness in this

world.

We still live in

that cycle of sin.

We still live

thinking, why do I

still do the same

thing that I've

been doing for

decades?

Why is there still

brokenness in my

life?

And it's because

we're living in

foreigners, as

foreigners in the

promised land.

This world is not

our home.

We desire a

better country, a

heavenly one, the

city with

foundations, whose

designer and

builders is God.

We see in this

world the

brokenness, and

that's a

reminder that

this isn't our

home.

We're longing for

a taste of

home.

Just like

Abraham planting

a tree in

Beersheba.

We live now

between the

ready and not

yet.

How do we do

that?

How do we live

in that tension?

We can follow

Abraham's faith.

We can follow

Abraham's faith.

First, remember.

That's what

Abraham does.

Remember.

Look back and

remember God's

faithfulness.

How did

Abraham had

faith to plant

this tree and

worship?

You can look

back to the

beginning of the

chapter.

Isaac was born

just as God

had said, just

as God has

promised.

And so we can

look forward and

trust that he

will inherit the