January 29, 2024 | Be God's Light
The Birth of Isaac
Scripture: Genesis 21:1-21(NIV)
1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
Devotional
I can’t imagine having a child at a hundred years old. The thought of bending over to change diapers, waiting in the elementary pick up line, and attending high school concerts and sporting events is overwhelming. But Abraham and Sarah had literally waited a lifetime for this moment. They finally had their own son. They named him Isaac. Everybody was thrilled.
Everybody except Sarah. She was still filled with jealousy toward her slave girl and her son Ishmael. She didn’t want that boy sharing in her son’s inheritance. She didn’t like the way the slave girl mocked the old woman turned mama. She didn’t even want them in the family. So she asked Abraham to get rid of them.
God reassured Abraham as he appeased his wife, but this is a sad story. Ishmael’s descendants became the Ishmaelites, another contentious enemy for the Israelites in the ensuing centuries. Abraham and his family kept creating their own future problems. Today, the Ishmaelites are known as Arabs. The conflict between Jews and Arabs continues, 4000 years later.
Yet Isaac would indeed become the next patriarch. His son Jacob would be renamed Israel. The nation was beginning to take shape. God used them and blessed them in spite of their shortcomings. Eventually Jesus Himself came from that family line.
That’s how God works. He doesn’t give up on us when we try to take matters in our own hands. He doesn’t turn His back on us when we cause problems. He wants the best for us, and doesn’t stop loving us when we are at our worst.
Isaiah 41:10 reminds us, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
There is no better place to be than in the hand of God!
Poem
Tears of Ishmael
It doesn't matter that you've done no wrong
It doesn't matter that you're the first born
It doesn't matter that you're tall and strong
It doesn't matter that it isn't fair
It doesn't matter that no one cares
It doesn't matter that your place is heir
It doesn't matter that your mother obeyed
It doesn't matter that she was afraid
It doesn't matter that she was betrayed
It doesn't matter that you've now been banned
It doesn't matter that I understand
It doesn't matter; it was God's command
