Genesis 21 God, the promise-keeper

Genesis 21

My wedding day was awesome. The loveliest, most godly, most adorable, most beautiful woman in the world walked down the aisle towards me. I took her hands in mine, gazed into her eyes – and made the most outrageous promises to her. Wedding vows are serious business! These are covenants, promises: I will be faithful to you no matter what. I will love you whether I feel like it or not. Through good times and bad, when you love me and when you hurt me, I will love you and stick by you. We are one, and only death can separate us.

That’s the kind of promise God has made to Abraham, to the people of Israel, and indeed to us. I will stick by you, no matter what. And because God is God, he really means it, and has the ability to see it through. No matter what the cost.
Easter is the celebration of His love – a love so vast, so huge, so unquenchable, that God goes to the cross to rescue those he has chosen to love. That’s us. Wow. The Wedding Feast will be amazing!

As it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve been in Genesis I’m going to spend a few minutes reminding ourselves of the context of chapter 21: what is the journey we’ve been on with Abraham these last few months. And thinking about where we’ve come from in chapter 12, what struck me the most, what surprised me, is the subversive nature of Genesis. Subversive means: how it turns things on its head –it does what we don’t expect. We expect a story about a righteous man, a good man who impresses God, and as he grows in righteousness God blesses him more and more.
What we get is a sinful man who receives ALL of God’s blessings immediately, and then immediately proves he is a sinful man by lying, by not believing God’s promise, and creating a whole lot of trouble for the country he lives in (Egypt, back in chapter 12). But God blesses him. In the next chapter (13) he then tries to give away the land God promised him. But God blesses him, keeping His promise. Abraham then commits adultery with his wife’s servant girl, Hagar, and then he and his wife abuse her so badly she runs away to die. But God blesses him, reaffirms his covenant, and promises him a child.
The story is subversive. We keep thinking that we can earn salvation. We keep thinking that Abraham was a good man, and so God liked him. And Genesis keeps turning our expectations on their head. We cannot earn salvation. Abraham was a sinner, just like us. And God still loved him. God keeps his promises, even when we do not.

Genesis is an uncomfortable book to read (and to preach!) because it keeps messing up our neat theology (our wrong theology!). As I said a couple of weeks ago, when we looked at chapter 20, Abraham is annoying. He’s received all the promises of God, has met personally with God, has even played the role of Jesus, pleading with the Father for mercy on the city of Sodom – and then he goes right back to the same behaviour of chapter 12. Lying, prejudice, selfishness. Disappointing. Annoying Abraham.

But God is even more annoying, I said. Because instead of Abraham getting punished, getting what he deserves – he gets rewarded with sheep and goats and servants and money. It’s unfair!

And that’s the gospel.

The gospel is unfair. It’s by grace we are saved. It is unearned. And we stay Christian only by grace. It is unearned. It is God who is the hero, who is the promise-keeper. We are saved by GOD’s action, by GOD’s grace, by GOD’s decision, by HIS will, not ours. And we remain Christians, we remain blessed, because our standing before God is not based on OUR actions but on His.

This thread of the gospel runs the whole way through the story of Abraham. And next week we’ll look at a huge signpost pointing the way to the son of God giving his life as a sacrifice for sin as Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son as an offering to God. But this week? Well this week we see that God keeps his promises, even to sinful people. God’s word is dependable. We’ve seen that when he says he will judge, he will judge. Sodom found that out. We’ve seen that when he says he will rescue he will rescue: Lot found that out. And we’ve seen that when he says he will bless he will bless: Abraham found that out, Abraham will experience it again in this chapter – and Hagar will find that out. God keeps his promises.

We’ll start off with verses 1-7 the promise to Abraham fulfilled. Then verses 8-21 the promise to Hagar fulfilled. And finally v22-34 the promise of the land will be fulfilled.

1. Promise to Abraham fulfilled v1-7

The writer wants to make it clear that God is a promise-keeping God – and so reminds us three times in v1 and 2 that God keeps his promises: 1 The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. 2 She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would.

This is a direct fulfilment of the promise made in chapter 18, just before the destruction of Sodom. Flip back to 18:10 Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” Sarah hears this and laughs in disbelief and so in 13 the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Why was this promise such a big deal?
Firstly because Sarah had been barren her whole life – she had never been able to have children, even in her most fertile time of life. Secondy, because she’s now an old woman, past the age of childbirth. “Yeah, right, I’ll have a kid. Sure God. I’m a dried up old prune. Good joke at my expense.” Bitter laughter from Sarah.

But the last laugh is the Lord’s, as one year later out pops Isaac, the son of the Promise. Isaac, whose name means “he laughs”. 21:3 And Abraham named their son Isaac. 4 Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. 5 Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. 6 And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. 7 Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”

Who would have thought? God does the impossible, and keeps his promise. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Who would have thought that Sarah could produce a child? Who would have thought that God would keep his promise to Abraham and Sarah, despite their failings and rebellion and sin? Who would have thought that God himself would come down to our world, the true son of the Promise, be born in a stable, grow up to be a man, show us the Father in his life, in his power, in his teaching, in his compassion – and then take the road to Calvary, to hang accursed on a tree, to bear our sins, to taste death so that we can have life, eternal life! What a love! What a cost!

See, the birth of Isaac is the beginning of the fulfilment of the promise made in chapter 12:1-3 which ultimately is only fulfilled in Christ “The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

Through Christ all the families on earth will be blessed. Right now, across the world, in large buildings, in underground caves, in homes, in village squares, under trees, in rich places, in poor places, in every country in the world people are meeting to praise God for rescuing them. Across the world our brothers and sisters are rejoicing that they have been saved by grace. They are celebrating that God keeps his promises, by not giving us what we deserve, but blessing us instead.

And Isaac’s birth is the first in a long line that leads to the son of God. For Jesus is a son of Abraham, a great-great-great grandson of the miracle child, Isaac.

God keeps his promises.

And to remind us that this promise is not limited to one people-group – a lesson the early church learned quite quickly in Acts 10 – the writer of Genesis quickly introduces Hagar’s story – and the promise that God keeps that he made to her. God promises are for all people. His mercy is available for all.

2. Promise to Hagar fulfilled v8-21

Hagar’s story starts off by reminding us that our “heroes” aren’t very heroic at all. Just in case we thought we could earn our salvation, you know, be good enough and then God will like us enough to let us into the Club for Very Nice People (aka the Church?). No, no, no. This is the Club for Forgiven Sinners Who Continue to Sin and Mess Up But Love and Accept Each Other Anyway Because God Does (in other words, the Real Church!).

And sometimes we really do strain our ability to forgive each other and really need the Lord to give us strength. Look at how Abraham and Sarah behave.

8 When Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion. 9 But Sarah saw Ishmael—the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar—making fun of her son, Isaac. 10 So she turned to Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!”

Abraham is angry because he loves his son, but gives in to his wife’s demands after a word from the Lord, and sends Hagar and Ishmael out.

Why did the Lord expel Ishmael? Two reasons are apparent in the story: the first is in v12 But God told Abraham, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. Isaac is the son of the Promise, not Ishmael. The second is a play on words in the Hebrew: Ishmael in v9 is seen as laughing at Isaac, “he laughs”. He’s mocking his name, mocking his status, in a sense, mocking his position as child of the Promise. And since the blessing of God is following Isaac, not Ishmael, Ishmael is mocking God. 12:3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.

So Ishmael is sent out to the desert – normally a death sentence. But Abraham had faith in the Lord’s words in v13 But I will also make a nation of the descendants of Hagar’s son because he is your son, too. And Hagar and Ishmael soon realise that God is a promise-keeper.

Remember back in chapter 16: the Lord seeks out Hagar, finding her in the desert waiting to die after the abuse at the hands of Sarah. The Lord meets Hagar, sees her when no-one else does, hears her prayer – and says name your son “Ishmael” (God hears). I love her response back in chapter 16:13. It’s beautiful 13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”

The God who sees. Our God of mercy. And again, he sees them. Out in the desert, rejected, alone, God sees them.

16 Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “I don’t want to watch the boy die,” she said, as she burst into tears. 17 But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.”

God hears. Who did God hear? Not Hagar – but the boy. He may even have been praying, since the Hebrew simply says “God heard the voice of the boy.” (He was 14 at the time – for some reason I’ve always pictured him as a toddler, being left to die – but he was a young teenager, fully understanding what was going on.)

But the focus is not on him, is it? The focus is on God fulfilling the promise he gave Hagar back in chapter 16. Her son, Ishmael, “God hears”, just as Isaac brings laughter “he laughs”. At the time when all hope was lost, God heard their cry, and 19 God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink.

And I cannot help but be reminded of Rom 5:6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

Hagar’s story is our story. Cast out from the place of blessing for our mockery of God. Separated from the promise of life. Utterly helpless to save ourselves. And Christ came at the right time and died for us sinners. He is the God who hears.

He keeps his promises. Happy Easter, indeed!

3. Promise of land will be fulfilled v22-34

Now for this final point I have to admit that I was really struggling to understand why it’s here in the story until I read this in one of the commentaries I have on Genesis.

“This treaty with Abimelech marked another small but decisive step towards the fulfilment of the promises. Under the treaty Abraham secured legal rights to a well near Beersheba. For a herdsman totally dependent on guaranteed access to water for his flocks this was a most important provision. This was the first foothold that Abraham secured in the land of Canaan. As a mark of his thankfulness to God Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and worshipped (33).”

It’s another indication that God keeps his promises – and the theme of this chapter, indeed, one of the major themes of Genesis and the Bible as a whole – clicked into place. As Abimelech says in v22 “God is obviously with you, helping you in everything you do,”.

God keeps his promises. God is with Abraham, as he is with us. We live in the realm of blessing. But, the best is yet to come.

For, like Abraham, we live with not all of God’s promises fulfilled. This chapter reminds us, repeatedly, that Abraham is living amongst the Philistines. He has a well at Beersheba, but that’s all. Even Isaac, the son of the Promise, is born amongst the Philistines, outside of the Promised Land. Again, our expectations are subverted: Abraham lives most of his days in exile.
Heb 11:8–10 puts it like this It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

How do we live in this world as aliens and strangers? How do we live waiting for the heavenly city? By faith. Like our father Abraham. And his story gives us strength as we see how God cares for those waiting to enter the Promise Land, the New Creation, with Christ Jesus coming with the clouds in power, the sword of his mouth judging all people, and the earth being remade. As we wait for our life who is Christ to be revealed – have faith. Trust God. He knows how to keep his promises.

v22 “God is obviously with you, helping you in everything you do,”. God kept his promise to Abraham of his son, Isaac. God kept his promise to Hagar and to Ishmael, to hear and to rescue. God keeps his promises, to be with his people of grace, to bless and not condemn. He is with us.

Mt 28:18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

God keeps his promises.