The life and faith of Abraham. Part 12 – Promises fulfilled. Genesis 21.

It seems like um summer is beginning to

wind down now. And uh I was just

thinking about this the other day. I was

just thinking, what's the next big thing

on the horizon? And it's um well, for

me, probably. I was thinking for our

family anyway. It's going to be

Christmas. It's probably too early to

start speaking about Christmas, isn't

that? Apparently, it's not too early uh

for the the shops to get the Christmas

decorations out. Uh, I've already seen

um shelves being loaded up with

Christmas goods, but we do have a long

well quite a long wait before we get

there. And we are used to having a long

wait for things, aren't we? We wait for

our holiday. We wait for our family

gettogethers.

We wait for babies to be born. We wait

on the phone. We wait to get served. We

wait for payday to finally get there.

Life is full of waiting.

And of course, Abraham and Sarah are no

strangers to waiting. God had called

Abraham on this adventure of faith about

25 years previously. And the promises of

God, they had got progressively

grander and fuller in detail as the

years had gone by. But all the while,

Abraham and Sarah had been getting older

and older, and the likelihood of these

amazing promises actually being

fulfilled seemed to be getting less and

less.

But 25 years later, the wait is finally

over. And in our account today, we see

how God worked to keep his uh promises

uh using a variety of different

approaches. So firstly, um through

miraculous intervention and secondly

through prayer and thirdly through the

providence of God. They will form our

three points for this morning. So

firstly, the promise is fulfilled

through the miraculous.

It's wonderful that we have a number of

expectant mothers in our congregation at

the moment. That that's a real blessing.

Um yet I'm told that around one in seven

couples struggle to conceive.

And for those struggling with that, it

can be such a heartache and a source of

great anguish,

especially when some well-meaning person

jokes. So you can have kids then come on

or something similar

in our culture. There's much more

understanding about the issues and what

what goes into contributes to to that.

But in previous ages to to not be able

to have a child

was a great source of shame.

And that's how Sarah felt. She'd been

living all her adult life. So nearly 90

years of real shame.

She felt like a failure.

Even her slave girl Hagar managed to

give Abraham a child. I think it's hard

for us to understand the depths of

Sarah's misery

and suffering.

Her whole life

was clouded by this.

But then after so many years, God does

something truly amazing, truly

miraculous, something that was so

contrary to nature at that point in her

life, so unbelievable

that it could only be by the hand of

God. Verses 1 and two, 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 which God had spoken

to him. Did did you notice what's

happening there?

The Lord visited. The Lord did. And then

verse two, at the time God said, the

writer is making abundantly clear the

Lord did this. I mean to be clear that

the normal biological methods with

Abraham were employed to bring this

about. Uh but God intervened in a

miraculous way.

A mother apparently is classed as a

geriatric mother when you're over 35. I

think the proper term now is advanced

maternal age. If you're over 35, I

wonder what they would call Sarah at 90.

She was way beyond any conceivable

maternal age. for the first 90 years of

her life. Did Sarah understand why she

couldn't have children? Did she

understand that? No, of course she

didn't. But when she finally holds Isaac

in her arms and looked into his little

eyes and squished his soft little hand,

she still didn't understand why. Why

have I had to wait this long? But she

could be sure of this.

God is faithful.

God has kept his promises.

Even though it was a a ridiculous

promise in one sense, a promise that she

had really struggled to believe because

naturally there was no way she could get

pregnant at this age. It was just she

had laughed at it because this was just

it was unbelievable.

And yet when she holds Isaac in her arm,

she knew

yes, God is faithful.

God had promised her a son. And at just

the time that he said, "Here, he was."

See, this was humanly impossible. But

that's how God wanted it. Even Sarah

could hardly believe it herself. Verse

six, and Sarah said, "God has made

laughter for me." Wonder if there's a

play on Isaac's name because it means

he's he laughs. God has made laughter

for me. This this boy and everyone who

hears will laugh over me.

She knows. She knows in herself. A

90-year-old woman having a baby is so

crazy

people will laugh in amazement at this.

They go, "What? Really? Really?" But you

couldn't deny it because the baby was

there. So God has transformed her

cynical laugh

into a laugh of joy. After so much

sorrow, finally

there was joy.

And I don't know about you, but perhaps

there's been some things in your life

when you you you look back or maybe the

lives of others and there was pain and

there was difficulty and you didn't

understand and it went on for a long

long long time and yet perhaps you've

come out the other side of that and now

you look back even even though it was

tough you can see the hand of God

leading, guiding, moving through those

difficulties. Perhaps you can do that. I

know I can in some things. I can see,

yeah, God took me through those

difficulties for a reason.

But often

we are not out the other side of that

yet. And we are still in that waiting

period wondering what on earth is going

on? Why this?

Why me?

Why now?

So we can take heart in this. God is

faithful. Even when we do not

understand,

even when it's painful and the wait

seems so, so long,

there is hope.

God is faithful. He will keep his

promises. And sometimes he will turn

things around in quite an amazing way.

And we can't help but see, yeah, God's

hand, it was in that. I couldn't see it

at the time, but he was working in my

life at that point.

Sometimes we'll get to see that in this

life.

Other times it'll only be resolved in

eternity.

So for those of us struggling right now,

for those of us who are still waiting,

we can take heart because Sarah's

lifelong weight reminds us God is

faithful. He does keep his promises and

nothing is impossible with God.

What that means is sinful patterns in

your life can be broken.

Relationships

can be restored.

We can enter into new seasons.

And even in eternity,

all things will come good.

But sometimes we are called to wait

and it can feel like a long wait.

But you know this isn't the only story

in the Bible about people waiting for a

baby. In fact, it's quite a common theme

in the Bible. People waiting for a baby.

But there is one particular baby I want

to just mention at this moment.

Because as the promises given to Abraham

had unfolded over time, become clearer

about what was going to happen. So the

promises of this other child unfolded

over time right from Genesis 3 which I

believe the people doing that the Bible

um course read this morning. So even in

Genesis 3 when God's promises the women

woman's offspring would crush the

serpent's head.

That's where it started. And then

throughout the millennia, those promises

were repeated and expanded and became

more and more detailed until finally

even in a even more miraculous way. The

Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she

became pregnant so that Jesus could be

said to be both the son of God and the

son of man.

So as to his humanity, Jesus was the

descendant of Abraham and Isaac.

So that's why Isaac was so important

because it's through Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob, that this long awaited, long

promised Messiah, Jesus, would be born.

The one through whom God's promises to

Abraham would be fully fulfilled.

And it's through Jesus

that Abraham would be a blessing to all

nations on earth.

There was a long wait for Isaac and

there was an evil even longer wait for

Jesus.

And you know what?

Jesus promised he would return.

And right now we are a waiting people,

aren't we? And it's our long wait.

And we might think, well, can I really

believe that? People might joke about

it, laugh about it, think, is he ever

really coming?

But just as God kept his promises to

Abraham and Sarah, and just as God kept

his promise to send a savior in the

first place, so Jesus will keep his

promise to return. Just because the wait

is long, don't be tempted to think it's

not going to happen. God is faithful. He

keeps his promises.

Jesus is coming.

Well, Sarah responds in amazement and

gratitude to God. And that is wholly

appropriate obviously. And Abraham

responds as well. He responds in an

appropriate way too. And he is obedient.

Uh so in verse three he calls this his

son by the name God had given him. And

uh verse four Abraham circumcises Isaac

as was commanded by God. His obedience

then follows God's grace in giving them

this son. And it should be no different

from us. God has given us his son and

our response should be no less than

theirs should it. So delight in Jesus,

joy in Jesus, amazement, but also

obedience.

The God of the universe has miraculously

intervened

in our situation. He's given us this

precious son. He was born as a baby. He

grew up to be our savior to lift us up

out of our sin and out of our shame and

give us real solid lasting hope.

So, should we not respond to Jesus

in awe

and in obedience?

I wonder how are you responding to Jesus

this morning?

How are you responding to him?

Is it I'll give you this much Jesus, but

I'm not going to give you my all.

I'll sort of take you as a a savior, but

I'm not going to get baptized.

I'll um I'll I'll take the sort of the

nice things that I like, but I'm I'm not

going to commit myself to serving you. I

I I wonder how are you responding to

this great divine miraculous

intervention into the world? How are you

responding to Jesus?

Back to Isaac. Sadly, not everyone was

quite so delighted at this new arrival.

And things were about to get rather

unpleasant. And we'll look at that in

our second point. Promises fulfilled

through prayer.

I mentioned Christmas earlier, which may

or may not be already something you're

looking forward to or possibly dreading.

I don't know. Um, but Christmas

obviously time we celebrate, we look

forward to, we wait for. In Abraham's

culture, they didn't celebrate Christmas

because Jesus hadn't yet been born. But

they did celebrate other things. It's

okay to celebrate things, people. Um,

and the the time they look forward to to

celebrate was the time of weaning. And

uh, that would take place back then when

a child was between two or three years

old. And it was customary to celebrate,

to have a big do. And that's what

Abraham does. There was this great

feast. And I'm sure there was lots of

fun and food and laughter, but something

mars this wonderful celebration.

Ishmael,

he's laughing.

It's a play on Isaac's name, which means

he laughs.

But this isn't the joyful laughing of

Sarah in verse 6. This is a a mocking

according to Galatians chapter 4 29.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

It's not merely a brotherly banter kind

of laugh. This is a form of persecution.

This is unkind. This is cruel. This is

potentially dangerous.

Why might this have happened? Well,

we're not entirely We're not told, but

it doesn't take that much effort to work

out, does it? Up until then, Isaac uh

up until Isaac had come along, Ishmael

had been the only heir. But when Isaac

does come along, everything changes. His

dad obviously Abraham still loved

Ishmael, but now everything seems to be

about Isaac. You know, Isaac, the

promised one, the chosen one, the

miracle baby. I mean, how can you live

up to that? And you can imagine why

Ishmael might struggle. And now this

huge feast is being thrown for this

little two, three year old.

And Ishmael's like, "Oh, great. What

about me?"

Oh, we don't know what he was doing. But

Sarah saw it and she was not happy at

all. And so she tells Abraham to get rid

of that slave woman and her son. Now, as

any parent will know, when your child is

treated improperly, that arouses some

deep and powerful emotions, doesn't it?

All the protectiveness of a parent comes

out.

But perhaps there's more than just that

raw parental rage here.

Because although Sarah's words were

spoken in anger,

they are in accordance with God's will.

Because Ishmael wasn't to share in the

promise in the inheritance.

God does have plans for Ishmael, but

they have a different path to lead.

Well, Abraham isn't quite on the same

page as Sarah or as God at this point.

And so in verse 11 it says it was very

displeasing to Abraham. One commentator

says the language is far too tame. He

says Abraham explodes with anger at the

idea.

He loved his son. Of course he loved his

son. And what's more Hagar had

previously when a Hagar previously run

away because of Sarah's bad treatment.

What had happened? God had sent her

right back. And this puts Abraham in an

impossible situation. He's got the

natural parental love for his son.

I don't know whether he still had a

relationship with Hagar or not, but

she's referred to as his slave woman

now, not Sarah's.

And so what we've got also going on is

possibly he thinks, well, God sent her

back, so it's God's will that she stays

with us. So he's got this things he

loves his son. God sent Hagar and the

son back to him and now he's got on the

other side Sarah saying we've got to get

rid of them. So you see the impossible

situation is in. It's like well I think

that God said that and I love my son and

now Sarah is saying I've got to get rid

of them. What's he going to do?

It's a no-win situation. He's deeply

distressed about it. But actually

Abraham isn't in possession of all the

facts here. For alough Sarah speaks out

of anger, this seemingly heartless

suggestion

is actually the next step in God

fulfilling his promises to Hagar and

Ishmael.

It's also safeguarding for Isaac, too.

It's also worth noting, isn't it? I

think that sometimes when disaster

strikes and those unthinkable things

happen in our lives

in the moment we might not appreciate

that it is the very calamity

that has befallen us that is part of

God's plan

part that the next step in his plans for

us to take us to where we need to be.

It's almost impossible, I think, to see

when you're in that moment and it hurts

so much.

But when we're not currently in that

situation, it's good to become aware

sometimes God does have to take us

through those difficult times because it

is the next step uh on in his plans for

us, in his good plans for us.

According to the codes of conduct of the

day, the freedom of a slave is

considered adequate compensation for an

act of expulsion. So on the one hand,

Hagar and Ishmael, they are expelled

from safety, from the family, from uh

the riches, the security, the provision

and everything that they were used to.

They're expelled. They lose all that.

But on the other hand, they are being

set free.

Whereas Sarah wanted to wash her hands

of the problem which let's face it she

kind of created.

God doesn't wash his hands of Hagar and

Ishmael.

And God repeats the promise that Abraham

made back in chapter 17. He'd already

spoken to Abraham about Ishmael that

Ishmael will become a nation. He has a

future.

And so Abraham reassured by God, he

rises the next day, early the next day.

Remember that's his practice. something

has to be done. He gets up early. He

gets it done. He rises early the next

day. He gives them some pro provisions

and he sends them away. I think I think

most parents here will appreciate the

unspeakable pain that that act of

obedience

required

or caused for Abraham.

Of course, that's just a warm-up act.

wait until next week.

But parents,

no doubt, you try to do what you can for

your children, don't you? Try to bring

them up in the ways of the Lord. Pray

for them. You provide for them. You do

all that you can. You love them. You

model Christ to them.

But there does come that point when we

also have to trust them to God

because we will not always be there. Our

influence gets weaker as they get

stronger.

And at some point, we have to trust them

to God. We have to say, "I cannot save

you. I can point you towards the Savior.

I cannot be out with you every single

night that you're out with your friends.

I cannot do all those things. I have to

trust you to God. One day they will

leave our sight, but they are never out

of God's sight.

Hagar and Ishmael, they are given

supplies. They are sent packing. Um,

she's given a skin of water, which is

about 11 L apparently, which I guess

would weigh about 11 kg. So, it's quite

heavy. She has to carry that. But in a

hot desert, it doesn't last very long.

Why did Abraham give them so little?

Well, perhaps as he was sending the

child away that he loved, perhaps he

hoped they wouldn't go far. They would

find somewhere nearby.

But they're in the desert. It didn't

last long. And and it's all gone. And

Hagar leaves the child under the shade

of the bushes. Bear in mind, Ishmael is

about 15 at this point. The term child

or boy in in from that word there, it

refers to one who is inexperienced. It

can apply to anyone of any age. you are

inexperienced at things. He's

inexperienced

at many things. And so she leaves him

there under the shade and she goes and

she weeps because her situation is

absolutely hopeless, isn't there? The

supplies have run out. She's got no one

to come and help her. There's no refuge,

no help, no real expectation or hope

that things are going to change. It's

just her, her boy, the son, and that's

how it's going to end.

It's a truly heartbreaking situation.

And so she cries.

I don't think this would be a silent

quiet cry. This would be a out of

control wailing kind of absolute loss

cry.

We're not told she cried out to God,

but it appears her son did. Verse 17,

God hears the voice of the boy. So,

we're not told he prayed, but there

seems to be some kind of some formal

prayer, something that God hears. God

hears the voice of the boy. And God

again proves that he keeps his promises,

that he is faithful. You see, when Hagar

was last in in desperation in the

desert, she'd run away because of the

bad treatment she had received. And then

she encountered the angel of the Lord.

And he had promised her a son, Ishmael,

whose name means God hears. And it is

that son who now sits under the bus

presumably feeling terrible that it's

his actions that have led to this awful

situation.

And in that situation, maybe maybe

Abraham had taught him how to pray.

Maybe that's what he's doing under that

bush, praying, and God hears his voice.

God answers. Yes, their situation is

very grave. But even in this desperate

situation, God is still at work.

And this time he acts in response to

Ishmael's prayer. Never think that

prayer is a waste of time.

It is one of the ways by which God

chooses to work.

He chooses to work in answer to our

prayer. Why does he choose to do that? I

don't know. But that's the way he

chooses to work. We pray, God answers.

That's the way it works. We need to be a

praying people.

We need to be a praying church.

God is fulfilling his promises in answer

to Ishmael's prayer.

So, as promised, as he promised Abraham

back in Genesis 17:20, God planned to

Genesis 17:20

make Ishmael into a father of 12 princes

and a great nation. And he reaffirms

that promise to Hagar.

Now, alongside the reassurance of

promises restated and a future hope, we

see there's also personal kindness of

God to Hagar in the moment. He knows her

name. Verse 17, he says, "What troubles

you, Hagar?"

It's a real comfort, isn't it, to

remember that in the midst of our

greatest hour of need, the Lord knows

your name. The Lord knows you. How

precious is that?

You think everyone has let you down, but

the Lord sees you. The Lord knows you.

And he brings her reassurance. He says,

"Fear not."

Isn't that wonderful? That seems to be

the way that God often starts a

conversation.

Says, "Fear not."

Her heart, it was full of fear. Of

course, it was. But despite how bad it

looked, she didn't need to fear. For God

had heard Ishmael's prayer. And he has

got great plans for Ishmael. And it's

not just plans for the future. God is

there in the present. in her current

struggle. He opens her eyes and there is

a well. I don't know, maybe it was

tucked behind a little rocky patch or

tuft of something or other. She She just

couldn't see it. It was there all the

time. And I This happens to me all the

time. I was looking for my water bottle

the other day and it's always on these

these these shelves that are pretty full

of stuff. I went in there, I couldn't

see this bottle. I was like, uh. and and

actually it was just there right in

front of my face. I just couldn't see

it.

And when we are out of options in our

difficult situation, God is never out of

options. When we can't see what to do,

God knows exactly what to do.

And God was going to stay with them.

Verse 20, uh he was with the boy as the

boy grew up into that free wild donkey

of a man. God said he would be. And he

gets good with the bow so he can defend

himself. He can go out hunting. He gets

given a wife. So in response to this

homeless teenage boy's desperate cry for

help, the whole situation is radically

transformed from rejection and fear and

death to reassurance, new hope, new

blessing, real help

in that very moment. To them it looked

like this is the end. Don't know how we

can get beyond this point. But God

worked through that disaster

to answer their prayers and fulfill his

promises.

Brothers and sisters, don't just weep in

your desperation.

Cry out to God

for you. You do not know how God may be

using this in your life, what the next

steps are. You don't know. you can't see

and that's okay because God does. He

knows. He sees and he is faithful.

So God works through the miraculous

intervention. He works through our

prayers and he works through providence.

And that's our final point. He works

through providence. Verse 22. At that

time, we're not quite sure um how this

next episode fits with what we've just

described. the narrator has sort of

zoomed out a bit, zoomed ahead a bit and

tied up the loose ends with Ishmael's

story. So, we see that God was faithful

and that's it. He's taken care of. Uh,

we do hear a little bit more about him

later, but for now, we can we can we can

assume, okay, Ishmael's okay, God has

been faithful. He's he's taken care of.

He's kept his promise. Now, we're back

to Abraham at that time. And we're

introduced to King Aimilec, whom we met

last week, but also to the commander of

Aimilec's army. Now, it's never happened

to me.

But if a king and an army commander come

come visiting,

you want the outcome to go well, don't

you? Because you realize there's

probably quite a lot at stake here.

Despite Abraham's previous bad behavior,

Aimilec recognizes that because God is

with Abraham, he himself needs to be

friends with Abraham, not enemies. He

doesn't want to be going up against

Abraham because that would be going up

against God. So, he wants to make a

peace pact. Remember, we suggested

that's what he wanted to do. That's what

was behind the desire to uh get married

to Sarah. Uh probably politically

motivated at least in part. But that

didn't work out. And so he tries this

more direct approach. And Abraham's

happy to enter into this. Uh this is

covenant number one. There was a peace

treaty and they they enter into that

together. But Abraham takes the

opportunity to bring up a situation

about a well.

If it seems there's a a lot of to-do

about wells in the Bible, well, remember

how important water [snorts] is. If you

had a well, you could keep your

livestock alive. That was your riches,

your your financial security, and your

life really. And as we saw with Hagar, a

well could mean the difference between

your own life and your own death. So,

you can't overstate just how important

wells are in that particular setting.

Now, whether or not the well we're

talking about is the same one Hagar had

her eyes open to, who knows? It would

seem fitting. It would seem nice,

wouldn't it? I don't know if that was

but with such an important asset it's

not surprising that friction or strife

would arise over the use of it. And so

Abraham confronts Aimilec about this.

Apparently Aimilec's servants had seized

it uh and and Abraham said, "Well, I dug

it." And uh Aimilec denies any knowledge

of the conflict. And so they agree to

swear an oath or a covenant number two

between them stating that this well was

dug by Abraham and it belonged to him

and the the region Beersa was named

after the oath after the fact. Now, it's

easy to miss this, but what's happening

here is that God has so ordained

circumstances

that even this stressful dispute that

has heightened political tensions and

perhaps brought the slightest whiff of

war onto the horizon.

God has so ordained these things so that

Abraham is able to peacefully gain a

foothold into the land.

This king and his army commander have

agreed to recognize Abraham's rights and

it's a small step for Abraham but a

giant hint that God's promises to

Abraham are being fulfilled. He has the

son and now he has the rights to the

well and so too presumably to the

surrounding bits of land. And so this is

all because aim desired peace and

because of a dispute. God has

providentially worked for Abraham's

benefit in that situation. Through a

difficult situation, God has been at

work. And this is another way that God

works.

So one, he works through miraculous

action. He does things that only God can

do. For example, he works in people's

hearts. He got you here, didn't he?

That's a miracle. Don't think you're

here by chance. God has been at work in

your life. God does these things. He

raises up nations. He makes things

happen.

God intervenes in the miraculous.

Secondly, he inspires people to pray and

then he works through our prayers. This

is another way that God is pleased to do

his will.

Thirdly, he so organizes events and

situations and circumstances that what

he has promised and willed comes to

pass.

Now, to be fair, there is a falling out

over this will uh well um in Isaac's

time, but that's later. For now, Abraham

can see God's promises are being

wonderfully worked out right before him.

And so, he decides to plant a tree as

you do.

Why a tree? It's not entirely clear.

There's a couple of suggestions I'd like

to make. It's a bit like staking your

claim like when a country plants its

flag somewhere and uh then says this bit

belongs to us. Also, a tree provides

much needed shade as we know from the

summer we've had. Actually, in a hot

climate, shade is invaluable, isn't it?

which you would need. You need shade if

a place a region is going to be

inhabited for any length of time. And

shade would be helpful for worship too.

So this tree is the start of an

establishment of a settlement. He is

beginning to stake his claim on the

land.

So Abraham has much to be thankful for.

He has the respect of the locals. He has

peace with them. He finally has his son

and heir and he's growing up. That

constant cloud of shame that was over

Sarah that's been lifted. God has given

him asurances regarding his other son

Ishmael. And so at the grand old age of

103, Abraham settles down for a bit. He

continues that dayby-day walk with the

Lord. A life of worship, of dependence,

of obedience. God has proved faithful

and God has done it.

But

the question on the horizon is the

question that needs to be settled is

having received so much blessing,

will Abraham be obedient even if it

means losing his most precious son. God

has been faithful,

but will Abraham?

Well, we'll find out next week.

Let's just be quiet before the Lord.

Oh father, we we are so thankful

that you are God,

that you are good,

that you are merciful and compassionate

and abounding in love. Oh father, we are

so thankful that even in the the depths

of our difficulties,

in the height of the storm, when things

are happening and we don't understand,

Lord, there is you and you are a refuge

for us. We can run to you and find help.

We can find someone who who understands

perfectly

in even when we do not understand, we do

not see, we can see no way out. And yet

there you are. And Lord, we thank you

that even though you take us through the

valley of death, Lord, we thank you that

there is always life and hope and a way

forward with you. Lord, we thank you.

Lord, if we don't know you yet as our

Lord and Savior, perhaps maybe this the

time when we come to you for the first

time and we find you to be our life and

our hope. So Lord, we thank you for our

time together. Help us to think upon

these things in Jesus name.