God Hears Our Cries (Gen 21:8-21)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:06.879 Genesis Twenty one eight. Yes, through twenty one, as it is written. 2 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:27.500 Let's hear God's word. And the child grew and was weaned, and 3 00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:33.060 Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah 4 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:37.009 saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, 5 00:00:37.090 --> 00:00:43.130 laughing. So she said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman with 6 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:46.770 her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with 7 00:00:46.929 --> 00:00:52.840 my son Isaac. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of 8 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:58.079 his son. The God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the 9 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:02.920 boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah tells you to do, 10 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:08.349 or whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through 11 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:14.069 Isaac shall your offspring be named, and I will make a nation of the 12 00:01:14.150 --> 00:01:18.189 sleigh of the son of the slave woman, also because he is your offspring. 13 00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:23.420 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of 14 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:26.540 water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the 15 00:01:26.739 --> 00:01:32.930 child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness 16 00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:37.489 of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone. She put the 17 00:01:37.609 --> 00:01:42.810 child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite I'm 18 00:01:42.849 --> 00:01:47.239 a good way off about the distance of a Bowshof bow shot, for she 19 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.840 said, let me not look on the death of the child. And as 20 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:56.760 she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God 21 00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:00.760 heard the voice of the boy and the Angel of God, called the Hag 22 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:05.109 are from heaven and said to her, what troubles you hag are fear not, 23 00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:08.110 for God has heard the voice of the boy. where he is up. 24 00:02:08.669 --> 00:02:12.870 Lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I 25 00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:16.979 will make him into a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and saw 26 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:22.300 a and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the 27 00:02:22.340 --> 00:02:25.900 skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the 28 00:02:25.979 --> 00:02:30.090 boy and he grew up. He lived in the Wilderness and became an expert 29 00:02:30.169 --> 00:02:35.530 with the bow. He lived in the Wilderness of Peran and his mother took 30 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:40.009 a wife for him from the land of Egypt. The God bless his word 31 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:57.479 to us. What we have in this story is bulloth, tragedy and provision, 32 00:02:59.030 --> 00:03:06.949 the tragic consequences of sin. A family in disorder, the consequences of 33 00:03:07.069 --> 00:03:15.460 decisions made in the past, coming to coming to certain natural conclusions, and 34 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:23.300 it's a difficult situation, very difficult, and the Lord Intervenes and he provides 35 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:29.210 and in his doing that we come to know something more about our God and 36 00:03:30.009 --> 00:03:35.449 even about our place in him. So I'd like to walk through this story 37 00:03:35.610 --> 00:03:43.439 with you tonight and consider what God has a for us here. The story 38 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:47.520 begins with Isaac, the child grew and was weaned. This is referring to 39 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:52.639 Isaac and we read that Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac 40 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:57.030 was weaned. But something was happening. At this moment of celebration. Is 41 00:03:57.750 --> 00:04:02.229 His child, this promised child who, you remember, was given supernaturally to 42 00:04:02.389 --> 00:04:08.710 Abraham and Sarah, something that they couldn't have produced on their own. God 43 00:04:08.870 --> 00:04:14.219 produced after a long time of waiting. But in the all of this celebration 44 00:04:14.580 --> 00:04:23.300 over Isaac, Sarah sees something that disturbs her greatly. Sarah sees the son 45 00:04:23.339 --> 00:04:27.970 of HAG are. This is Ishmael, who's interestingly not named in this chapter. 46 00:04:28.009 --> 00:04:33.889 Various possible reasons for that I won't get into here, but this is 47 00:04:34.009 --> 00:04:40.079 Ishmael. Sarah sees the son of Hag are, the Egyptian whom she, 48 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:44.680 that is Hagar, had born to Abraham, and then it says laughing, 49 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:54.069 laughing. Well, this laughing is not any kind of ordinary laughing. It's 50 00:04:54.230 --> 00:05:02.949 mocking. It's even described in Galatians as persecution. When Sarah Sees Ishmael laughing 51 00:05:03.269 --> 00:05:10.899 over her child, he's not just goofing around or playing or even teasing in 52 00:05:11.100 --> 00:05:16.180 a mean way. Sarah senses a threat. She names the thread, in 53 00:05:16.259 --> 00:05:23.930 particular that Ishmael would become the air, or at least share as an air 54 00:05:24.569 --> 00:05:28.009 with Isaac. But that was not the Lord's plan. Was Not what the 55 00:05:28.089 --> 00:05:33.009 Lord had promised. Sarah Senses this threat and we know that her perception about 56 00:05:33.089 --> 00:05:40.000 this threat is correct and she's not just jealous or something like that, although 57 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:44.319 that would be understandable. I'm going to lower this just a little bit. 58 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:54.470 Sorry about that. Sarah's perceives this threat right and she perceives it correctly. 59 00:05:55.310 --> 00:05:59.949 How do we know? There's a several reasons I want to give because I 60 00:06:00.029 --> 00:06:04.420 think without this this story is difficult to understand what's going on and feels very 61 00:06:04.459 --> 00:06:08.740 cruel. But if we understand it rightly, we begin to see what's actually 62 00:06:08.779 --> 00:06:14.459 going on here. First of all, Ishmael's not like five years old or 63 00:06:14.579 --> 00:06:16.819 four years old. This is not just two little boys teasing each other. 64 00:06:17.610 --> 00:06:25.569 Ishmael's probably about sixteen years old. We know this because we know this because 65 00:06:25.730 --> 00:06:29.769 of the dates that are given to us or the ages. In Genesis Sixteen, 66 00:06:29.810 --> 00:06:33.519 Sixteen, we read that when Abraham was about eighty six hag our bore 67 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:39.519 him Ishmael. Then in genesis twenty five, it says that when Abraham was 68 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:43.720 a hundred years old, Isaac was born. So right there we have fourteen 69 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:47.069 years. After that, of course we have the child in which Isaac nursed 70 00:06:47.110 --> 00:06:53.029 and then was weaned. This period of time isn't given specifically, but it 71 00:06:53.149 --> 00:06:58.430 was probably somewhere around two to three years based on other examples in scripture and 72 00:06:58.550 --> 00:07:02.620 extra biblical sources, and it's not an uncommon amount of time for a child 73 00:07:02.740 --> 00:07:12.379 to nurse. And so what we have here is Ishmael being somewhere between fifteen 74 00:07:12.459 --> 00:07:18.970 at a bare minimum, to probably sixteen or even seventeen years old. This 75 00:07:19.170 --> 00:07:25.329 means the Ishmael was known old enough to know that he should not treat Isaac 76 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:29.810 in this way. He was old enough to have demonstrated certain patterns in his 77 00:07:29.970 --> 00:07:33.240 life and he was old enough to be a very serious and real threat to 78 00:07:33.399 --> 00:07:40.319 this little boy. Also, when we pay attention to the details in the 79 00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:46.949 text, it's not necessary to imagine that Abraham is placing Ishmael on Sarah's shoulder 80 00:07:46.110 --> 00:07:50.389 and then she later places him under like a like Moses in a basket or 81 00:07:50.430 --> 00:07:54.709 something like that, under this Bush. And there's a couple reasons for that. 82 00:07:54.750 --> 00:08:01.379 A one is that the text doesn't say necessarily that he was placed on 83 00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:07.220 her shoulder. I'm she's not necessarily carrying this sixteen year old boy. Right. 84 00:08:07.379 --> 00:08:11.779 So we read in Verse Fourteen, Abraham Rose early in the morning and 85 00:08:11.930 --> 00:08:16.170 took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Haggart, putting it 86 00:08:16.329 --> 00:08:20.730 on her shoulder along with the child, and sent her away. Now, 87 00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:22.610 in course, in English that could mean that he put the skin of water 88 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:26.279 on her and he put the child and then she went. But it all, 89 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:30.839 it could also mean that he put the skin of water on her hoot 90 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:35.159 and the child who was with her and then sent her away. On one 91 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:41.159 Old Testament. Scholar translates this with a more wooden translation and more direct translation, 92 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.990 which makes it awkward but helps you to see how this could be in 93 00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:50.549 English. He gave unto Hagar, he said, upon her shoulder and together 94 00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:54.110 with the boy, or and the boy, and he sent her away. 95 00:08:56.500 --> 00:09:00.340 So I'll read that again without the parenthetical comment. He gave unto Hagar, 96 00:09:00.940 --> 00:09:05.580 he set upon her shoulder and together with the boy and sent her away. 97 00:09:05.620 --> 00:09:09.409 You can see why we don't translate it that in her English bibles it's wooden 98 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:15.929 and choppy, but essentially that's what's going on. Second, just because she 99 00:09:16.570 --> 00:09:20.690 puts him under this Bush doesn't mean that he was incapable of walking. Right, 100 00:09:20.730 --> 00:09:24.559 let me just ask you. Have you ever been left somewhere and yet 101 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:28.960 been capable of walking? Of course happens all the time. We people leave 102 00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:35.200 us and will leave us in a place. Also, this word put could 103 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:41.149 be translated abandoned. So the idea here is that she and Ishmael walk out. 104 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:46.509 Things are getting very desperate, they're out of water and she leaves him 105 00:09:46.549 --> 00:09:50.750 and walks away. Right. Maybe she talks to him, maybe she tells 106 00:09:50.789 --> 00:09:56.340 him to stay. It doesn't say, but she leaves him so that she 107 00:09:56.500 --> 00:10:03.019 doesn't have to feel the anguish of his death. So all that to say 108 00:10:03.179 --> 00:10:07.610 we have a genealogy, or they are not a genealogy, but these on 109 00:10:07.769 --> 00:10:11.129 ages of Abraham that tell us how old he is. It works with the 110 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:15.090 passage. And then also, as I mentioned, and in Galacians four hundred 111 00:10:15.090 --> 00:10:20.769 and twenty nine, Paul characterizes it this way. He says he who was 112 00:10:20.929 --> 00:10:26.879 born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. 113 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:31.639 So That's how Paul interprets this passage. Isaac or Ishmael's not just joking around. 114 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:39.870 He is persecuting Isaac again. Mama bear here senses a threat to her 115 00:10:39.990 --> 00:10:43.629 son, and not just any son, but the son of promise, the 116 00:10:43.710 --> 00:10:48.230 son that they had been waiting for, the Sun on which the Abrahamic Covenant 117 00:10:48.870 --> 00:10:54.299 had been made. This word persecute can mean when the way Paul uses it, 118 00:10:54.860 --> 00:11:03.019 is a word that means to pursue intently, intently and usually with some 119 00:11:03.139 --> 00:11:11.850 kind of malevolent, evil intention. Two more reasons and then we'll be done 120 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:18.799 with this. Ishmael's reaction matches his mother's reaction. Remember back in Genesis Sixteen 121 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.600 four, when she saw that she conceived, she looked with contempt upon her 122 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:31.279 mistress. The scriptures say Ishmael is following in his mother's steps. And then 123 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:37.389 finally, the Lord himself vindicates her actions by telling Abraham to follow a Sarah's 124 00:11:37.429 --> 00:11:45.190 instructions and to send them away. So these are reasons why we can see 125 00:11:45.309 --> 00:11:50.500 that Sarah is right in her assessment of the situation and right in this command. 126 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:56.779 And so Abraham, acting on his wife's instructions and the Lords of vindication 127 00:11:56.019 --> 00:12:01.929 of them, is not doing wrong. He is protecting the promised seed and 128 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:07.769 he's doing so by faith, because this hurts. This is not easy for 129 00:12:07.889 --> 00:12:16.240 Abraham. He decides to choose what God wants over what he feels, and 130 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:22.159 Sarah, perhaps is doing the same. Abraham, we read, was vexed. 131 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:30.000 He was troubled when he went, he went to the Lord Verse Eleven. 132 00:12:30.710 --> 00:12:37.029 This thing very displeased him. On account of his son, on account 133 00:12:37.029 --> 00:12:43.820 of Ishmael, sixteen years, but this Sun sixteen years of being with him. 134 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:46.620 Who knows what all, the kind of relationships they had, the actions 135 00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:54.100 they have, but he's a father right. Family life is difficult and messy. 136 00:12:54.980 --> 00:13:00.090 It doesn't always work like we want it to, and that's why it's 137 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:03.649 important to remember what is going on in the background here. Remember how where 138 00:13:03.769 --> 00:13:09.289 Ishmael came from. He's the product of Abraham and Sarah and ag are all 139 00:13:11.289 --> 00:13:16.320 conniving against the what the Lord's will was? They, this family, had 140 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:22.960 set up a situation where now they're reaping what they had sown, and it 141 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:26.230 was going to hurt. But we will, as well see in a minute, 142 00:13:26.269 --> 00:13:31.830 seek God's grace and all of this. This was not easy. This 143 00:13:31.029 --> 00:13:35.830 was emotionally hard to remember. Even back in genesis seventeen, eighteen, when 144 00:13:37.070 --> 00:13:39.350 the Lord promised again to Abraham to give them a sun, he says, 145 00:13:39.389 --> 00:13:43.980 Oh, that Ishmael, oh the Ishmael might live, for you know, 146 00:13:46.340 --> 00:13:50.940 God says it shall be Isaac, and Abraham Acts on faith here and always 147 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:58.090 God provides. So let's notice two things now about the work of the Lord 148 00:13:58.250 --> 00:14:03.090 in all of this. First of all, God is here to remind us 149 00:14:03.730 --> 00:14:11.080 that the salvation of the world through this offspring of Abraham will not depend on 150 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:16.600 human cunning. It will not depend on humans deciding this thing or that thing 151 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:22.240 or manipulating the situation and trying to work all these things out by natural means. 152 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:30.509 It will happen according to his supernatural will. The promise of the Sun 153 00:14:31.029 --> 00:14:35.269 and all of these things will fall out according to his plan and not to 154 00:14:35.429 --> 00:14:41.379 man's, and that's important for all kinds of reasons. One It humbles US 155 00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:45.340 and reminds us to trust him, to it reminds us that we can trust 156 00:14:45.340 --> 00:14:48.539 him, that we can wait on him, we can rely on him, 157 00:14:48.539 --> 00:14:54.250 and we see that not only in his fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and 158 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:58.450 Isaac, but even in His grace given to Ishmael. Here. Isn't this 159 00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:03.570 amazing? Though Ishmael has, though God has said no to Ishmael and that 160 00:15:03.610 --> 00:15:07.559 he will not be a part of the covenant, nevertheless he enjoys all kinds 161 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:13.879 of benefits in his attachment to Abraham. God's love for Abraham extends even to 162 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:20.120 Abraham's children, who were not a part of the promise. Back in genesis 163 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:22.789 seventeen six, when the covenant was made, God says to Abraham, I 164 00:15:24.149 --> 00:15:28.830 will make you exceedingly fruitful and I way you will make you into nations and 165 00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:35.389 kings shall come from you. And this is promised also to hag our. 166 00:15:35.429 --> 00:15:39.740 The Angel of the Lord says to her, I will surely multiply your offspring 167 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:43.779 so they cannot be numbered for a multitude. And then here again, that 168 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:48.100 promise is repeated. He says to Hag are in and thirteen, I will 169 00:15:48.139 --> 00:15:52.570 make a nation of the son of the slave woman, also because he is 170 00:15:54.250 --> 00:16:00.929 your offspring. Here is God being, as he always is, gracious and 171 00:16:00.090 --> 00:16:06.759 bountiful in his ways, even to people who do not deserve it. Despite 172 00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:11.360 our manipulating, despite our contriving and all of these things that we do seeking 173 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:17.279 to be God, God still looks on us and he pities us in our 174 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:22.789 messages that we make, and he gives us much grace. What a wonderful 175 00:16:22.789 --> 00:16:27.509 thing. We ought to praise him for that. The last thing I want 176 00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:33.659 to note as we close is as hard as it is for Abraham here to 177 00:16:33.779 --> 00:16:37.980 rely on the word of the Lord and to do with the Lords of the 178 00:16:37.059 --> 00:16:42.220 Lord says, and to let go of his son Ishmael, it will be 179 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:51.289 even harder when the Lord tells him to sacrifice Isaac in even the very next 180 00:16:51.289 --> 00:16:59.169 chapter. What is God doing? Can We? Can I, Abraham says 181 00:16:59.210 --> 00:17:04.440 to himself? Can I depend on the Lord this much to sacrifice the son 182 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:11.720 that he promised to give me? And even that, even that kind of 183 00:17:12.759 --> 00:17:21.430 faith doesn't compare to the trust that Jesus himself put in the father, perfectly 184 00:17:21.589 --> 00:17:25.869 united in will when he went to the cross to give up his own life 185 00:17:26.230 --> 00:17:37.099 as the offspring of Abraham. If Abraham I'm loved his son Ishmael and loved 186 00:17:37.259 --> 00:17:42.339 Isaac, how much do you think the Father God, the father, loves 187 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:52.170 God, the Son? Unfathomable. And yet, in love for us, 188 00:17:52.410 --> 00:18:00.279 he gives up his son to rescue us from our desperate situations, the messes 189 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:04.359 that we make, the sins that we bring upon ourselves, the rebellion, 190 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:11.200 the ways that we rebel against God. This is how much God loves us. 191 00:18:12.109 --> 00:18:17.549 This is how gracious he is to us. In this sad story about 192 00:18:17.589 --> 00:18:23.750 this family being torn apart, about Ishmael's persecution against Isaac and the tension between 193 00:18:23.789 --> 00:18:29.339 Hag are and Sarah and Abraham's heartbreaking. In the midst of all, God 194 00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:33.299 is present, God is steady, God's love is steadfast and he takes care 195 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:41.609 of it all. Abraham story is, of course, the story about faith, 196 00:18:42.130 --> 00:18:47.329 and that's what God calls us to as well. Trust the word of 197 00:18:47.369 --> 00:18:52.369 the Lord, trust the promises of the Lord. Trust the Lord and you 198 00:18:52.490 --> 00:18:59.839 will be saved. That's his promise to you. Let's hold fast to it. 199 -->