Genesis 21:8-21
Cast Out the Bondwoman!

  1. The Conflict Between the Heirs
    1. Sarah Jealously Guards Isaac’s Inheritance (8-10)
      1. Abraham throws a big party when Isaac is weaned
        1. He’s presumably around 3 years old, although possibly younger
        2. Women generally in those days continued breastfeeding until age 3 as a form of birth control, but Sarah has no need of that.
        3. It is the boy’s first small step toward manhood, toward growing up and owning the covenant and inheriting the earth.
        4. He is delighted in his son — He is laughing, he is rejoicing, he is "Isaac-ing" over this wonderful gift
      2. And off in a corner, Sarah sees Ishmael laughing as well
        1. For that’s what the word translated "scoffing" or "mocking" means — It comes from Isaac’s name, laughter
          1. Sarah and Abraham laughed to hear God promise them a son. -They laughed in derision, scoffing and mocking. They "Isaac-ed"
          2. When he was born, they "Isaac-ed" again. They laughed, this time for pure joy.
          3. Now Abraham "Isaacs" over the weaning of his son. He laughs with joy at the years God has granted the boy
          4. And Ishmael, looking on, "Isaacs" as well, jealously making fun of the whole affair
        2. After all, wasn’t Ishmael Abraham’s firstborn?
          1. Why should this latecomer get all the glory?
          2. Ishmael was the legitimate child of Abraham, and he was considered by law Sarah’s child as well, for Hagar the slave woman bore Ishamael as Sarah’s proxy.
          3. They should be celebrating Ishmael!
        3. And so he mocks the whole affair the way adolescent boys will when someone else receives honor.
          1. Ishmael resents Sarah for rejecting him.
          2. He resents Abraham for favoring his second born
          3. He resents God for choosing Isaac rather than Ishmael
          4. Doesn’t he understand that any hope he has is bound up in Isaac, in this Seed of Abraham? For from him Christ will come.
          5. Yet Ishmael does not embrace the child of the covenant but hates him for being who he is.
      3. Sarah is enraged
        1. She’d never really accepted Ishmael as her son
        2. And there he was mocking her true son, the precious gift of God.
        3. And suddenly she realizes, this one is a fellow-heir with my son
          1. By law, as Abraham’s son born to her by her maidservant, he receives a share of the inheritance.
          2. Suddenly there is a terrifying second meaning to Ishmael’s "Isaac-ing"
          3. He is not merely laughing at Isaac, he is saying he should be in Isaac’s place. Or at least that he should be equal with Isaac. Shall he be allowed to "Isaac" to that extent, to be Isaac’s fellow heir?
          4. And she becomes jealous on her true son’s behalf
        4. There is a solution
          1. A legal tradition stipulated that a son by a slave woman could forfeit his inheritance claim in exchange for freedom.
          2. She invokes this tradition — Cast out this bondwoman and her son!
          3. Make them free, and by making them free, disinherit him!
          4. To Isaac and Isaac alone must belong the inheritance.
          5. This one shall not be heir with my precious child.
    2. Abraham Desires to Protect Ishmael (11)
      1. After all, hadn’t Abraham fallen for this gambit once before?
        1. After Hagar had conceived Ishmael, she despised her mistress Sarah for her barrenness
        2. And Sarah had gone to Abraham and said, in other words but to the same effect, Cast out this bondwoman!
        3. Abraham had said do whatever you want.
        4. And God brought Hagar back and rebuked Abraham for listening to the voice of his wife
        5. He’s not gonna fall for that old trick this time.
      2. Yet there’s more than just Abraham’s cagey avoiding of an old trap.
      3. He’s got too much invested in Ishmael now. He doesn’t want to cast him out.
      4. "The matter was very displeasing to Abraham"
        1. It doesn’t sound like much in English
        2. But in Hebrew this describes the mother of all anger.
        3. When God is "displeased" with Onan later in this book, Onan dies.
        4. When God is "displeased" with David for committing adultery, the child conceived by that adultery dies.
        5. And Abraham isn’t just "displeased."
        6. Here, for the only time in the OT, someone is said to be "VERY displeased."
      5. Is he displeased because of his wife, because her request is unrighteous?
      6. No, he’s displeased because of "his son"
        1. Who’s that now?
        2. "His son" could refer to either Ishmael or Isaac
        3. Is he displeased on Isaac’s behalf, that Isaac will lack an older brother?
        4. No, his eyes are on Ishmael.
      7. Abraham still holds out hope for Ishmael
        1. When God came and gave Abraham the covenant and promised him a son Ishmael, Abraham had laughed in unbelief and said, "O that Ishmael might live before you." I got you a son right here, Lord. Made him myself.
        2. And God had said, no, I will establish my covenant with Isaac. He will be your heir. Through him I will fulfill my promise to you to make you a great nation and in you bless all the families of the earth.
      8. And here’s Abraham, still saying "O that Ishamel might live before you."
      9. After all he’s seen of God’s faithfulness and power, he still wants things done his way. He still wants Ishmael to share in an inheritance God has given exclusively to Isaac.
      10. How tenacious are the works of our flesh and our love for them!
        1. Don’t you understand from Paul; that’s what this story’s about.
        2. Ishmael represents trying to be saved by your own effort. He represents being "under the law" with its directive "do this and live" and its condemnation on all who fail.
        3. Isaac represents salvation by faith, saved by the child God promised, the child God brought about without any help from anyone, the child no human effort could have made. Salvation by faith, believing that God is powerful to fulfill his promises, and we are helpless, dead in trespasses and sins.
        4. So when God promised Abraham a son, Abraham waited 11 years and then helped God out. Since he couldn’t make a son by Sarah, he made one by Hagar in the power of his own flesh and said that ought to be good enough.
        5. How he fought God! Aren’t the works of my flesh good enough? Why won’t you accept them?
        6. And even when Isaac was born and weaned, Abraham rejoiced, but he’s also saying, Can’t Ishmael live before you too? Can’t they both inherit? Can’t salvation be a combination of works and faith? I understand how important faith is now, God. I just want to add my own little present.
        7. And we are like that
          1. Oh yes, I’m happy for the gift of Jesus. Let me add my works to his and everything will be perfect!
          2. Isn’t there something I can do that God can use to help save me.
          3. How we hate the thought that nothing good dwells in our flesh, that we can’t do the smallest good thing for our salvation because everything we do is evil. I’m not really that bad, am I?
          4. How we nourish the idea that there is in us something good or useful, something that will survive the day of judgment
        8. Even to this day, the descendants of Ishmael in Saudi Arabia are among the most legalistic people in the world.
          1. Boasting in the strength of their flesh, they seek to be saved by their works
          2. And sadly, the descendants of Isaac in Israel are the same way
          3. May God grant that both become true children of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, by faith in the Promised Seed, Christ Jesus.
    3. God Guards Isaac’s Inheritance and Protects Ishmael (12,13)
      1. God says NO! Cast out the bondwoman and her son!
        1. Throw away your own works; they’re not part of my plan of salvation
        2. Send away this child, the product of your effort, he is useless to the purpose of producing a child of the promise
        3. Throw away, O child of God, your last attempts to justify yourself
          1. Throw away your idea that if you work hard enough you’ll have some reason to be pleased with yourself
          2. Indeed, if you could work hard enough to produce a pure work, you would have something to boast about … but not before God.
          3. Like Abraham, we embrace the child of promise. We embrace Christ and say here is my salvation.
          4. And like Abraham, our wayward hearts find a thousand ways to make him less than our whole salvation
          5. We say to ourselves, oh yes Christ justified me; now it’s up to be to sanctify myself. Give me the law and put me under it as the covenant of my sanctification. Tell me what to do and I’ll fulfill it. And together, Christ and I will produce a complete salvation.
          6. We work hard and then we look down our noses in judgment at those who don’t. That’s because we feel our work justifies us, makes us better. Cast out that bondwoman!
          7. We glory in our pure theology
            1. And well we should, but let it be a glorying in Christ
            2. Too often we glory in ourselves and look down our noses in judgment at those who understand less.
            3. And suddenly our knowledge of theology becomes the work that justifies us and we thank God we are not as ignorant as that tax collector over there
            4. Cast out that bondwoman!
          8. Perverse creatures that we are, we grasp this concept and then look down our noses at those who are still caught up in legalism. And the very notion of our freedom becomes the thing that justifies us rather than Christ. Cast out that bondwoman as well.
          9. Look to Christ and only Christ. Put all your hope in the Seed of Abraham. Beat your breast and cry out "God have mercy on me, a sinner. I have nothing to offer you." And he will abundantly have mercy!
      2. In Isaac, and only in Isaac shall your Seed be called
        1. Only through Isaac will I fulfill my promise. Put all your eggs in this basket.
        2. God is here simply repeating what he said to an 86 year old Abraham. The covenant will not come to Ishmael but to Isaac. Now stop asking me.
      3. And he repeats his promise concerning Ishmael as well
        1. I will make him a great nation, just as I promised you at age 86.
        2. Even though the covenant will not come through Ishmael, yet even the natural seed of Abraham is something before God’s eyes.
      4. After all he’s seen, will Abraham believe?
        1. God appeared to Abraham between Bethel and Ai
        2. God troubled Pharaoh’s household when Pharaoh took Sarah and Abraham left Egypt a rich man.
        3. God blessed Abraham’s pursuit of Chedorlaomer. Abraham recaptured all the goods and people, including his nephew Lot.
        4. God cared for Hagar in the wilderness and brought her safely home
        5. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah leaving Abraham unscathed.
        6. God troubled Abimelech’s household when Abimelech took Sarah. And when Abraham had prayed, God had opened the wombs of Abimelech’s household.
        7. God gave Isaac, just as he had said, at the time he’d said, to 90 year old Sarah by 100 year old Abraham.
      5. Every time Abraham relies on God, God comes through.
      6. Every time Abraham relies on himself, God has to bail him out.
      7. Will he believe God now and send away the bondwoman and her son? Has he finally got the picture?
  2. Abraham Sacrifices His Son (14)
    1. He finally gets the picture
    2. Though it hurts to do it, he sends Ishmael away
      1. He rose "early in the morning"
        1. The sign of diligence
        2. Lot rose eitm, but dawdled
        3. Abimelech rose eitm to restore Sarah to Abe
        4. And Abe will rise eitm to sacrifice Isaac when God calls him to
      2. For this is really a dry run for that sacrifice
        1. If Abraham cannot even send this child who isn’t the child of the promise away alive…
        2. How will he obey God’s command to sacrifice the one who is the child of the promise?
      3. Abraham has finally realized that he can trust God utterly and completely to keep his word.
      4. So he obeys God’s commands even when they hurt.
      5. And he does it early. No prolonged farewell; no putting off the inevitable. If God wants it, it must be good.
    3. He puts all his hope in Isaac
      1. Ishmael may become a great nation, but Abraham will never see it
      2. He stays with Isaac to watch God fulfill his covenant by passing it on to his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves
  3. God Fulfills His Promise Concerning Ishmael (15-21)
    1. Ishmael about to Die (15,16)
      1. On her way back to Egypt, Hagar gets lost and wanders in the desert.
      2. The bread is eaten, the water used up.
      3. She puts the boy under a bush to shade him from the beating sun, to protect his life a tiny while until he dies in parched agony
      4. She removes herself in order not to see his death
      5. Yet she only goes away about a bowshot, for she cannot bear to be far away.
      6. Abject, hopeless, about to lose all, she lifts up her voice and weeps.
    2. God Cares for Ishmael as He Promised (17-20)
      1. An angel of the Lord calls out of heaven
        1. Just like in the more famous story of Isaac’s sacrifice
        2. As Isaac is about to die, an angel of the Lord calls from heaven and tells Abraham to stop.
        3. So here, as Ishmael is about to die, an angel of the Lord calls from heaven and saves him
      2. So again, this is preparing us for the greater story of Isaac’s sacrifice. For this is not Ishmael’s story.
      3. And of course Isaac’s sacrifice prepares us for Christ. For ultimately this is not Isaac’s story either.
      4. And God hears, not her voice, but Ishmal’s
        1. For Ishmael cries too
        2. And it is Ishmael who is Abraham’s seed
        3. And it is concerning Ishmael that God has made promises
        4. So it is Ishmael’s cry that attracts the attention of the Lord.
      5. God provides water, opening Hagar’s eyes.
      6. He repeats the promise he made to Abraham to Hagar.
      7. Ishmael grew and became an archer.
      8. This is as good as it gets outside the covenant.
      9. But it isn’t good enough.
    3. Ishmael Leaves the Promised Land (21)
      1. Hagar returns to Egypt
      2. Ishmael takes an Egyptian wife.
      3. Remember what it meant for Abraham to leave the Promised Land for Egypt
        1. Ishmael goes to the land of relying on himself
        2. God may make him a powerful nation, but not a holy one
        3. Ishmael has turned his back on the promised seed and the covenant
        4. He considers the treasure of Egypt greater riches than the reproach of Christ.
        5. So we no longer follow Ishmael’s story. He’s left the true story behind
      4. Let us leave him there and follow Isaac.

[Genesis Sermons] [Sermons and Studies] [Main Menu]