Through Isaac

Genesis 21:1-12                      Through Isaac

6/5/16              D. Marion Clark

Introduction

It had been a long time coming, so long that it had become a laughing matter to both Abraham and Sarah. Twenty-five years is a long time for a promise to be fulfilled, especially when no indication had been given that it would be long. Finally, Abraham laughed when God yet again made the promise, and then Sarah later when she heard the promise again repeated. And so it was fitting for the promised son to be named “Laughter.”

Text

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. ² And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. ³ Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. ⁴ And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶ And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” ⁷ And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

There are two emphases made in these verses. One is that Sarah’s pregnancy and successful labor was by the supernatural power of God. There are the remarks specifically of God’s intervention: “The Lord visited Sarah”; “the Lord did to Sarah.” There are the comments about Abraham’s old age (a hundred years old) and of Sarah: “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?”

This is not the immaculate conception of Mary in which a man played no role. Abraham fathered Isaac, to be sure. But just as sure is the fact that Sarah’s conceiving is an act of God. Whatever else may have been the reason for the long delay between God’s promise of a son and the time it finally happened, there is no doubt that we are to take the conception and birth as no less than a birth by the power of God’s Spirit.

The other emphasis is that the birth took place according to the promise of God. “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said”; “the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.” Sarah bore Abraham a son “at the time of which God had spoken to him.”

Indeed, the promise is what the whole story of Abraham has been about ever since the beginning of chapter 12: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation.” Since that time God had again and again promised Abraham descendants – lots of them. And time following time, year following year, even decade following decade not one child had resulted. Even so, God made a promise and he kept that promise.

And so there is rejoicing. There is laughter for the son named Isaac, whose very name means “laughter.” There is celebration.

⁸ And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Even so, there is trouble in the home.

⁹ But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. ¹⁰ So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” ¹¹ And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.

I admit that I scratch my head over Peter’s admonition to women in which he upholds Sarah as a role model of submission: “as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (1 Peter 3:6). Really? It was Sarah whose faith in God’s promise faltered so that she gave her servant Hagar as a wife to Abraham to bear his son. That did not work out to well, as Sarah also became jealous of Hagar once she conceived. Had it not been for the Lord’s intervention twice, Hagar would have died in the desert – the first time while still pregnant, the second time now with her son Ishmael. No, Sarah has much to be accountable for; nevertheless even her jealousy is used by God to fulfill his promise.

 ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

God’s promise had been to provide descendants through the offspring of Abraham and of Sarah. And so, it is through their son Isaac that the promise will be fulfilled. God will provide for Hagar and for Ishmael, who will himself be the father of a great nation. (Indeed, his descendants will prove a thorn to Isaac’s descendants throughout the generations to come.) But the promise – that is for Isaac and will be passed on through Isaac.

Lessons

As we consider what to take away from this text, let’s go back to the original concept that Pastor Smith had for this series. The promotional cards introduce the series as “Genesis: The People..Their Problems…God’s Solutions.”

It is not difficult to follow that outline for our text. “The People” are Abraham and Sarah. “Their Problem” is that Sarah has been barren. “God’s Solution” is to enable her to conceive. If only all problems could so easily be solved. But, as we know, that was the problem that would not get resolved, not for twenty-five years after God had promised that he would come through, and not for at least fifty years before then while Sarah was barren throughout her marriage.

If we have learned anything through the case study of Abraham and Sarah, it is that God will carry out his will in his way and in his timing. They are also a lesson, though, that he will carry out his plans even through fallible human beings who falter in their faith and try to take matters into their own hands, as Abraham did in Egypt and with Abimelech, and Sarah did with Hagar. God’s will will be done despite evidence to the contrary and despite the integrity of the vessels he uses. He will carry out his promises to us and even through us.

Having said this, Pastor Smith’s intent in this series on Genesis is not to turn the stories of Genesis into a collection of morals to learn, such as in Aesop’s fables. He has wanted us to see how from the beginning the Scriptures teach us and lead us to our Redeemer Jesus Christ. The gospel – the message of salvation won for us by Christ – does not appear out of nowhere in the New Testament, but culminates at the end of Old Testament history, foreshadowing, and prophecy.

Even so here, the real story of our text is not so much about how God keeps promises, but that he is keeping THE promise, the promise that will continue through the ages until it comes to fruition with the Messiah Jesus Christ. The Redeemer was first promised in Genesis 3:15 as the seed of Eve and Adam. That seed was preserved through the worldwide flood destruction when Noah and his family were saved by the ark. That seed lay in Abraham and is now passing through Isaac. It is through Isaac that God’s covenant promise to Abraham of being blessed and becoming a blessing to all the families of the earth will be fulfilled.

And so it was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ, son of Abraham and Isaac. On the cross he crushed the head of Satan. On the cross he fulfilled the conditions of the covenant – perfect obedience; he fulfilled the requirements of the law – punishment for our sins as lawbreakers. And now by the Holy Spirit the blessings of his atonement are going forth to all the families of the earth. We in the sanctuary are the recipients of the blessings and are testimony to God keeping his promise to Abraham.

Do you remember the comments of Sam the Hobbit about something like this? He is recalling the old stories of the Silmaril.

Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Earendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on.

The tale of the Promise first pronounced in the Garden of Eden is still going on and we are in it. Is that not an exciting thought? We have not got some of the light of a jewel; we have got the light of the gospel; we have got the light of the world. It is a light that frees us of our chains, frees us from slavery to sin, frees us from the punishment for our sins, frees us from the burden of the law which has proven only to expose our sin and make us more guilty than ever before our righteous Creator.

We are free – free from sin and from guilt; free from judgment; free to live to the glory of God in joy. And yet, even Christians saved by grace can sully the light of the gospel as though our Redeemer accomplished nothing. This is what the Apostle Paul addressed in Galatians, and he used the story of Sarah and Hagar for illustration.

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. ²⁴ Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
    break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
    than those of the one who has a husband.”

²⁸ Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹ But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” ³¹ So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Paul’s use of Sarah and Hagar is an unusual one. He turns their story into an allegory, in which each woman represents a concept. Hagar, because she was a slave, represents the person who lives under and by the law. Sarah, because she is a free woman, represents the person who lives under grace and by faith.

What is interesting to us is how Isaac, and we accordingly, are described – “children of promise.” Here is the point of the argument that Paul is making in Galatians. The Galatian Christians had joyously received the gospel from Paul when he preached in Galatia. The Holy Spirit had caused them to be born again so that they understood the grace of the gospel and received it by faith. After Paul left, other so-called Christian teachers came in, who told them that to really be saved they must obey the law of Moses. And so, they started to live as though their salvation depended upon their personal obedience to Jewish laws. To put it another way, if they are truly to be children of Abraham and receive the blessing of belonging to the covenant people of God, they must carry out the duties of that covenant.

“No, no, no!” Paul counters. The promise made to Abraham is just that – a promise to be fulfilled by God, not man. Isaac himself could be an allegory of this principle. No one can dispute that Isaac’s conception and birth was by the power of God, not man or woman. The gospel is the promised gift from God. It is not earned or achieved by anyone doing their best to keep up with all of the laws. The law ultimately enslaves those who try to live by it. They are enslaved by the sheer number and difficultly of laws to keep. They are enslaved by the uncertainty of ever having done good enough. They are enslaved by the guilt that the law exposes and by the guilt they feel. By faith, by faith are we to live. By faith in the promise of God to send his Redeemer Jesus Christ, that he has indeed sent his promised Redeemer; by faith in the work of his Redeemer on the cross alone. There is no faith plus works, no faith plus whatever I can add. Whatever I can add becomes a manacle around my neck.

By faith we are to believe the promise of God, believe in the promised Redeemer. Through Isaac God was keeping his promise. Through the promised Redeemer, he has kept his promise to provide our redemption.