Promise Made - Promise Kept || Genesis 21:1-34 || Session 36 || Verse by Verse Bible Study

Have you ever chuckled at the thought of a promise too good to be true? In today's verse by verse Bible Study, discover the astonishing parallels between the ancient stories of the Bible and our contemporary spiritual journeys as we guide you through the narrative of Isaac's birth in Genesis 21. Be prepared to be moved by the testament of unwavering faithfulness and the manifestation of God's promises, just as Abraham and Sarah experienced centuries ago. We delve into the typology of Christ's birth and the profound implications it bears on our belief in a life-giving God, ready to breathe new purpose into the barren areas of our lives.  We close our session reflecting on the eternal nature of God's promises, leaving you with thought-provoking insights into the true meaning of eternal life in the light of God's unchangeable character.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:19

Hello and welcome. My name is Glenn and I'm here with Steve. We do verse-by-verse Bible study here on a ministry we call Reasoning Through the Bible. Today, if you have your copy of the Bible, turn to Genesis, chapter 22. As you remember, the book of Genesis primarily deals with four people Abraham, isaac, jacob and Joseph. We're following Abraham as God works through him to accomplish God's will. Abraham as God works through him to accomplish God's will. Today we're going to learn about the birth of the promised son, isaac. So Genesis chapter 21 says this.

Speaker 1 0:54

Then the Lord took note of Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me. And she said who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son. In his old age. The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Speaker 1 1:46

In this passage, god keeps his promise. If you remember, god had appeared to Abraham several times and in one of those instances promised that he was going to have a son was to name his son Isaac. God keeps his promise. In their old age, abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. They have a son and they call him Isaac. God's prophecies about Sarah having a child were literally fulfilled. God is dependable and keeps his promises. This is just one more of these promises, these prophecies that were literally fulfilled.

Speaker 2 2:28

So, steve, can we trust God in what he tells us? We can trust God because we see here in Old Testament scripture and New Testament as well, scripture in general that he does keep his promises. I also think that that's the reason why we have these narratives that we have is to give us confidence that what God promises he is going to be able to keep.

Speaker 1 2:50

These passages back here in Genesis tell us some things about God and also about the Lord Jesus and even the gospel. Isaac was born at a time when God had determined was the time for him to be born. Likewise with Christ, god says, quote when the fullness of time had come, god sent forth his son. He says that in Galatians 4.4. God did this miraculous birth when Isaac was born, but he also did a miraculous birth when Jesus was born. God gave a type of Jesus in the person of Isaac. I find that to be such a tremendous lesson.

Speaker 1 3:31

Neither Abraham nor Sarah could bring about this birth. When God does a sign, miracle, it's always something that only he could do. If Sarah would have had a child when she was 20 years old, that's not unusual. That happens all the time, but it never happens when a woman is 90 and the man is 100 years old. God gave a type of Jesus' supernatural birth when Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah. Again, it's nothing that the flesh could bring about. The New Testament tells us that Abraham and Sarah were as good as dead as far as childbearing happens, but nevertheless God brings life from death. The birth of Isaac is also a picture of what God can do in our lives. We may think our life's dead, it's over with, I'm used up, I'm all dried up, there's no hope for me. But, steve, can God bring life into a dead person's life, somebody that? Well, my life's all used up, there's nothing left for me. Can God still bring purpose and meaning and vigor and life into that?

Speaker 2 4:40

That's exactly what he's done here with both Abraham and Sarah.

Speaker 2 4:44

This is 25 years after God has called Abraham out and promised him the land and the descendants. If God would have given them a child soon after he had called Abraham out, we wouldn't have all these other stories of Pharaoh, of Abimelech being warned, of Hagar being involved in the situation, the different attempts for Abraham and Sarah to make something come about. That wouldn't have been the case. The fact that this is 25 years later shows that it is God's timing and it is a miraculous event from that standpoint, and that God is the one that's determining what's going to happen and what timeframe that they're going to work in. I think it's a general principle that God works through and it's a building of faith. All this time. It's building Abraham and Sarah's faith and it's one that builds our faith as God works in His timing. Sometimes we want to try and make things happen, just like Abraham and Sarah did, but he did pull something out of nothing and brought life into Sarah and Abraham's life through this birth of Isaac.

Significance of Isaac and Spiritual Maturity

Speaker 1 5:59

God did a miracle in bringing life into Sarah's womb and he can do a miracle there. Then he can do a miracle in my life. And he can do a miracle in bringing life into Sarah's womb and he can do a miracle there. Then he can do a miracle in my life and he can do a miracle in your life. I may have caused a lot of sin and deadness in my life and I may even be a slave to sin, but God can come and free me from that slavery and he can inject life again into places where all we've done is make a mess of things. That's the lesson here. He did a miracle in Sarah's life. He can do a miracle in my life. He can do a miracle in your life by giving us new life in Christ.

Speaker 1 6:36

Also, look at verse 2. It says that he brings about Isaac at the appointed time, of which God had spoken to him. Well, he's specifically in the text speaking of previous chapter in 1810, where God appears as the angel of the Lord, as a man, and gave a specific time when Sarah would have a child. What he's talking about here is that back in chapter 18, god had appeared and said it's going to come. We also notice here it says that God had spoken to him. In verse 1, yahweh the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. So it says twice in these two verses that it was the Lord, god Yahweh, who had spoken these things back in 1810. Therefore the further support that the angel of the Lord appeared as a man. It was God Almighty appearing as a man.

Speaker 1 7:34

Then we have here Abraham responds to this child being born. He obeys in two different ways. Naming his son Isaac was one of the things that God had commanded him to do. He obeys there and then he obeys in circumcising, as God had commanded. We should obey as God commands us, whether or not he gives us what we desire. We may say, oh, I want this, I want that, I have a desire for things to happen. God may or may not give us our desires, but we should still obey anyway. That's what happened here is that Abraham obeys God in the naming and the circumcising of his son. Then we get to this part about laughter.

Speaker 2 8:15

Well, steve, do you remember what Isaac's name means Isaac's name means laughter, isn't that right?

Speaker 1 8:21

That's true. What is the connection? There was two different times in previous chapters where their laughter had entered the story. There's sort of a word play here with this name.

Speaker 2 8:31

Under both circumstances, at different times, one with Sarah and one with Abraham. When God is noting that, no, you're going to have an offspring from Sarah, from your loins, Abraham, and from Sarah, they both laughed within themselves. It was in the area of at my old age am I going to be able to have and give birth to children? Sarah was barren, Abraham was old. They both were old and they had both laughed about it at one point in time.

Speaker 1 9:03

You walk up to the average 89-year-old woman and say you're going to have a child next year, you'll probably get a chuckle. That's kind of what happened At different times. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed. God says you think this is funny? We're going to name him that and you'll have to deal with it for the rest of your life. Abraham was 100 years old, says in the text. Sarah was 90. That's a long time to bring about a blessing, but God does things in his timetable, not ours.

Speaker 1 9:31

Then look down at verse eight. It says here that there came a day when Isaac was weaned from his mother's milk and they had a celebration. It makes me think of there, steve, that in the Christian life there comes a time where we need milk, but then there comes a time when we need to get weaned off of that milk and go to solid food. The New Testament, in a couple of different places, plays on this theme of the pure milk of the Word. And then, moving on to solid food, quote milk of the word. And then, moving on to solid food, quote as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow. Peter says in 1 Peter 2.2. But there comes a time when we have to leave behind the milk and move on to solid food. There's a time for Christian teachings to be more mature. There's a time when we need to leave behind the simple things and move on to the more complex things in the Word of God. If we're a Christian and we're still dealing with really basic things after a long time, here's what it reminds me of, steve.

Speaker 1 10:42

How would it look like if there was a fully grown man still drinking out of a baby bottle? That'd be absurd. People would say something's wrong here. A grown man needs adult food. Wouldn't be really mature if he was still drinking out of a baby bottle. I think in our churches we have too many Christians that are still drinking out of baby bottles and need to move on to the more mature things of the faith. Matter of fact, in Hebrews it says specifically that quote. For, though, by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food For everyone. Who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant, but solid food is for mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil, says that in Hebrews 5, starting in verse 12. So, steve, do we have people in our churches that need to be weaned from the milk and move on to?

Speaker 2 11:49

solid food and the way that they need to be weaned, glenn, is for the leadership and for the more mature Christians to push them off of that milk and onto the adult food. I think that there are many mature Christians that are just enablers and they don't work with the younger Christians and tell them, like you just said, and read in Scripture. Are you actually studying Scripture? Are you actually building yourself and building your spiritual body up with mature Bible study? Or are you just coming to church listening to what the pastor is saying, maybe going to a small group and listening to what the teacher is saying, and going home and not acting on it? That is somebody that hasn't been weaned. Yes, christians need to be weaned off of simple things and simple concepts and they need to be pushed into serious Bible study. If they have a problem of kicking back against that, they need to look at themselves and ask themselves why is it that I don't want to or don't have a desire to, delve more into God's Word?

Speaker 1 13:00

New baby Christians, people that become Christians for the first time, need some simple teachings. They need some simple, straightforward basics of the faith. But they need to move beyond that. The Lord Jesus gave the analogy of agriculture with plants growing, and if a plant doesn't grow, if an oak tree stays as small as a little seedling, then something's wrong. It needs to grow into a great oak tree and the only way is to have deep, complex, long-term, contemplative Bible study that gets into the deeper things of God, the deeper things of theology and doctrine and biblical principles, so that we can apply these things for life. Again. The Hebrew passage just says says you ought to have been a teacher by now, but you're still wanting these basic things. That was a rebuke to people. The rebuke was all the way back to the first century and it's still in place today. Let's go ahead and move on. Steve, if you could start at verse 9 and go down to verse 13.

Speaker 2 14:01

Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham mocking. Therefore, of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had borne to Abraham mocking. Therefore, she said to Abraham Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son, isaac. The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son, but God said to Abraham Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid. Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named, and of the son of the maid I will make a nation, also because he is your descendant.

Speaker 1 14:36

With this, the son of the maid, Hagar, Ishmael would have been about 13 years old and he started to mock Sarah and her new son. He started to poke fun, as teenagers sometimes want to do. Sarah gets upset at that, as you might imagine, and wants to drive away Hagar and her son, Ishmael, wants to push him out. Ishmael was still Abraham's son, so Abraham is reluctant to send him away, is reluctant to send them away. God appears and tells Abraham not to be concerned because a great nation would also come through Ishmael. However, God is very clear. He says here, quote through Isaac, your descendants will be named. So, Steve, what do we learn from this passage?

Speaker 2 15:22

We learn that God is consistent, and he was consistent in bringing about Isaac and consistent with telling both Abraham and Sarah First, abraham, your descendants that are going to inherit everything the promises are going to come from your loin. The second thing, the descendant that's going to inherit all these promises, is going to come from Sarah's womb. Now we have this son Isaac is going to come from Sarah's womb. Now we have this son Isaac, and so he's following up and he's assuring Abraham of that. Isaac is going to be the descendant of the promise.

Genesis 21 and Galatians 4 Comparison

Speaker 1 15:54

With this, this passage we just read, where God says to Abraham through Isaac, your descendants will come. He's the child of promise and to put out Hagar and Ishmael Through this, there's a couple of different, very important things that happen over in the New Testament. First of all, this passage through Isaac, your descendants will be named shows up in Romans, chapter 9. Romans, chapter 9 is dealing with this passage, and notice where it's quoting here back here in Genesis, chapter 21. Notice what's going on in the story. Verse 10, sarah doesn't want Ishmael to be an heir. Abraham is worried about Ishmael not being an heir, and so being an heir meant a great nation in the Abrahamic covenant. That's what the question was. In context In verse 13, god shows up and reassures Abraham and said Ishmael would also end in a great nation too.

Speaker 1 16:56

The question that was on the table in Genesis, chapter 21 was who are the nations going to come from, isaac or Ishmael? God shows up and says the one of promise is through Isaac. But don't worry Abraham, there's another nation that's going to appear through Ishmael. Therefore, the inspired word of God over in Romans 9 picks up this question about nations. We'll deal with this when we get to Romans, chapter 9. But just to reinforce the quotation in Romans 9-7, through Isaac your descendants will be named is in the context of deciding whether nations would come about and where God was going to work through nations. God here divinely, sovereignly, chooses to work through Isaac because God wanted to work through Isaac. So Steve comments on that before we go on to the next.

Speaker 2 17:53

There's another passage that shows up in the New Testament. It's something that God assures over and over again he will later come and confirm all these promises to Isaac. Then he will also later come and confirm all these promises to Jacob, isaac's son. God is working through his plan and he's working through and assuring everybody that this is what the plan is and these are the people specific people that they're going to be worked through. God is meticulous and he is documenting everything for us, for Abraham, isaac and Jacob, as well, as the story progresses.

Speaker 1 18:24

The second thing where this story of Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael show up is in Galatians, chapter 4. And in Galatians, chapter 4, the apostle Paul is dealing with whether or not Christians in the New Testament church have to obey the law. Specifically, gentiles and Jews too. Are they held to obedience to the Mosaic law? In Galatians, chapter 4, paul takes the story of Sarah putting out Hagar and uses it as an allegorical illustration. And he uses Hagar as the representative of the Mosaic law and he uses Sarah as the representative of the New Testament new covenant. The Old Testament law, of course, was conditional on obedience based on Moses. The new covenant, based in grace, is not based on conditions of obedience. In Galatians 4, god says the bondwoman, hagar had to be put out and the free woman, sarah, was to be kept. The illustration is that the old legalism of the law must be put out and we must embrace the freedom of God's grace that comes in the new covenant and later the new Jerusalem that comes in. In the new Jerusalem we're held to the principles of love your neighbor and not through 600 plus legalistic laws on how exactly to treat people. All Christians have to come to the point where we cast out the bondage that comes through trying to please God through obedience. If we're trying to please God by doing things, all we're going to get is tired. We have to put that out. That's the old way of thinking. We need to get rid of that. The new way of thinking is through God's grace we are declared righteous in Christ. Therefore we have a love relationship. The church is the bride of Christ. That's a love relationship with the husband, jesus. Therefore we do things out of love and not out of obligation or obedience.

Speaker 1 20:40

Then in this passage, verse 11, abraham was greatly distressed at the idea of putting out Ishmael. If we follow the example given in Galatians 4, our old flesh is going to want to hang on to our old ways by trying to earn righteousness through obedience. We want to think that we've done something to deserve God's favor. But the Bible says we have to put out those old ways and embrace the child of grace. When Sarah and Abraham decide to have a child by the maid Hagar, this was sin and God doesn't approve of it. It was not a thing that God had blessed.

Speaker 1 21:22

God will then not allow sin to stay, but he'll put it out. We don't want sin to come in and live with us. We may find ourselves sinning at some point. We are all weak and we do but what we don't do is invite sin to come into the house and live there. When we discover sin, what do we have to do? We have to put it up, and it needs to be harsh. What did Jesus say about sins? About what happens if your eye offends you or your hand offends you? Pluck out your eye, cut off your hand, cut it out, get rid of it. That's the illustration here. We need to get radical with putting sin out of our lives. Moving on to the next one, steve, if you could start at verse 14 and read down to verse 21.

Speaker 2 22:07

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water of the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bow shot away, for she said, do not let me see the boy die. And she sat opposite him and lifted up her voice and wept.

Speaker 2 22:36

God heard the lad crying and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her what is the matter with you, hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink. God was with the lad and he grew and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer. He lived in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of.

Speaker 1 23:13

Egypt. In this section, abraham obeys. God puts Hagar and Ishmael out. Here we have a single mom and her child in the wilderness. No food, no water. Hagar gets to the point where she thinks they're going to die no water. Hagar gets to the point where she thinks they're going to die, she sets the son aside and gets a little ways away because she didn't want to watch her son slowly die of thirst. They're in a bad spot. They're in a desperate and miserable situation and they see no way out. Well, steve, what happens when we get into this at least? In this situation a desperate and miserable situation there's no way out. Who shows up?

Speaker 2 23:50

God shows up. We've talked about it before that before a problem exists, god has a plan out of it. It's interesting that Hagar had had God visit her before. In a previous situation she had even praised him for the God that saw her. At that time he promised that Ishmael, her son, would become a great nation. Here it is a few years later she's in a similar situation, maybe a little bit more dire, seems like she has kind of maybe forgotten the promise, forgotten the previous encounter that she had with God. But God hasn't forgotten. It says that he heard the cry of the lad and he hears her cry as well. He asked that rhetorical question to her Hagar, what's wrong? Kind of like a saying don't you remember? I told you that there was going to be a great nation that was going to make made out of Ishmael?

Speaker 1 24:42

You're going to be taken care of God did indeed hear their cries and he hears the cries of the needy. My friend, I don't know what kind of situation you're going through, but he will hear your cry and he will indeed do a work in your life. God shows up at our point of need. They're in a desperate and miserable situation and God knows about it. He shows up and blesses them.

Speaker 1 25:07

Very interesting verses over in verse 19. They're in the wilderness. There's no water. I get the impression from the text here that they're out of energy. They've found somewhere to just sit down and die. She's given up. And God shows up.

Speaker 1 25:22

And look at verse 19. It says Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled the skin with water and got the way out of the rain. Get the picture. She's there and, as you said, steve, god had the solution in place before we even knew. The problem showed up. But the water was there. She just didn't see it until God opened her eyes. She was out of energy, lost, about to die of thirst, laying down ready to die, and there was a solution to her problem right there. She just didn't see it. She thought she was a goner and her son was a goner until God opened her eyes. Steve, can that happen in our day? Can we be in a desperate situation? There's no way out here. But if God opens our eyes and shows us a solution that was right there all along, I just didn't see it. Does that ever happen in our day?

Speaker 2 26:15

It does happen, and usually how does it happen? It's because we're focused on our poor, pitiful situation. There's no hope, there's desperation and we don't see any way out and we're not going to God. But God shows up, he has a solution. What we learn here, I think, is don't focus on your desperate, dire situation and don't think of it as a desperate, dire situation, but go to God, take it to Him. He knows what's going on. Take it to Him and petition Him. Lord, I don't know how you're going to do it, but open my eyes, like he did here with Hagar. Show me a way out of this situation and praise and honor him through it. Don't focus on our own situation, because then we end up not focusing on God and not going to God. We're just within our own little, poor, little me world.

Speaker 1 27:11

As long as I'm focusing on my problem, I'm never going to see God's hand in this and God's solution. The last part of this chapter chapter 21, deals with King Abimelech. If you remember, abraham had dealings with King Abimelech. Abraham had lied to Abimelech about whether or not Sarah was his wife back in chapter 20.

Speaker 1 27:33

In chapter 21, abimelech approaches Abraham and recognizes that God was blessing and protecting Abraham. So Abimelech goes to Abraham and asks Abraham swear to me that you will always deal honestly with me. He says, abraham, I want you to deal with me. Will you give me your word that you will always deal honestly with me? He says, abraham, I want you to deal with me. Will you give me your word that you'll always be honest with me? So, steve, christians should always deal honestly with everyone. We should be people that no one should have to come to us and say promise me you're going to deal honest with me. One lie in the previous chapter is going to cause a doubt in Abimelech of whether Abraham is going to follow his word. Now Abimelech's having to come back and say you lied to me before. Now promise me, you'll tell me the truth. That should never happen to a Christian, should it?

Speaker 2 28:25

No, we shouldn't get into that situation where we have done that to show somebody else that we're not trustworthy. The old saying is you are the best Christian that somebody else knows as a Christian. If you're a professing Christian, then people are watching us. Yeah, make sure that we're always dealing honestly with other people. We also see in this that Abraham goes out of his way this time to give Abimelech seven lambs, seven ewe lambs and he tells Abimelech I want to make sure that through this covenant that it's never said that I took something from you. He gives this over to Abimelech. We kind of see Abraham going out of his way to make up, possibly, for the mistrust that had been put there through his actions before.

Speaker 1 29:14

Towards the end of this chapter, verse 33, abraham plants a tree near a well at Beersheba. Now, this is way in the southern part of the land. This is the first act of Abraham settling the land. It's the first thing he does to show that, okay, I'm going to be here a while. In the next chapter he's going to actually settle. But here, the planting of this tree at the well at Beersheba shows two things One, abraham's planning on being here a while and two, he expects there to be a continuous supply of life-giving water. Abraham was acting on the fact that God had given him the land. God had said this land's yours. Now Abraham is taking action to possess the land. That's what I see here, steve, with this planting of this tree. It's a symbolic effort and it's more than tree. It's a symbolic effort, and even it's more than symbolic. It's a real, tangible effort to say that, okay, water's going to be here, I'm going to be here, god's giving me this land. I'm planting a tree next to this well so that I see as a first step towards obtaining and settling this land.

Everlasting Promise of Salvation

Speaker 1 30:28

Then we also learn, in verse 33, some things about God. It calls God quote the everlasting God. Now we have yet another name for God that's been introduced in the book of Genesis the everlasting God. God had no beginning or end. He's everlasting. Psalm 90, verse 2 says quote from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 93, verse 2 says, quote your throne is established of old. You are from everlasting. God does not age. He doesn't get older. He's not any older than he was back in Abraham's day. God doesn't have beginnings, he doesn't have an end. He is the everlasting one. Beginnings, he doesn't have an end. He is the everlasting one. God can make an everlasting promise of salvation to us only because he is an everlasting God. In his own being he's everlasting and he doesn't get older. Therefore, he can give an everlasting promise Because he is all-powerful and everlasting. Then he can bring it about. Steve, we can rest in that.

Speaker 2 31:35

Yes, I like the way that you put that is is that we can rest in that promise because he is everlasting. If he wasn't everlasting, then how could we have everlasting life? That's really something to think about.

Speaker 1 31:50

As my question I always like to ask is how long does everlasting life last? Everlasting, everlasting. Our time doesn't last everlasting, but God does. We're going to stop here for today, at the end of this chapter. We trust that you've benefited from these verse-by-verse studies. Continue with us next time as we reason through the book of Genesis.

Speaker 2 32:11

Thank you so much for watching and listening, as always. May God bless you.