Tension:
A friend of mine invited me and some other friends to a good restaurant for dinner. I was excited about the meal that I was going to eat. I tried not eating breakfast, hoping to work up an appetite. As the day lingered on, my stomach rumbled. I had some snacks calling my name.
Yes, the promise of a good meal was still out there, but the satisfaction of snacks was high there. So, I ate them to satisfy my hunger. When it came time for the meal, it was everything I was expecting. Except I had to force myself to eat it because my stomach was still full of snacks. The same is true for Abraham and his waiting for the promise of Isaac.
Have you ever felt like God’s promises are delayed? Abraham and Sarah did. In this chapter, God fulfills His promise to bring Abraham a child through Sarah. It is a joyous moment, especially for Sarah. Despite her doubts in the previous chapters and their age, a baby is born through the power of God.
This beautiful moment is interrupted by the main tension. Abraham had another son by Hagar. Ishmael, likely a teenager at this time, mocks the toddler Isaac. Sarah wanted Hagar and Ishmael gone. This puts Abraham in a tough spot. He has love for his son, Ishmael, but it is clear that he was not a son of the promise.
Sometimes God’s fulfillment of promises brings a mix of joy and sorrow. Sorrow is often the result of our sin. That was the case for Abraham. He rushed God’s promise of a son, and the results have been tension between him and his wife and the mother of his son. Now that God’s promise has come, the tension caused by sin has doubled. The same can happen to us as well. Our sin causes tension when we encounter the promises of God. Yet even in these situations, God’s goodness and mercy outweigh our sin. God fulfills His promises by His power alone, bringing joy even as our lingering sin reminds us of sorrow.
Text:
This story began with God fulfilling what He had promised Abraham and Sarah a year before. The result was unfiltered joy. Sarah now remarked that people will laugh because God gave an old couple the joy of a child. What a reversal of the laughter that Sarah and Abraham had earlier when God told them His plan.
However, joy, jealousy, and God’s promise soon clash. Sarah is jealous of Ishmael, who was mocking her son. She demanded that Hagar and her son be ousted from the group and sent on their way. Abraham is torn. In the background of the text is a father who loved his son. Though the names Hagar and Ishmael haven’t been mentioned, they were with the camp. Abraham was a loving father to Ishmael.
He is now faced with a harsh choice of releasing his son into the dangerous wilderness. The readers hold their breath to see what Abraham will do. He lets them go with some supplies. God made a promise to bless Ishmael and led Hagar to a well, and later brought success and power to Ishmael. God fulfilled a promise to a child who was not a part of the promise. God’s grace is displayed in blessing a son, who was not a son of the promise. This is the goodness of God.
Abimelech saw how God had blessed Abraham and wanted to make a covenant. Abraham had no army, but Abimelech knew God was with him and did not want to go against God. Even in Abimelech and Abraham’s covenant, we see the power and promise of God in a king wanting to covenant with a man with no army. It is like he knew that God would fulfill His promise to make Abraham a mighty nation.
Takeaway:
As Israel sat on the plains of Moab, overlooking the Promised Land, this story was a reminder that even as the sting of their sin lingered, God would indeed be faithful to bring them into the land and to take it. His power alone would accomplish this. God’s power is not dependent on their frailty.
For us today, this story reminds us that God does indeed fulfill His promises. He has promised that we will become more like Christ as we seek Him. Though that process can be slow and painful because of our sin, God, through His power, will complete this. God has also promised to bring us into His Kingdom. That is a promise we must wait for. Through pain and trials, the hope of this promise should sustain us in Him.
As we wait for God to bring us into His kingdom, our temptation, much like Abraham, is to obtain this promise by our own power. The result is always sin. Much like waiting for an amazing meal, don’t be tempted to spoil the dinner with cheap snacks. Snacks curb the cravings, but give no substance or lasting fulfillment. The same is true spiritually as well. When we settle for temporal fillers, like money, power, or the pleasures of this world, we bring sorrow and pain in with the joy of God’s presence.
Beloved, if that is you today, know that God’s joy will outlast the sorrow that sin brings. One day, all pain and sorrow will melt away in the presence of King Jesus. Let stories like Genesis 21 give us hope and endurance as we wait to see with our eyes what are hearts have glimpsed. One day our faith will be made sight. God is good to fulfill all that He has promised. Hold on!