Isaac and Ishmael



Genesis 21:1-21
1The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.
2And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.
3Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.
4And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”
7And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
8And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
9But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.
10So 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.”
11And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.
12But 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 your offspring be named.
13And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”
14So 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.
15When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.
16Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, 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.
17And 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.
18Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
19Then 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.
20And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.
21He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

What God promises He always fulfills. Sarah and Abraham are given a child at the ages of 90 and 100 respectively. The emphasis of the fact that this is miraculous is repeated 3 times in the first 2 verses of the passage –“as He had said“, “as He had promised”, and “of which God had spoken”. It was God’s will and God’s action that fulfilled the promise. God even graciously takes care of the child Ishmael. It was not Ishmael’s fault that Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar colluded to “help” God out with His plan. While Ishmael is not the fulfillment of the promise, God is still willing to make a great nation of him as well. God is always gracious.

The last verse of this passage does indicate some future problems. The choices we make today will most certainly effect tomorrow. Hagar goes back to her homeland to secure a wife for son. This is not a surprise, but it is unfortunate. The Egyptians will become the enemies of God’s people in the generations to come as will the descendants of Ishmael. (Much of the unrest in the Middle East goes back to this ancient rivalry.) While the consequences of Hagar’s choice still reverberate today, we too make choices each day that impact our future. The problem is that we probably do so thoughtlessly. We live for the here and how with little thought as to how our decisions are going to impact what happens to us tomorrow.

Learning to ask God what direction to take may take some time out of our day, but it will pay off as we are on His path rather than our own tomorrow. God graciously helped Hagar and Ishmael out when they were dying of thirst, thus solving a problem for them. But instead of remaining faithful to the God who saved her, Hagar goes back to God’s enemies and attaches her life to them. The price for those type of decisions is high. Are you willing to pay?

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