Genesis 21:1-7
The Nativity of Isaac

It is a simple story, 7 verses long. But it is the joyous climax to a long and agonized wait. We have been waiting for this child since chapter 12 when God appeared to Abraham between Bethel and Ai and said "to your Seed I will give this land." The hope of the world had come to rest on this Seed, for in him all the familes of the earth would be blessed.

9 long chapters have intervened. In this sermon series we have spent 5 months waiting, following Abraham around in the desert and waiting for this child. Abraham was 75 when that promise first came, 76 in ch. 15 when it came again, this time with a covenant. He waited 10 years then decided to do the Lord’s work for him. Heeding the voice of his wife — just as Adam had heeded Eve’s and taken the fruit — he went in to Hagar and conceived a child by her, Ishmael. But this was the child of works and not the child of the promise. So still, he waited.

At 99 Abraham received another visit from God reiterating the promise. But still no Seed. Now, finally, at age 100 … unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and kings shall come from his body, and the number of his descendants shall be as the sand of the sea, as the stars of the sky. He shall inherit the earth.

25 years of waiting. Many of you have not even lived as long as Abraham waited for this child to be born. Waited helplessly, for he could do nothing.

And the world had been waiting longer still, waiting since chapter 3. For a full 9 months in this sermon series, the time it takes a natural child to be born, we have waited for this miraculous, promised birth. For had not God promised that the Seed of the woman would crush the serpent, that is, the Devil. Adam had plunged mankind into sin and misery, into sickness and hatred of God and hatred of neighbor and death. And God had immediately promised a Seed who would reverse all that, who would repeal the curse, who would take away sin, who would conquer death and restore man to paradise.

The world has been waiting for Isaac because apart from Isaac the world cannot be saved. Not that Isaac is the true and final Seed. But he is a picture of that Seed. And from him the Seed will be descended, even Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have followed Abraham in this story, living in tents with him, confessing with him that our true home must come down from heaven. We have stood amazed at his faith in leaving his home at the command of God, in refusing an alliance with the king of Sodom, choosing rather to pay tithes to Melchizedek, the king of peace and righteousness, in interceding for Sodom and being heard. And we have been rebuked to find in Abraham the mirror of our doubts and unfaithfulness, in twice leaving the Promised Land, in twice prostituting his wife for his own protection, the second time probably after Sarah had already conceived, in trying to fulfill the promise himself by conceiving via Hagar, and in laughing — Laughing! — at God’s promise that he at 99 would conceive a child by his 89 year old post-menopausal wife.

Now let us rejoice. The child is born! The son is given! Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace, good will toward men!
 

  1. God Provides a Child according to His Promise (1-3,5)
    1. The Omnipotent Lord Provides a Child (1,2,5)
      1. The Lord visited Sarah (1a) and The Lord did for Sarah … and she conceived (1b,2a)
        1. There is no mention of Abraham in this process.
        2. Truly, the passage makes clear the child is Abraham’s. DNA testing would bear this out.
        3. But Abraham had no power to produce the child, he was 100 years old (5)
        4. He could visit Sarah all he wanted, but he could produce no child
        5. Only the Lord is powerful enough to grant this conception and bring the child to term.
        6. He came to the woman who could not possibly conceive and, by his power she conceived.
        7. Do not be afraid, Sarah, for you have found favor with God. That which is conceive in you is conceived by his power.
      2. Does this sound like the birth of Christ? It ought to
        1. The connection is not accidental; we are not reading into the text.
        2. Christ is the true Seed of Abraham, Paul tells us. So why should we be surprised that the birth of this seed, child of the promise, should be related in similar terms?
        3. God is preparing the way for Christ, teaching the world what the birth of Christ must look like.
        4. In both cases, a women who could not conceive — one ancient and barren, the other a virgin — conceive by the power of God.
      3. The Lord "visited" Sarah
        1. 300 years before Christ, this passage was translated into Greek, the word "visited" being translated by a somewhat unusual word.
        2. When Christ is conceived, Luke relates to us the angel’s announcement to Mary that she will conceive, using this same unusual word
          1. Mary says, "How can [I conceive], seeing I have not known a man?"
          2. And the angel replies, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you." And there’s your word. The Holy Spirit will overshadow you. The Holy Spirit will visit you.
          3. This unusual expression clearly refers back to the time 2100 years before when the Holy Spirit visited Sarah.
            1. Then, the Holy Spirit had enabled Sarah to conceive by her husband though she was barren and past child-bearing age anyway.
            2. Now the Holy Spirit enables Mary to conceive though she has no husband.
          4. "And behold," the angel says, "Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." Nothing!
        3. This is a momentous event
          1. The Lord does not often "visit" his people. It’s an unusual word in Hebrew as well, at least when God is doing the visiting.
          2. In fact, he visits his people only three times in the OT [Kid’s question: Name those times]
            1. Once here
            2. Once when they are slaves in Egypt
            3. Once he visits Hannah, a barren woman, and she gives birth to Samuel the Prophet.
            4. That is, once to bring in the son of Abraham, once to deliver his people and inaugurate the age of the Law, and once to inaugurate the age of the Prophets.
          3. And of course, once in the NT, to bring in Christ, he visits Mary
          4. Only at the most momentous events of redemptive history does God visit his people.
          5. So we’re being clued in by this language. This is an important historical event, one of only 4.
    2. The Faithful Lord Keeps His Promise
      1. Just listen to the repetition to make this point (Read 1 and 2)
      2. God was faithful, abundantly faithful, down to the minutest detail.
      3. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said
        1. Should this be a surprise?
        2. God had said "to your descendants I will give this land." He’d promised Abraham his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth.
        3. Hadn’t God announced this birth in Genesis 15:4 "one who will come from your own body shall be your heir"
        4. Abraham tried to fulfill this by having Ishmael, but God said "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him." (17:12)
        5. He’d repeated that promise in ch. 18. When Sarah had laughed, he’d said "Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."
        6. Unless we find it surprising that God is faithful, this should be the most unsurprising event imaginable.
        7. If God had not done according to his word, that would have been surprising. And devastating.
      4. Repeat for emphasis: "The Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken."
      5. He fulfilled every detail of his promise.
        1. He did for Sarah "at the set time of which God had spoken to him."
        2. Abraham called the name of his son
        3. who was born to him
        4. whom Sarah bore to him
      6. Blessed is the Lord God

    For He has visited and redeemed His people,

    And has raised up a horn of salvation for us

    As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,

    Who have been since the world began,

    That we should be saved from our enemies

    And from the hand of all who hate us,

    To perform the mercy promised to our fathers

    And to remember His holy covenant,

    The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:

    To grant us that we,

    Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

    Might serve Him without fear,

    In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

    The child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;

    For he will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,

    To give knowledge of salvation to His people

    By the remission of their sins,

    Through the tender mercy of our God,

    With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;

    To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,

    To guide our feet into the way of peace.

  2. Abraham Responds with Obedience (3-5)

    NOTE: Verses 3 and 4 are governed by the tag line "as God had commanded him."

    1. Abraham Names His Son "Isaac"
      1. Lit. "He will laugh"
        1. It’s a strange name for a son
        2. But it’s the name God commanded
        3. Abraham had laughed at God’s promise and God had said name the child "laughter", then.
      2. When Abraham bore his first son by Hagar, he named him Ishmael "God hears."
        1. But that had been a false piety, a trumpeting of his faith where he had none
        2. Rather than waiting on God, he had attempted to produce the promised child by his own works, by the strength of his own flesh
        3. And now he names him "God hears," pretending that God has granted him Ishmael as the promised seed in response to his prayers.
      3. Now he names his son Isaac, names him after the laughter of disbelief
        1. Yet when God had opened the wombs of Abimelech’s household, Abraham finally believed, and so the child was born
        2. So Ishmael, the child of unbelief, bears the name of faith (falsely)
        3. And Isaac, the child of faith, bears the name of unbelief.
        4. And yet the very act of naming him Isaac in obedience to God’s command makes him the child of faith.
        5. And so in verse 6 we will see the name redeemed.
      4. His prior disobedience had been the result of unbelief
        1. But now that God has fulfilled his promise, how can Abraham help but believe?
        2. And believing, of course, he obeys.
        3. Let us seek then to have our faith strengthened and indeed overwhelmed by the gift of Christ so that we also will rise up in obedience to God, confident that he rewards those who diligently seek him.
    2. Abraham Circumcises His Son
      1. Again "as God had commanded him."
      2. Abraham puts the mark of God on Isaac
        1. He confesses, this child is from God and belongs to God
        2. So the child is from birth consecrated to the purpose of God
      3. Abraham puts the seal of faith righteousness on Isaac.
        1. This is what Paul calls circumcision: "a seal of the righteousness that is by faith"
        2. So Abraham expresses his faith by putting this seal on Isaac
          1. He expresses his faith in God’s promise "I will multiply you exceedingly" that God gave when he instituted the covenant of circumcision
          2. He confesses his faith that God would make him a father of many nations, exceedingly fruitful. That kings would come from him
          3. He confesses his faith that God would be a God not only to him but to his descendants after him for an everlasting covenant.
          4. And so this seal was placed upon our Lord, a sign of the everlasting covenant which He would establish in his blood
        3. So Abraham demonstrates his righteousness
          1. Not a righteousness of works for then he could boast that he had produced Isaac and would make Isaac a mighty nation
          2. But a righteousness of faith, confessing that God has done it all and so he must do all for this little child as well.
        4. And thus he promises to raise Isaac in the ways of the Lord, to instruct him in the faith, to teach Isaac to make the Lord his reliance even as Abraham had done.
        5. And thus we do when, in response to God’s command, we baptize our children
          1. Excursus (I may not get to this): It is not enough to say we baptize because God commanded it
          2. We must know why we are doing it in order to get the benefit.
          3. Even as Abraham must know how he is placing the mark of God’s ownership, the seal of faith righteousness, the sign of God’s covenant on Isaac.
      4. Abraham puts the mark of the covenant on Isaac
        1. This of course, sums up the previous two points.
        2. God had said I’ll make my covenant with you and your seed
        3. Abraham is passing the covenant and its obligations to Isaac
          1. Now Isaac must rely upon the Lord in faith
          2. Now Isaac must believe God’s promises and have it reckoned to him for righteousness
        4. The covenant has been passed down to the one with whom God had promised to establish his covenant for an everlasting covenant.
        5. Abraham’s eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord which he has prepared before the face of all peoples.
  3. Sarah Rejoices and Is Amazed at God’s Grace and Power (6,7)
    1. Sarah Rejoices
      1. God Has Made Me Laugh (6)
      2. In unbelief she laughed to hear him promised; now in faith she laughs to see him given.
        1. Her laughter is turned to rejoicing, even as Abraham’s
        2. For it is of this day that Jesus said "Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad." Abraham laughs as well to see this child of promise, this picture of Christ, born.
      3. His name is a dividing line between belief and unbelief
        1. Those who do not believe will laugh at her, even as Ishmael scoffs at Sarah and her son (v. 9).
          1. Even as unbelievers mocked Christ and now mock his church.
          2. Yet the very word with which they mocked us, "Christian," we bear proudly and rejoice
        2. So, here, the name for believers is a name of rejoicing
          1. Rejoice, o highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women! God has made you laugh with joy.
          2. When the Lord redeemed his people we were as those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongues with cries of joy. Then we said among the nations: The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad.
          3. She might well cry out the very words that Mary cried out so many years later when Christ was announced:

            My soul magnifies the Lord,

            And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

            For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;

            For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

            For He who is mighty has done great things for me,

            And holy is His name.

            And His mercy is on those who fear Him

            From generation to generation.

            He has shown strength with His arm;

            He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

            He has put down the mighty from their thrones,

            And exalted the lowly.

            He has filled the hungry with good things,

            And the rich He has sent away empty.

            He has helped His servant,

            In remembrance of His mercy,

            As He spoke to me and my husband,

            To Abraham and to his seed forever.

          4. Sarah who had laughed in unbelief, now laughs without a trace of mockery at the goodness of God.
          5. So we, who once laughed at God, now laugh to be his sons, heirs of the promise with Abraham. With Isaac. With Jesus.
    2. Sarah Is Amazed (7)
      1. Who would have said this? she wonders.
        1. It is too marvellous that Sarah should nurse children, that she should bear him a son in his old age.
        2. Who could have predicted such a thing?
      2. Yet we know the answer.
        1. It’s in the first verse: the Lord visited Sarah as he had said
        2. God could. God did.
      3. And only God could have.
        1. With men it was impossible. Abraham had tried for 25 years.
        2. Any human would have said, "Abraham, you’ve got to resign yourself to this. You’re old. Your wife’s barren and old. You have no child. It’s not going to happen." It’d be cruel to tell him any different.
      4. How wise seems the foolishness of men!
      5. How foolish seems the wisdom of God!
      6. Yet it is God’s wisdom that is vindicated here against the foolish wisdom of men.
      7. Now that Sarah has seen Isaac, now will Sarah believe God’s promises even when all her instincts and intuitions and the counsel of men tell her such things do not occur?
      8. Now that we have seen Christ crucified, yet raised again and seated at God’s right hand, now will we walk by faith rather than sight. Now will we trust God’s promises rather than what our eyes tell us.
      9. How impossible do all God’s promises seem to those who look at them rationally!
        1. We are surrounded by wickedness, thieves and murderers and fornicators and adulterers and idolaters and blasphemers. Haters of parents. Haters of God. Is God really in control? Is Christ really reigning?
        2. Shall we who die really be raised up?
        3. Will this world, which goes on as it always has, really come to an end?
        4. Will a world which we cannot see then really come down out of heaven as our eternal dwelling?
        5. None of this is logically deducible from what our eyes tell us.
        6. But God, who has been so faithful in Christ, will he not do the rest?
        7. Let us walk and live in that faith.
      10. God has given Sarah a son, Isaac. Can she now doubt that he will also freely with him giver her all his promises?
        1. From Isaac a great nation will be born
        2. In him all the families of the earth will be blessed
        3. The covenant given to him will last forever
      11. God has given us his only son, Christ Jesus. How will he not also with him freely give us all things?
        1. That even though we die, yet we shall live
        2. That we shall be vindicated in the day of Christ Jesus
        3. That while we wait, he makes intercession for us.
        4. That nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is expressed in Jesus Christ.

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