The following is a transcription of a teaching given on 6/23/20. It has not been checked for complete transcription accuracy.
Today we're in Genesis chapter 21. And I'm going to call this particular chapter or study when people of God live by the power of God. When the people of God live by the power of God. And I'll talk about that in a moment, but here on the table with me instead of a mug today, I've got my trusty orange Nalgene bottle. Why orange you ask? Well, I just find that I lose this one so much less often than all the previous Nalgene bottles that I've had. And it just gives me the good vibes with my Lake Tahoe sticker on there, just all year long. I think about Tahoe. It's important to stay hydrated. I recommend it highly. All right, let's get into Genesis chapter 21 together.
Like I said, when the people of God live by the power of God is to me a major emphasis or theme of this particular chapter. And you'll see what I mean in just the first couple of verses.
God's Power
1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.
Massive Understatement
Now at this point, the reader might be fascinated by the brevity of this particular account. I mean, think of it. All the way back in Genesis chapter 11 at the conclusion of the Table of the Nations, Abraham's family was mentioned. His father, some other brothers and relatives, and his wife Sarai who was barren was mentioned for the first time in Genesis chapter 11. In chapter 12, God then promised to this man Abraham 25 years before this episode, that through him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed and that God would make him into a great nation.
And for that of course, Abraham had to have offspring. He had to have children. He needed to have at least a son. And through the course of the last 10 chapters in the book of Genesis, we have followed out the question of when will that son be born. There've been moments where their faith has lapsed, and they've tried in the power of their own might and flesh to get the job done. Going into Hagar, having Ishmael as a child. There've been moments where Abraham's faith has faltered, where he hasn't trusted God. When he went down to Egypt or when he went to Abimelech in the land of the Philistines. There were moments where God reconfirmed his promise to Abraham, even visiting him in the three men meeting in the tent in Genesis chapter 18. There were moments where they laughed at God's promise, Abraham laughing in chapter 17 and Sarah laughing in chapter 18. And then there was the moment that God announced, "This time next year, Sarah will bear a child."
There is so much buildup is what I'm trying to say. There is so much human activity. So much doubt intermixed with belief, intermixed with failure and flesh. But through it all, the promise of God remains. And now at the conclusion, you get these two short verses. The Lord visits. The Lord did what he said in verse one. He did what he promised in verse one. And he did what he had spoken in verse two.
In other words, as you look at this, what you're observing is the power and the ability of God himself. It takes so many chapters to describe the journey of Abraham and Sarah. But here in just a couple of breaths, it's declared that God does the impossible. The author Moses, he doesn't write down this story. Like, "Can you believe that it actually occurred?" It's just this is who God is. The God who spoke creation into existence. The God who said light be and light was, that God said that they would have a child. And now he has fulfilled his promise in their lives.
God's Power Unleashed
And this is one of the first, or really the reason why I think this whole chapter can point us to the people of God living in and by the power of God. And this is the power of God right here. This is God who produced a child for Abraham and Sarah. This is God who is flexing his power and his might. He is doing the work. And the rest of the chapter really is a response to the work that God has done.
Now of course, this would be greatly informative for the people of Israel. There they are receiving the law from Moses, and going into the promised land. And as they go in to the promised land, they need to know that they are going to go in by God's power, by God's might. He had made them a promise just as he had made a promise to Abraham and Sarah. And of course, the Lord has given promises to his people today as well.
We have the promise of the coming of Jesus Christ. And he came once, fulfilling those portions of his promise. And we have the promise that he will come again. We have the promise of his Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts and lives by faith. And as we believe and trust in him, he fulfills that promise. We have the promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. We have the promise that he will never leave us and forsake us as we engage in the mission of making disciples of all nations.
So we have so many beautiful promises throughout scripture. And here, we see Abraham and Sarah living or experiencing the fulfillment of God's promise. This is his power. This is the ability, the strength, the majesty of God. So this is the first thing I want you to see, God's power and God's ability. It's more powerful than us, more powerful than Abraham and Sarah, and what they could produce, and all their human energy. And more powerful than we could ever know. God just breathes it. He wills it. He desires it. And Abraham and Sarah miraculously have a child.
A Miracle Baby
Now, of course you and I know in reading Genesis 21, that this is not the first time that there will be a miraculous baby in scripture. There will be many in the Old Testament. There will be a few in the New Testament. And of course the major miraculous child who would come would be Jesus. The miraculous birth that he would experience because of the virginity of his mother Mary. So in a sense, this miraculous birth as all of them in scripture point to, points to the birth of eventually of Jesus Christ.
Okay, but let's go on now. We've seen the power of God. This is God's ability, God's strength. But let's see what happens next.
Respond In Obedience
3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Abraham's Acts Of Obedience
Now, all of these things that Abraham does in response to the birth of Isaac or God fulfilling his promise, all of these things that he does, they are actually acts of obedience. God had already told him to do these things. First of all, it says that he named his son Isaac. You might remember in chapter 17, God after Abraham laughed told Abraham and Sarah that they would name their son Isaac, because the name Isaac means laughter. So he obeys God and he names his son laughter.
And the second thing that he does is when Isaac is eight days old, he circumcises his Isaac. Which is also obedience to God. Because also in Genesis chapter 17, God gave to Abraham and to his male descendants after him, the covenant right of circumcision. An outward sign of what was supposed to be happening inwardly in the lives of Abraham and his descendants. That they were to live a clean life, a sexually holy life. To be different from the people around them. So Abraham is obeying God by doing these two things. And that's why it says there in verse eight that he did these things as God had commanded him.
Obedience
And listen. If you want to be a person who lives continually in the sphere of the power of God, the blessing of God to use a word that is sometimes nebulous in our modern vernacular. Then you must be a person who responds in obedience to the Lord.
That's what Abraham was doing. God had done the hard thing. So often, people think of their obedience to the Lord as the major thing, the difficult thing, the major sacrifice. But God was the one who did the very difficult thing, the impossible thing. But Abraham was merely responding to what God had done for him.
Israel's Lesson
And Israel of course needed to know this as they read the book of Genesis. Because how would their lives go? Well, they were going to go into the promise land. And they'd have to go into the promised land by their own power. In fact, there's that infamous episode in the Book of Joshua, when the people of God, after their first miraculous victory inside the promised land over the city of Jericho. They spied out the second target, a city called [inaudible 00:11:40], which was much smaller and had less defenses and military might than the city of Jericho. So they assumed that they would have victory. There was a little bit of or arrogance. They didn't think that they needed to lean upon the Lord.
Unfortunately for Israel, there was a man named Achan who had stolen some of the gold in Jericho and some of the garments in Jericho for himself, though God had forbade all of Israel from taking any of the spoils during that first victory. It was a secret sin of one man that infected the whole camp and made them spiritually weak. And when they went out into battle against [inaudible 00:12:22], they discovered that the power of God, it was not with them. How had they lost the power of God? Well they had exited the sphere of God's power. God had not moved, but they had moved. Their disobedience of course in one man, but that one man representative of the whole collective group. Had brought them out of the sphere of God's power and ability.
And if you want to live in a place where God's power is most manifest, it's not about being the kind of person who is superstitious, or being the kind of person who acts super spiritual. No, it's about being a person who walks in the light. A clean life. That is a powerful life. And Abraham, he was living that way. He's responding to God with obedience coming out of his life. So Abraham was 100 years old it says in verse five, when his son Isaac was born to him. Just an absolute miracle.
Respond With Joy
6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Laughter Boy
Now this is beautiful of course. Because as I've already mentioned in today's study, and as we've seen in previous studies, Isaac's name means laughter. and Sarah highlights the laughter by saying, "God has made laughter for me and everyone who hears about this, they will also laugh over me."
Now I like this for a few reasons. One major reason to me is that first of all, it seems that Sarah is allowing her previous lack of faith to be redeemed in this moment. She'd had a time in her life where she had laughed at the plans of God. She had laughed at the promises of God. And that laughter, it was not the laughter which said, "That's so amazing. I can't believe that something like that would happen to me," kind of laughter. It wasn't laughter that was celebrating the favor of God upon her life. No, it was laughter that was filled with doubt. She was doubting God's ability. She looked at her own body. She looked at the body of Abraham and she felt this is impossible. So she laughed the laughter of doubt.
And God of course had confronted her in the tent. And she said, "No, I didn't laugh." But the Lord said, "No, but you did laugh." But here now a year later, Isaac is born and she says, "God has made laughter for me." As she raised this little boy named in sense laughter, as she thought about how old she was 90 years old, and Abraham 100 years old. And the way that God had blessed them with a child after so many decades of desperation and disappointment. She just said, "This little child, he is laughter for me. God has made laughter for me." So I like the redemption there. Because in a sense what Sarah is doing is she's just moving forward. She knows she can't change her laughter in the past, but she can definitely laugh differently in the future. And I just love that about this moment. So she thinks that she herself will laugh, but she also says that others will laugh for me or over me as well.
Joyful Response
And this is another thing about experiencing the power of God upon your life. It's merely to be a person who responds with joy when God does fulfill his promises, when God does fulfill his promises. To be a person that responds with joy. It says in Psalm 126:5, those who sow in tears will reap in joy. And for the believer, there really is that constant tension between sorrow and joy. Jesus said blessed are those who mourn. There is so much that we as believers would mourn about and over. Partly when we see our own brokenness within. The first two beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, and then blessed are those who mourn. You put all of those together, you're coming face to face with your own limitations. You're coming face to face with your own sin. So there's mourning over that, but there's also morning over the brokenness that's in the world.
But combine that with the joy of knowing that the Lord is returning. That his kingdom will come, that it must be established. The joy of the gospel, the joy of our salvation. And I think it's possible as a believer, here Sarah had to kind of wait with anticipation for the fulfillment of God. But I think she could have lived her whole life after receiving the promise in joy at what God was going to do until he did it. And then living the rest of her life with joy over what he had done in her past.
You see as believers by faith, we can always walk in some sense of joy. Knowing at least by faith that in the future, God is going to fulfill his promises. And at the very least that we can look back and see the cross of Jesus Christ and have great joy because of that. So he or she has great joy, and we also can have great joy as well for what the Lord has given to us. So she just celebrates. "I've got all this laughter." Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children. Yet I have born him a son in his old age.
8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Weaning In Their Culture
This is meant to be kind of a celebratory statement or verse. And the idea is that Isaac is about two or maybe three years old. That he's no longer breastfeeding. That's about how long they would have done it back in that era. And now he's no longer breastfeeding, he's weaned. So they throw a big party. Abraham has a great feast that day in celebration for the fact that Isaac has made it to that age marker in his life. And why would that be a celebratory moment? Well partly because in a time and place like that, the question about a baby would be is this baby going to live? Very rustic, difficult conditions. Is this baby going to survive? Is this baby going to thrive? So to make it through the weaning process, it was like a celebration. Yes. Isaac, he's going to live. He's going to survive. So they're celebrating having a feast together.
Prepare For Doubts And Doubters
9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 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.”
A Shift In Sarah
Now I want you to notice a couple of shifts in the way that Sarah speaks about Ishmael and speaks about Hagar. Previously, Hagar was the handmade. Now she's referred to as the slave woman. Previously Ishmael was called Ishmael. Now Sarah calls him the son of the slave woman, or the son of this slave woman.
And the reason that Sarah is so upset about Ishmael and goes to Abraham with this request that he cast out Hagar and Ishmael is because Sarah saw Ishmael laughing at Isaac during this feast where Isaac was being weaned. Now I've already mentioned to you not only the meaning of Isaac's name. But in a previous study, we talked about how all throughout Isaac's life, there will be different episodes where the idea of laughter is connected to his life. And this was one of those episodes, Ishmael laughing at Isaac. And it actually is the same word that was used for Isaac's name. When it says that Ishmael was laughing, it's the same word that is used to name Isaac himself.
The meaning of the word can go in a bunch of different directions. In some contexts, it means to play with. So there are actually some English translations that will say that Ishmael was playing with Isaac and that this upset Sarah. Or it's also a word that can mean to joke with. You might remember when Lot went to the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and said, "Hey, destruction's coming. Wrath is coming." It says that they thought that he was only joking. Same word translated laughing here. But it's also a word that in some context can have some kind of even sexual play attached to it. The reality is we don't know exactly what Ishmael was doing to Isaac. And later in the text, there are some indications that Ishmael at least became a godly man. But something that he was doing upset Sarah. She felt that whatever Ishmael was doing was worthy of him being cast out because of the way that he felt about Isaac.
She Saw A Threat
Now as you go on, I mean really what's happening here is that Sarah perceives a threat to the plan of God. A threat to the power of God continuing to be expressed in Abraham's family. And you have to remember at this point, Ishmael is probably 16 or 17 years old. Because Abraham was 86 when Ishmael was born, he was 100 then when Isaac was born. So that puts Ishmael at 14 years of age. And then Isaac's now two or three years old. So add two or three years to Ishmael's life. He's either 16 or 17 years old. He's quite a bit older than Isaac. And he's looking down upon his little sibling or his little half-brother.
And I think in a sense what's happening here is that Ishmael is really himself doubting that the plan of God is going to be expressed through Isaac. In other words, this is competition. And Sarah can just see it from afar. "There is something here with this teenage boy that he is going to compete with my son Isaac, for the plan of God that God has said he would unfold through Isaac."
Doubts And Doubters
So in a sense, I think I would say it like this. If you want to continue to experience the power of God in your life, because what we're going to see happen is that Abraham is going to cast out Hagar and cast out Ishmael at God's direction. And I think in a sense, what this could be a picture of is the idea that if we want to see the power of God unfold in our lives, there are moments where we have to reject and get rid of the doubt, or the mocking, or the unbelief that exists.
Of course the people of Israel, they understood this in some very sobering ways. Remember when they got to the edge of the land of promise and Moses sent in 12 spies to spy out the land. And after 40 days of touring the land, they came back to the camp and reported that it was a beautiful land, but the people in the land were giants and men of war. And the people grew fearful in their hearts. 10 of the spies had a bad report. Only two believed, but the people believed and followed the report of the 10 unbelieving spies. And that unbelief of course cost the people of Israel. And they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief. Until that unbelieving adult generation died off and a new generation was raised up that could believe what God was doing.
You see so often, we want to see the power of God unfold in our own lives, or unfold in our churches, or unfold in our ministries, or unfold in our families. But too often, we listen to the unbelieving mocking voice. We listened to that voice inside that says, "You're never going to amount to anything. You'll never see the hand or the power of God unfolding your life. You'll never kick this addiction. You'll never be that kind of person." And when we hear that voice, we're so often kept back from the power of God that is ready, able, and willing to strengthen us and give us victory in this Christian life. So if you want to experience the power of God, there are times you have to deal with the doubt. You have to deal with the threat or the competition. And in this story, Ishmael was that threat. He was that competition. But her request was very simple to Abraham, cast him out.
11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.
Abraham Responds Differently
This should catch our attention because this episode is now going to sound very similar to the previous episode. When Sarah, after Ishmael's birth, grew jealous. And Abraham, instead of interceding, praying about it, he just told Sarah, "Do whatever you want to do." And Sarah's wrath drove Hagar into the wilderness and then the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar and said, "Go back and submit to Sarah. And I will bless you. And I will bless your son."
But here in this episode, Abraham doesn't behave that way. He doesn't just say, "Well, whatever you want to do Sarah. I'm willing to submit to you." No, here he's dismayed. It's displeasing to him. He's grown of course to love Ishmael. He wants Ishmael's best. He wants to take care of Ishmael. He doesn't want to abandon Ishmael just because Isaac is now born and a child of promise.
Threats To God's Plan Must Be Removed
12 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 your offspring be named. 13 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”
God Agrees With Sarah
And I want you to see here, God agrees with Sarah's plan. And like I said, because of the previous episode in chapter 16, this should come as a great shock to us as readers. In the previous episode, it was all Sarah's idea. It was all evil, and God reversed Sarah's decision by blessing Hagar in the wilderness and sending her back into Abraham's household. But here, God seems to agree. He calls Hagar what Sarah call her, a slave woman. He refers to Ishmael the way that Sarah referred to Ishmael, calling him the son of a slave woman. And then he said to Abraham, "Do as Sarah, do as she tells you." And there are times where God will speak to a husband's heart. "Do what your wife is saying."
But this is God allaying Abraham's worries. This is God saying, "This is actually a moment that I am overseeing. I want you to send this woman and this young man off on their own. Be not displeased to do it," he said. But God, in the midst of saying this, reconfirms now to Abraham that he would do an amazing thing in Ishmael's life. He said in verse 13, "And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring." In other words, the Ishmaelite people would become a great people in their own right.
Now over the years, there've been times where people who have embraced Islam in the Middle East have claimed Ishmael as their ancestor. But it's really a highly suspect connection. In the pages of scripture, the Ishmaelites and the Israelites generally get along well. And here, God is saying that he is going to bless the Ishmaelite people.
Now again, this goes back to that same idea that threats to God's promise or God's power or God's plan, they have to be neutralized. They must be dealt with. In fact, in the New Testament, Paul uses this whole story as an example of the battle between the law and grace or the gospel of Jesus Christ. The flesh and the spirit, and the promise, and the working for our salvation. So here, he's dealing with this threat.
14 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.
No Wealth For Hagar
Now because she was wandering into the wilderness of Beersheba, that helps us understand that Hagar was likely on her way back to Egypt. That's where she'd come from originally. So she's going back to her home nation. Abraham doesn't give her very much for the journey. He gives her a skin of water and puts it on her shoulders. Probably not just a little water bottle, but a 30 pound skin of water for that long desert journey. We would assume she had a few other supplies. But he doesn't give her livestock or wealth. He doesn't really give her anything. And at first glance as readers, we might look at that and think of it as a cold hearted move from Abraham.
But think about it. He was grieved when Sarah approached him about casting Ishmael out. This was not something that he wanted to do because he loves Ishmael. But it was God who told him that he would make of Ishmael a great nation.
Abraham Trusted God
So I think in a sense what's happening here is that Abraham is trusting God. He's trusting that God said he would do a great thing in Ishmael's life. And that he did not need to prop that up with wealth, riches, or any other thing. But that God would be Ishmael's defense, that God would take care of him. And in a sense, by sending Hagar out with just a skin of water, it was kind of a statement like, "Look, I'm not contributing at all to your future blessing. But there is a God in heaven who has said that he would bless my life. And he is now also saying that he will bless your life. I need you to go experience this now. he is going to work mightily on your behalf." Remember when Abraham came back from the battle against all of the kings in Genesis chapter 14, and the King of Sodom came out to try to give Abraham a bunch of spoils? And Abraham refused them. He said, "No, I've already predetermined I won't take anything from your hand lest you say, 'I am the one who made Abraham rich.'"
And in a sense, it's like Abraham is saying the Hagar, "Look, I don't want you or Ishmael to ever say that I was the one who made you who you are. God has given you a promise. He is going to do this in your life." So even though it might sound harsh at first, I think it really is emblematic of the way that God is actually working in some powerful ways directly with Hagar. I mean she's one of the only people in scripture who received two theophanies if you think about it. Two moments, both in a wilderness experience with her son Ishmael. Where the angel of the Lord appeared to her. She had two moments where that occurred. So obviously, God loves this woman, cares for this woman, and is watching over her life. And I think that Abraham in some way is trusting God for her future.
Doesn't that remind us at times of the people that he's put, that the Lord has placed in our lives? And how there's just a limit to how much we can do for the people that he's called us to minister to. Sometimes we just need to trust God. "Lord, you're the one that needs to bless this person. You're the one that will help them stand on their own two feet. Lord, you're the one." Whether it's your own children or whether it's a fellow believer that you're trying to disciple, or whether it's a pastor that you've sent out from your local church. There are moments we help. And then there are moments that we say, "You know what? We had to go through these lessons. We learned these things, and God was faithful." And he will also be faithful to you.
God's Power For Others
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then 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. 17 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. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
Ishmael Cried Out To God
Now, this is a fascinating part of this story because well for one, Ishmael as I said already is 16 or 17 years old at this point. So it seems perhaps even a little overly dramatic that she places this nearly grown young man under the bush, draws away from him a bowshot in length, and begins grieving as if he's most certainly a dead man. She's just despairing.
Now remember, God had already appeared to her. She had learned that God is the God who hears, and that God is the God who sees. That's the name of Ishmael. God hears. So she knows that. So in a sense, you might have wanted to encourage her. "Hey, Hagar, you've been in this kind of situation before. Cry out to God. He was faithful to you in the past, he'll be faithful to you again." But she just begins despairing. She thinks all is lost. She thinks Ishmael is about to die. They're out of water, they're out in the wilderness. It appears that she's lost. But notice that it says in verse 17, that God heard the voice of the boy. And the angel said to Hagar, "God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
Now we don't know exactly what that means that God heard the voice of the boy. It might just mean that he was there groaning for his life. But it's very possible that Ishmael was crying out to the God of his father Abraham at this point. This very well might have been the moment of Ishmael's conversion. This very well might have been the moment that drove him to submit himself to God. I mean in fact, in the very previous episode, we see him behaving very much like an unbeliever in persecuting the child of promise. But here it's very possible that he's now submitted himself through this particular trial that he's going through, that he's submitting himself to the God of heaven, crying out to him. And if that is the case, then it was the wilderness that produced that in his life.
Despair Can Create A Cry For God
I think in a sense, this is helpful to us any time we go through a catastrophe or trial that is widespread. Where thousands, millions, billions of people. Many states, or cities, or nations all go through it together. Or even just a natural disaster or an economic downturn. Different things that affect multitudes of people. It might help us when we're in times like that, to just consider what God might be doing as he brings people into a wilderness experience. Perhaps their hearts are being opened up to a greater degree to him. Now we would never say of course, that this is happening to everyone who goes through a trial. Because if that was the case, then everyone would be a believer. But at least at this moment, Ishmael as he interpreted that trial in his own life, he became humble. And it seems that he cried out to God.
God's Plan For Hagar
And the Lord says to Hagar what he said to Abraham. "I'm going to make your child into a great nation." You see, when it comes to the people of God who live by the power of God, one thing that the people of God need to know is that God always has a desire to bring more people into his plan. It doesn't dilute his love. It doesn't dilute his power. What the people of Israel would be seeing right here is that though God was working in Abraham and Isaac, and though God was working with Abraham and Sarah. God was also working in Hagar and Ishmael. He was trying to produce his blessing not just in the nation of Israel, but in the surrounding nations as well. And this would be an important lesson for the people of Israel to learn, and that lesson is going to be furthered even in the rest of this passage.
But this is beautiful to me because what you see here with Hagar and Ishmael is a fatherless child and a husband-less woman. But there's God. He's operating as the husband, he's operating as the father. He is stepping in, standing in on their behalf. So he tells her to get up and lift up the boy.
19 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.
Water!
Now it's very possible that this was God miraculously producing water for Hagar. It would not be the last time that God has miraculously produced water for the people that he loves. But I also wouldn't be surprised if what's happening here is that her fear, her sorrow, her worry, her concern so blinded her to the fact that she was right next to a well of water. This is just a very human experience I think. Fear blinding us, keeping us from seeing the provision of God upon our lives.
And what's cool about this moment additionally is that in a second, we're going to see God bless Abraham by giving him a well of water that him and Abimelech are going to negotiate over. And before even getting to that, we see that God also blessed Hagar like he blessed Abraham, with a well to drink from. So they get up and they fill the skin with water, and she gives the boy a drink.
20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Now those sentences that I just read right there, they actually might have been directly sourced eventually from Ishmael himself. Not Ishmael to Moses, but Ishmael recounting this. And then that tradition being passed down until Moses wrote of it. And the reason I say that is because notice there in verse 20, it says that he became an expert with the bow. He became a great Archer or a hunter with the bow. Remember back in verse 16? Hagar his mother, she saw him, thought that he was dying. How far away was he from her? Well, it says about the distance of a bow shot, which I think is the only time in the Bible that that phrase is used to describe distance. So I think maybe Ishmael was the one later on who began retelling this story. We were out there. How far was your mom away from you? She was about a bow shot. How did he know that? Well, because here he is. He had become an expert with the bow.
Live At Peace With Outsiders (If You Can)
22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 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.”
Again With Abimelech
Now, this is obviously a brand new scene. We've seen the birth of Isaac. We've seen the banishment and the protection and blessing of God upon Hagar and Ishmael. And this is our last episode of our study today. It's Abimelech who we saw in Genesis chapter 20 approaching Abraham. Remember what happened in chapter 20? Abraham had gone into Abimelech's territory and told Sarah to say what she normally said when they went to various places. "Tell everybody here that I'm your brother." The thought being that he was safer somehow by being her brother then by being her husband. Perhaps the idea like I've been mentioning that they would have killed her husband to take her hand in marriage. But if he's a brother, then they might negotiate with him. And he could drive the price up so high that they refuse to try to marry Sarah. And because of that honor kind of culture that they were in, they would have left Sarah and Abraham alone. But Abimelech, he's a wealthy man. He's the king, he's the power of that area. He takes Sarah into his harem. And again, the whole plan of God is in jeopardy because even one sexual encounter with Abimelech would mean that Isaac's birth is less than legitimate. There'd always be a question. Is this really the child of Abraham?
So God strikes the whole house of Abimelech with the closure of the wounds, which might've been some kind of sexual dysfunction or disease or something like that within the home. Something keeps Abimelech from touching Sarah in a sexual way. And then God gives to Abimelech a revelation in in the night where God speaks to him in a dream and says, "You're a dead man. You've taken another man's wife." So Abimelech goes through the process of making things right, getting Sarah back to Abraham. So they have history together as what I'm trying to say.
His Requests
And Abimelech comes to Abraham with this kind of twofold announcement/request. He basically wants to live at peace with Abraham. But he starts out by saying first, "Abraham, I know that God is with you in all that you do. I know that God is with you in all that you do." What a beautiful statement. Wouldn't we love for people to say this about our own lives? I know that God is with you in all that you do.
But then secondarily, he also says to Abraham, "Swear to me hereby God that you will not deal falsely with me, or with my descendants, or with my posterity." Now that's the shameful part about what Abimelech had to say. He knew that Abraham had lied to him previously. So he's a little worried about that. "Please don't lie to me again." Now, before we move on and close out the chapter, what would this say to the people of Israel? What would this say to us as we observe this in Abraham's life? Well we've been talking today about the people of God living by the power of God. You've got the power of God there with baby Isaac. And there's Abraham living in obedience, responding and obedience. There's Sarah laughing with joy. There's Abraham and Sarah doing their part to deal with any threat that is coming up against the plan of God. There's God reaching out to people who are far from his power and plan, and bringing them into his program here on earth.
Peace
But here is another beautiful element about living in the power of God, just experiencing God's hand upon your life. And it's this. Just trying to if you can, live at peace with those who are on the outside. Living at peace with those who are on the outside. It says in First Thessalonians 4:11, that, "We should aspire to live quietly. And we should mind our own affairs." This is kind of what's happening here. Abimelech comes to Abraham and just says, "Look, I would like to live at peace with you if you're willing to live at peace with me. Let's make a treaty together." This would have been an important lesson for the people of Israel to learn. Because when they went into the promised land, they went in as instruments of God's wrath and judgment upon a people who were ripe because of their sin. Hundreds of years had passed by. They had not repented. God's judgment was ready for that people group that lived inside of the land of Canaan. But there would be people outside of the land of Canaan who were not yet converts, but who wanted to live at peace with Israel. And it was okay. Not for them to share religion or anything like that, but okay for them to live at peace with one another. In fact, this was seemingly part of God's evangelistic plan for the nation of Israel. His house was to be called a house of prayer for all nations. And the people of Israel were supposed to be part of that plan to in a sense, evangelize the world. Tell the world about the God of Abraham. So when you can live at peace with outsiders.
24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.” 25 When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26 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.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 30 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.”
Abraham The Pilgrim
Now this is a reverse from what happened in chapter 20. In chapter 20, Abimelech gave a bunch of stuff to Abraham and Sarah to prove his innocence and to testify of the purity of Sarah. Now here, Abraham is giving to Abimelech. And it all kind of centers around Abraham's desire to be able to have rights to this well that he's dug up or this well that he has found that Abimelech's servants apparently in the past have seized. And they're trying to make that right.
Now, the idea of Abraham needing to negotiate for a well of water in land that he does not own, but he's borrowing from a foreign power. All of that speaks to the fact that this guy's just a sojourner. He's just a Pilgrim. He's just wandering. He's not yet entered into the land of promise. It's not yet his.
And this is the other part of the promise from God. I mean yeah, God said that he would have a child and that he'd have physical descendants. That he'd be the ancestor of descendants like the sand on the seashore. But also, the land of promise would belong to his people at one point. And right here, he has to negotiate for just water, just so that he can stay in the land. Borrow some of the land.
Root Yourself In God And His Work
31 Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. 32 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. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
The Covenant
Beersheba means seven, or oaths, or both because you had seven ewe lambs. And then you had the oath that they kept making that word oath is repeated throughout this little passage. Probably over time, it just came to mean both seven and oaths. 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 the army Rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
Abraham Worshipped By Planting A Tree
Now this last move that we see here in this passage is of Abraham worshiping God in a fascinating way. He worships God by planting a tree. Now, what would that have meant for Abraham? I don't think that it was his way of celebrating the environment or anything like that, though that's a fine thing to do. But there you have this well at Beersheba. He gets permission to use that well, to live by that well. Water is life. So that's where they're going to live. He takes a tamarisk tree, which is a tree that Bedouins would plant in various places to provide shade, to provide foliage for their flocks to be able to eat from. So he plants a tamarisk tree thereby that well, what would that tamarisk tree communicate?
Well basically, it was an act of faith in God, trusting the Lord. How so? Well, in a sense it was saying, "I believe that God is going to provide me all the water that I need while I'm here. The water will continue to flow, and this tamarisk tree is going to live."
It also spoke about time, didn't it? I mean a tree doesn't just grow, take root overnight. It's a process. So to plant a tree, it's spoke of Abraham's intention that this eventually, this is going to be our place. He believed it by faith.
But it also, I think, speaks of the piece that he expected to find there. That he would not have to war against Abimelech and Phicol his commander. That he wouldn't have to war against the powers that be in that land, but that there'd be peace in that land. It seems to have been a statement of faith from Abraham to plant that tree in that place.
And it's interesting because it says that it was there that he began to call on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God, the everlasting God. It's probably not so much a way for Abraham to call upon the fact that God is eternal, though Abraham would have believed that and agreed with that. But a way for Abraham to call upon God who is enduring God, who never stops. God who keeps going. And to him, it's like, as these roots went down into the ground, he is saying, "I am putting my roots into the everlasting God who will be my enduring forever constant source of life, source of peace, and source of growth and strength." So if you really want to experience the power of God, you've got to root yourself into God himself. His power, his might, his majesty.
Land Of The Philistines
And so it says that Abraham's sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. It really wasn't quite yet the land of the Philistines, though some scholars think that there were ancient peoples who were there already at that time, who would have been ancestors to the eventual Philistines who came from the West and populated those shores. But it's probably a statement that's written later saying the area that he was in is the place that eventually became the land of the Philistines.