20240721_IshmailToSarahDeath

[0:00] Genesis chapter 21, we look to the Lord for His blessing this morning. Roger Neff, would you ask God's blessing on our time this morning and on His Word, please?

[0:30] Thank you for the Word of God that you gave us to study.

[0:46] Amen. Amen. So we left last, well, a couple weeks ago, we left Abraham after Gerar, after he had left Abimelech, and Abimelech gave to Abraham all these gifts as a witness, if you will, that nothing happened between he and Sarah.

[1:32] And so now we pick up with chapter 21, verse 1. And look at those first four verses for just a moment, and then we'll get to a couple of questions.

[1:45] And most of the questions are for detail to force me to read, to read it in its context.

[1:57] Okay, what does, when does Sarah bear Isaac? In her old age. In her old age.

[2:10] And what's the word say? At the appointed time. At the set. God said, it's going to be now.

[2:23] And it's now. And he had already foretold that back in 18. You know, he said at this time, at the proper time next year, you're going to have this son.

[2:40] Okay. And Abraham called the name of his son, what? Isaac, which means? Laughter.

[2:52] Right. And then what happened? What did Abraham do? He circumcised him on the eighth day.

[3:02] Now, at this point, circumcision is not a law for the Jews because there is no nation of Israel. That's coming. And this will be part of the law.

[3:15] He's going to put the circumcision on the eighth day into the law. But it is not now the law. Right now, the circumcision was what? It wasn't part of the law, but it was a sign of the, which covenant?

[3:34] The Abrahamic covenant. That's not going to be the same as the Sinai covenant or the Mosaic covenant. And we, well, we'll get into, we'll get, we'll bring it up later.

[3:51] Yeah, I'd just hang on that and say, what in the world's he thinking? Okay. Now, this term, God visited Sarah, verse one.

[4:03] God visited Sarah. That's kind of an interesting term because in about 940 years, that term's going to show up again for someone else.

[4:17] Off the top of your head, do you know what other woman that is by any chance? No, that's too late. Not Elizabeth.

[4:31] It's going to be, it's going to be Hannah. Hannah.

[4:41] Hannah. Who will be the mother of Samuel. Yeah. It's a, the, the word says that God visited Hannah and she bore Samuel.

[4:55] That's just a, a trivial question for you, but it's, it's interesting to chase down. Now, keep going with verses five through seven at least.

[5:07] Now, we already asked, what's the name Isaac mean? It means laughter or God has caused me to laugh, she says in verse five.

[5:23] Now, in verse seven, Sarah asks metaphorically or rhetorically, she asks a question.

[5:35] What's the, what's Sarah's question? Who would have said?

[5:45] Right. Who would ever have said? Well, what's the answer to that? Who would have thought this?

[5:59] Well, who did think it? God did. And when God says it, it's good. When God says to us, if you believe what I did on the cross, then you will be saved.

[6:28] I don't have to worry. Because God's word is good. I am thankful for that. We don't have to worry about our brother, Bruce.

[6:42] We mourn, but we don't have to worry. I'm grateful for that. Now, keep going with verses eight through 11.

[6:58] I'm not going to. Do you remember back when Hagar got pregnant?

[7:11] And Sarah drove her away? What did God tell Hagar? I heard it.

[7:22] Go back and submit yourself to Sarah, right? I'll take care of this. Now, have you ever wondered, this makes me wonder, when I start to read these verses, I wonder what domestic life was like in those intervening 15 years or so.

[7:41] So, what happens here? What does she say?

[7:59] What does she say? Okay. He was mocking. Incidentally, that's the same. He was laughing.

[8:11] What was he laughing about? What's going on? Give us the setting. It's a party. What's the party about?

[8:23] Well, Isaac's already born. It's his, he's being weaned. Now, this is beyond our Western culture, but Abraham throws a big party.

[8:42] During this party, Ishmael's mocking or laughing about it. And Sarah is very tolerant about it, right?

[8:57] Okay. Well, what's Sarah say? Okay. The actual term there is, Drive her out. Drive her out.

[9:10] Why? This woman's son, Ishmael, is not going to be heir with my son.

[9:26] Now, is this wrong or right? It's true. She's not the first one who said that.

[9:39] Who said that before? God did. He said, It will be through Isaac that this covenant is fulfilled.

[9:52] Now, I'm going to, I'm going to protect Ishmael. I'm going to make of him a nation. But, he's not going to be the nation of promise.

[10:04] That's going to be through Isaac. Right? Okay. So, she says, Drive her out.

[10:16] Now, how did Abraham respond? No, it was grievous.

[10:32] Why? Well, because he's my son. I can't answer that.

[10:50] As far as, as, as far as, um, common behavior.

[11:01] Behavior. That particular question goes beyond what I understand in the revelation of Scripture.

[11:44] See, whether or not Ishmael may have been the legal heir, the answer would be possibly had he stuck around. But Abraham did drive her out.

[11:57] Now, what's that have to do with us? I'm sorry? I say we're adopted. Okay, we're adopted.

[12:10] Galatians. This is used by the Apostle Paul as a juxtaposition of what versus what?

[12:24] Promise versus the law or grace or law. So, it's in Galatians chapter 4, and if you want to go there, it's about, it begins, or my beginning was around verse 22.

[12:41] But Paul goes through this, and he says, which things were given as an allegory? Right? Right? Now, is an allegory the actual occurrence?

[13:00] It's not a trick question. Is an allegory the actual occurrence? No, but it's illustrative. It illustrates. By the way, I'm going to ask you a question.

[13:16] Have you ever heard someone teach from, let's say, the parables of Jesus, and they make doctrinal statements or dogmatic statements based on an extrapolation from that parable?

[13:35] Have you ever heard that or something like that? Now, this allegory is just that. Allegory, metaphor, simile, parables, those are illustrative.

[13:51] They're not doctrine. They illustrate a doctrine, but they're not doctrine. For example, the parable of, and I use this one because it's an easy one to pick on, the parable of the unrighteous judge.

[14:13] Now, Jesus taught his disciples, it says, this is how I believe. Personally, I think he's teaching them about what it's going to be like after he leaves and them in Jerusalem and tarry in prayer until the Holy Spirit comes.

[14:33] But, nevertheless, how to pray and not faint. And he uses the parable, there's an unrighteous judge who cared neither for man nor for God, and this woman had a grievance, and because of her perseverance with the judge, he finally gave her what she needed.

[14:53] Now, the unrighteous judge was an illustration of God. Now, you see how carrying that into a doctrine, trying to make a doctrine out of that, is going to go send me really wrong-headed?

[15:16] You see, God's not unrighteous, is he? No. No. Jesus is illustrating a perseverance. He's not illustrating everything else.

[15:29] So, we're careful when we use metaphor, and so is Paul here. We're careful that we don't try to carry it on beyond the illustration.

[15:39] So, having said that, as a disclaimer, go to Galatians, and what does Paul say? This is given as an allegory.

[15:51] So, who does Hagar represent? In this allegory, Galatians chapter 4.

[16:02] Who does Hagar represent? The law. The bondwoman.

[16:13] The law is the law, and is the allegory or the representation of Jerusalem. Yeah, the covenant of the law, right?

[16:25] And then, who does Isaac represent? Or what does Isaac represent?

[16:38] Promise or the gospel of the grace of God, right? Salvation by grace apart from the law. And then, he uses the same phrase.

[16:54] The bond, cast out the bondwoman, for she shall not be heir, her seed shall not be heir with that, with the seed of the promise, right?

[17:06] So, that's what it has to do with us. It's an allegory for, we are not under, we are under, right?

[17:19] And that's pretty important. Boy, is that important. In fact, the word of God says, if I seek you who seek to be justified by works of the law.

[17:33] Now, I'm not going to get into everything here, because I'm not sure I understand Paul's thinking there. But he said, you have, it's a big word, you have fallen from grace.

[17:48] That's a big deal. That's a big warning. If I seek to be justified on my own, and it has to do with, so that no man may boast.

[18:06] God gets the glory for salvation. And only God. All the work is done by the Lord Jesus Christ.

[18:18] I have only to believe. We are saved unto good works, but we are not justified by good works.

[18:33] Right. And it's for God's glory. Now, we'll move on then. I guess we're about verse 12, are we not?

[18:52] Verses 12 and 13, keep going there. What does God say to Abraham? This was grievous in Abraham's sight. What does God say? Don't be distressed.

[19:06] Don't be distressed. Why? Well, before even that, And he reiterates, In Isaac shall your seed be called.

[19:21] Right? It's going to be in Isaac that I bring forth this covenant. Remember when God went through the covenant alone? That's what the reference is to.

[19:37] Unto your seed. Or, by your seed shall all the earth be blessed. It's through Isaac that this is going to happen. So, What's he, yes?

[19:54] Yes. At this point, We are, We are in the great parenthesis.

[20:12] It is not a non-Jewish thing in that He will say, That is, the Apostle Paul will say, The seed, The seed, specifically, Is whom?

[20:28] Christ. So, in that respect, It's a Jewish thing. Because the seed had to come from, Through there. It has to be Jesus.

[20:40] So, we are, Blessed, In that way. But as far as today, This is not the kingdom.

[20:51] In case I haven't noticed. And some of the hallmarks of the kingdom.

[21:01] And I have, I have, Brothers and sisters in the Lord, Who are, Amillennial. I'm sorry.

[21:16] But, They are. And, They do not believe that the messianic kingdom, As prophesied in the Old Testament, Through the prophets in the Old Testament, They do not believe that that is a literal, Physical kingdom on earth.

[21:44] They do not believe that Jesus is literally going to reign on the earth. They believe that, Spiritually, He reigns upon the earth in the church.

[21:57] And that the kingdom will be, Well, What's the song that we sang, When I was a child, Although our church was not amillennial, When I was a child, We sang a song every year.

[22:17] We sang it during, What we called the, The missionary convention. We have a message to give to the nations, That will send, Turn their hearts to the Lord.

[22:28] Do you recognize that at all? It, And, Here's the, Here's the line that, That sends it off.

[22:39] And, Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, The kingdom of love and light. Basically, What that song teaches you is, That the church is going to rock in the kingdom.

[22:52] That's amillennial. That is, The church is to evangelize the world, And when all the world is evangelized, There's the kingdom. Fully established.

[23:05] But, It's a, God rules and reigns in your heart. Now, There's where the metaphors start to get mixed up. Because, Because, Paul uses kingdom in, In a metaphorical sense, In several places.

[23:21] But, The literal kingdom, Is when Jesus reigns upon the earth, In righteousness. There, It's hard to get around, He will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

[23:33] Isn't it? That's kind of hard to get around. It's kind of hard to get around, That justice will prevail. It's kind of hard to get around, That if, A man who dies at a hundred years old, Will be thought to be a child.

[23:51] It's hard to get around, That the righteous will be blessed, And the unrighteous will be cursed. I mean, Why, Was it Jeremiah?

[24:05] Why do the wicked prosper? He asked God. And, I think it's in the same section, Where God's response, Did not tell him, Why the wicked prospered.

[24:22] He just told Jeremiah, Hey, If I send you to run against footmen, What are you going to do, When I send you to run against the horses? Now, That's not the response, I would have been looking for, But, That's a response he got.

[24:38] Back to our point though, The, The, The amillennial kingdom, Has to do with, A spiritual, Kingdom, Rather than a physical, Kingdom.

[24:52] So, As far as today, We're in the great parenthesis, But the kingdom is coming. Yeah.

[25:03] Yeah. Is it no millennial replacement theology? Some are, I wouldn't say they all are, But some are, He asked, Is amillennial replacement theology?

[25:22] Some are, And it has some smacking of that, Because if this is the kingdom, You know, The, Who's supposed to be the center of the kingdom?

[25:34] I didn't mean to get all this far off, But, Let's, Let's take care of this business. Who's supposed, Who will be, In prophecy, The center of the world in the kingdom?

[25:45] Messiah. Messiah. Who will reign where? In Jerusalem. And who will be centered in the world?

[25:57] Israel. And, That, That's the, By the way, That is the perspective, That the sermon on the mount, Has to be read in.

[26:07] When Jesus said to them, Take no thought for your life, That's exactly what he meant. He said, This is what the kingdom is. You don't have to worry, Israel, Because you're going to live off the fat of the Gentiles.

[26:23] The wealth of the Gentiles, Will be brought into Israel, In the kingdom. And they will be, A kingdom of priests. Therefore, Therefore, If you will, It doesn't say tithes, So far as I know, In, In the, In the prophets.

[26:42] But what it does say is, That the Gentile nations, Will come and serve, God, By giving, Money, To the kingdom of priests, Which will be, Israel.

[26:54] Israel, And Israel will serve, God, By blessing, Being a kingdom of priests, Before them.

[27:06] And it says, That foreigners will dress your vines. You're going to, It says, You'll nurse off the milk of the Gentiles. Those are graphic points, To show that Israel, Will be supported by Gentiles.

[27:20] So when Jesus said, Give away all your money, Because God's going to take care of you, That's exactly what he meant. Now, By the way, Those who mix it up, And try to make the Sermon on the Mount, Apply to me today, I notice they're not giving away their money.

[27:39] Some of them are, But not most. That's why, By the way, The believers in Jerusalem, When the kingdom was offered, Right after the coming of the Holy Spirit, What did they do?

[28:02] They gave it away. They not only gave away their money, They gave away their means of production. Why? Because that's the kingdom. What they did not have, Was a revelation, Of the parenthesis, Of the church.

[28:18] As, By the church, I mean, The church salvation, Through faith, And that not of yourselves, It is a gift of God, Not of works, Lest any man should boast, And it has to do with Gentiles, And Jews, There is therefore now, No division.

[28:37] So, At this time, There's no difference, At this time of history, In which we live. So, Coming back then, It is through Isaac, That this, Promise, Will be fulfilled.

[29:00] So, What does Abraham do about it? This is going to be, Verse 14 about, I know we've, Meandered around, So, Okay, Get specific, What does he do?

[29:18] Gave him, Gave him, Bread, And a bottle of water, And Ishmael, And said, Bye Hagar.

[29:34] Now, What did Hagar do? Okay, This word, Wandered, Is not the same word, As a sojourn, Or a trip.

[29:50] This, This word, Wandered, Means, She's lost her way. She's confused. Remember back, When she left, When she fled from, Sarah, When she was pregnant?

[30:04] She knew the way to Egypt, Didn't she? It wasn't like, She didn't know, Where she was. She knew the way to Egypt, And it was by that well, That God, Told her to go, Go back to Sarah.

[30:20] This is all in God's plan. So, Here, She wanders around, And what happens? She runs out of water, She figures, They're going to die.

[30:40] What's she do with Ishmael? Right. Now, Hagar's a tough woman. How old's Ishmael about this time?

[30:54] Fifteen, Give or take a year or so. I mean, He's not a kid, He's not a, Toddler. He's not a baby.

[31:05] This is a, This is a tough woman. Anyway, She drags him under, She walks, She goes away, As it were a bow shot, Couple hundred yards, Or though, Thereabouts, And does, Does what?

[31:21] She cries. Why? She doesn't want to see him, Die. She figures he's going to die, She doesn't want to see it.

[31:33] Now, What wilderness is she in? What does that word mean? When you see the word beer, In, The Hebrew scripture, What does it mean?

[31:52] Well. That's the well. This is, By the way, This is a well, That Abraham dug.

[32:03] The bottle of water, Was meant to get her, To, The oasis, To the well, So she could refill. But, God, Apparently, Caused her to wander.

[32:16] So we're going to see, Another thing here. Keep reading. At least through verse 19, God's going to use, In here, Another time, He is going to use, Ishmael's name, As a play on words.

[32:46] What's he ask, Hagar? Hagar. Hagar. Hagar. Hagar. Yeah, Yeah, That's an interesting question, Isn't it?

[32:59] What aileth thee, Hagar? And what does she say? Actually, Let me ask you this, He doesn't stop there, He finishes.

[33:19] He says, What ails you, Or, What's the matter, Hagar? What? God hears, That's what his name means, Isn't it?

[33:30] Ishmael, Means, God, Hears. So, God, God uses the play on his name again. He used it with Abraham before. Remember, God hears.

[33:43] And so, God has heard the voice of the lad, Where he is. By the way, And I, I'm not stretching this too much, But this is a pretty good illustration.

[33:57] God heard my voice where I was, When I asked for forgiveness. God hears the voice, That calls on him.

[34:10] Now, The voice that calls on him, To do what I want, He may not hear. He doesn't promise to hear that, But he does hear. He hears, I hear the lad where he is.

[34:26] Now, This, By the way, Is the second time, That God addresses, Hagar, Immediately. That is, Directly.

[34:44] What did God do for, Hagar? He opened her eyes, And she saw the well.

[34:56] Now, Apparently, God has prevented her, From seeing this, Well, This oasis, It's an oasis, It's not just a, Hole in the ground.

[35:11] He's prevented her, From seeing it until now. And that, That phrase, Will, Appears a number of times, In scripture, Or something along that line.

[35:24] And just a couple of them. The first time, We were introduced, To it, Was in Genesis chapter 3. Sherry had just given me the fruit.

[35:37] It's her fault. And I partook. And the eyes of both of them, Were opened.

[35:52] That's the first time, I was introduced to it. Let's get in our time machine, Go way ahead, To second kings. This has to do with, Elisha and his servant.

[36:04] They are in the town. Syria is encompassing the town, And attacking Israel. The, The servant, The young man, Gets up early in the morning, And he looks out, From the wall, And what does he see?

[36:28] He sees the Syrian army, Surrounding the city. And he runs to Elisha, And he says, Oh, What will we do?

[36:41] I don't blame him for that, By the way. I'd be kind of panicked myself. Well, not me, But you would be.

[36:55] And Elisha, Said something that we've heard, A number of times, It's frequently used, And it's a good phrase, To remember. He said, Don't worry about it.

[37:08] Greater, Are they, That are with us, Than, They, That are with them. And then he prays, And it says, God opened the eyes, Of the servant, And what did he see?

[37:25] Do you remember? Remember, The chariots of fire, Surrounding, Elisha. See, There was a spiritual battle, Going on there, That he could not, He couldn't see that realm, Before, But God opened his eyes, And he saw that.

[37:48] By the way, That phrase will be used, By the apostle Paul, For, For, For the church, When he said, I pray, In, In a metaphorical sense, He says, I pray that the eyes, Of your heart, Will be open, And you will start, To understand, Roger, What is the height, And the depth, I, The more, You consider, The grace of God, The more astounding, And wonderful, It becomes, The better, It can't get any better, But the better it seems, Yeah, You can be a Christian, And be miserable, But you don't have to be, Right?

[38:40] You don't have to be, A miserable Christian, You can rejoice, In the Lord, And, Anyway, Those are a few, Of the, Of the, Comments, Yeah, Well, Possibly, I don't know, What the lad was crying, But, You're right, Could well be, Yes, Yes,

[39:45] I'm sure, That he, Learned, Something, Now, and we will pick up, because of the time, we'll pick up next week, God willing, with what's going to happen next, because God shows her the well, they're saved, if you will, and then we will pick up with what happens with Ishmael, and if you think to do so, check out how many times you see his descendants named hereafter, because, well, I'll stop with that.

[40:35] Have a wonderful week.