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We saw last time that Abraham got married again in order to fulfil the will of God. It was the will of God that he had many nations come out of him. Let’s look at who they are.

“And she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. And the sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah”.

(Genesis 25: 2-4)

Versus two to four list his sons, his grandsons, his great grandsons by his new wife Keturah. These verses are telling us that by this one woman he had six sons, 7 grandsons, and at the point it was written he also had three great grandsons also from her. So, he got married to Keturah and she gave him six sons. They had 7 grandsons, and those seven grandsons at this point had three great grandsons, but drop down to the next verse and it tells us. 

“And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living, he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east”.

(Genesis 25: 5-6)

Now this is just really fascinating, because it fills in the gaps in some of the earlier narrative of this story by telling us Abraham when getting to the end of his life sends his wider family out of town, out of the country in fact probably to what we call Saudi Arabia today He sent them to Arabia and many experts say these other sons become the Arab nations, alongside the descendants of Hagar and Ishmael that we were told about earlier. I’ve mentioned in this series that Abraham is probably one of the most widely respected men in all of history.  He is recognized by the Jews, by Christians and by Arabs and Muslims who all trace their heritage back to Abraham. He literally became the father of many nations, and in doing so, he was fulfilling the will of God. But look at verse 5 again. “Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines. So, he has all of these children and he tries to provides for them all. However, the text points out he gave the bulk of his inheritance to Isaac. So again, he’s being very sensitive to the will of God as the Lord has clearly said. I’m going to give you many nations, but the bulk of the inheritance I have for you is going to come through. Isaac, that is what I want you to know.

Abraham decided in his old age to have more children, but that was still in the will of God for him. Therefore, as an old man, after Sarah’s death he got married and had more children but he still provided that the bulk of his inheritance went to Isaac.  He’s concerned about the will of God in both having children whilst at the same time making sure that Isaac was his main heir. 

I would like to suggest that maybe this attitude should apply to us in the sense that even as we grow old we should remain concerned about the will of God in your lives. The first part of this passage is this decision he made to plan for his death and in the second part of the passage he dies. The message of these verses is quite straightforward. Believers will die, so they must ensure that the work begun in them by God will continue after they have gone. It may be through our children, or it may be through some other means, but in one way or another, thought should be given to our legacy as a Christian.. 

Alright. How do you grow old? Answer, the way to grow old is to walk in the will of God. 

This passage so far mainly talks about family and property but let me suggest it applies to some other things.  This may raise a fair question in some of your minds, thinking I’m not old, what does this mean for me. I’m addressing this message to two groups of people today. Some of you are probably already old and the rest of you are heading that way at a very rapid pace. Well, you might, you say.  Well, you have to define old first. I’m going to in a second. But what I want us to do is turn to the little book of Titus, because I’m going to tell you what is the criteria for being old is, and how to grow old gracefully. We are going to look at  Look at Titus Chapter 2, but we will do that next time.