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We're just about there. Perfect. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I know it's a Monday morning but it's still a good morning. This is where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year. 2023. Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus. I'm so glad you joined this morning. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into the Lord's word.
Let's pray.
Oh, Father, we thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You've woken us up this morning. You've given us a new work week.
Father, it's a blessing that we get to start this work week with your word Father, we pray that you would not return void, that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts that we would understand what you have for us today.
And Father, we pray that we would walk in your ways and follow after you in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so we're at Genesis chapter 21. Genesis chapter 21. And you know, we kind of left last week on a high place. Genesis 21, one through seven was the birth of Isaac, that was great. You know, a great way to finish out the week this week, we start our week with a hard passage. So Genesis chapter 21, beginning of verse eight, and we'll read through verse 20.
Or 21. Sorry.
So the child, this is Isaac, so the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sara saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham scoffing and therefore, she said to Abraham, cast out this bond woman and her son, for the Son of this bond woman shall not be air with my son, namely with Isaac.
And the matter was very displeasing and Abraham sight because of the sun.
But God said to Abraham, do not let it be despising in your sight because of the land or because of your bondwoman whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice for an Isaac your seed shall be called. Yeah, I will make a nation of the son of the bond woman because he is your scene.
So Abraham, rose early in the morning, took the bread and a seed of water, and putting it on her shoulder he gave it and the boy to Hagar and sent her away.
Then she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water in the skin was used up and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance about a bow shot. For she said to herself, let me not see the death of the boy. So she sat opposite him and lifted her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad. And the angel of God called the Hagar out of heaven and said to her, what ails you, Hagar? Fear not. For God has heard the voice of the lad where he is arise. Lift up the lat and hold him in your hand for I will make him 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 us a lot of drink. So God was with the Latin he drew, or he grew and weld in the wilderness. And became an archer. He dwelt in the wilderness of Peron. And his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? Be what's the best verses summarize this and see, what do we call the doom in response to these words, so a, what is this about?
Well, we talked about how Abraham and Sarah had tried to take the covenant into their own hands, they tried to fulfill the promises, you know, God said they were gonna have a baby. They were old today. She Sarah did this the thing that she gave her, her slave girl, her woman, Hagar, to Abram to bear a child. This did not turn out well. Right. Hagar was already sent away once and was brought back. This is horrible, right? This this poor girl is this woman is caught in the midst of all of this, and it's not right. It's not okay. And so now, this tension continues. Right, this tension continues, and that now that Isaac has been born now he's somewhere between 18 months and three to four years. I don't know whenever she stops weaning him. And Abraham throws this gigantic feast. It's really happy. And we find Ishmael this boy, probably somewhere around 14 Something like that. 1314 And he's now mocking Isaac.
And this makes Sarah mad.
Instead of why does it make her mad?
It makes her mad because in her mind, Hagar the slave and her slave son should respect.
But now remember what Sarah had done and the position Sarah had put Hagar and Ishmael was up to this point. The air right he was the heir apparent of unless God had actually brought Isaac about it was Ishmael who was going to receive everything. And so now she's mad because she sees that this is going to be a problem. That if Ishmael is making fun of Isaac now then he's not going to back down when the time for the inheritance comes. And this is where Ancient Near Eastern laws are harsh.
And not they just they're they're harsh.
Right. I don't like studying ancient laws from Hammurabi and stuff like that when it starts talking about how people were able to treat their slaves and and here we find they will just send her away.
Just gone disinherit Ishmael. dismiss this the slave woman and her son.
And the Lord though He's says to Abraham, right, this pleases Abraham. God says I gotta plan for him. Go ahead and send them away.
So they do.
Hagar is out in the wilderness.
It seems they have been quite a time lapse here because she's carrying both a scan of water that's now empty.
And she's carrying her own son.
This woman is carrying her own teenage boy. I don't know how famous that boy must have been. But for her to have the strength to carry him. She puts them underneath a tree and she just goes a couple 100 Maybe 50 100 yards away.
Bow shot away and just can't bear to hear his crying as she's convinced he's going to die. There's no water, there's no food, how's he going to live in the wilderness? And here Hagar receives a second Theophany God appears to her again. And we see that God cares even for the oppressed, even for those who are under affliction, and God hears the boys crying, and he tells her he reminds her that of this promise or God had promised Abraham that he would make Ishmael into a great nation but he was not going to be the heir of the covenant.
And now he makes that promise again to Hagar that her son would become a great nation.
And he has her lift up her head and look, there's a well and she that will get water for her son and he's able to revive his strength he becomes an Archer and becomes a mighty man.
This is a story about this conflict and tension between Sarah and Hagar, between Isaac and Ishmael, between trying to get the covenant by works and getting the covenant by grace. This is what Paul brings out in Galatians.
Right He says this is an allegorical interpretation, but Sarah is the covenant of grace. And Hagar is a covenant at Sinai trying to get it done by works. Treating God's law treating the Covenant as if it's something that you can just materialize and grasp on your own and he said God says, no, no, this is gonna be by grace. It's going to be by grace. We need to point out here. Everything that's happened with Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael could have been avoided or just because it is what happened doesn't mean it's what should have happened.
But even in the midst of this ugly, ugly story.
Those who are connected to Abraham are blessed.
So Hagar is blessed.
She's blessed in and I'm not trying to whitewash or make it seem less ugly, but her son does live and he does become a great nation. Actually go look back and the children of Ishmael today are the Arabic acts.
There's there's a whole bunch of of Middle Eastern tension that still based off of the descendants between Ishmael and Isaac.
And so here we find that God does remember Hagar he does remember Ishmael. He does build Ishmael into a great people, himself. Though he's not the inheritor of the covenant.
So what are we called to do?
Well, first, maybe what's the best verse?
Well, the best verse for this in my Bible, I have a few things underlined. I have verse 11, underlined in the matter was very displeasing in Abraham sight because of his son.
I have also underlined let me not see the death of the boy. So she sat opposite of him and lifted her voice to voice and wept. And then verse 17, and God heard the voice of the lad.
And then I also have verse, part of verse 19 underlined so I got a whole bunch of stuff underlined to get at the heart of the story. Let me know what what would you underline in your Bible? Well, I see calling.
Right if as we think and meditate through what this verse is calling us to what are we called to do?
When we are not called to try to appropriate God's promises by our works.
It is by grace. And it might take a long time for God's grace to manifest but he is good with his promises. It might be slow in our eyes, but it's not slow to the Lord is bringing about his promises.
And so we must look and cling to Christ.
We must not be like Sarah and Abram because every time that we try to earn God's promises to merit His grace, we end up with hardship and disappointment.
We end up making a mess of things and so here we see two sinful people, Abraham and Sarah.
And they're reaping what they've sown.
And we see also that God still cares.
Even in an ugly situation like this. He still cares for the oppressed. And the afflicted.
And so we can trust in Him, cry out to Him and hold firm to His promises, trusting in His grace.
Well, let's go ahead and pray.
Father, we pray that we would be those who would trust in your promises. Please, God keep us.
Keep us from trying to earn grace.
Lord, we pray that we would walk in the light of Your grace and we would walk in the confidence of your love.
Father, we pray that you would please give us a heart for the afflicted and for the oppressed.
Father, we thank you that we are not by genealogy children of Isaac and Abraham but you have adopted us into your family, because you truly are a gracious God.
Thank You, Lord, for all you have done in all you orange Jesus's name, Amen. Oh, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time. Bye.
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