Reflections on Genesis 21

Genesis 21 (Contemporary English Version)
1. The LORD was good to Sarah and kept his promise.
   
2. Although Abraham was very old, Sarah had a son exactly at the time God had said.
   
3. Abraham named his son Isaac,
   
4. and when the boy was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, just as the LORD had commanded.
   
5. Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born,
   
6. and Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Now everyone will laugh with me.
   
7. Who would have dared to tell Abraham that someday I would have a child? But in his old age, I have given him a son."
   
8. The time came when Sarah no longer had to nurse Isaac, and on that day Abraham gave a big feast.
   
9. One day, Sarah noticed Hagar's son Ishmael playing, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that Egyptian slave woman and her son! I don't want him to inherit anything. It should all go to my son."
   
10. (SEE 21:9)
    
11. Abraham was worried about Ishmael.
    
12. But God said, "Abraham, don't worry about your slave woman and the boy. Just do what Sarah tells you. Isaac will inherit your family name,
    
13. but the son of the slave woman is also your son, and I will make his descendants into a great nation."
    
14. Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar an animal skin full of water and some bread. Then he put the boy on her shoulder and sent them away. They wandered around in the desert near Beersheba,
    
15. and after they had run out of water, Hagar put her son under a bush.
    
16. Then she sat down a long way off, because she could not bear to watch him die. And she cried bitterly.
    
17. When God heard the boy crying, the angel of God called out to Hagar from heaven and said, "Hagar, why are you worried? Don't be afraid. I have heard your son crying.
    
18. Help him up and hold his hand, because I will make him the father of a great nation."
    
19. Then God let her see a well. So she went to the well and filled the skin with water, then gave some to her son.
    
20. God blessed Ishmael, and as the boy grew older, he became an expert with his bow and arrows. He lived in the Paran Desert, and his mother chose an Egyptian woman for him to marry.
    
21. (SEE 21:20)
    
22. About this time Abimelech and his army commander Phicol said to Abraham, "God blesses everything you do!
    
23. Now I want you to promise in the name of God that you will always be loyal to me and my descendants, just as I have always been loyal to you in this land where you have lived as a foreigner."
    
24. And so, Abraham promised.
    
25. One day, Abraham told Abimelech, "Some of your servants have taken over one of my wells."
    
26. "This is the first I've heard about it," Abimelech replied. "Why haven't you said something before? I don't have any idea who did it."
    
27. Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and then the two men made a peace treaty.
    
28. Abraham separated seven female lambs from his flock of sheep,
    
29. and Abimelech asked, "Why have you done this?"
    
30. Abraham told him, "I want you to accept these seven lambs as proof that I dug this well."
    
31. So they called the place Beersheba, because they made a treaty there.
    
32. When the treaty was completed, Abimelech and his army commander Phicol went back to the land of the Philistines.
    
33. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped the eternal LORD God.
    
34. Then Abraham lived a long time as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines.
    
    

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    The central truth of chapter 21 has to do with the conflict of flesh over spirit. The two are not compatible. This point is illustrated in the two sons of Abraham - Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was a product of Abraham and Sarah trying, in the flesh, that is, in their own effort, to fulfill God's promise of a child. Isaac, on the other hand, was the promised child. As 21:1 & 2 tell us, "The LORD came to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him." There could be no doubt that Isaac was a gift from God, for Sarah had been barren all her life and at this time was beyond the capability of bearing children. Appropriately, Abraham and Sarah praised God and rejoiced because of this gift.
    
    The child of the flesh, Ishmael, mocked the child of the spirit, that is, the child God gave in fulfillment of His promise. Therefore, Ishmael was cast out along with his mother. As already mentioned, flesh and spirit are not compatible. We must cast out the life in the flesh if we are to have the life of the spirit, otherwise the flesh will crowd out the spirit. We will never experience God's blessings through our own efforts. It is only by waiting on God in faith that His promises come to us. It amounts to living with expectancy. Waiting in faith, I submit, is more difficult than acting in faith. Furthermore, acting in faith normally leads to God's intended purpose for us after we have waited in faith. Without the waiting for God to do His part we typically get our part ahead of His which results in living in the flesh rather than in the spirit. As with Abraham, it may produce a child, but instead of being the intended child it turns out to be a child of contention.
    
    The latter part of the chapter, beginning with verse 22 are significant in that they show the recognition of God's blessing on those who live in the spirit by those who live in the flesh. This is what occured when Abimelech, king of Gerar said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do." (21:22) In his recognition of God's blessing on Abraham he wanted to make a covenant with Abraham so that he too would benefit from Abraham's blessed life. He had another option, however, which he either did not realize or did not want, and that was to attach himself to Abraham's God and to the direct source of the blessing rather than become an indirect benefactor of those blessings through Abraham.