Sermon Notes + Quotes:
Transcript:
We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and this week we continue our study of the book of Genesis. We’ll be studying chapter 21 today, and it’s my honor and privilege to study alongside of you. Recently, I was listening to a playlist of my favorite band, U2, and a song came up that they recorded back in 2004. The chorus goes like this: “Hello, hello. I’m at a place called vertigo.” If you’re familiar with that song, you might even remember that guitar line. I know it’s in my head, but I was struck by that lyric line this week. It perfectly illustrates where many of us find ourselves today. Vertigo, that sense that everything seems to be spinning seemingly out of control and our desperate need is for something sure, for something steady, an anchor to hold onto, a fixed point on the horizon, something to trust.
Maybe that resonates with you. I know it resonates with me. As we’ve seen so far in our study of the book of Genesis, it doesn’t shy away from the realities of living in a fallen world, with a mixture of both faithfulness and foolishness, joys and sorrows, laughter and weeping. The thread throughout the entire story of Genesis, the entire story of Scripture really, is that there is a God who is there, who is actively working in the midst of all of that and who speaks a sure word, and He speaks today. Even if it seems like everything is spinning out of control, spinning wildly, He is faithful and He is good. “Hello, hello. I’m at a place called vertigo.” That lyric really points to a question, I think. Is there something sure that I can hold onto? And that’s a good question for me to ask, a good question for you to ask. And the answer to that question is something that I think the original readers of the text we’re going to read today needed to get deep down into their bones. And it’s a truth that we desperately need today.
The story we’re going to read today in chapter 21 is a story of promises kept in a world where broken promises are routine and often leave collateral damage in their wake. This true story of promises kept is something for us to treasure. So, turn with me, if you would, to chapter 21. I’m going to be reading from the English Standard Version today, and we’ll start at verse one. But before we do that, let me pray for us: Everlasting God, we need to hear from You today. I need to hear from You. This week, we’ve heard the clamor of the world entice us to trust anything but Your Word. Holy Spirit, open our ears, open our hearts to hear and to trust Your Word and help us drink deeply that we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we all said amen.
Chapter 21, verse one, if you’d turn with me there. “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said.” Underline that or highlighted in your app if you’re reading from your phone or your device. “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.” Underline that one. “And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.” Underline that. “Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, who Sarah bore him, Isaac. And the name Isaac means “he laughs.” ” And hold that thought because we’re going to look at laughter in a variety of different ways here in this story.
Verse four, “And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old.” And this was something the Lord had commanded, and it says, “as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.” Can you imagine how astonished Abraham and Sarah are? And here at verse six, “And Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me.’ And she said, ‘Who would’ve said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age.’”
This laughter that we see here in this text is the laughter of joy, promises made and promises fulfilled here to Abraham and to Sarah. The laughter of joy. If you remember a few chapters back, Genesis 18, “The Lord said, ‘About this time next year, you will have a son.’” And here they did. But if you remember Abraham laughed, Sarah laughed, and that laughter was really a laughter of cynicism, or even a laughter of unbelief. I’m going to have a child at my age, in my nineties? But here, we see laughter of joy. There’s laughter of cynicism and laughter of joy. And a little bit later, we’ll see a different kind of laughter.
Laughter teaches us something. It tells us something about what we value, about what we love. It teaches us something about what we fear, about what we put our faith in. Interesting. The promised child to Abraham, the promised child to Sarah had finally come. And it’s hard to find another birth story in all of scripture with as much weight as this child of promise here, save for the birth of our Messiah Jesus, of course. This text is a pivot point in all of redemption history ushering us into the next era of God’s fulfillment of his promised Abraham, that he would have children as numerous as the stars, children that would become a nation to bless all other nations, a promise fulfilled directly to Sarah as well. She shall become nations. Kings of peoples will come from her. And here, promise fulfilled. Three times… I asked you to underline it. Three times the text reminds us of the surety of God’s word.
Let’s look at them one more time. First, “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said.” Surety of God’s word. Second, “The Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.” A little bit more precise, specifically about the promise that he made to Sarah, to Abraham. And then lastly, “Sarah bore son at the time of which God had spoken.” Even more precise. God’s timing is neither fast nor slow, but it’s good. Friends, we can, and we should, trust every syllable of God’s Word. And I need to hear that today. Moses would later tell the people of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Father. “There is a hunger that can only be satisfied by the Word of God.” There’s as surety to His Word. Not only did God make a promise to Abraham and Sarah, if you recall in the book of Genesis, God makes that promise, and then He restates that promise, and He restates it again, and He restates it again and reiterates it.
And I’ll just show you a few of them here. Genesis 12:2, “I will make of you a great nation.” 12:7, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” 13:16, “I will make your offspring as dust of the earth.” Are you getting the picture, Abraham? 15:4, “Your very own son shall be your heir.” 17:4, “You shall be the father to a multitude of nations.” Sarah, are you hearing this? 17:19, “Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.” Genesis 18:10, “I will surely return to you about this time next year. And Sarah your wife shall have a son.” At least seven times this promise is stated and restated. And oh, we can be so prone to forget! I can be so prone to forget as Abraham and Sarah were.
Not only that, I can be prone to forget, but I can also be enticed by forgeries of God’s word. Did God actually say… Do you remember that question from the serpent back in Genesis chapter three? Did God actually say? It’s still a question that reverberates today. Did God actually say, reverberates in the hallways of academia. That question reverberates in our mind when we’re at the bedside of a loved one in a hospital bedroom. Did God actually say… that question reverberates in our Twitter feed when we’re about to post something. That question reverberates in our head when we are considering walking away from it all and taking it into our own hands.
Did God actually say? Such a sinister question. But here in 21, we see God’s promise fulfilled. Did God actually say? Yes, and He did what He said He would do. Joy, like we see here in this text, this laughter of joy and life-giving nourishment. Church, through the Spirit, this is available to you and me as we stay tethered to His Word. Our desperate need is for something sure, something steady. When we are in this vertigo world, what is better than to come tether ourselves to the Word of God, the sure and steady promises of God. There is something that we can hold onto. This true story of One who makes promises and keeps promises has something we should treasure. Get it deep down into our bones, Spirit please. And that’s why we study through books of the Bible each week, to hear from the God who speaks.
It’s why we sing songs that remind us of the promises of scripture, remind us of who we are in Christ. It’s why we invest time and further Bible study throughout the week with other brothers and sisters. “There is a hunger that can only be satisfied by the Word of God.” The sure word of God. Well, let’s continue at verse eight. “And the child grew and he was weaned.” And so, Isaac here is now about three years old. So, we’ve skipped ahead in the story about three years. “And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.” Now, the laughter that we’re seeing here in this text is different than the laughter of joy that we read about earlier. It’s even different than the laughter of cynicism and unbelief from Abraham and Sarah in earlier chapters.
This laughter is sinister. This laughter is a laughter of mockery. Ishmael is mocking his brother on this feast given for him. The apostle Paul in the Book of Galatians, when retelling this story, would call this laughter persecution. So, there’s something dysfunctional going on in this family. Verse 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.’” Interesting. Sarah can’t even bear to use the name Hagar or Ishmael. Instead, this slave woman, or this slave woman’s son. Verse 11, “And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.” And of course, it was no matter how dysfunctional, disordered this family was, this Ishmael was Abraham’s son. And of course, he’s displeased. He’s displeased. He’s distraught.
Verse 12 though, “But God…” Two of the most beautiful words in a text like this. “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.'” And God graciously, again, restates the promise to Abraham that Isaac is the child who will inherit the covenant. And then it goes on, and the Lord continues. “’And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.’” God graciously telling Abraham, “I will provide for your son Ishmael. I will provide for your son. I will provide for Hagar.” So beautiful, so much grace here. We are witnessing in this story, the complex and nuanced ways that sin twists and disorders and scars families. In the case like Abraham and Sarah, we see this disorder because of the choices they made to take things into their own hands.
This is not the way that it’s supposed to be. This is not God’s plan for marriage and family, but God nonetheless speaks into this mess of relationships with an abundance of grace, and He still does that today, church. So, we see here a woman, Hagar, caught up in this mess. And we should call it what it is. It’s no less than abuse. She’s been used. She’s been now discarded. Sarah, duplicitous in her dealings with Hagar, on the one hand using Hagar to bear a son because Sarah didn’t trust the promise of God, that he would give her, Sarah, a son. Interesting, this impatience. The apostle Paul later in first Corinthians 13 in the New Testament, when listing out the attributes of faithfulness and love, the first thing he lists, first Corinthians 13 is what?
“Love is patient.”
1 Corinthians 13:4
Impatience is demanding that God does what we want when we want it. This so often a form of idolatry, something we ought to repent from and run towards God, the God of all grace who holds our times in his hands, the psalmist says, and we are invited to rest in that.
So, we see Sarah using Hagar, and now we see Sarah discarding Hagar because of a perceived threat to her own position in the family, but also a threat to her son Isaac, which even in of itself is a lack of faith. God has promised that Isaac would be the one who is to inherit the promise. And of course, we see Abraham grieved because of what’s going on in his family, and perhaps because what the Bible doesn’t say, we might even be witnessing Abraham as weak and missing in action. There’s disorder and there’s dysfunction in this family, but smack dab in the middle of this complex web of dysfunctional family dynamics and vitriol and heartache, there’s God. He speaks, and with His word, He begins to weave this foolishness into something for His glory and for their good, and praise God, for our good as well.
Let’s continue at verse 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.” She wandered in this dry, arid land. Verse 15, “When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.” And it’s important to note here that Ishmael is likely 15, 16, maybe 17 years old. So, she’s not putting an infant or a three-year-old in the bushes, she’s putting a teenager, and almost a young adult. So, they’re dying in this dry land. Then verse 16, “She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot.” That’s about 300 feet or so. “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. And God heard the voice of the boy.” Interesting. Ishmael means God hears.
“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.'” Underline that, circle that, highlight it, whatever you have to do. “Fear not for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” God reiterates the promise once again in His grace. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. He provided what they needed. “And she went and filled the skin of water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, [just as He had promised] and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt,” which is where she was from.
Though his destiny is, of course, different than Isaac, Ishmael is not outside the scope of God’s purposes. Isaac was the child of promise, the one who will inherit the covenant of his father Abraham. And through him will come the people of Israel, and from them will come the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Ishmael’s role in redemption history is different, but by God’s grace and provision, He blessed him, and He made him a nation of his own. But let’s don’t forget, the original promise to Abraham was that through the covenant with Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Through you, Abraham, all the nations will be blessed. And because of what Christ has done, we will see this promise fully realized when one day, every tribe, every tongue, including those from the line of Ishmael, who call on the name of Jesus, will one day worship together in the heavenly throne room.
And Revelation chapter 7 verses 9 through 10 vividly describes this.
“After this I looked, and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation…
Remember the promise to Abraham. Through you Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And here we see when the Lord returns, this promise fulfilled,
“…every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!'”
Revelation 7:9-10 (ESV, emphasis added)
We break promises He does not.
He is always, always, always, always true to his word. Oh, that we would trust that today. And let’s continue at verse 22 and we’ll finish up this chapter. “At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, ‘God is with you in all that you do. 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.’ And Abraham said, ‘I will swear.'”
So, what we’re what we’re reading here in this text is really an endcap to the story that we were studying last week with Pastor Matt. This is the story of God’s provision, peace with Abimelech in the land of sojourn. And here, we’ll see some more provision at verse 25 when Abraham reproved Abimelech. So, they’re making this covenant here, this agreement, and Abraham has one point of stipulation. Abraham approved Abimelech about a well of water that his servants had seized. And we don’t know if this is the same well of water as the one we read about with Hagar. We just know that the Lord’s provision is on display here. 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.”
Verse 27, “So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. And Abimelech said to Abraham, ‘What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?’ 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.'” So, Abraham here is securing the rights and the ownership of this well of water in the middle of a desert, God’s provision. “Therefore, that place was called Beersheba because there, both of them swore an oath.” Verse 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.”
And the Philistines are not yet enemies of the people of God. It’s really just describing the people group and where we are in this story. But listen to this, verse 33, “Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.” Here, we see a worship service. Interesting. Lord, the everlasting God. In Hebrew, el, olam. And this here in Genesis is the only time in all of Scripture that we see this particular name, this Hebrew name, the Lord, the everlasting God. Interesting that he planted a tamarisk tree. The tamarisk tree is a tree found in a desert that takes years and years and years to grow. Abraham did not plant it for himself. He planted it for future generations. This is a tree that takes a long time. God makes promises, He keeps promises, and He always will. He’s an everlasting God. And Abraham knew this. As Hebrews said, he was looking to a city. He was looking ahead to the promise fulfilled.
Worship is always the proper response to the faithfulness of God. Here in this story with Abimelech, again, the Lord provides what Abraham needs, land and water, a source for his growing family, all provision from the hand of the everlasting God, el olam. So, I want to leave us here with a few observations about this beautiful text. One, the provision of God is generous and abundant, and we’ve seen it all over this story. There’s a song that we sing at TVC that has the line, every breath I have on earth is given by the king. Author Brennan Manning would put it this way in describing his own life and the provision of God and his life: “All is grace.” In one sense, the entire story of the Bible, all of redemption history is about our need and God’s provision for that need.
In our text this morning, we see the provision of God revealed in so many different ways. Here are just a few: the gift of children, the gift of laughter, of joy, a way forward for a dysfunctional and broken family, water for Hagar and Ishmael, peace with Abimelech, water supply for Abraham and his clan. The Lord’s provision will not always look like what we want. Of course, that’s true. I imagine Hagar did not picture the promise of God to Hagar and Ishmael as one that would run through a desert. Yet it did, and the Lord provided. He’s good. And like a good father, He’s eager to provide for our every need, for your need. And most often, He doesn’t do this through miraculous wells of water springing up. He does. He can. But most often, it’s ordinarily found in the means of grace that He’s given to us staying tethered to His Word, to remind you of His power, of His presence, of His promises about who you are and who He is. It’s through staying tethered to the people of God, coming to church, being with other brothers and sisters, iron sharpening iron.
You may be God’s provision for someone else, or vice versa. So, stay tethered to His Word, stay tethered to His people and commune with God in prayer. Hagar lifted up her voice and wept. Do you have difficulty with prayer? Sometimes I do. Look to the Psalms. For every human emotion, lament, praise, joy, grief; sometimes the psalmist gives us words when we have no word to give. Theodore Cuyler says it like this,
“Do not let us think of prayer as the coaxing or the conquering of a reluctant friend, but rather as the confident appeal to one who is always wise and always willing to give us what is best for us.”
–Theodore Cuyler
Number two, the timing of God is neither slow nor fast, but it is good. Isaac was born 25 years after the Lord initially committed himself to Abraham, 25 years. Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. Over and over again, God graciously reiterated His promise to Abraham and Sarah, even saying exactly when it was going to happen. And more often than not, their faith turned to fear. And so often that happens in my own heart. Courtney Doctor, who’s an author and Bible teacher, says, “
God never promises that our seasons of waiting will end by receiving exactly what we want. Not all infertility ends with a baby, not all cancer ends with a cure, not all singleness ends with a spouse, which means that our hope can’t be anchored in the thing we’re waiting for. Our hope has to be anchored in something far greater, the promises and character of God.”
–Courtney Doctor
That’s what this story is trying to tell us today. All of the book of Genesis, all of scripture, all of redemption history points to a promise keeper. Number three, the faithfulness of God is sure and steady. I love that word faithfulness. It includes the One who makes promises and the One who keeps promises. It includes His provision. It includes His presence. The faithfulness of God is sure and steady. This is a story of promises made and promises kept today, in a world of broken promises, in a world where sometimes we feel like we’re in a place called vertigo, things are spinning out of control. Is there something sure that I can hold onto? And it’s telling us, yes there is. “Trust me, my times are in your hands,” the psalmist says.
My wife and I, Emily, celebrated our wedding anniversary a few weeks ago. The gift of marriage often includes children. It’s not a promise to every marriage, but it’s a part of the created order. And after several years of trying to have children, a few years ago, our doctors told us that it was unlikely that we would be able to conceive children of our own. And there’s a real grief that many of you know all too well, and some even a deeper grief from this kind of news. It shakes the core of fundamental assumptions about what we think we have control of, our plans, our timetable. Infertility reminds us that we are not in control. It also exposes. It exposed to my own heart some idols. It ultimately reminds us though, like I said before, our times are in His hands, in the hands of a good God. Don’t hear me try sweeping away the grief. The disorientation of the sadness, that’s real.
But knowing that I can trust in the word of One who says that one day “I will wipe away every tear,” knowing that my times are in the hands of One who laid down His life for me, a rebel, someone set against Him, He laid down His life for me and promises one day that He will make all things new, gives me a different perspective, gives us a different perspective, a greater promise that we can hold on to. Emily and I weren’t promised children like Sarah and Abraham, but we aren’t even promised our next breath. None of us are. Everything is provision from God. All is grace, like Brennan Manning said. And I can choose to trust His sure and steady faithfulness. I can trust that His timing is neither fast nor slow, but that it’s good. He will provide everything I need for everything that He calls me to. We can trust those things.
The Lord promised to make all things new, but “How long, oh Lord?” is the prayer of many of the other psalmists. It’s the cry of the married couple who can’t have children. It’s the cry of my good friend whose mom has lung cancer in the one lung that she has. “How long, oh Lord?” My times are in his hands. But we look today to the testimony of God’s faithfulness and scripture. We look to the cross where our greatest need was met, and the resurrection that guarantees that one day there will be no more waiting, no more sorrow. We’ll have laughter and joy.
We see in our story, a foretaste with that joy, a foretaste of what is to come. I love the way that Rebecca Manley Pippert says it.
“Christians are people of hope and not despair because we know that God, who had the first word, will have the last. He has never been thwarted or caught napping by the circumstances of our lives. To have faith in Jesus does not mean we try to pretend that bad things are really good. Rather, we know that God will take our difficulties and weave them into purposes we cannot see as yet.”
–Rebecca Manley Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons
Church, there is something sure. There’s something steady that we can hold on to. Let’s pray: Everlasting God, we give You thanks for all that You’ve provided for today, and that You will provide tomorrow. Holy Spirit, dig deep roots into my own heart, into our hearts, that we might continue to draw deeply from the promises of Your word and that we might trust You more and more. In the name of Christ, amen.
(Edited for Reading)
