Genesis 084 – The God of All Comfort-pt. 2

Transcript

 

Genesis 084 – The God of All Comfort Pt. 2

By Dr Andy Woods – 07/10/2022

Genesis 21:11-21

 

Let’s take our Bibles, if we could, and open them to… It’s not a trick question. Just on the wrong page, there we go. Genesis chapter 21, and verse 11 (Gen 21:11). As the Lord allows it, we’re going to try to make it through verse 21 today. I notice nobody believes me when I say that anymore. We have been focused on this man named Abraham. One of the reasons Abraham is such a big deal is because God is forming a nation in and through this man Abraham. That nation is very significant, the nation of Israel, because it’s through that nation that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, is going to come to the earth and so we’re sort of at an interesting phase in Abraham’s life where Isaac, the child of promise, has been born.

Genesis 12‒21 Abraham’s Early Journeys

1. 1. Unconditional promises (Gen 12:1-3)
   2. From Haran to Canaan (Gen 12:4-5)
   3. In Canaan (Gen 12:6-9)
   4. In Egypt (Gen 12:10-20)
   5. Abram and Lot Separate (Gen 13:1-13)
   6. Reaffirmation of Abram’s promises (Gen 13:14-18)
   7. Abram Rescues Lot (Gen 14:1-24)
   8. Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 15:1-21)
   9. Hagar & Ishmael (Gen 16:1-16)
   10. Circumcision  (Gen 17:1-27)
   11. Sodom  & Gomorrah (Gen 18‒19)
   12. Abraham & Abimelech (Gen 20)
   13. Isaac’s birth (Gen 21:1-7)
   14. Ishmael’s expulsion (Gen 21:8-21)

But Ishmael, the child you’ll recall back in Genesis, 16 that was born through works, he was born not through wanting to wait upon the Lord. Ishmael being about 17 years old at this time. Isaac being somewhere between 3 to 5 years old. Ishmael really doesn’t like the competition. He does not like the birth of Isaac and consequently, Ishmael at Isaac’s weaning, beginning in verse 8, starts to mock Ishmael, verse 9. I think I said that backwards Ishmael started to mock Isaac, there we go. Ishmael, you’ll remember, was born from the Abraham-Hagar line.

Genesis 21:8-21 Ishmael’s Expulsion

1. 1. 1. Isaac’s weaning (Gen 21:8)
      2. Ishmael’s mocking (Gen 21:9)
      3. Sarah’s demand (Gen 21:10)
      4. Abraham’s grief (Gen 21:11)
      5. God comforts Abraham (Gen 21:12-13)
      6. Expulsion (Gen 21:14)
      7. Hagar’s anguish (Gen 21:15-16)
      8. God’s comfort (Gen 21:17-18)
      9. God’s provision (Gen 21:19)
      10. Ishmael’s development (Gen 21:20)
      11. Ishmael’s marriage (Gen 21:21)

God said wait upon me and I’ll give you a child, through that child the nation of Israel will be born and Abraham and Sarah just got tired of waiting on God and so they sort of hatch this plan there in Genesis, 16 for Abraham to impregnate Hagar and from Hagar and that union came forth Ishmael and Abraham was very proud at what he had done cause poor God, He needs help, right? Fulfilling His word. I’m being facetious there and he says the Lord, look what I’ve done for you Lord and as you might imagine God was not impressed. Just like God is never impressed with our human works, that we used to try to implement His strategies and plans in the world and so they continue to wait upon God, Isaac was born in verses 1 through 8 (Gen 21:1-8), Isaac being about 3 to 5 years old at this time, Ishmael being about 17 to 20 years old. Ishmael doesn’t like the competition. He liked being the inheritor of the estate, the sole inheritor and so at Isaac’s weaning, Ishmael a 17 year old, starts to mock Isaac, probably a 3 year old. Sarah, the mother of Isaac, does not like it, verse 10 (Gen 21:10) and she makes a demand to kick Ishmael and Hagar out of here. She puts that pressure on Abraham to do that and we saw that described in verses 8 through 10 (Gen 21:8-10) and Abraham as you can imagine, grieves over this. 4:20

Genesis 21:8-21 Ishmael’s Expulsion

1. Isaac’s weaning (Gen 21:8)
2. Ishmael’s mocking (Gen 21:9)
3. Sarah’s demand (Gen 21:10)
4. Abraham’s grief (Gen 21:11)
5. God comforts Abraham (Gen 21:12-13)
6. Expulsion (Gen 21:14)
7. Hagar’s anguish (Gen 21:15-16)
8. God’s comfort (Gen 21:17-18)
9. God’s provision (Gen 21:19)
10. Ishmael’s development (Gen 21:20)
11. Ishmael’s marriage (Gen 21:21)

So we pick up the story here in verse 11 of Genesis 21 (Gen 21:11), it says: The matter… What matter? Sarah, Abraham’s wife saying to Abraham, kick Hagar and Ishmael out of the family line… The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son… When Abraham absorbed, when he learned the pressure that his wife was putting on him, he wasn’t just distressed, the Bible says he was distressed greatly. Why was he distressed greatly? Verse 11, because Ishmael was his son also. Ishmael did not come into the world through Sarah. Ishmael came into the line through the Abraham-Hagar line but nevertheless, Ishmael was still Abraham’s son and back in Genesis chapter 16, we saw that whole series of events come into existence. So Abraham, as he is being put under pressure by Sarah to depose Hagar and Ishmael, he is not just distressed, he’s greatly distressed and so if you find yourself here today greatly distressed about something, you’re actually in pretty good condition, because now it gives God, who is the God of all comfort, an opportunity to show up and minister in our lives. That’s why we have  entitled this message the God of all comfort. Actually this is part 2, because we started talking about the God of all comfort in verses 8 to 10 and so God, as he will do, since His very nature is to comfort, begins to comfort Abraham as he’s being put under pressure by his own wife to make this decision concerning Hagar and Ishmael. You’ll notice there in verse 12 (Gen 21:12) it says: But God said to Abraham… Abraham truly was a man that was promised personal blessings. We saw that as early as Genesis chapter 12 and verse 2, God simply said to Abraham, I will bless you and one of the blessings that he received from God is the fact that God spoke to him audibly seven times.

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 240

“This is the first of seven times that Abraham receives a direct revelation from God. In 12:1–3 is God’s initial call to Abram outside the Land of Canaan; in 12:7 is the first appearance to Abraham in the Land; in 13:14–17, Abraham encounters God after the separation of Lot; in 15:1–21, God signs and seals the Abrahamic Covenant; in 17:1–21, Abraham receives the token of the covenant; in 18:1–33, God speaks to him in conjunction with the destruction of Sodom; and in 22:1–2 and 22:11–18, God directs Abraham to offer Isaac.”

I’ve given you this quote here from Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, where it mentions the different places in the Abraham story where God actually spoke to Abraham and I believe that this, what we’re studying here, is the seventh time where God audibly spoke to Abraham, in this case to comfort him. Look at verse 12 (Gen 21:12) again, it says: But God said to Abraham, Do not be distressed… and if there’s a message that the Christians needs to hear today, that would be it because we have a tendency to get ourselves very worked up and very distressed about all kinds of things in life and yet God says to Abraham, do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid. What exactly was distressing Abraham? It was the fact that his wife was pressuring him to kick out his own lineage out of the home. But God comforts Abraham in the midst of his distress. There’s a tremendous verse in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 4 (2 Cor 1:3-4). I was reminded of it at our VBS this summer, because this was one of the key verses. It’s a tremendous description of God as the God of all comfort. It says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God… God’s nature is to comfort us in the midst of our distress. But God does it for a reason. He knows that if we receive His comfort in the midst of distress, then we know exactly how to minister to other people, who down the road are going to be in the same kind of distress. You know exactly how to talk to a person in distress, having been in distress yourself, you know exactly how to comfort someone in the midst of distress, having been comforted by God yourself and so God actually uses our discomfort, and His comfort to us in the midst of our discomfort to prepare us for ministries of comfort that he knows down the road we’re going to have. You’re walking through a difficult time and God comforts you and one of the reasons He does it is He knows someone, a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, will be going down that identical road and He is preparing you for your ministry by which He will use you to comfort you in the midst of your distress. It’s a different way of looking at trials and tribulations. When I receive the comfort from God in the midst of affliction, it’s not just about me being comforted, it’s about me being prepared for how God wants to use me and use you down the road and so you read these amazing words here but God said to Abraham, do not be distressed and now God issues words of comfort to Abraham, as he is having to make this decision. 11:04

His first words of comfort are aimed at Isaac, the young child has just been born and then, that’s in verse 12, and then in verse 13 he gives other words of comfort concerning Ishmael, the child that Sarah is pressuring Abraham to remove from the family lineage, from the family household. Notice first of all these words of comfort given by God to Abraham concerning Isaac, verse 12 (Gen 21:12): But God said to Abraham, Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her… Now, this is very interesting because this is the only time of an example that we have in the Bible where a husband is told to listen to the voice of his wife and I’m going to give some balancing comments on this so those of you that are picking up stones to stone me to death, we can save that for after. But it says there, Arnold Fruchtenbaum writing:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 240

“Then came the divine instruction: In all that Sarah said unto you, hearken unto her voice. This is the only time a husband is told by God to harken to or to obey his wife.”

Why is it so infrequent in the Bible that a husband is told to hearken to the voice of his wife? It has to do with what we would call male headship within marriage. A subject that’s very politically incorrect and secular society rejects, but you have to remember it was Adam listening to the voice of his wife that got us into the trouble that we’re in today because of the fall. It says in Genesis, 3, verse 17 (Gen 3:17): Then to Adam He said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life… The fall happened because the serpent deceived Eve and Adam listened to the voice of his wife. There was a breakdown, if you will, in male headship within marriage. This idea of male headship within marriage is not something that men came up with. It’s something that God came up with. In the book of Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 24 (Eph 5:22-24), it says: Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything… That’s why it’s very rare in scripture for God to say okay, husband, listen to the voice of your wife. So obviously Abraham had lost sight of some things that his wife needed to help him with and so here in this particular occasion, God says to Abraham, you need to listen to what Sarah wants you to do concerning the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from your household and the family line. Now having said all that, let’s offer some balancing comments. When the Bible tells a wife to submit to her husband, let me throw out some big words at you if I can do that. I paid a lot of tuition money to learn these big words, so I got to use them on somebody. That is a statement, not of ontology, which means value. It’s a statement concerning function or role, because many times chauvinism misteaches these biblical principles of male headship, that somehow the wife is inferior to the husband because the wife submits to the husband and I’ll remind you of the doctrine of the Trinity, the triunity of God where the Son, Jesus Christ, submits to the Father. But as the Son submits to the Father, that is a statement not of ontology, it’s a statement of function, because the Son does not relinquish a single millimeter of deity when He submits to the Father. When the Son submits to the Father and Jesus did and does, He says over and over again in the gospels, I didn’t come into the world to do My own will, I came into the world to do the will of my Father who is in heaven. When Jesus submitted Himself to the will of the Father, He was not saying I’m no longer God. Jesus, as you can study all the way through John’s gospel, was just as much deity as was the Father when the Son submitted to the Father. So obviously when the Son submits to the Father, it’s not a submission of ontology or value, it’s a submission in terms of role or function. God calls men and women within marriage to play different roles. The husband is the head of the home, the wife is to submit to the husband but when the wife submits to the husband, she does not relinquish any of her ontology or value in the process. This is a submission of role only and it doesn’t take long in the Bible to see this. When you go back to Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 and through 28 (Gen 1:26-28) what you learn is that man and woman, male and female are co-rulers over all of creation. This is concerning Adam and Eve. It says in Genesis, 1, 26 to 28 (Gen 1:26-28): Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them… Notice the plural there… rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth… So who’s the them? Let them rule, well, verse 27 explains it: God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them… Verse 28 of Genesis 1: So God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth… You’ll notice that God at the very beginning said both men and women, Adam and Eve, male and female are image bearers of God, which means the man doesn’t have any more value than the woman does. These are ontological value statements. And God said to them… notice it doesn’t say God said to Adam, it says: God said to them… Adam and Eve plural. Two, and this is authority language, rule over the earth, rule over the animal kingdom, rule over everything that moves upon the earth and so God’s original intention in marriage is for man and woman to have the same value and to be joint co-rulers over creation. 19:50

Now within that marital structure, you’ll notice that God assigns the role of headship to the man, because when Eve sins, God did not call out Genesis, 3, verse 9 (Gen 3:9) to Eve, He called out to Adam. It says God called out to the man. Why would God call out to the men when it was the woman that sinned first? Because the man is in authority and he therefore is accountable to God for what went wrong. It’s like when a corporation goes belly up and there’s a… Remember what happened with Ken Lay and all of those things in corporate America? When a corporation goes belly up and someone needs to be held into account, it’s not lower management. It’s the CEO, and so what you see developing here, pre-fall, is a beautiful structure that God has established that man and woman have the same value, they are joint rulers but the leadership position goes to the man and this is why it’s so rare in the Bible, as Arnold Fruchtenbaum says, for an exhortation coming from God to the man to listen to the voice of your wife, it’s a rarity. Now, I’ll say this in the marriage that I have and I praise God for my marriage, that I would be a complete and total fool as the leader of my home to discard my wife’s perspective when making a decision on anything and a lot of you know my wife and you could say well duh, your wife is really smart and you should take her viewpoint into consideration. The fact of the matter is a man should always take his wife’s viewpoint into consideration when making any decision and so just because there is this doctrine of male headship as taught in the Bible, I think it’s there, a lot of the woke churches out there won’t talk about this. But it’s there, it’s in the Bible. It is not some sort of, you know, carte blanche excuse for a man to just run roughshod over his wife, he can’t do that because he’s supposed to love his wife as Christ loves the church and it’s not some sort of roughshod excuse for a man to make choices and decisions that concern the household in isolation of his wife. So many times when we teach this doctrine of male headship, we teach it in such an imbalanced way that we don’t do proper justice to what the biblical text is actually saying. 1st Peter chapter 3 and verse 7 (1 Pet 3:7), says: You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor… Watch this now… as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered… and so this is how I look at my wife. I don’t look at her as an inferior, I look at her as a joint ruler. I look at her as an image bearer of God. She has that status just like I have that status. We have different roles that we play and I look at my wife as someone that will share eternity with me forever. She’s going to the same heaven I’m going to. Now, it is true that when push comes to shove, I’m the one that makes the choices in the household but not in a demeaning manner, not in a chauvinistic manner, but in a manner that’s tempered by everything that God has to say on this particular subject and in this particular case, God says, you know, as you’re distressed Abraham about expelling Ishmael and Hagar, your distress is unjustified, because of what God’s going to promise later. That you need to hearken to and listen to the voice of your wife. 24:36

He continues on there back in Genesis, 21, and verse 12 (Gen 21:12) and gives the reason why Abraham in this case should harken to the voice of his wife, he says: for through Isaac your descendants shall be named… Who exactly is Isaac? Isaac is the covenant son. I have a plan for Ishmael, but the plan that I have for him, as gracious as it is, is not to bring the Messiah to the earth. The Messiah will not come to the earth through the Ishmael line, it will come to the earth through the Isaac line and so since that is true, there is no harm done if you remove Ishmael from the premises. Don’t worry about Ishmael, I’m going to take care of Ishmael as we’ll see, but you have to understand that making this choice, making this decision, is not inappropriate because it’s through Isaac, end of verse 12, your descendants shall be named. The Bible is very clear who the Messiah is going to come from; it will not come from the Ishmael line. It will come from the Isaac line. It doesn’t mean God hated Ishmael. It didn’t mean God didn’t have a plan for Ishmael. What it means is, the Messiah, the kingdom, the cross, the resurrection, everything that’s the hope of the Christian is going to come through a particular line, it will come through the child of promise that was just born named Isaac in Genesis, 21, verses 1 through 8 (Gen 21:1-8) you need to understand that because Islam and we’re living in an area geographically where Islam is dramatically accelerating. In fact, coming home down Brook Street, I made a wrong turn into the big Islamic cultural inheritance center that we have here in town and I was just stunned at how big it was. I made a wrong turn as they were coming in. They worship, as you know on a different day of the week that we worship, and I felt like I had made a wrong turn into what today we might call a mega church. It looked like a mega church, I mean, it was massive. In fact, police officers were outside directing the traffic in and out and so, when I make comments about Islam, I’m trying to equip you for a different world view that is being perpetrated in our area because of the presence of Islam and I want you to understand something about Islam. Islam reverses Isaac and Ishmael. They don’t have any qualms about it, they don’t have any problems doing it. They make it sound like the Ishmael line is the blessed line and Isaac line is the cursed line and they have no problem coming into the Bible and just changing what it says. So with that being the case, oh and by the way, they do it as a very Johnny come lately religion. Not having come into existence until the seventh century AD. We’re dealing here with what God said in 2000 BC. Two thousand years before Jesus ever showed up and God is very clear that Abraham in this case, you need to listen to the voice of your wife and remove Ishmael from the household because my promises are going to come through the Isaac line and the Ishmael line and you have to wait two thousand seven hundred years for someone to come along and rewrite this, because Islam is not the truth. We’re not saying that God doesn’t love Muslims, of course He does, but you have to understand that when you’re dealing with Islam, you’re dealing with people wrapped up in a mindset that is not in any way, shape or form, hemmed in by the truth and they don’t understand what you understand as a Bible believer and a Bible reader. Isaac is the blessed line leading to the Messiah, not the Ishmael line. So God gives these words of comfort to Isaac and then, because God loves everybody, He issues words of comfort concerning Ishmael who with Hagar his mother is about to depart. Notice if you will verse 13 (Gen 21:13), it says: And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant… I’m going to bless him too. The Messiah is not going to come through his line but that doesn’t mean that I won’t bless him because I will bless him. Why will God bless him? Because he comes from your body, Abraham and the original promise going back to Genesis, 12, verse 2 (Gen 12:2): God said to Abraham, I will bless you… Because Ishmael comes from your own body. Albeit not from your wife but from Hagar the Egyptian. He’s still your son in that sense and I will bless him. I’ll make a great nation out of him too, not the messianic nation but a nation nonetheless and isn’t it interesting how God has fulfilled His word when you look at the Middle East.

That little red dot is the elect nation, the nation of Israel and all of those other territories, now largely controlled by Islamic belief; the Arabic people groups come from that Ishmael line. Why would God bless a line that’s not the elect line? Because God loves everybody. John chapter 3, verse 16 (John 3:16), you all know that by heart, right? For God so loved… the Americans, the Jews. I mean, it’s very clear… for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life… It is true that Jesus came into the world through the Isaac, Jewish, Hebraic lineage but the reason God chose that line is ultimately to be a blessing to all of planet earth. That blessing rests on Ishmael’s descendants even though the Ishmael line is not the seed line. 31:47

Boy! This is a hard lesson to learn isn’t it? Many times I find myself like the prophet Jonah. God said to Jonah, you’ll recall in the book of Jonah, go and preach to the Ninevites, which was probably the key city in the Assyrian empire at the time, in other words, go east and preach grace to the Ninevites and Jonah says, No, and he went west. If you look at a map, he went to Tarshish, modern day Spain which is exactly 180 degrees in the opposite direction and why would Jonah do that? And by the way, if God tells you to do something like that, I would recommend you listen to Him because God has ways of getting our attention. The whole book of Jonah talks about that and you don’t really understand why Jonah did that until you get to the very end of the book where Nineveh repents and the judgment of God on a whole civilization is postponed; and Jonah rather than being happy about it, which you think he’d be happy, because Jonah is the only prophet that we have in the Bible that was successful. Most of the prophets, if not all of the prophets, that we have in the Bible were unsuccessful cause no one listened to what they were saying. Well, here’s a case where everybody listened, everybody repented and how does the book of Jonah end? Not with Jonah being jubilant, it ends with him being disgruntled. Re-read Jonah chapter 4 and ask yourself, Lord, is this my heart towards people? Cause I don’t want to be like this. You know, grumbling under his breath saying to God, you know Lord, I knew you and I knew you’d do this. I knew you give grace to people and I don’t like those people and I really didn’t want the grace of God to come to them. So he had developed more of a nationalistic understanding of the grace of God, when the truth of the matter is God’s grace is for everyone. The whole world within the sound of my voice right now is savable. Every man, woman and child, not just within the sound of my voice but outside the sound of my voice on planet earth. Now, how many people are in planet earth today? They say around what? eight or close to or maybe over eight billion people? Every single person is savable. It doesn’t matter color, creed, religion, political beliefs, they’re all savable. Now they’re not saved until they trust Christ but they’re all savable because yes! God chose the Messiah to come through the Isaac line but He intended to bless planet earth through that Messiah and because of God’s work through the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we have Jesus Christ who was just as Jewish as they come. But His mission just wasn’t for a particular nation or a particular race, it was for everyone and this is why you see examples in the Bible of God blessing a line through which the Messiah will not come and so these are words given to Abraham by means of comfort from God and then you go down to verse 14 (Gen 21:14) and you see the actual expulsion, where Abraham listens to the voice of his wife and he throws out of his household the Hagar-Ishmael line. 35:54

Genesis 21:8-21 Ishmael’s Expulsion

1. Isaac’s weaning (Gen 21:8)
2. Ishmael’s mocking (Gen 21:9)
3. Sarah’s demand (Gen 21:10)
4. Abraham’s grief (Gen 21:11)
5. God comforts Abraham (Gen 21:12-13)
6. Expulsion (Gen 21:14)
7. Hagar’s anguish (Gen 21:15-16)
8. God’s comfort (Gen 21:17-18)
9. God’s provision (Gen 21:19)
10. Ishmael’s development (Gen 21:20)
11. Ishmael’s marriage (Gen 21:21)

Verse 14 (Gen 21:14): 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… That would be Ishmael… and sent her away… So Abraham does five things. He rose early in the morning. He took bread and a bottle of water he gave them to the Hagar. He put Ishmael under Hagar’s shoulder or custody meaning, you’re now in authority over Ishmael and he sent them away. The Hebrew is interesting here, it reads very similar to Genesis 3:24, where God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden. Genesis 3:24 says, so He drove the man out and east of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life… The same sort of thing has just happened now with Hagar and Ishmael, and Hagar leaves. Second part of verse 14: And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba… Where is Beersheba?

Beersheba is down to the south of the nation of Israel and you notice that when she left, her and Ishmael, Hagar just wandered around. A lot of people take that as they got lost. They didn’t know exactly where they were going. She likely, if you go back to verse 9 (Gen 21:9), where her Egyptian identity is given, that’s how Hagar joined the group. It was during Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt. She likely wanted to return to Egypt but simply got lost on the way and she’s wandering around with Ishmael in the desert. You think, the Houston sun is hot? Think about that situation there and she wanders into Beersheba. Again, notice the geography that’s given here in the Bible. I mean, as you go through the book of Genesis you’ll see geographical reference after geographical reference after geographical reference. Why give us that information? It’s to show us that this really happened. This is not a fiction, this is not an allegory, this is not a tall tale. This is not VeggieTales. This is not Jack and the Beanstalk. These are real people in real life situations with real problems and so when she gets lost with Ishmael, she is now in anguish. See, originally, verses 12 and 13, Abraham was in anguish and he needed comfort from God and now Hagar’s in anguish and she needs comfort from God. That’s why if you’re in anguish about something, you’re actually in a good place because it’s a place for God to show up and minister His comfort to you so you can be a minister of comfort to someone else down the road. 39:37

Genesis 21:8-21 Ishmael’s Expulsion

1. Isaac’s weaning (Gen 21:8)
2. Ishmael’s mocking (Gen 21:9)
3. Sarah’s demand (Gen 21:10)
4. Abraham’s grief (Gen 21:11)
5. God comforts Abraham (Gen 21:12-13)
6. Expulsion (Gen 21:14)
7. Hagar’s anguish (Gen 21:15-16)
8. God’s comfort (Gen 21:17-18)
9. God’s provision (Gen 21:19)
10. Ishmael’s development (Gen 21:20)
11. Ishmael’s marriage (Gen 21:21)

Notice if you will verse 15 (Gen 21:15): When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes… So Abraham had originally given to Hagar some bread and a bottle of water. Now, the water is gone. Ishmael was probably afflicted first, being probably a little bit more younger, a little bit more vulnerable and so Hagar placed Ishmael under one of the shrubs for shade and then there’s a separation between the two in verse 16 (Gen 21:16), it says: Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, Do not let me see the boy die. And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept… Hagar kind of separates herself from Ishmael about a bowshot away, when thinking about bows and arrows, and why did she separated herself from Ishmael? Why did she put him under a shrub and then separate herself away about a bowshot? Probably, well, it says it right here. Yeah, it says it right there in verse 16, she didn’t want to see the boy die and this was her child and so she’s kind of in this hopeless state. She’s lost. Her resources, I mean, GPS isn’t working. There’s no gas station around. It’s hot out here and what does a person do when they’re in a hopeless state? They just start to cry. They just start to weep and most of us would avoid that circumstance like the plague, we never want to be caught in that circumstance where the only real option we have in life is to emote and yet, that’s the place where God puts us, cause unless you’re in that place, you’re not ready to receive His comfort and as long as there’s enough gas in the gas tank and enough money to retire and the stocks are looking good and the employment prospects look bright and relationships are working hunky-dory, let’s be honest with ourselves, we don’t seek God when those things are happening, we’ve got things figured out. So many times God let’s just get to the end of ourselves, which is, human beings never want to be there but God says, I want you there cause now I can minister something to you. But I can’t minister to you otherwise because you’re not really in a position to receive. I mean, it’s hard to fill a cup that’s already filled with water. So what does God do? He empties the cup. Cause now we are in a position to receive something from Him and the anguish is turned into comfort. More words of comfort are given there in verses 17 and 18.

Genesis 21:8-21 Ishmael’s Expulsion

1. Isaac’s weaning (Gen 21:8)
2. Ishmael’s mocking (Gen 21:9)
3. Sarah’s demand (Gen 21:10)
4. Abraham’s grief (Gen 21:11)
5. God comforts Abraham (Gen 21:12-13)
6. Expulsion (Gen 21:14)
7. Hagar’s anguish (Gen 21:15-16)
8. God’s comfort (Gen 21:17-18)
9. God’s provision (Gen 21:19)
10. Ishmael’s development (Gen 21:20)
11. Ishmael’s marriage (Gen 21:21)

Notice verse 17 (Gen 21:17): God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What is the matter with you, Hagar?.. Boy, I read that and that’s kind of offensive and God is saying, why are you here crying? What are you upset about? Well, I’m lost and I’ve got no resources and my child might die. I mean, I could see myself really firing back at God, if God asked me that question… Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is… Now, this is the second time in this passage where God is going to begin to comfort. He comforted Abraham, now He’s comforting Hagar and this is the second time where God heard the cries of Hagar going back to Genesis, 16. Genesis, 16, verse 7 (Gen 16:7) says: Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur… Do you remember that when Hagar got pregnant, Sarah didn’t like that either and so Hagar left on her own accord at that point and the Lord found her and ministered to her. That’s back in Genesis, 16. Genesis, 16, verse 11 (Gen 16:11) says: The angel of the LORD said to her further, Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction… So God hearing the affliction of Hagar is actually round two. This has already happened back in chapter 16 and now we’re in chapter 21 and notice how God’s manifestation to her is described as the angel of God, the angel of the Lord. Boy! How the theologians can go on and on pontificating who that is. I think I know who the angel of the Lord is. I think it’s a theophany. I think it’s a Christophany. I think it’s a manifestation of Jesus before the manger. In a manifestation called the angel of the Lord. There are examples of this elsewhere in the Bible. Joshua, 5, the angel of the Lord appears and Joshua and his entourage bow down to that particular angel and the angel receives the worship. But wait a minute, an angel doesn’t typically receive worship. John discovered that in the last couple chapters of the book of Revelation, the last few chapters where he began to worship the angel that gave him the book of Revelation and angel there twice says knock it off, worship God, but Joshua, 5 is an example where an angel receives worship. So obviously we’re not dealing with an ordinary angel in Joshua, 5, we’re dealing with a theophany, a Christophany, Jesus Christ before the manger, before the incarnation. If that’s a subject you’re interested in, boy! Dr. Ronald Rhodes has written a wonderful book on that. It’s simply called “Jesus Before the Manger” and it gives you all of the examples of this happening in the pages of the Old Testament. I hope you don’t have the impression that Jesus just showed up in the New Testament. I mean, obviously the New Testament is the fullest revelation of Jesus, but Jesus was around long before that in eternity and when God brought the heavens and earth into existence in what we call Old Testament, Jesus shows up a lot of times in a lot of places and I think one of the giveaways here, it calls the angel of God calling from heaven. It’s what it says, verse 17, well, where does God live? God lives in heaven. So I don’t think this is  an ordinary angel of the Lord, it shows you the love that God has for all of creation. Even a non-elect line, God loves. 47:45

So He says to Hagar, what is the matter? And then He says this, do not fear. Do you realize that the Bible 365 times says, do not fear? Which as you know, is once for every day of the year. Every day you get up as a Christian and God says, don’t be afraid. You go to bed at night, you wake up the next day and God says, don’t be afraid. Fear is not to characterize the life of the child of God because if you’re in a relationship with God what’s there to be afraid of? I mean, that’s why God says to Hagar what’s the matter with you? Don’t you know who I am? 1st John chapter 4, and verse 18 (1 John 4:18), says: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love… It took me many, many years as a Christian to understand this, that when I was walking around in fear and worry and anxiety, I really wasn’t trusting God because you can’t be in faith and fear simultaneously. It’s impossible. So therefore when you’re walking in faith trusting God, fear starts to subside. When you’re walking in fear, you obviously aren’t walking in faith and so faith subsides. They are polar opposites and so there is these strong injunctions about, don’t be afraid. Fear is not a characteristic of godly people, that’s the characteristic of the wicked. The book of Proverbs says, the wicked flee when no one’s even chasing them. I mean, the wicked they’re afraid of their own shadow. But not the child of God who the book of Proverbs says is bold as a lion. What does He say here? Do not fear, watch this, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. She’s crying, Ishmael is suffering and God says, I heard it. I heard the cry. Now you may not feel like it in your distress but I’m here to tell you that God hears every cry you make to Him. Psalm, 56, and verse 8 (Psa 56:8) says: You have taken account of my miseries; and You have put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? … Gee Lord, do you really hear me when I’m crying out to You? Yeah, let me show you this bottle over here. It’s got all your tears in it. Let me show you this book over here that I’ve written with all of your sufferings in it and now, verse 18 (Gen 21:18) comes some instructions: Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him… Arise, Hagar, lift up Ishmael, get him out of that shrub, hold him by the hand because I’m going to make a great nation through him. Of course, that prophecy has been fulfilled in real time, as history has unfolded and the fact that God is telling her that I’m going to make a great nation out of Ishmael, is proof that Ishmael has to survive. I mean, if Ishmael dies, how can God fulfill His promise that He’s going to make a great nation through Ishmael? So this promise, reiterated to her, of a great nation coming through Ishmael, is an implied promise that He will survive. Charles Ryrie writes:

Charles Ryrie – The Ryrie Study Bible, page 27

Genesis 21:18 (RSB:NASB1995U): Genesis 21:18. “This promise assured Hagar that Ishmael would survive.”

What a word of comfort in the midst of a tremendous distress and then comes the provision, because what God orders, He pays for. God doesn’t walk into a restaurant and order the biggest meal on the menu and then struggle to find His wallet, how am I going to pay for this? I guess I’m going to have to wash dishes to pay for it. That’s not God’s nature. Whatever God authorizes, He pays for. You see this provision given in verse 19, Genesis, 21 (Gen 21:19): Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad… That’s Ishmael… a drink… Notice the first thing that God does with Hagar after correcting her unbelief is, He opens her eyes. Isn’t that a famous song in Christianity? Open our eyes, Lord. You know, one of the greatest needs that we have, is we just need our eyes opened. We need the ability and the capacity to see things like God sees them. Isn’t that what the spiritual birth is all about? John, 3, verse 3 (John 3:3): Jesus responded and said to him… Nicodemus… Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… I need your eyes open. Isn’t that what Jesus told the church at Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3, verse 18 (Rev 3:18), He said: You need eye salve to apply to your eyes so that you may see… Wait, as unbelievers we need our eyes opened and even as we’re walking with God, we need our eyes open more to the things of God and one of the reasons we’re so afraid, is our eyes are closed to the things of God. We’re focused on earthly things, earthly problems. But when your eyes are open to the presence of God and God’s love for the saints, it’s interesting how the things of the earth, as the hymn goes, grow strangely dim (54:43).

Strangely dim because our eyes are opened to the things of God and what does Hagar see when her eyes are opened? She saw a well of water, now isn’t that convenient? You know, it’s kind of a debate, did God just sort of create the well of water. Something out of nothing, ex nihilo, or was it there the whole time and she just couldn’t see it. I’m sort of the view that it was always there. She just couldn’t see it cause she needed God to open her eyes to the wealth that she had. Isn’t that what Paul prays over and over again for the Ephesians? Ephesians, 1 through 3, where he mentions our wealth in Christ Jesus, doesn’t he pray there twice? End of chapter 1, end of chapter 3 to the Ephesians, that your eyes of understanding may be opened to what you already have? This opening of the eyes at the spiritual level is one of the greatest works that God does and so what does Hagar do with this new found wealth, which probably was already there? It says, she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink. God met her physical, his and her physical needs. Part of the grace package, folks, is God wants to meet your physical needs. It doesn’t take a lot of research in the Bible to see this.

God’s Provision

• Exodus 16
• 1 Kings 17:2-6
• Psalm 37:25
• Matthew 6:25-34
• Philippians 4:19

Exodus, 16, as a nation of Israel wandered around in the same general area, the Sinai Peninsula, for forty years, that’s a long time, like clockwork, every single day the manna was there. Except one day of the week, Sabbath. In advance of the Sabbath, you can collect a little more than normal but you don’t have to hoard it, because it’s going to be there like clockwork every day and it was there for forty years. While they were building a golden calf it was there and it continued for forty years until they went into the promised land, as the book of Joshua describes, and the land was prosperous enough to sustain its inhabitants and God says, you don’t need the manna anymore and it stopped that very day. The provision of God and by the way, God is pretty creative about this provision stuff, because there was a man named Elijah who was told to go by the brook Cherith where God fed him from the birds. I mean, God doesn’t need my job to provide for me? No, He doesn’t. He can use your job, but He’s got all kinds of tools at His disposal in terms of provision. 58:09

1st Kings, 17, 2 through 6 (1 Kings 17:2-6), David said. Psalm 37:25, I’ve been young and now I’m old; and I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or His seed children begging for bread. Never seen it in all my years. Jesus in Matthew 6:26, says: Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they?… Oh, ye of little faith, God takes care of the birds, why wouldn’t He take care of you? You’re His child. Philippians, 4, verse 19 (Phil 4:19) says, and my God shall supply all of your greed… Whoops! It doesn’t say that. And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus… Folks, we’re entering a time in American history where you’re going to start seeing more and more economic problems. The problems economically that this nation has dug itself into from a human perspective are not solvable, you understand that? The amount of debt accumulated by our national government going back decades cannot be repaid. So gas shortages, gas lines, unemployment, inflation, layoffs, those are now a foregone reality in our world and if there’s ever a time to look at this slide here and claim these promises, it’s now because you have to get yourself into a framework where God is your provider and you have to take the promises that He’s made to you on this slide here and take them right to the bank or else you’re just going to be a nervous wreck and if you’re a nervous wreck, what kind of testimony will you be to the joy of the Lord? You look at verse 20 and Ishmael develops.

Genesis 21:8-21 Ishmael’s Expulsion

1. Isaac’s weaning (Gen 21:8)
2. Ishmael’s mocking (Gen 21:9)
3. Sarah’s demand (Gen 21:10)
4. Abraham’s grief (Gen 21:11)
5. God comforts Abraham (Gen 21:12-13)
6. Expulsion (Gen 21:14)
7. Hagar’s anguish (Gen 21:15-16)
8. God’s comfort (Gen 21:17-18)
9. God’s provision (Gen 21:19)
10. Ishmael’s development (Gen 21:20)
11. Ishmael’s marriage (Gen 21:21)

Verse 20 (Gen 21:20): God was with the lad, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer… God has to mature him because through him is going to come a great nation. By the way, I think becoming a hunter is not a good thing, because Nimrod, Genesis 10:8-10, is also called a hunter, so this may be evidence of sort of a growing antisemitism within Ishmael’s descendants.

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 346

“He now became a hunter. In the context of Genesis, this is not a positive but a negative, as already indicated with Nimrod; for he, too, was a mighty hunter before the Lord.”

366. C. Leupold – H.C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis, 1:366.

“For the meaning of the verb form nimrodh, without a doubt, is ‘let us revolt’.”

It may be a hint of that and then the paragraph concludes, verse 21 (Gen 21:21) with Ishmael’s marriage. It says there in verse 21: He lived in the wilderness of Paran… Where is the wilderness of Paran?

Is in the Sinai Peninsula. What this very carefully, it is outside of the borders of Israel. Why is it outside the borders of Israel? Because Israel belongs to the descendants of, not Ishmael but Isaac, that’s why that little detail there is given. It’s not that God doesn’t love Ishmael. It’s just that through Ishmael, the covenant of God, the Abrahamic Covenant, which also includes real estate as we’ve talked about, it’ll be fulfilled through Isaac and not Ishmael. Notice the geography, wilderness of Paran. Just like Beersheba. It’s like Egypt. This is history, real people, real events. This really happened and you look at the second part of verse 21 (Gen 21:21) and it says: …and his mother… That’s Hagar… took a wife for him from the land of Egypt… Why would she take a wife for him from the land of Egypt? Because that’s where Hagar’s from. So you can see here two reasons why the Ishmael line is not the choice line. Number one: He settles outside the borders of Israel in the wilderness of Paran; and number two: His mother gets him not a Hebrew wife but an Egyptian wife and the antisemitism amongst Ishmael’s descendants probably had its origin here as well. 1:03

Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 347

“The wife for Ishmael was the same nationality as the mother. The ancient Egyptians were Hamitic. As is known from Egyptian archeology, the Hamitic Egyptians were quite anti-Semitic, which would add to the antagonism that was already there.”

This tension between Isaac and Ishmael, which accelerates all the way to the battle of Armageddon, has its start or its origin right here and so what the Bible is doing is laying a foundation down for us for end time events, that we can understand them better. Not that God doesn’t love Ishmael, not that God didn’t provide for Ishmael, clearly he did. But this Egyptian connection started some hostility and so, that’s the story of Ishmael’s expulsion. Genesis, 21, verses 8 through 21 (Gen 21:8-21) and when we reconvene, we’re going to be looking at verses 22 through 34 (Gen 21:22-24). We’re meanwhile back in the promised land, Abraham and Abimelech do you remember him? They enter into a covenant with each other. What’s that all about? We’ll see that next time, you might want to read verses 22 through 34 in preparation for that, but one of the great things to learn from this is the provision of God, not just for the elect line for all of His people, and there is nothing that provides more for the lost human being than the gospel. The gospel is the ultimate provision of God. Gospel means good news. Jesus stepped out of eternity into time two thousand years ago to absorb the wrath of God, the Father in our place. He came to live the perfect life in our place and absorb the shortcomings of our inability to live the perfect life in our place and His final words on the cross were, it is finished, not it’s 99 % done. You can say it’s well done. He says it’s finished and what Jesus commands us to do to receive this provision that comes to us through the gospel is to fulfill a single condition which is to believe, which means to trust in the One that He has sent. So a lost sinner comes under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they realize they’re lostness and God says, in your distress I’ve got comfort for you. It’s the gospel and I want you to trust not in yourself but what I did in your place and the moment your trust leaves yourself to fix your problem and goes exclusively to the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, which is a single step, just like that you’re born spiritually. You receive the new nature, the Holy Spirit lives in you forever. That’s called regeneration or the impartation of divine life and that’s the only thing that saves a lost sinner. As long as we’re down here trying to fix our own sin problem, which the world of religion will put you on all kinds of self-help efforts to try to do that, you’re lost, we’re lost. Just as lost as Hagar was wandering around in Beersheba. God says come out of Beersheba. Come out of lostness and trust in what Jesus did for you two thousand years ago, a completed transaction. 1:07

So even as I’m speaking, people within the sound of my voice, people in the building, people listening online, people listening after the fact via archive and as the Spirit prompts place their personal faith in Christ and that alone saves. It’s not a matter of joining a church, walking an aisle, giving money. It’s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where the Lord convicts you and you respond to it by trusting what Jesus did. That’s the simplicity of the gospel as best I can articulate it and once you receive that, you receive God’s ultimate provision. Not only for the sin problem but you’re tied into what I like to call the grace package, where all of the promises that God gives you are now yours. It’s just a matter of exploring what you have. It’s like a Logos program. People say, Hey! Andy, we like to send you this book or do you have that book? And I say, well, I don’t have that book but in reality I have it. It’s in my program, I just haven’t looked. I’m wealthy but I don’t realize it. That’s what growing in Christ is. You’re not acquiring new things, you’re just discovering what God gave you at the point of faith alone in Christ alone. If it’s something that you need more explanation on privately, I’m available after the service to talk. Shall we pray? Father, we’re grateful for this historical account and what this teaches us about your nature, help us to walk these things out this week. We will be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen.