God Protects Hagar and Ishmael

We are rapidly coming to the end of our walk through the life of Abraham, and it has been and continues to be an incredible blessing to look into the life of this man and to see what true biblical faith is all about. Oftentimes to see true biblical faith in spite of Abraham's example. Amen, And to be encouraged that the Father of the faithful oftentimes looked like the Father of the faithless, so that in our dark days, when we don't exactly trust God the way we ought to, we can be reminded that just as Abraham was justified in spite of his frailty and faults, we too have hope. There are, as we have talked about before, many instances in the life of Abraham where if we're not careful, we are tempted to sort of moralize the text and miss the point. We go through Abraham's life and we look at Abraham's life as though all Abraham is is one of Esop's fables, so that we can read the story, grab the moral of the story, and walk out of here trying harder to be better, when the fact of the matter is that is not the gospel. Amen, Jesus said that all the Bible is about him. And so as we've looked into the life of Abraham, we've. Seen time and time and time. Again that Abraham is more than just a fable to teach us how to work harder at very things. But Abraham is actually a picture to us of the favor of God resting on the life of a man and of a people. And he is also a picture of justification by faith alone, apart from our works, and really in spite of them, if we're honest, that's the picture that Abraham paints for us. And what's interesting about. That is because you take that different lens and place it on the camera, so to speak, and look into Abraham's life. Some passages that used to seem very obscure all of a sudden come into sharper relief. This morning, we're looking at such a passage. As we look at Genesis chapter twenty one, verses eight through twenty one, we see one of those passages of scripture that need to be brought into sharper relief for us. And looking at this through the redemptive historical lens, again recognizing that the Bible is redemptive history. So that phrase and you'll hear that phrase again and again and again. Redemptive historical looking at the Bible through the redemptive historical lens all of a sudden, Rather than sort of ripping things out of context and turning them into various pictures of work's righteousness, we look at the Bible through the redemptive historical lens. And the question is not, you know, how do we look at the Bible like a yearbook? Because again all of us do, we have a tendency to read the Bible like you read a yearbook. And you know, when you got your yearbook, the first thing you did was go to the index to find the pages where you were. If you can't say amen, you ought to say out all right, So we usually read the Bible like a yearbook, and we're always looking at the text saying where am i? Where am i? The Bible is about redemptive history. So the question in every passage is where is God? Where is the work of redemption? And the text that sits before me? And if we don't we get bogged down. And that would be easy to do in this passage. And as we read through this passage, I'll just sort of allude to you a couple of places where we could. Get bogged down. Look at the beginning of verse eight, and the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. Well, we could get bogged down right there, and we could have a sermon about the weaning of children, and when the weaning of children is supposed to take place, and how the weaning of children is supposed to take place, and whether or not we're supposed to have a feast when children are weaned. That's not the redemptive history in the text. Look at the next verse. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian whom she had borne Abraham laughing. So she said to Abraham, cast out the slave woman with her son, for the son of the slave of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. Well, there you go. We can talk about slavery. It's right here, live and in color. Happens throughout the scriptures, happens here in this text. But this passage is not about slavery either. Look at the next part of the passage. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. We can stop right there, make a lot of wives real happy. Amen, Yes, pastor stop right there, that one right there. Read that again and again and again three points in a poem, and let's get out of here. On that one right there. Listen to your wife. It's not the point of the text. For through Isaac, shall your offspring be named, And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman. Also because he is your offspring. We could actually get bogged down there as well. It's God, the author of sin, is he justifying adultery? Verse fourteen. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and the skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Now it's important to recognize something here as we read. If you read this at first, blush, it sounds almost as though Hagar is leaving Ishmael in arm, carrying the boy around. The water runs out. She takes the baby and places the baby over here under the bushes so she doesn't have to hear the baby cry as the baby dies of dehydration. And the reason that it would be easy to do that is because if you just take the words and don't put it in the proper context of the timetable, you don't realize that the baby is now sixteen or seventeen years old and could probably have carried her in the desert. This is a young man that she's leaving with. Isaac is a small boy of either two or three, but Ishmael sixteen or seventeen years old. While all this is happening verse sixteen. Then she went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot. For she said, let me not look on the death of the child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the Angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy. Where he is up. Lift up the boy and hold him fast, for excuse me, Hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into. A great nation. This is another one where we could get sort of carried off. We can get carried away here into what it was God was responding to. She cries out. The text says, the Lord heard the boy's voice. Was it the boy's despair that tugged at God's heartstrings? Is this a lesson about how we are to pray? Is this a lesson about the kind of prayers that move the heart and the hand of God. That's not what this text is about either. Verse nineteen. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow in the wilderness of Peran. And his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. Don't miss that last word. She took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. She went back to the place from whence she had come, and it was there that she found a wife for her boy. In this text. I want to lift for you what I believe is the redemptive historical message in this passage. If I had to title this, it would be a tale of three Nations, A tale of three nations. Usually when we look at this we only see two. But trust me when I tell you there are indeed three represented here, and God deals specifically with these three nations in this passage of scripture, and we see redemptive history unfold even further as we continue through the life of Abraham. The first nation we see here is the nation represented by Isaac, as God deals with Isaac and preserves and protects Isaac. Look at that in that the first few verses, really that first paragraph, and the child verse eight grew and was weaned. Now he was weaned somewhere around two or three years old. I know this is unusual for us. We think about weaning children earlier than this, But in the ancient Near East, especially in this particular culture, children were generally weaned around two or three years old. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was winged. Now at this great feast where Isaac was weaned, Isaac was finally given you some solid foods. To eat in a symbolic way. There were things that were given to him that he would not have eaten before he was weaned. Also, at this feast, he probably would have worn a symbolic garment, and that garment would have been symbolic of the fact that he is now stepping into his role as an heir to his father. Now, this would have been very important for young Isaac because, unlike most children who were weaned at two or three, Isaac's daddy was over one hundred years old. So if we're gonna celebrate him being an heir, we need to do it quickly. Amen. Verse nine. But everything sounds wonderful. But however, Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian. Please note this. It doesn't say Sarah saw Ishmael. It says Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian. That's very important in the redemptive history. Here. He's not just Ishmael, He's not just Abraham's other son. He is the son of Hagar the Egyptian. It's very important to note that he's the son of the woman who is not the wife. He's the son of the woman who did not have a legitimate right to bring forth the proper heir. He's the son of the woman whose relationship with Abraham represents sin and disbelief. And he's the son of the woman who is the Egyptian. And if you know anything about the rest of the story, you know Egypt plays a very important part in the life of this nation that will come from Isaac. She noticed that the son of Hagar, the Egyptian whom she had born, to Abraham laughing. There's a play on words there. Laughter in the Hebrew, just like in most languages, has a couple of connotations. On the one hand, there is the laughter for which Isaac is named. That laughter has to do with the joy that Isaac brings. That laughter, however, is also a reference to the mocking that Sarah did when the angel said that she was going to have a child. She's listening, remember back in the tent while the angel's talking to Abraham, Sarah's gonna bear a child. I don't know if Sarah's drinking something. And it's that, you know that that that famous moment where we just kind of, you know, spilled stuff all over ourselves and we laughed, but she laughed, So it's symbolic of that mocking laugh, and also this laugh of joy and merriment. It is the f and not the latter that we see from Ishmael. It's the mocking laugh, it's the sneering laugh. He's sixteen or seventeen, this boy's two or three, and they're celebrating because this boy is the heir. He's about the age when he would expect to get his inheritance and strike out and make it on his own. Especially in nomadic tribes in the ancient Near East, a young man of his age would have been given an inheritance and set off, had a wife and started his own family, started his own. Tribe or clan or nation, if you will. And instead of that happening, there's a party for the little one who's just now being weaned. Listen to what Sarah says. So she said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman with her son four. Here's why the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. The first thing we see as God deals with this first nation that will come from Isaac is that God preserves Isaac's inheritance. God preserves Isaac's inheritance. This boy who is much older, could already be eligible for some of this inheritance, could already run through some of this inheritance, And so in doing this, God actually preserves Isaac's inheritance. Listen to this from Craig Keener and his Biblical Backgrounds commentary. There is a contrast or a contract whether in some ancient Near Eastern documents that contains a clause prohibiting the expulsion of the children of the secondary wife by the primary wife. Now hold on to that, okay, And some of the legal. Documents that we find from the ancient Near East, we know, because of the customs in that area, a wife first wife could not expel the second wife. The situation in Genesis is different on two counts. First, it is Abraham who sends them away, not the second not the first wife sending the second wife away. And second, Hagar has given her freedom, which, according to one ancient law code, would mean that her children would forfeit any inheritance rights. He's gonna what you remember and Genesis chapter sixteen, a matter of fact, don't remember it. Just flip over there, turn with me to the left, because here's the question that you ask. You read this passage of scripture. And the first question that comes to mind is what okay? If God is going to let her go, why didn't God just let her go earlier on when she was given Sarah a hard time, and Sarah said, getting rid of her, go with me. Back to chapter sixteen and look at verse five. And Sir I said to Abram, may the wrong me be on you. I gave my servant to your embrace. And when she saw that she had conceived, she took She looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram said this arih Behold, your servant is in your power. Due to her as you please. Then Sarah dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. Now what happens. She flees from Sarah goes into the wilderness, and it's God. Who says to. Her, go back. Look at the text, Look at what happens. Look at verse ten. Then the Angel of the Lord Lord said to her, we're talking about Haygard. Now I will surely mark multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. And the Angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you're pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wise old donkey of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against his Kinsman, go back, you're gonna be a son. And here's what's interesting. If Hagar leaves, having been set out by Sarah, and bears this son, Ishmael, Ishmael could come back right about this time that we're reading about in Genesis chapter twenty one, at sixteen seventeen years old, his wife, having secured his mother, having secured for him a wife, and come to his father Abraham and said, I am here for the inheritance that you owe me. And because Sarah sent my mother away and not you, my mother never gained her freedom officially, and I never lost my inheritance officially. Therefore I am here demanding what is rightfully mine. However, because she came back, and because she was later sent away by Abraham, she would have been officially given her freedom, and her son would have lost all rights to his inheritance. So we see here first and foremost in God dealing with nation number one, which is represented in Isaac. Is that God is protecting Isaac and Isaac's inheritance. Secondly, God is protecting Isaac from Ishmael. Isaac's two or three Ishmael sixteen or seventeen. We've seen brothers kill brothers for less already in the Book of Genesis, the names Cain and Abel ring a bell. God is protecting Isaac from Ishmael. It's already been prophesied that his hand will be against his kinsmen. That's already been prophesied about this young man. It's already been said. He's going to be a wife now, donkey of a man. He's going to be against everyone, and everyone's going to be against him. Well, now there is a young nation represented, it's about two or three in the person of Isaac, and Ishmael represents this other nation. And he knows that there is a rift between him and the child of Sarah, this child who is now being proclaimed the heir. It would not have taken much for Ishmael to do away with Isaac. God is protecting him. Listen to this, and Galatians four twenty eight twenty nine, you have to turn there. We'll turn there in a bit. But listen to this now you brothers like Isaac are children of promise. But just as at the time he was born according to the flesh, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now. In other words, God's word of the New Testament gives us another look into what's going on here in the Old Testament. In this passage, all we get is he laughed, and Sarah says she's got to go. Was that it was that all? No, no, no, no, no, that wasn't all. There's more to the story. There's a backdrop here. The laugh that Sarah recognized was just the public display of what had already been going on behind the scenes. The text in the New Testament says that Ishmael actually persecuted Isaac. So we have a sixteen or a seventeen year old who is actively persecuting a two or three year old, and the two of them are competing for an inheritance. Sarah says, he's got to go. So God protects Isaac's inheritance, but he also protect Isaac's life from Ishmael in this process. And I want you to notice what's said here. The thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. Now before remember, Sarah comes and she says, I don't like this. Abraham says, she's your servant. Do whatever you please. Why are you bothering me? You don't like her, get rid of her, Go get somebody else. Well, now there's a son involved. Sarah says, he's got to go. Abraham says, Oh, I'm not too sure about that. That's my boy, that's my son. He's been with us sixteen seventeen years. I'm a little bit attached to him. I'm sure we can work this thing out. But God verse twelve said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy, and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac's shall your offspring be named? Notice this, if this is just a woman throwing at tantrum, does God come to Abraham and say, listen, man, just so you can have peace, just go ahead and do this sinful thing that she's asking you to do, so that you can have peace in your house. No, absolutely not. God comes back and says, you know what, do what Sarah says? Not Sarah's wrong, Not Sarah's sinful. No, God comes and says, do what Sarah says. She's right on this one. Ishmael needs to go. So God's protecting Isaac's inheritance, and he's also protecting Isaac's life. And finally, God is preserving the true line of the mist. Look at what he says in that last line, for through Isaac, shall your offspring be named? Through Isaac, shall your offspring be named? In other words, remember, let's go back. And I know we've gone back here again and again and again, but we're gonna keep going back here because we've got to get this. We have to see this picture of redemptive history. We've got to recognize that the Bible is not like Aesop's fables. We're not just looking at little moral stories that are there to teach us principles about leadership or principles about whatever. This is redemptive history. Do we learn things about every aspect of life? Yes, we learn things about every aspect of life. But if we learn these other moral principles but don't get the gospel, we've missed it all. What is this about? This is about Genesis three point fifteen. If you don't memorize any other place in the Bible that's important. By the time we finished the Life of Abraham, you'll know that there's something important about Genesis three fifteen. Genesis three fifteen is the proto u Angelion. It's the first proclamation of the Gospel. The fall of man has occurred. God is pronouncing judgment, and he pronounces judgment on the serpent. I will put enmity between you and the woman, in between your seed and her seed. What's gonna happen between those two seeds, Well, serpent, your seed will bruise him on the hill. His seed'll cross your head. From that moment on, what has the devil been about the business of doing destroying the seed? Oh, the seed of the woman? Huh okay, that's chapter three. What happens in chapter four, Cain kills Abel. We got to destroy the seed. Next thing that happens, God gives another son, Seth. And then we have this line ten generations from Seth all the way down to Noah, tracing the promised seed. A deliverer is going to come. Noah's a deliverer, but he's just a type of Christ. He's not the Promised Messiah. So there's deliverance there through Noah. And now just a couple of generations later, here we are at Abraham. Abraham has this promise made to him, this promise made to him about being the father of many nations. But we also know that God is bringing through him this promised Seed. We know because we've seen the back of the book that the promised Seed is ultimately the person of Jesus Christ. But it's not just anyone who issues forth from Abraham. Ishmael doesn't qualify Isaac does. By the way, in the very next generation, we see the same thing. Jacob. Have I loved Esau? Have I hated? The Promised Seed is not coming through the firstborn Esau. The promise Seed is coming through the sein born Jacob. Well, why God, Because it's my business, not yours. This is not about the flesh. I'm doing something here. Well, okay, fine, we got Jacob. Well then how about Jacob one of Jacob's boys is gonna bring forth the promised seed. How about that one he really likes. How about Joseph. No, Joseph's very important, But it's not Joseph who is it. It's Judah. The promise Seed is the lion of the tribe of Judah. So in every generation God points out the fact I'm about something, I'm doing something. I'm fulfilling a promise that I made in Genesis, chapter three and verse fifteen. And that promise has to do with the one who will come, who is the seed of the woman, whose heel will be bruised by the serpent, but who will ultimately crush the head of the serpent and bring deliverance as I have promised. So God is protecting the line of the Messiah. Well, there's a second nation here. Ishmael represents that second nation, and God is even at work there. First of all, God repeats his promise concerning Ishmael. Look in verses thirteen and eighteen. Look at verse thirteen, and I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman. Also because he is your offspring. Look at verse eighteen. He says it to her up, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation. Where does this come from. Go back with me to chapter seventeen and verse twenty. Now chapter seventeen, verse fifteen, and following we have the promise of the birth of Isaac in the midst of that, listen to what God says in verse twenty. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. Now that gets us back to the other question, because oftentimes here's where we want to go. We want to go here, and we want to say, well, here they are in the desert, and Hagar cries out to God. And when Hagar cries out to God, God responds, and God says, I've heard the cry of your son Ishmael. And so we come back and we say, see, here are principles about how to get prayers answered. If you cry out in desperation, God will hear you, and God will change your circumstances because He's heard your cry of desperation. News flash, God did what he did for Ishmael because of a promise he made to Abraham. Doesn't matter what Ishmael said under that bush. God's keeping his promise. And you can't exactly make him a great nation if he dies of dehydration in the desert. Amen. God's keeping his word. God's keeping his promise. So what we learn here is not, if you want your prayers answered, cry out like a desperate woman in the desert. No, if you want your prayers answered, pray God's word back to him. Amen, pray God's word back to him. He's a covenant keeping God. He's a promise keeping God, and he reiterates his promise to the Second nation Ishmael. Secondly, God provides for Ishmael upon his departure, and in the desert Ishmael's leaving because of the soft heart of his father, he leaves with provisions by the way, without the provisions that Abraham gives them. Upon their departure, they don't make it to the well. Notice, they had just enough to get to the well they lay down to die. And it's right at the place where they lay down to die that God says, not go over there several miles and then go this. No, he just says, look up, huh, yeah, hey, card, you made it to the well. The provision of Abraham was just enough for you to make it to the well. And now here's provision for you at the well. That, my friends, is the providence of God toward the Second Nation. Toward Ishmael. Providence of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God. Finally, God prepares Ishmael for his calling. Remember Ishmael's calling, wild donkey of a man. His hand against everyone, Everyone's hand against him. In other words, Ishmael is going to be a warrior, not just any kind of warrior. He's gonna war with everyone. Everyone's gonna know him as a warrior. So not like David. For David, it just depended on who you asked. You ask certain people. David's this wonderful king, man's after God's on heart. He's this you know, this harpist, great guy. You ask other people David, Oh yeah, he's a mighty warrior. He wipes people out. Just depends on who you ask. Ishmael doesn't matter who you ask, who's Ishmael. He wars with whom he wars when he wars where. Listen, he wars anytime, anywhere, for any reason. That's who he is. His hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him. I want you to notice the play on words. The first play on words here in this passage is the word laughter. There's a second play on words here. Look at this, she says, verse sixteen. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off about the distance of a beau shot. Isn't that an interesting way of calculating distance about the distance of a bow shot? And then what does it say later on? Look down in verse twenty and God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the beaux. Listen to this, this obscure reference in Isaiah chapter twenty one, verse sixteen and seventeen. For thus the. Lord said to me, within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kaidar will come to an end, and the remainder of the archers, of the mighty men, of the sons of Kaidar will be few. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken. Who's Kadar, one of the sons of Ishmael. They're known as mighty men and archers. Where's that come from? That comes from Ishmael's time in the desert. God was preparing Ishmael for his calling. Now here's what's interesting. Look at the last line. He lived in the wilderness of Peran, and his mother took a wife for him, from the land of Egypt. Here's what's interesting. Many scholars calculate the four hundred years of Israel's oppression under Egypt not from Exodus chapter one, there arose a king who did not know Joseph, but from Genesis chapter twenty one. It was actually the relationship between Ishmael and Isaac that began the hostilities between Egypt and Israel. And that was Ishmael's purpose in the providence of God, sometimes to judge his people, sometimes to rescue his people. For example, as we. Read further, one of the things that we're going to see is this Isaac's going to have this son named Jacob, and Jacob is going to have these twelve sons. One of them is not going to be liked very well by the others. They're gonna put him in a hole so that he can be taken off. He's taken off, and he's sold into slavery where in Egypt. Egypt is oppressing Israel. He's not only a slave there. He ends up in prison there Egypt is oppressing Israel. However, he rises from the prison and becomes second in command only to Pharaoh, why so that he can oversee the time of plenty, so that Egypt can have something during the famine, and that Jacob can bring his other sons to Egypt and be cared for because Joseph is in charge of the grain there. In other words, God used Egypt to oppress Israel and then to deliver Israel. What happens after that? They go into slavery in Egypt. That famous line in Exodus one, there are rose of Pharaoh who did not know Egypt. They're oppressed in Egypt. News flash. They leave Egypt overloaded with good stuff and they go into the desert and they're okay. Why because they plundered Egypt on the way out. They're delivered from Egypt. But is that it is? That? All? Is the relationship between Egypt and the Promised Seed? Over? Now? No, Matthew chapter twenty one. Look at Matthew chapter twenty one. I'm sorry, Matthew chapter two. What am I doing thinking? Genesis chapter twenty one and Matthew chapter two. Look beginning in verse thirteen. Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee to where Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. What's happening. The seed of the serpent wants to destroy the seed of the woman so that he doesn't get his head crushed. By the way, that's the same thing Pharaoh tried to do. He tried to destroy the seed to kill the first born males. He's doing the same thing that Pharaoh tried to do. But now where are they going to get away? Back to Egypt? But listen to this, and he arose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt, I called my son. Amen. Hallelujah, praised the Lord for Egypt. God used Egypt in the life of his people from Abraham all the way down to the fulfillment and the promised seed of Jesus Christ. So it was very important that he fulfilled his promise to Ishmael, the daughter of the Egyptian who married an Egyptian. The third nation. That third nation is a spiritual nation, because it's not just one Israel. There are two. Look with me if you will. Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three, look at sixteen to eighteen. Let's go to Let's go fifteen to eighteen to give a human example, Brothers, even with a man made covenant, no one knows it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his off spring. It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean. The law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. For if inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise. God makes a distinction between the child of the flesh and the child of the promise. Isaac is not just significant because of this physical nation that comes from him. Remember, Isaac is significant because of the air. Who is going to come? Who is the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is not just about the nation of Israel. Jesus Christ is about the deliverance of God's elect from their sin. There's another nation here. Now go to chapter four and look at foward twenty one and following. Tell me you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically. Now, we don't have the right to go and do that to the Old Testament on our own. But Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us what God was trying to communicate in Genesis chapter twenty one, verses eight through twenty one. Amen, we don't have to wonder God, was there another meaning here in this passage. We don't have to wonder. God tells us right here. In Galatians chapter four, these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, oh baron one who does not bear, break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. Now, you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just. As at that time he was born according to he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. So also it is now. But what what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. Now do you think that was a sinful statement? Again, at first, blush When you read Genesis chapter twenty one, it sounds like just an emotional response from Sarah. It wasn't. It wasn't. This was God's design. Soul, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. Paul says, Even now there is this controversy between those of us who are children of the free woman and the others. But please recognize the book of Galatians. What's the Book of Galatians? All about the Book of Galatians is about the Judaizing controversy, because the Judaizing controversy is this. The Jews are saying, okay, fine, we have Christ, we have freedom and Christ. We have deliverance in Christ, we have forgiveness of sins in Christ. But if these gentiles are going to get in, they're not in according to the flesh. So at least at least they're going to follow through on circumcision because somehow they got to become Jews. First. Paul says, absolutely not. This promise was not about becoming Jews. This promise was about the promised see Jesus Christ coming to save his people and deliver his people Jews and Greeks. That's why Paul is able to say in Romans one sixteen, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God under salvation for the Jew first and also to the Greek. In other words, the Jew also needs the Gospel. He makes that clear also in Romans chapter two. You Jews think you're better, you have the law. Okay, fine, And he has this scenario. It's almost in Romans chapter two he's saying let's just take this hypothetical scenario. You have the gentile who does what the law says, but he doesn't have the law. And you got the Jew who has the law but doesn't do what the law says. Which one's right, it's not the law. You've got the law and you don't keep the law. And that whole discussion about is it better than to be a Jew? What advantage then, is there to being a Jew? Yeah, there are some advantages, but they don't have to do with justification. Justification is by faith. There is a third nation. Look with me, if you will, a couple of passages and we'll be done. We got to look at these. You gotta look at Romans chapter four. And the beauty of walking through this, and I hope it's been for you as well. The beauty of walking through the life of Abraham is that I have never ever understood Romans better than I do now, never ever understood Romans better. Okay, you gotta understand the life of Abraham. In order to understand the Book of Romans. You have to look at Romans four and look at nine to twenty five, and then we'll look at Romans nine, six to thirteen. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised. We say that faith was counted to Abraham's righteousness, How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that the righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely the circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. In other words, what. Does he say, Abraham was unted as righteous before he was circumcised. So now we see two nations from Abraham. Number one, it's wonderful we see this physical nation from Abraham. Praise the Lord for this physical nation that came from Abraham. But Abraham is also the father of the faithful, because he was counted as righteous apart from his circumcision and before his circumcision, so that the gentile now has hope of justification apart from the law. You see that that's the third nation. Here, for the sake of time, that you read the rest of that chapter for the second time, let's go to chapter nine and look at nine six through thirteen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descendants from Israel belong to Israel, not all who are descendants of Israel belong to Israel. And not all a children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac, your offspring shall be named. That sound familiar. He's quoting Genesis twenty one. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said about this time next year, I will return and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather, Isaac, though they were not yet born and had not done either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because. Of his call. She was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob, I. Have loved Esau I have hated. This is not just about the nation that proceeded forth from Abraham's flesh. This is about that nation whom God raises up from every tribe, every kindred, every tongue, every people. This is about God gathering a nation for himself that springs forth from the child of promise Isaac, No Yoshuahamashiah, Jesus, the Messiah, that's the promised seed. Isaac is privileged because he got to be in the line. Jacob is privileged because he got to be in the line. Judah privileged because he got to be in the line. David, he's privileged because he got to be in the line. Solomon privilege because he got to be in the line. However, they merely got to be links in the chain work. And God's redemptive history is the coming of his son, born of a woman, born under the law, and born in the fullness of time. In Isaac's day, the fullness of time had not come. But that's okay, because God protected his inheritance, God protected his life, and God protected the line. The fullness of time had not come where are. We afraid here? In Genesis twenty one are we supposed to be on pins and needles, wondering, Oh, what if God can't protect the line? Can't protect the line? God raises up Ishmael in order to provide for his people when he needs him to, and to persecute his people when he needs them to. God is sovereign, Amen, God is sovereign. So why do you worry as to whether or not He who began a good work in you is able to see it through the completion? Amen? Why and why on earth do you and I try to muster up enough in ourselves to somehow satisfy God. You know what that is. Here's what we do here, Here's what we do when we come to God with our works. Basically, we say, you know, God, I think it was wonderful that you, way back in Adam's time gave us the Gospel in Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen. That was good stuff God. The fact that after the death of Abel, you gave him Seth, You gave him those next ten generations. You gave him the ark, You protected the promised seed, got the promised seed off the arc, brought them through to Abraham. That was wonderful, great work God, you did that, and that was good. You brought forth Isaac, although there's no way those two should have had a child. You brought forth Jacob, and through Jacob, you brought forth his twelve sons. Through those twelve sons, you brought forth Judah. And you promised us the line of the tribe of Judah. That tribe of Judah went all the way through to David. That's great. It went all the way through David's sons on down to Joseph and Mary, who were part of that same lineage. And you brought us the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, you poured out your wrath on sin and completely satisfied your wrath so that you could be, as Paul says, both just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was actively obedient, so that he was completely righteous and kept the whole law, so that he could impute that righteousness to us, and you can now look at us as complete lawkeepers. He was also passively obedient in that he died on the cross and took the penalty for our sins, so that your wrath would be satisfied and you could embrace me as your child. However, I just thought I'd help you out. By not doing this and starting to do that, because as I look at this magnificent plan of redemptive history, it just seemed to be missing a contribution from me. Help you. If you think like that, and I know you do because I do. I just need to be reminded every once in a while, God is the one who saves, and my little efforts at righteousness are filthy rags in his sight that on my best day I am not worthy of the justification I've received in Christ through faith on my best day. And when I come before God with works, I had better come before God saying, look at what your son has produced in filthy, dirty, nasty, rotten me in your boy good. That's the only way I better come to God with my works. Amen, That's the only way I ever better come to God with my works, bringing glory and honor to Jesus Christ. Because Paul asks this very important rhetorical question, where then is boasting? Isn't that great? There? At the end of chapter. Three, he walks through redemptive history and he shows what God has done in Christ, and he just asks the question that ought to be asked. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. Room for it. So the next time you give your testimony, every time your mouth wants to say, I, just bite your tongue. You're a Christian, Yes, because I used to be this and now I am that, and I did this, and I I I I. Is that your testimony. Next time somebody asks you to give him your testimony, you're give him redemptive history. That's my testimony. God did all of this, and in the midst of it, for some reason, unbeknownst to me, by his overwhelming, unmerited, undeserved, inexplicable grace, he called me out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's my testimony. My testimony is God's been good to me. My testimony is I don't deserve it. My testimony is, on my best day, it makes no sense to me that I'm a child of God. That's my testimony. Hear this, Hear the gospel today, Believe the gospel today. Take hold of the gospel today. Better yet, let the gospel take hold of you today. Let God bring you to that place of repentance and faith to the end of yourself, where you can be still and know that He is God.