The Birth of Isaac
Genesis 20:1-21:341
May 28, 2006


Today’s message is from Genesis chapters 20 and 21. This is a repeat of last week’s message with a few minor revisions. Again, we won’t read the entire text at the beginning; but I’ll read parts of it as we go along. Remember, as always, that it’s the word of God. God gave it to us so that we could know him through it. Also, as always, I encourage all of you to read your Bibles every day; and read the passage I’m going to talk about on Sunday before you get here.

[Prayer]

Before I go on, let me review some of the events that happened in Genesis up until this point.

The Lord had promised Abraham that he would bless him and make him a blessing, and that through his offspring all nations on earth would be blessed. But at that time, Abraham had no offspring; he was childless. The Lord had promised Abraham that his offspring would be as numerous as the dust of the earth and as numerous as the stars in the sky; but Abraham still had no offspring. His wife Sarah, who was old and well beyond child-bearing age, persuaded Abraham to take her maid Hagar as a second wife and try to have children through her. According to the custom of the time, any children born to Hagar would be counted as Sarah’s. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

When Ishmael was around 14 years old (and Abraham was around 100), the Lord told Abraham that, although Ishmael would have numerous offspring, his covenant with Abraham would be through a son that Sarah would bear. That son was to be named Isaac. Isaac means laughter.

Two weeks ago I talked about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Before the Lord told Abraham what he was planning for Sodom and Gomorrah, he told him that Sarah would become pregnant and bear Isaac in about a year.

I called today’s message The Birth of Isaac; but the first part of the text, chapter 20, the HCSB calls Sarah Rescued from Abimelech. It’s about a sin that Abraham needed to deal with before Isaac was born. Let’s look at the first two verses of chapter 20. Here’s what they say:

1From there Abraham traveled to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived in Gerar, 2Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. (Genesis 20:1,2)

Does this sound familiar? Abraham did it again! It’s the same thing he had done when he went to Egypt. During the famine back in chapter 12, Abraham had decided to go to Egypt where there was plenty of food. Sarah was a beautiful woman and Abraham was afraid that they would kill him and take her away to be in the Harem of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. But if they thought she was his sister, they would just take her and let him live.

If you look down to verse 13 in today’s passage, you will see that this deception was something they had agreed to before they had even left to come to the land of Canaan. It was something they had agreed to do wherever they went. Verse 13 says (this is Abraham speaking to Abimelech), “So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go, and say about me: ‘He’s my brother.’ ”

Now let me read the rest of chapter 20:

3But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
4Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy a nation even though it is innocent? 5Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
6Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against Me. Therefore I have not let you touch her. 7Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”
8Early in the morning Abimelech got up, called all his servants together, and personally told them all these things; and the men were terrified.
9Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.” 10Abimelech also said to Abraham, “What did you intend when you did this thing?”
11Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’ 12Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go, and say about me: ‘He’s my brother.’ ”
14Then Abimelech took sheep and cattle and male and female slaves, gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. 15Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Settle wherever you want.” 16And to Sarah he said, “Look, I am giving your brother 1,000 pieces of silver. It is a verification of your honor to all who are with you. You are fully vindicated.”
17Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could bear children, 18for the Lord had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. (Genesis 20:3-18)

According to verse 3, after Abimelech, the king of Gerar, where Abraham had settled, had had Sarah brought to him, God spoke to Abimelech in a dream about the situation. He told him that he was about to die (literally, he was a dead man—as good as dead) because of Sarah—because she was a married woman. Abimelech protested his innocence. Both Abraham and Sarah had said that they were sister and brother, not husband and wife. Abimelech said that he had taken Sarah with a clear conscience and with clean hands. The Lord told him that he knew he was innocent.

But before I go on, I want to make a point. It appears to me that Abimelech didn’t get anyone’s consent before he had Sarah brought to him. He didn’t ask Abraham nor did he ask Sarah. It looks pretty much like she was captured into slavery. (I know it’s unlikely that Sarah was taken by force, but Abimelech was the ruler of the land and Abraham and Sarah would have known better than to resist him.) But it was adultery that God was saying was worthy of death, not slavery. Adultery, not slavery!

So, let me ask you this: If you asked someone on the street whether he or she thought adultery was the worse crime or whether kidnapping and slavery were worse, what answer would you expect? Kidnapping and slavery are serious crimes. But, you know, adultery isn’t even illegal any more. (It used to be.) But, before God, adultery is worthy of death! It is by far the worst of the crimes. Think about how far our views of things have departed from the truth!

Well, after the Lord had spoken with Abimelech, he got up the next morning and called all his servants together and told them what had happened. It says they were terrified! Abraham told Abimelech in verse 11 that he had said what he said—that he and Sarah were brother and sister—because he believed that there was “no fear of God in this place.” He was wrong! There was fear of God in this place. They were terrified.

(And incidentally, ‘this place’ was Philistia, the land of the Philistines. The Philistines were not native Canaanites but had moved to the area after the original Canaanites. The name Palestine is derived from Philistine. The Philistines were later to become enemies of the Israelites and harass them throughout much of their history. It was the Romans who gave the name Palestine to the area occupied by the Jewish nation. They did it as an insult to them. According to what I have read, the present day Palestinians hate the name Palestinian, which was intended as an insult, but are forced to use it because that’s what everybody calls them.)

Well, Abimelech, a pagan king who knew adultery was sinful— “Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Abimelech, a pagan king, rebuked Abraham and asked him why he would do such a thing—why he would deceive him so that he almost committed adultery. From Abimelech’s point of view, Abraham had caused him to very nearly commit a crime worthy of death. God had graciously prevented it.

But what do you think about Abraham, the man of faith?  Abraham had been a coward and had made up his mind not to protect or defend his wife from the time they left for Canaan. He had, in effect, conditionally divorced his wife and would have caused her to commit adultery. He also was willing to have her become the slave of another man. And what about the child she was going to bear? What about Isaac? She may already have been pregnant at this time!

And in addition to everything else, Abraham lied. He tried to claim he didn’t lie—after all, she was his sister—his half sister, anyway. How often have you done that? How often have you lied by telling the truth? How often have you made a statement that was absolutely true, but the intent was to make you hearer believe the opposite? How often have you made a true statement but misled your hearer simply by changing your inflection or the expression on your face? How often have you lied by making true statements but simply leaving out important details? It seems to come naturally to us. But God says, “…all liars, their place is in the lake of fire.”

Well, God rescued Abraham and Sarah (and Abimelech as well) from the situation. Abraham prayed for Abimelech and his city as God had told Abimelech he would. God healed Abimelech’s wife and all the female slaves so they could have children. (If you wondered why Abimelech and his household took his dream so seriously, it may have been because they were unable to conceive children during the entire time Sarah was with them. Also, notice that the other women besides Abimelech’s wife were slaves. As I’ve indicated, that would have been Sarah’s status too.)

Also, before I go on, you might want to compare Abimelech and his city, Gerar, with the king of Sodom and his city. Abimelech knew adultery was wrong and when he told his servants about the dream, they were terrified! Abimelech and his people survived! The king of Sodom and the people of Sodom had no fear of God. They and their city were totally destroyed!

Now let’s go on to chapter 21. Listen to the first six verses:

1The Lord came to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. 2Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him. 3Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac. 4When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. 5Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” (Genesis 21:1-6)

The Lord did just as he had promised. He gave Abraham a son through his wife Sarah just at the time he had said he would—and even though Sarah was old and past child-bearing age. Then Abraham did the things God had commanded him. He named his son Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old. Sarah said that God had made her laugh and that everyone would laugh with her.

Now I’m going to read verses 8 through 21. These verses tell about Hagar and her son Ishmael being sent away—being expelled from the family. Listen:

8The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. 9But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham. 10So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a co-heir with my son Isaac!”
11Now this was a very difficult thing for Abraham because of his son. 12But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 13But I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.”
14Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes. 16Then she went and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly.
17God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is. 18Get up, help the boy up, and sustain him, for I will make him a great nation.” 19Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. 20God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. 21He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt. (Genesis 21:8-21)

I’m not going to say too much about these verses except to point out that it was God’s will that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. Sarah sounded pretty mean and vindictive: “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a co-heir with my son Isaac!” but God told Abraham to do what his wife said. It was God’s will that they be sent away. Also, I should point out that God promised to make Ishmael into a great nation, just as he had promised to make Isaac into a great nation.

Now, what I want to do is to talk about the apostle Paul’s comments on this passage. He talked about Sarah and Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael in the book of Galatians. The apostle Paul, in the book of Galatians, compares legalism and grace. (Does anyone know what we mean when we talk about legalism? Sometimes people use the term somewhat loosely to refer to someone that they believe is trying too hard to live a Godly life. For example, if someone says, “I don’t go to the movies because they are ungodly and I’m trying to live a pure life before God,” people might say he’s being legalistic. Or someone might say, “I subscribe to a certain dress code because I want to be modest and live a godly life.” People might say that that person is being legalistic. But what legalism really is is trying to obtain salvation by keeping the law—by keeping God’s law, the Law of Moses. Let me say that again: Legalism is trying to be saved by keeping the law. No one has ever been saved by keeping the law! “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) It is not possible to be saved by keeping the law because no one has kept it—no one except Jesus that is. That’s why he was the perfect sacrifice for our sin. … By the way, does anyone know what we mean when we talk about grace?)

What the apostle Paul was addressing in Galatians was the problem that there were some people teaching that you had to be circumcised in order to be saved, in other words, you had to keep at least part of the law. From what Paul said in Galatians 3:28, “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” I would guess that these people might have not even believed it was possible for women to be saved. Some of the Jewish teachers actually believed that according to what I have read.

I talked about what the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians several weeks ago when I talked about Genesis chapters 16 and 17. I’m going to quote what he said again. Paul used the events recorded in Genesis concerning Sarah and Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael as a kind of allegory to illustrate the difference between being saved by grace and trying to be saved by works—by keeping the law. And I don’t think Paul just happened to find this example. The Lord actually guided the events that occurred in Genesis so they could be used as examples for us—and then guided Paul to use them exactly that way. Here’s what he says:

21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. 23But the one by the slave was born according to the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. 24These things are illustrations, for the women represent the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar. 25Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. (Gal. 4:21-26)

And here’s some more—Galatians 4:28 through 31:

28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29But just as then the child born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit [remember Ishmael mocking Isaac], so also now. 30But what does the scripture say?

Throw out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never inherit with the son of the free woman.

31Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (Gal. 4:28-31)

Paul is telling us that trying to be saved by keeping the law makes us slaves and we need to throw out trying to be saved by keeping the law. Mount Sinai is where Moses received the law. (“The one from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar.”) The law is one of the two covenants that the two women Sarah and Hagar represent. It is the Old Covenant—the Old Testament, to use our more familiar designation. Paul says it is Hagar and it bears children into slavery. The other covenant is the New Covenant. It is represented by the free woman, Sarah. Sarah gave birth to Isaac as the result of God’s promise. It was a miraculous birth! The New Covenant is the covenant that is sealed by Jesus’s blood. Jesus took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. “Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (1 Cor. 11:25) We have a new birth into a living hope. It is a miraculous birth and is the result of a promise: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” God has promised eternal life to everyone who believes in Jesus!

Brothers and sisters, we are not saved by keeping the law! We are saved by believing God’s promise of salvation through Jesus’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead! The law was given as a schoolmaster, to use the King James rendering, to guide us to Christ. Here’s what Paul says: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24 –KJV) We are justified by faith! We are not saved by keeping the law, but we keep the law, or even have any desire to keep the law, because we are saved!

Now let me quote some more from Galatians. This is from 5:13 through 26:

13For you were called to freedom, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
16I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, 21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar, about which I tell you in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law. 24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. 26We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Gal. 5:16-26)

Trying to be saved by keeping the law results from pride— “I did it myself.” God will not let you do it yourself. All those works of the flesh, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, come from trying to be saved by keeping the law. They are followed by sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, drunkenness and carousing. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law.

Remember, the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

The last section of today’s Genesis passage is Genesis 21:22 through 34. I’m just going to read it:

22At that time Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. 23Now swear to me here by God that you will not break an agreement with me or with my children and descendants. As I have kept faith with you, so you will keep faith with me and with the country where you are a resident alien.”
24And Abraham said, “I swear it.” 25But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the water well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.
26Abimelech replied, “I don’t know who did this thing. You didn’t report anything to me, so I hadn’t heard about it until today.”
27Then Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. 28But Abraham had set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock. 29And Abimelech said to Abraham, “Why have you set apart these seven ewe lambs?”
30He replied, “You are to accept the seven ewe lambs from my hand so that this act will serve as my witness that I dug this well.” 31Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba because it was there that the two of them swore an oath. 32After they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.
33Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he worshiped the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34And Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines for many days. (Genesis 21:22-34)

Remember to walk by the Spirit and have the fruit of the Spirit. Remember that we are not under the law. The purpose of the law was to guide us to Christ. Remember that we have the New Covenant in Jesus’s blood. We have the covenant of God’s grace. Praise the Lord and amen!

[Prayer]




END NOTES
1 Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible ®, Holman CSB ® and HCSB ® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.