“Genesis 21:8-14”

Friday, December 20, 2019

“The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. Now Sarah saw the son 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.’ 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.’”

---End of Scripture verses---

“The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.” (verse 8) “The age at which infants are weaned varies in different societies. In Egypt and Assyria breast-feeding often lasted three years; similarly in Israel, at least in Second Temple times (2 Macc. 7:27)… Weaning marked the completion of the first significant stage in the life cycle of the infant and was therefore a festive occasion.” (Nahum Sarna) Unfortunately the festivities were short-lived and family strife reared its ugly head. Skirmishes among siblings is as old as humanity (consider Cain and Able), but when you throw polygamy and children from different mothers living in the same household into the mix, conflicts have a tendency to go nuclear. “Abraham and Sarah were then reaping the bitterness created by themselves when they chose to introduce a slave girl into Abraham's bedchamber as his wife.” (James Burton Coffman)

“Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.” (verse 9) Sometime after the weaning of Isaac, Sarah saw the teenage son of her servant and rival taunting her young son of promise. If this event occurred shortly on the heels of the preceding recorded events, Ishmael would have been about seventeen years old and Isaac around three. It may seem like an overreaction when Sarah said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son” (verse 10), but she was completely justified and well within her rights and responsibilities to do so. Galatians 4:28 tells us that this was not merely child’s play or typical masculine behavior. The Apostle Paul wrote, “at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit.” Even though we are not given the details, Ishmael’s behavior was nothing short of persecution and abuse. And that from a nearly grown man against an innocent, helpless three-year-old. Maybe Ishmael was insanely jealous because his younger half-brother was getting loads of attention with the celebration associated with his weaning.

“The son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.” (verse 10) This hits at the heart of the issue. Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn son and considerably older than Isaac and he likely felt entitled to the place of preeminence in the family and the lion’s share of the inheritance. And his mother, Hagar, no doubt was instrumental in fueling this mentality. “The situation was absolutely impossible. Under the laws of the times, Ishmael was indeed an heir of Abraham, and, although he was not ofa parity with Isaac, due to the secondary status of his mother, he would nevertheless have been one of the heirs. However, ‘There was a legal tradition that stipulated that a son of a slave woman could forego his inheritance claim in exchange for freedom,’ and that was exactly the option that Sarah determined to force upon Hagar and Ishmael.” (James Burton Coffman)

“The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.” (verse 11) Abraham loved his son Ishmael dearly, so it was understandable that Sarah’s demands greatly disturbed him. But the Lord intervened for Sarah and Isaac, and set Abraham’s heart at ease. “God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her…” (verse 12) “He gives his consent reluctantly and only at the behest of God. Abraham’s action is warranted only because of God’s extraordinary intervention for his own historical purposes; otherwise, it would be immoral… God prompts Abraham to agree. The Narrator feels it necessary for God to justify His actions so as to remove any suggestion of moral taint. He does so on two grounds: The line of Abraham is to be continued solely through Isaac; Hagar and her son will not be left to an uncertain fate in the wilderness, for a great future awaits Ishmael. There is a delicate shift here from Sarah’s motivation to God’s. Her sole interest is to safeguard her son’s inheritance. God is concerned with the question of posterity and His ultimate purposes.” (Nahum Sarna)

“Through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” (verse 12) The King James Version says, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” James Burton Coffman wrote the following about this statement:

“There are no less than five definite meanings of this term in the Bible:

I. ‘In Isaac shall thy seed be called’ (Genesis 21:12), is a reference to the select Hebrew line, through whom the Messiah would be born, and it did not include Ishmael.

II. ‘I will make (Ishmael) a nation, because he is thy seed,’ stands for the fleshly posterity of Abraham as distinguished from the line of Isaac.

III. Also, there are those among the true line of Isaac who were distinguished from the racial Jews of both the lines of Isaac and Ishmael, because they were persons of like faith and purpose of Abraham. In this sense, Zacchaeus was called by Jesus, ‘a son of Abraham,’ (Luke 19:9); but the Pharisees, of exactly the same racial extract, were called ‘sons of the devil’ (John 8:44).

IV. In the specific and ultimate sense, Christ is the ‘Seed Singular’ of Abraham, being called THE SON OF ABRAHAM in the first verse of the N.T. That this meaning is the true one in certain O.T. passages is evident from Paul's words: ‘Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ’ (Galatians 3:16).

V. But there is even a more general meaning, having no racial overtones whatever. ‘And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise’ (Galatians 3:29).”

“Abraham rose early in the morning…” (verse 14) It may seem that the great patriarch was anxious to carry out the task of sending his son and “wife” away, but this was just Abraham’s way. He “arose early in the morning” with the same sense of vigor and prompt obedience to God and His commands, when he prepared to do the unthinkable and offer Isaac on the altar of sacrifice (Genesis 22:3). But he most definitely prepared to carry out both difficult burdens with a heavy heart. “And took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar…” (verse 14). This does not imply a bare minimum of provisions, but enough to eat and drink to nourish Hagar and Ishmael until they arrived safely at their destination, and not so much as to weigh them down and impede their progress.

“And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.” (verse 14) “This was southward from the home of Abraham in the direction of Egypt, which had been Hagar's home before Pharaoh had given her to Abraham. It was only natural that she should have attempted to go back home. One has to be without pity to view the narrative here without sorrow and concern for this woman and her son so suddenly thrust out of the affluent circumstances to which they were accustomed.” (James Burton Coffman) Somewhere along the journey to Egypt they must have lost their way in “the wilderness” and ended up “wandering about” aimlessly. But Hagar and Ishmael’s expulsion and misadventure led to a life-changing, redemptive and empowering encounter with God himself!

Please read Genesis 21:15-21 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

- Louie Taylor

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