Abraham - Obeying in Tough Times

This is the way God works. God comes when we need Him, God comes where we need Him, God comes how we need Him, and God says to us, "Don't be afraid, I have the situation under control." So often our answer is right there and our eyes just have not been opened to see what God has for us.

And now let's pray together as we open the Word of God. Gracious Father in heaven, we give thanks for Your Word. It nourishes us, it encourages and enlightens us, and we're grateful that today we have the freedom to open the Word of God and study. And now we pray, teach us by Your Spirit. May we learn far more through the Holy Spirit's ministry than what any preacher might say to us, and help us to apply it and practice it. Meet our needs today and help us to accomplish Your will. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Abraham and Sarah have a baby boy. His name is Isaac, which means laughter, and there is joy in the home. Genesis 21:1-7: "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, 'God has made me laugh, so that all who hear will laugh with me.' She also said, 'Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.'"

Now verse 8 tells us that Isaac was weaned, "So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned." He was probably three years old when he was weaned. This would make Ishmael seventeen. And so here we have the two boys in the family, Isaac at the age of three and Ishmael at the age of seventeen.

Now, Abraham and Sarah have had three wonderful years of joy watching Isaac grow up. But now they're going to go through some problems, some testings. You know, we have our mountain-top experiences, and then we have our valley experiences. God balances them. Our times are in His hands. He knows when we need the sunshine; He knows when we need the storm. He knows when we need the rest, and He knows when we need to go through the furnace.

In fact, we're going to see in chapter 21 and 22 that Abraham is going to go through three special trials. First, a family trial between Ishmael and Hagar and Sarah and Isaac, a family trial, Genesis 21:8-21. And then a trial with the neighbors beginning at Genesis 21:22 and through verse 34. Ever have difficulty with your neighbors? Well, Abraham had difficulty with Abimelech and he had to settle a problem with his neighbors. So he had a problem in his family, a problem with his neighbors, and then chapter 22, the greatest trial of all. And here our problem is not with our family or with our neighbors, but with God. Why would God ask for Abraham's son, Isaac? Life is made up of triumphs and trials, and it's the trials that give us the triumphs. We don't grow spiritual muscles by resting under a tree someplace—Abraham did that too—we grow our spiritual muscles by going through difficulty. We don't like the difficulty, we don't enjoy it. We sometimes say, "Why, O Lord?" or perhaps we're saying, "How long, O Lord?" But God knows that we need them.

Well, we have in Genesis 21:8-21 the account of Ishmael and Hagar being cast out of the family. And in this event, you have a twofold message. There's a doctrinal message about law and grace; we'll study that in our next lesson. There's a practical lesson here about dealing with life's problems, especially family problems. And as we read this passage, you're going to notice that there are four different voices that are heard. When we have problems in our homes, in our families, the solution depends on the voice that we listen to.

First, there's the voice of mockery, verse 9: "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing." Now here's the voice of mockery. Isaac is a little three-year-old boy, he's enjoying this big feast, this party, he is being weaned. Now he's growing up. Here's Ishmael, seventeen years old, a teenager, and he's scoffing. Now the word "scoffing" is the same as the Hebrew word for Isaac, which means laughter. It is a laughter of derision. Now, let's remember that teenagers like to do this to younger people sometimes. Not all of them, but sometimes they do. And here we have Ishmael mocking Isaac's name.

Now, that name was given by God. You better be careful when you mock a name given by God. God said you're going to call him Isaac, and Abraham called his son Isaac. Here we have the flesh versus the spirit, the world versus the church, versus God's people, God's family. This boy was part Egyptian. The Egyptians are a picture of the world in the Bible. He was born of the flesh. Isaac was born by the power of God. So here you have the conflict between the world and the church, the world and God's children, and between the flesh and the spirit. Galatians 4-5, you'll find this whole subject discussed. The voice of mockery. Now, this brought tragedy into the home, it brought sorrow into the home because Sarah did not want her son treated like that.

Now in verses 10-11, we have the voice of maturity: "Therefore she said to Abraham, 'Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.' And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son." At this point, Sarah is showing real spiritual maturity. Now, originally Sarah had not shown much maturity. In chapter 17, it was Sarah who said, "Why don't you marry Hagar and have a son by her? It may be that she is the one who's supposed to be the mother." They ran ahead of the Lord, you remember that. Instead of waiting on the Lord, asking for God's way and God's timing, they ran ahead of the Lord, and as a consequence, they brought trouble into the home.

Keep in mind now that Ishmael has been in this home for seventeen years. Keep in mind that Ishmael is Abraham's firstborn son. And even though the whole thing was wrong, Abraham loved his son. But now along comes Sarah who says, "Take this bondwoman—not your wife, notice that, at no point is she called Abraham's wife—take this bondwoman, take her son who of course was born in bondage, and cast them out of our family. They don't belong here." Now, this is the voice of maturity. She was right this time. Now, the last time she was wrong. When she said, "Why don't you marry Hagar and have a son by Hagar," she was wrong, and Abraham should not have listened to her. But now she is right.

However, we appreciate Abraham's feelings in verse 11: "The matter was very displeasing in Abraham's sight." That word "displeasing" means distressing. He was distressed down inside. I can understand that. He'd been living with a mistake now for seventeen years, but he loved his son. He loved Ishmael. And I'm sure Ishmael brought a great deal of joy to Abraham's life. And Abraham now is heartbroken. By the way, this is the pain of our mistakes. There is no easy way to do a hard thing. Back in Genesis 17:18, Abraham cries out and says, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" Well, God answered that prayer in a physical and material way, but not in a spiritual way. Isaac was to be the heir and not Ishmael. You know, we learn to live with our mistakes and then we sort of learn to love our mistakes, and then when God wants to do something about it, we really hurt down inside. But when God performs surgery even in a family, He knows what He is doing.

God was going to silence the voice of mockery by taking Ishmael out of the family. And Sarah was exactly right when she said, "Cast them out of our home." The voice of maturity. Now verse 12 down through verse 14, we have the voice of mercy. God speaks up now. That's the important thing. Abraham would have kept them in the camp with all the problems that would be created. Sarah said get rid of them. Here you have a godly husband and a godly wife who disagree about something, and Abraham has to be told, "Your wife is right." You know, there are those who point out that Sarah called Abraham "Lord," and she did. She certainly did. In 1 Peter 3, Peter uses Sarah as an example of a godly submissive woman. But this doesn't mean that a godly submissive woman doesn't have a contribution to make to the home. Here's a case where Abraham, the man of faith, was going by his feelings, going by his emotions, he wasn't thinking the thing through. He should thank God he had the kind of a wife that he had because she saw what was really involved here.

The voice of mercy, God speaks, verse 12: "But God said to Abraham, 'Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.'" Now this is God's plan. God has chosen Isaac to be the one who's going to carry on the line. Isaac will beget Jacob, and Jacob will beget the twelve tribes of Israel, and ultimately our Savior will come into the world.

It's interesting that he says to Abraham, "Get a hold of your emotions, Abraham. Do not let it be displeasing in your sight." Sometimes we say, "Dear Lord, I can't control my emotions." We'd better control our emotions. Oh, there are times when we weep and we can't help it. There are times when we hurt and perhaps we can't help it, but at some point, we've got to get ourselves by the scruff of the neck, shake ourselves and say, "All right, do the thing that is right."

Living by faith means obeying God in spite of feelings, in spite of circumstances, and in spite of consequences. We simply obey God. By the way, if you have a family problem, turn to God's Word. Give God a chance to talk in your home. I'm amazed how many times in our family Bible read, God has told us just what we need to know. How many times God has rebuked me as the father and the husband in the home through the Word of God, and He said, "Now look, you listen to what they are saying to you."

God reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." God's Word doesn't change. God's purposes don't change. Circumstances may change; we have our highs and our lows, we have our blue days and our dark days, but God's Word does not change. Notice in verse 13 He said, "I'm going to take care of Ishmael." I can imagine Abraham saying, "Well, here is this bondmaiden and here is her son, he's seventeen, and we're going to send them out into the desert. Who's going to take care of them?" God says, "I will. I'll take care of them."

You see, when God wants to solve a problem for us, there are several steps that He takes. First, He gives us the courage to face it honestly. That's something Abraham didn't want to do, but now he had to do it. Secondly, He gives us the wisdom to understand it. Here's what God wants you to do. Thirdly, He gives you the strength, the courage, the fortitude to do what God wants you to do. It wasn't easy for Abraham to say goodbye to his son. This would be a difficult thing to do, but God gave him the grace that he needed. Fourthly, God gives us the faith to believe He'll take care of the rest. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, He'll bring it to pass. First, He gives you the courage to face it. Then He gives you the wisdom to understand it. Then He gives you the strength to do what you have to do, and then He gives you the faith to believe that He, God, will take care of everything else. That's what happened here. "I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed, your descendant." Now God had already promised back in chapter 17 to bless Ishmael and to make him a great nation, and God kept that promise.

Abraham immediately obeys God now. It's interesting to notice whenever God told Abraham to do something, Abraham didn't sit around and wait. Immediately he obeyed. It hurt, but he did it. "So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away." That would be a hard thing to do. "And then she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba." It's interesting she did not go down toward Egypt. "And the water in the skin now was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs." It's too bad that the Sunday school pictures have Ishmael as a little child. I've seen pictures where Hagar's walking in the wilderness and she has the bread and the water on one shoulder and this little boy on the other shoulder. It's not like that at all. If you've ever been on or near a desert, you know how hot and stifling it can be. That wind in the wilderness is so stifling, it almost smothers you. And here they are, the water is used up, and so she puts the boy under a shrub where there is some shade, and she goes off at a distance to watch and she's weeping. "Let me not see the death of the boy." And so she sat opposite him and lifted her voice and wept.

Now here we have the voice of misery, verses 15-21. What a hopeless situation. Wandering in the wilderness, alone, weary—oh, you get so tired out there—thirsty—water is a very precious item out there in the wilderness—despairing. They can't help each other, and there's no one else there to help them except God. "And God heard the voice of the lad." Now the word "voice" here is not quite the same as the word "weeping" over in verse 16. We don't know whether he was weeping or praying or just moaning and groaning. All we know is that God heard the voice of the lad. "Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, 'What ails you, Hagar? Fear not.'"

That's one of the great "fear nots" in the Bible. You see, she was in a situation that wasn't really of her making. The mistake that had been made in the home was Abraham's mistake, Sarah's mistake. And I suppose this is a very normal response, to weep and to groan and to cry out. Now God speaks, and He says, "Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is." God does hear the prayers of teenagers. "Arise, lift up the lad, hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation." Now that's all very well and good, but we're quite thirsty. "And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water." Now it had been there all the time, she just hadn't seen it. This is the way God works. God comes when we need Him, God comes where we need Him, God comes how we need Him, and God says to us, "Don't be afraid, I have the situation under control."

So often our answer is right there and our eyes just have not been opened to see what God has for us. Have you ever prayed for open eyes? "Oh God, show me what You want me to do." And she went and filled the skin with water, she gave the lad a drink, "And God was with the lad." That's an interesting statement. I expect God to be with Isaac, he was the child of promise. But God was with Ishmael. Why? For Abraham's sake. Everything that God did for Hagar and for Ishmael was because of Abraham. And by the way, everything God does for you and for me is because of Jesus Christ. Well, the boy grew and his mother went down to Egypt and got him a wife. We expect that because she came from Egypt. We're going to find out that Isaac doesn't get his wife from Egypt or from Canaan, because he gets his wife from his own family. I don't know what your situation is today, but God wants to open your eyes and show you the well of water that can satisfy your thirst.

[Interview]

Thanks for joining us. Now let's drop in on a conversation with Back to the Bible CEO Arnie Cole and Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe.

Warren, in your study of Abraham, you described faith as a journey. And a good part of that journey is about waiting and being patient. Why is patience such an important lesson for us?

Well, the Bible tells us that faith and patience go together. There are a number of references in the Word of God; Hebrews tells us faith and patience enable us to receive the promises. If you don't learn patience, you won't learn anything. Those of us who have raised children—children by nature are impatient. But Christians are that way. "Lord, I want this to happen now!" But you know, I have looked back over my own life—I know you've done this too—God was never too early and He was never too late. Never. We thought we had to do this right now. No, He didn't want it right now; He had it planned for later. So when it comes to praying and serving God, don't look at the calendar too much. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.