Sermon Series - Genesis 21 - God the Promise Keeper

Finally! A promise come to fruition.  God is THE Promise Keeper - no one else comes close. Abraham and Sarah rejoice in the birth of their son, Isaac.

Meanwhile...other jewels are found in this chapter...how God not only keeps his promises, but also provides. How we should respond to other's good fortunes, and yes, laugh with them.

Plus, living in harmony by finding the right friends, and making the right alliances, not only in word, but also in deed, by following Jesus and not our own fleshly choices.  

Polish up your shield, because it is time to lift it up.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Hey there, true believers. Welcome back to the Barry Shield Podcast. I'm your host, Ron Scheffler, and we are in our sermon series today back in Genesis. Now last episode we saw Abraham and King Abimelech making amends. The King Abimelech he made amends with God since as King he took Sarah to be his wife. Where God protected Sarah's marital purity, and Abraham made amends with the king due to the fact that he again lied to those in charge that Sarah is his sister, which in truth she is his half sister, but does not disclose that she is also his wife in his mind to protect his own hide. And now we get to the culmination of a promise given that we've been talking about for so many episodes. Today we're going to be talking and reading about Genesis chapter twenty one. We'll break it up into a couple of sections here, and we'll first begin with Genesis one through twenty one. Let's get into it. As always, reading from the English Standard Version here. Genesis twenty one verse one starts out. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him, and Sarah said, God has made laughter for me, everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. Verse eight. And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned, but Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had borne to Abraham laughing. So she said to Abraham, Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very displeased 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, 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. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a 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 Bersheba. When the water in the skin was gone she put the child under one of the bushes. 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 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 with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation. 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. And God was with the boy and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. Okay, so before we get into things, just listen again to the first verse here. It said the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. God, the promise keeper. You know, we throw that word promise around a lot. And sometimes I don't think we really understand what that word really means. In according to Webster, there's a couple, but one ver one definition is that it's a declaration or assurance that a person or entity will definitely do or refrain from doing a specific act. Another definition is a verbal or written pledge binding one's honor and conscience. I really like this definition. A pledge. Just kind of floating around. And I think the word promise was just another word, quite honestly. And if I think about it, I'm sure a lot of people I know have broken their word to me in some fashion, whether it's a broken promise straight up or a subtle lie or a forgotten word. But the beautiful thing about the word promise is that if God states it, you can rest assured it will be done. And the Bible is filled with multiple promises throughout. I'm so grateful, so grateful for those promises to read about them because it gives me hope that no matter what happens in life, we can rest easy knowing that God is the promise keeper. So here we are after multiple chapters concerning Abraham's descendants to be, finally, finally we have arrived at the birth of Isaac and a promise kept. Abraham is one hundred. Sarah's ninety. And we might be thinking it's about blasted time, man. But in the divine storyline, I'm sure it is right on time as far as God has planned. This had to move forward later in life for these two individuals. For one, Abraham had to keep growing in his faith. I mean, just a chapter ago, Abraham was caught lying again, as described in our intro today. And secondly, the later the promise took to fulfill, the older the couple became, and the more spectacular the birth became. The more of a miracle the world would talk about for generations to come, the more in need of God Abraham and Sarah would become, the more they needed to lean in and really trust God with his word, and the more desperate they would need to be on God to provide and fulfill his promise to them. Which means the more the miracle would be fantastic. And Abraham and Sarah they responded in faith. They named him Isaac, as God had stated. Isaac was circumcised on his eighth day, per the covenant, and they praised God for the covenantal promise being fulfilled. You can hear it here in Sarah's comments, right? In verses six and seven, I'll reread those. It says verse six, and Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. Verse 7, and she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? I have borne him a son in his old age. You can hear her joy. These verses are filled with Sarah's joy. So let's pivot now and look. And another word, laughter. Laughter with respect to this story happens back in chapter 18. If you recall the story, Sarah is laughing inside the tent because she thinks it's a bit of a joke that she's going to give birth in her old age. But God calls her out. Sarah originally laughed a laughter of unbelief. Now she was laughing due to her joy, due to her celebration. And remember, Isaac's name means he laughs. And now there's someone else laughing. Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, laughing at Isaac. But his laughter is a mocking laugh, a ridicule of God's work. This got me thinking. So my question to you is have you ever had a moment in your life where you did something fantastic or finally had some hard work paid off and you were genuinely happy or joyous when the event happened? Only to have someone laugh at you over your accomplishment or blessing? Or maybe it happened to someone in your family or someone you cared about, and you were over the moon happy for them only to have some kind of bully or jealous friend make fun of you. I've had some moments in my life when I was really happy for some of my family members on what was accomplished in their life or things I did that I was really happy about, and to share that with others only to have others mock me. Or some people say, Yeah, but or maybe some other non-caring statement that just tries and deflate the happiness you experienced, mostly because it's due to jealousy, perhaps competitiveness, or just plain projecting their unhappiness in their own lives onto yours. But you know, the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter twelve, verse fifteen, says that as Christians we are to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And it got me thinking, too, it really becomes discouraging when something like that happens to me. But then I remember the story of Jesus and the healing of Jarius' daughter. And we can find this story, and I won't read the whole story, but some of these verses here in the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 8, verses 40 to 42, we read this. Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jarius, who was a ruler of the synagogue, and falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying. We continue on. There is a middle story here that is so important. But we're going to continue on with Jarius. In verse 49 through 55, we read this While he was still speaking, meaning Jesus, someone from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher any more. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear, only believe, and she will be well. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand he called, saying, Child, arise, and her spirit returned, and she got up at once, and he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what happened. And when I remember this story, that Jesus too, God in flesh, was laughed at. No broken promises, no mocking laughter, just fun laughter. Laughter of joy. The laughter of a friend. Why wouldn't someone want the joy of Jesus, the joy of that laughter in their lives? Do you want that laughter? So Abraham becomes distressed with Sarah's request of sending Hagar and Ishmael out. But God calls Abraham here and tells him he will take care of Ishmael because he is also Abraham's child. And so the birth of Isaac, his naming and circumcision confirming the covenant, and Ishmael's forced exit, the risk or threat to the covenant mitigated, Hagar and Ishmael are looked after in the desert. God provides. And God provides salvation for all through Jesus. Friends, that provision is available to you. You know the apostle Paul wrote about Ishmael and Isaac in his book of Galatians. Let's go there. Galatians chapter four. Verses twenty-two to twenty-four. Read this. 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. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children of slavery, she is Hagar. And then the verses twenty eight in chapter four through chapter five, verse one read this. Now you brothers like Isaac, the children of promise, but just as that time he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. So also it is now. But 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. So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Paul is stating that the promise has come. We are adopted through God's grace, and since we are adopted into God's family through Jesus, we are truly free. And no longer no longer under the law, the Mosaic Law. If you are unfamiliar with that, hey, dig into the book of Exodus. Otherwise, more to come on that further down the road on this podcast. So like Ishmael and Isaac were in conflict, so too the flesh and spirit do not live in harmony. Paul writes about this, continues on writing this in Galatians. In chapter five, we continue on there. This is verses sixteen to eighteen, where Paul writes, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Thus believers are to remove the threat of the flesh and live by the spirit. So now we come to the end of Genesis chapter twenty-one. Let's continue on here, starting with verse twenty-two. At that time Abimelech and Fikel, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land that you have sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear. When Abraham reproved Abimalek about a well of water that Abimalek's servants had seized, Abimalek said, I do not know who has done this thing. You do not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today. So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimalek, and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven Ulams of the flock apart, and Abimalek said to Abraham, What is the meaning of these seven Ulams that you have set apart? He said, These seven Ulams you will take from my hand, and this may be a witness for me that I dug this well. Therefore that place was called Bersheba, because they're both because there both of them swore an oath. So they made a covenant at Bersheba. Then Abimelech and Fikul, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamaris tree in Bersheba and called there in the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. The Hebrew word Saba here is to swear or to take an oath. It appears multiple times in this passage, and that's where the name Bersheba, the home of Abraham, comes from, representing the patriarch and the covenants he made with the people of the land. Bersheba, well of the oath. This covenant allows Abraham to settle and live in this land in peace. Remember from the previous sermon series, episode chapter twenty, Abimelech seemed to be an upright king, and in working this deal with Abraham is also no dummy. Abimelech, a pagan king, sees that Abraham's blessed by God. He was told by God that Abraham was a prophet. So in making this covenant, Abimelech will also enjoy the fruits of blessings with being at peace and near to Abraham. We're then told that Abraham plants a tree symbolizing his plans to stay put in that region. Where's your tree planted? Do you have friends that you hang with or run with in this race we called life and that can bring peace to your land, so to speak? Those that are willing to make a treaty, if you will, with you to hold each other accountable, to strive to make each other better, to help each other live, not in our flesh, but by the spirit, really go to people. Who are your go-to people? And if you're struggling to find an answer to that question, perhaps it's time to start reaching out to others with a handshake, getting to know them. Perhaps that person can become a go-to person. And there's certainly a lot in a passage like this, so many underlying thoughts. Being a promise keeper, God does provide how we should respond with others' good news, following Jesus and not our flesh, and living in harmony with others and making plans, forming alliances to live in a land of peace, to run that race well. I hope you come away with a few reflections from this reading today that will help polish up your armor and to help you prepare.