God's Abiding Grace and Mercy - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Genesis 21, we see the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and Sarah of a child, conflict with Hagar and Ishmael, and God's continued faithfulness despite the brokenness of man.
Transcript:
Good morning. The scripture reading is from Genesis 21:1-7. Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
When his son Isaac was 8 days old, Abraham circumcised him as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. And she added, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have born him a son in his old age.
It's that time again. We are in an election year, and a presidential one at that. It's a time when new promises are made, and a time when candidates remind voters of how their opponent didn't keep all the promises they made before. Very often, both sides are right about that. Politicians are great at making promises, but they all struggle to keep them. The normal situation is for Americans to brew in perpetual disappointment, always looking for the next candidate who will keep their promises.
Truth be told, I think we have grown somewhat numb on this front. We expect politicians to say things they don't really mean. We figure it goes with the territory. We do still feel the sting of broken promises elsewhere though. A couple vows till death do us part, but theone 1 or another or both breaks that promise.
A little boy or girl wait through the time that mommy or daddy promise to spend with them, but it never comes. They're too busy. It's not only the political class, we're all breaking promises and we should be wary of throwing stones in glass houses. And yet, there is someone who does keep his promises. God keeps his promises. He keeps his promises even when it seems impossible, even when we don't deserve his faithfulness.
As we've seen in the preceding chapters, Abraham and Sarah have not been perfect. God promised Abraham that a nation would come forth from him, and presumably Sarah, But instead of waiting, they resorted to make Sarah's servant Hagar a wife for Abraham through whom he could have a son. When God insisted he would keep his promise despite their old age, they initially doubted and laughed. Ultimately, they did take God at his word as crazy as it seemed. And here in chapter 21, we see that this promise does in fact come to pass.
Rena's read the passage for us so I won't read it again. You see how from the very beginning of this chapter it's noted how the fulfillment of God's promise is truly a gracious act. It says the Lord was gracious to Sarah. It was not as though Sarah deserved a son. Giving of the son was just a pure gift from God to Abraham and Sarah, and in fact, to all humanity.
Because without the birth of Isaac, there would be no Israel and there would be no Jesus Christ. And so the Lord did fulfill his promise at a very old age. Sarah would have been 90, Abraham a hundred, and in obedience to his commands they named this son Isaac. God commanded them to do this in Genesis 17. And the name Isaac means he laughs.
And earlier, we we had seen how Abraham and Sarah had laughed at the notion of them having a child in these late years. And also, though, points to the fact that others are going to laugh at this a story as well as, you know, how could this possibly come to pass? It's a it's a joyful sort of sort of laughter. Sarah knows this. She says, God has brought me laughter and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.
They also do something else as well in obedience to God's command. They circumcise Isaac, and the significance of this can be easily lost on us if we don't if we don't recall the background of how circumcision was a sign of the covenant that God had made with Abraham. We turn back to Genesis 17, and we can remind ourselves of what the substance of that covenant was. God told Abraham this. As for me, this is my covenant with you.
You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram, you'll be called Abraham, for I've made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you, and the and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.
Then God said to Abraham, as for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep. Every male among you shall be circumcised. The sign of circumcision points to the promises that God had made. It's a very small price considering everything that God has been promising to Abraham here in this covenant, that he would be the father of many nations, that kings would come from his family, that he would inherit the land of Canaan, it's all mind blowing for Abraham because at this point, he only has 1 son.
He has Ishmael. But God, again, is is going to be promising him later in this chapter. No. It's gonna be through Sarah. Somehow, you're going to be the father of many nations.
And so when they circumcise Isaac, they're acting in obedience and they're also recognizing that this is the work of God, that God has kept his promise. And we're going to live in obedience to him. And so as I've already noted, the way in which this is all being brought to complete fulfillment is that you have Abraham who fathers Isaac, and Isaac fathers Jacob and Esau. And from Jacob, you have the 12 tribes of Israel, and this ultimately culminates in Jesus, who is of the tribe of Judah. And it is from Jesus that salvation is made available to all people.
It's a time for celebration for Abraham and Sarah, but as Isaac grows older, it becomes clear that there is a conflict brewing that will need to be addressed. So we look at verses 8 through 14. It says the child grew and was weaned. And on the day Isaac was weaned, Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had born to Abraham was mocking.
And she said to Abraham, get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac. The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the slave into a nation also because he is your offspring.
Early the next morning, Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He sent them on her shoulders and then sent her off with a boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba. So at this point, Isaac's probably around the age of 3. That's when they typically finished off weaning the child, and they had a feast to celebrate.
And this son of Hagar, it's interesting he goes unnamed here, is Ishmael. And apparently, Ishmael had done something that concerns Sarah. Says that, he was mocking Isaac. And apparently, what Sarah had really identified in this act on Ishmael's part, and it's impossible to really know what he had done. What she identified in that was a certain antagonism towards Isaac that Ishmael presented a threat.
Now you have to understand here, Ishmael at this point Is a good bit older than Isaac. He's 14 years old, and if you're familiar with, you know, kind of those traditional stories of medieval times or ancient times, there can be a a very real rivalry between 2 sons who are vying for the inheritance of the household. And it's not unusual to hear about literally, like, a brother killing a brother so that he gets the throne kind of kind of thing, and so it's safe to assume that it's that sort of threat that Sarah is probably identifying here, and she's also reflecting on the fact that God had made a special covenant with Abraham regarding Isaac. This this covenant did not include Ishmael as far as it goes with him being the promised child through whom all this would be accomplished.
Ishmael was was circumcised, but he was not the promised son. Now when we see Sarah's response here, it can seem maybe a little bit mean. we've you might recall that this happened before actually in Genesis 16 when Hagar actually became pregnant, because Sarah perceived that Hagar was kind of looking down at her and disrespecting her because Sarah couldn't have a child of her own. But when we get to verse 11, we we note that God agrees with what Sarah is actually asking for here. He says, listen to whatever Sarah tells you because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
And when Abraham hears this, he doesn't say, alright. Yeah. Hit the road, Jack, kind of thing. He He truly cares for his son Ishmael, and it distresses him. And so God offers words of comfort to him in verse 13.
He says, I will make the son of the slave into a nation also because he is your offspring. Now this isn't any new promise that God has made. In Genesis 17, God had already made this distinction between Ishmael and Isaac who was yet to be born. Genesis 17: 20, He told Abraham, and as for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will surely bless him.
I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He'll be the father of 12 rulers, and I'll make him into a great nation. And when we get to Genesis 25, we can see how that's actually fulfilled. We have a whole list of the the sons of Ishmael and, 12 tribal rulers just as God promised. Ishmael lives to be a hundred and 37 years old.
And so Ishmael had a good life. He had a great family, but it was to be distinct from what God was doing through Isaac. And so Abraham trusts God. Now it's it's difficult to imagine, you know, sending off your son and the mother of your son, I don't know kind of what the status of Abraham's relationship with Hagar was at this point, but at least the mother of your son, it's very difficult to imagine them sending them off away from your household. But he trusts that God is going to take care of them.
So he gives them food and water, and they go off into the desert of Beersheba. Now, that seems like a bad idea. I mean, most of us, if we were gonna go anywhere, you know, we probably wouldn't say let's go to the desert. But you have to remember that Hagar's from Egypt, and so it may be that she's kind of trying to set a trajectory back towards Egypt. But whatever their reason for going into the desert, they eventually do find themselves in a desperate situation.
So we look at verses 15 through 21. Says when the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bow shot away, for she thought, I cannot watch the boy die. And as she sat there, she began to sob. God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what is the matter, Hagar?
Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation. Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt. So I have a map here that shows you the kind of the basic area that They would have been in, you have Be'er Sheva, that's more modern spelling. In the Bible, it'll say, Beersheba. But this was the area they were wandering. So not so far off, but when you visit that area, it's it's very arid conditions. It's not a place you would want to be if you ran out of water. Now, I bring something else up here too as well.
I think we live in a a very big world these days. And so we come into contact with those, who have similar traditions to to the traditions that are in the Bible, but actually differ in the in details. And that's the case with, the Muslim religion, in the record of the Quran when it comes to this story. And it's interesting in the record of the Quran, if you go to the next slide, I think we've got a map of this. They record this story as happening all the way down there.
Safa and Marwa, there's these 2 hills and it records the story of Hagar running between the 2 hills, and also in that account, Ishmael is not 14 years old. He's a toddler. now the thing that we should know about the Quran is that it was written in between, like, 609 and 632 AD. So you're talking about a difference of close to 2600 years later. So it'd be like us writing the gospel, a gospel account today, 2000 years removed from the time of Jesus.
And so that's just something to be just generally aware, when you talk with people that come from that are Muslims that they have a lot of familiarity with the biblical stories, As a lot of the biblical characters, but usually the details are a little bit jumbled up. And so if you hear that story going on, you should recognize that the locations are very, very, very, far apart, from where the Bible actually records it, taking place. Returning back to the immediate circumstances of what's playing out here with Hagar and Ishmael. They don't have any water, the boy's dehydrated. Again, he's like a teenager, so you can imagine her carrying, kinda probably dragging him, trying to put him under a bush.
And she goes a distance off because she's expecting that he's gonna die, and she doesn't wanna see that. But then God shows up, and tells her I've heard the cry of your son. And this brings us back to Genesis 16 when Hagar was in the desert, and God came to her that at that moment intervened. And you might recall that she called God the name El Roi, which means you are the God who sees me. And so we see yet again that God has not forgotten Hagar, he has not forgotten Ishmael, he cares about them.
Even though, you know, Abraham and Sarah and and Isaac, you can say, you know, they're the main actors here, the primary concern, he has not neglected Hagar and Ishmael. And we can even see here maybe just, like, a very early signal of God's complete care for all the nations. You know, Ishmael is not gonna be the father of of Israel. He's gonna be the father of other other nations, but God cares for him. And ultimately that care is going to be extended and made complete in Jesus Christ.
So God does not abandon them. He keeps his promise. And, he tells her, you know, take the boy. He's going to become a great nation just as he had promised Abraham, and he he leads them to a well of water. He makes it so that she's able to to find one.
We don't know what was preventing her from finding it before, but whatever it was, God enabled her to to to find what they needed. And so God was with with them not just in that moment, but as Ishmael grew up, he became a great archer, and he became Father of a of a great nation. The chapter concludes in verses 22 through 33 with a small anecdote that seems disconnected from everything else that has transpired, but it's still important, and I'm going to briefly summarize these these verses and point out a couple of details that connect at a deeper deeper level to everything we've covered. So we look at verses 22 through 27. We find Abraham having an encounter with Abimelek again.
You'll you'll remember that Abimelech was the king of Gerar, seems as though he may have been a Philistine king, and Abraham had misled him to think that Sarah is only his his sister, and that put Abimelek's household in danger. Everything had been settled. God came to Abimelek in a dream, said, hey. This is Abraham's wife, don't touch her. And then they had gone their their separate ways.
But we find them coming together here again. Abimelek comes with, the commander of his forces, Phicol. And so this is not a social visit, it seems. It's the sort of visit that one takes when you need to hammer out some foreign relations. And the reason cited for the visit is Abimelech says, God is with you in everything you do.
Now, kind of reading behind between the lines there, seems that Abimelech's recognizing that Abraham's becoming powerful. He has a presence in the land. And so they need to kind of, figure out how their relationship is going to be moving forward. And so both Abimelek and Abraham kinda bring to the table some of their grievances. Abimelech says, hey, don't deal with me falsely.
Don't do what you did before. Abraham, and then Abraham mentions a complaint about a well of water that Abimelek's servants had seized.. And so you go on to verses 20 through 34, and Abraham offers 7 ewe lambs to Abimelech. In order that Abimelech would accept that, and that would be a symbol of the fact that this well, in fact, belongs to Abraham. No one should deny that.
And so after they make this this treaty, it says that, Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba. And very early on, we know how trees can have the significance of being kind of marking out a place where a person might call upon the Lord, and that's exactly what Abraham does here. Says that he called on the name of the Lord, the eternal God. So we asked what is the point of all this? Why why include this little episode here? The point is that it's demonstrating that God is rooting Abraham in the land.
So he has fulfilled this promise that Abraham would have a son and then through this son he would become a great nation, the father of many nations. And now by the fact that he's blessing Abraham and he's developing these treaties, he's showing that the fulfillment of this land promise that they would dwell in the land of Canaan is on its way. Even if it's not gonna be realized in Abraham's lifetime, even if they're gonna have to spend some time in Egypt and come back, it's It's signaling the fact that God is going to bring all of his promises to pass. Now perhaps at this point, you're you're thinking, That's all well and good, but what does this have to do with me? And that's understandable, but it also reveals that you probably don't really understand what the bible is about, what what it's trying to do.
You see, If you have put your faith in Jesus, this is your family story.If God does not make a covenant with Abraham, the whole world would be left in a state of God forsakenness. We remain strangers to God unless he keeps the promises he makes to Abraham. Because God keeps his promises, the people of Israel, the children of Abraham emerge as God's chosen people, set apart in a broken world. And because God keeps his promises, he doesn't stop there. He promised the whole world would be blessed through Abraham. That's That's what happens when Jesus enters the scene.
Because of Jesus, we can be adopted into the family. It's not about race or ethnicity with God, his mission has always been to gather together a people marked out by faith, Jew and non Jew alike. The apostle Paul speaks to this reality in Romans 4 verses 16 through 17. It says, Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace, it may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, Not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed. The God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. This is a faith, not just in anyone or anything, but in the one true God who has acted to save us through the person of the Son, Jesus the Messiah, the promised king. Through Jesus who died and rose again, God gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. We have seen how God gives new life through the birth of Isaac from Sarah's barren womb, he is the same God today.
He offers to us a new birth in Jesus in He takes back our hearts, liberating us from the idols, the wickedness that enslaves us. He literally gives us new life, a life that begins today, and that will ultimately overcome the grave when our bodies are raised from the dead. Abraham had faith in God's promises, And this is what God has done. We get to share in the blessing when we share in the faith of Abraham. So if if you haven't believed, this is your invitation to believe.
To inherit what God has worked out over thousands of years to make available to you. Through Jesus. And if you already believe, this is your reminder to meditate on God's promises. Your hope is not here. Remember that, your hope is not here.
Is not in the next election cycle, the next technological advancement, the next job, The next child or grandchild, your hope is seated at the right hand of God the father, he is alive and well, and the day is coming when he will arrive with all the heavens to establish God's kingdom here on Earth. Worship the eternal God. He is with us today, just as he was with Abraham. Call on his name like the father of our faith.
Let us be like the psalmist who prays, I rise before dawn and cry for help. I have put my hope in your word. My eyes stay open through the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promises. Hear my voice in accordance with your love. Preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws.
Let's pray. Dear father, we praise you for your faithfulness. We praise you that You have brought forth life from the midst of death. That you made it so that Abraham and Sarah might become parents, That she might give birth to Isaac, and that through him you would bring The salvation of the world. That through what you've begun in Abraham, You would send your son Jesus Christ so that we too might be the recipients of your blessings.
The new life that you have to offer. Father, we pray that you would help us to meditate on your promises. That we would not get distracted by the false promises of this world that are always coming up short. Help us to meditate on your love That you do see us just as you saw Hagar and Ishmael when they were in the desert. Father, you see us when we feel like we're going through a desert father, and you are with us.
Lead us to Jesus Christ, That well of living water. Lead us to him. Set our hope in him, father, Because it is him in him that all your promises are kept and will be brought to pass. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our lord. Amen. .
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us this Sunday, as we continue our sermon series looking at the Bible's account of Abraham.
It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)