A Son Gained, A Son Lost

"And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him – whom Sarah bore to him – Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, 'God has made me laugh,and all who hear will laugh with me." She also said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.' So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. Therefore she said to Abraham, 'Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.' And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son. But God said to Abraham, 'Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.' So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away." (Genesis 21:1-14a)

The long-awaited promised child has arrived…a shadow or typology of the long-awaited birth of the savior of all mankind! It is a miraculous birth, though not a virgin birth as our Lord's was, nor conceived by the Holy Spirit as was our Lord's. Still, the Lord promised to bring forth a child from the womb of a woman whose body was long past the age of child-bearing, whose womb was no longer capable of bearing children. Even though Sarah laughed at the thought that she would bear a child in her old age, the Lord convinced her that she would indeed bear that child. And the Bible later tells us that "Sarah by faith received strength to conceive." (Hebrews 11:11) The Holy Spirit healed Sarah, not just her womb but her body in such a way that she was even able to breast-feed after the birth; but it was Sarah's faith that caused her to receive that healing, that 'strength to conceive.'

Abraham named the child Isaac just as the Lord had instructed him, and had him circumcised on the eighth day thereby giving honor to the One who brought the promise about. Isaac means "he laughs" – a reminder of the joy that Abraham had in hearing (and trusting in) God's promise that he would have an heir even in his old age.

At the age of around 3 perhaps (children were breastfed longer in those days), Isaac is weaned from the breast and his father puts on a large feast to celebrate. He could not celebrate at Isaac's birth without over-burdening Sarah; he could not take away from the solemnity of the circumcision ritual by celebrating at that time. So this is Abraham's first time to celebrate, with one and all, the birth of his son.

If Isaac is 3, then Ishmael is 17. Ishmael is old enough to know what he is doing and how he is dishonoring his own father when he decides to mock Isaac in some manner that Sarah witnesses. Sadly, jealousy has most likely set upon Ishmael, probably encouraged by his mother, Hagar, who herself mocked Sarah's inability to bear children. But Ishmael is destined to be that "wild man" that the Lord prophesied to Hagar, and perhaps this is the first appearance of that character trait.

Biblical scholars believe this is the beginning of another prophecy: the one in which the Lord tells Abraham that his seed will be persecuted by the Egyptians for 400 years. They actually are able to date that 400 years beginning here in the third year or so of Isaac's life, when he is mocked (persecuted) by the son of an Egyptian woman, Hagar. What is also sad is that Ishmael is the result of Abraham and Sarah's taking matters into their own hands; and the result of not waiting on God, or of second-guessing Him, is that they have created the very one who will persecute the rightful heir, their own son Isaac. They have brought this trouble to themselves and to Isaac. And we know that it is only the beginning of troubles for many generations to come.

And this is once more a shadow of what will come when the Jews (who are not the spiritual seed of Abraham) mock the early church (true spiritual seed of Abraham) in its infancy. (1 Thessalonians 2:16)

Abraham becomes grieved, the scripture says, "because of his son." While it is not extremely clear which son, I think it is safe to assume that it is Ishmael. He does love Ishmael, as of course a father would. He is caught between heeding his wife who has a very valid point concerning the safety and security of their young child and heir, and wanting to protect his other son Ishmael. The Lord delivers him from the dilemma by giving him clear instructions, and Abraham, displaying his greatest gift of obeying the Lord when He speaks, immediately does as the Lord directs him to do. I don't believe he is less sad about sending Ishmael away, but he WILL be obedient to the Lord no matter the cost.

Interestingly, the Lord tells Abraham that he is to listen to his wife Sarah's words. This is because they are in fact prophetic words. Paul teaches great truths from these words of Sarah in his letter to the Galatians (chapter 4). I think it will be worth spending some time on Sarah's words tomorrow.

But for today, Ishmael and Hagar are sent off to another town with sufficient food and water to get them there; only we will see in the scriptures that follow that they lose their way in the wilderness.

 

 

Fear and Wrong Assumptions

"So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid. And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, 'What have you done to us? How have I offended you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done.' Then Abimelech said to Abraham, 'What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?' And Abraham said, Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife. But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, 'He is my brother.' Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and he restored Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelech said, 'See, my land is before you, dwell where it pleases you.' Then to Sarah he said, 'Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody.' Thus was she rebuked. So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife." (Genesis 20:8-18)

Fear is often the motivation that leads us to sin. Fear colors our thinking and can bring about, as it did for Abraham, incorrect assumptions or prejudices. Abraham is obedient to God when he receives instruction from God; as he himself states, God called him to 'wander' from his home and he did so. He believed God when a child was promised to him; even though he took matters into his own hands with Hagar, Sarah's servant. But perhaps he is not quite at the point yet where he can trust God in ALL things. He does not understand that God is taking care of him even when he wanders into what might be ungodly territory. We are witnesses to faith that is still growing in Abraham; we have not yet seen the finished product, but we will soon.

We see here the full measure of God's wrath upon Abimelech and all that is his for the act of taking Sarah from her husband, Abraham. When God said to Abimelech "you shall surely die, you and all who are yours," He began by closing up the wombs of all the females in Abimelech's house, including his own wife and even the female servants. Life was stopped at the womb; and those who were already alive would soon die as well, there would soon be none left; so complete and final was God's wrath upon he who would dare to touch God's own.

Abimelech actually became a God-fearing man, apparently, as he believed what God told him in his dream, and feared God enough to immediately take the necessary actions to remedy the situation. His anger at Abraham and Sarah should have been great, and had he been a different sort of king, one who did NOT fear God, his rebuke of the pair would surely have been much stronger. But, knowing these two were protected by God, his rebuke was actually mild and far less than they deserved after endangering Abimelech's entire household by their lies.

He merely questions Abraham, asking what was he thinking to do such a thing in the first place, and then he sarcastically tells Sarah all that he has done for her 'brother' and that this should in fact vindicate her honor in the eyes of her own servants as well as everyone else involved. And after giving Abraham sheep and oxen and servants and silver, Abimelech allows Abraham and Sarah to dwell anywhere on his land that they choose.

The passage doesn't tell us whether Abimelech told Abraham all that God told him in his dream, such as the fact that Abraham will pray and Abimelech and his household will be healed; but for whatever the reason, Abraham does in fact pray to God and all are healed.

What I think we can safely assume is that Abraham and Sarah both learned something from this second mis-deed; they surely learned how much God had their backs in all situations. Surely their trust in God grew greatly through this trial, even though the error was their own. Perhaps they came to understand how much harm would come to others by their own folly.

It is amazing how little we understand that our sin does affect others, mostly because when we sin we are being so self-involved that we give very little thought, if any, to others. Sin comes about when we are thinking only about ourselves – not about God and certainly not about others – just about us. Even if we think our sin is just against ourselves, we are deceived, for it is never only against ourselves; it is always against God first and then others as well. Even Abimelech's actions, though done in ignorance of the truth and not willfully, brought destruction to his entire household. We are only deceived if we think our sins will not do the same to those we love.

Abraham and Abimelech

"And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar. Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, 'She is my sister.' And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, 'Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.' But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, 'Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also? Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister?' And she, even she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.' And God said to him in a dream, 'Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore, I did not let you touch her. Now therefore, restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours." (Genesis 20:1-7)

Once again Abraham is trying to pass his wife off as his sister; putting her at risk in order to protect himself, which he has rationalized, I imagine, for a second time, that by protecting himself he is also protecting Sarah, for if he were to die she might not survive herself in a culture that is not particularly caring of women. While he might have a point, still this is no less than sin against God because he is not trusting in God's protection of him and Sarah, even though God has promised that Sarah is to conceive soon. Abraham's sin also creates a situation in which another person might be led to sin against God: Abimelech. This is often the case with any one sin…it creates a potential for many more sins to follow.

However, Abraham should be a model of great hope for all of us who ourselves have stumbled in the same sin more than once. If God does not despair of Abraham after this second time at the same sin, we hope that He will not despair of us as quickly either. In fact, we know that He is longsuffering towards our weaknesses and fears; yet, even God's patience has a limit on it, as His Word tells us, and so we are not to 'presume' that we shall ALWAYS have it….especially when He has provided all that we need to escape such sin, if we truly want to escape it.

Abimelech is the king of Gerar in the land of the Philistines, thus Abimelech must be a Philistine; and yet when God speaks to him in a dream, Abimelech heeds the warning and does all that he is instructed to do by the Lord and is spared rather than destroyed. Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cites of the Valley of Siddim were just recently destroyed by God; apparently that fact is well-known by this king of Gerar, his town being somewhat southwest of that area of God's wrath. Abimelech understood that God destroyed those cities because they were not righteous, and now asks God if He will also destroy a righteous nation as well and then proceeds to plead his case honestly before the Lord. This is rather amazing that a Philistine king heeds God in a dream; we would not necessarily expect him to do so. Perhaps, it was the recent destruction of those plains cities that made Abimelech more amenable to listen to God.

It is highly possible that such destruction left such an aftermath of ill effects on the neighboring lands that this is Abraham's reason for journeying into the wilderness of Shur, located on the Sinai Penninsula. Or it could perhaps be that he is aware of the disgrace of his nephew Lot's situation and wishes to remove himself and his family from that association? We are not told why Abraham chose to leave, but I favor the aftermath of the wrath of God; seeing as how those cities are now buried under the Dead Sea in Israel, just how great might the after-effects have been of such destruction?  Was there some amount of ash that managed to make its way to the fertile green fields that Abraham needed to feed his herds, similar to what was experienced in distant towns when Mt. Saint Helens blew? We just don't know for sure.

What is also encouraging about this passage is that God withheld Abimelech from sinning against him; He prevented Abimelech from fulfilling a sexual union with Sarah. (Sarah is nearly 100 years old and the King of Gerar lusts after her! How beautiful she must have been, truly!)

I am reminded of the Lord's prayer in which Jesus instructs us to ask the Father to daily "deliver us from evil." He did so for Abimelech who had not even asked it; how much more will He keep us from sin, if we would but turn to Him rather than to our own resources or strength of will?

Finally, we see again that God calls Abraham His prophet. Two aspects of what the title "prophet of God" entails are clearly identified in this passage as God tells Abimlech that Abraham will pray and thus be able to reverse the curse of death over Abimelech allowing him to live: 1) intercessory prayer (caring enough about others, such as Abraham did for his nephew Lot, to take the time to go to God on their behalf in prayer) and 2) miracles (in this case a physical healing that restored life where death had already been pronounced.) The miracles don't come from the prophet, they come from the Lord, and are a sign that the prophet is, in fact, walking in obedience to God and should be listened to and heeded as one who speaks the Word of God. Without the miracles, Jesus told his followers, they should not heed Him either:

"If I do not the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." (John 10:37-38)

No wonder that the enemy has worked so hard to discredit the signs and wonders; if the works of God are no longer trusted as being a sign that the worker is from God, it makes it much easier for the church to be led around by false prophets and false teachers, those whom signs do not follow. Signs make people uncomfortable; the enemy caters to that by making them much more comfortable in the churches today…..very comfortable as they are being destroyed bit by bit with powerless false teaching, head knowledge that puffs up but does not bring life, only death.

Moab and Ammon

"And he [Lot} and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. Now the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will be with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, "Indeed I lay with my father last night, let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and be with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day." (Genesis 19:31-38)

Lot and his daughters left Zoar, a city that would have been destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah except that Lot begged the Lord to be allowed to live there in Zoar rather than in the mountains, because he was fearful of living in the mountains; but of course, he soon found that he feared living in evil Zoar even more than living in the mountains. Lot's ambivalence and fear aside, his daughters knew they were not the last human beings on the face of the earth; that not ALL cities had been destroyed. Yet, the eldest of the two daughters plots to have her father impregnate both she and her younger sister while in a drunken stupor such that Lot won't even recognize his daughters or remember what he has done, all because she believes (or is she lying to her sister?) that there are no men left in the world.

Lineage was an important thing in those days, still is today in some countries although perhaps not quite so much in America. Was the daughter's fear only about preserving the lineage as she indicated? I'm not trying to make what she did right, just trying to understand what could have motivated her to do such a terrible thing.

It was sinful and she knew it, as evidenced by her having to trick Lot into doing it.

Lot's weakness is evident once more in that his daughters were able to make him drunk; where is his strength of will? Yet, the Bible calls Lot a righteous man still, so we see that God did not place the blame on him for the resulting actions.

The daughters do become pregnant, and their two children, Moab and Ben-Ammi are the fathers of a group of people later known as Moabites and Ammonites, who are later excluded from living with the Israelites, even though the Israelites recognized them as blood relatives. The areas in which these people lived bore their names: the land of Moab and the land of Ammon. And Israel will do battle with them many times.

What we see here, as we saw with Abram and Sarai as well, is the human tendency to take matters into our own hands, rather than trust in, and wait upon, God. What comes to us as a result of not waiting on God is trouble, for ourselves and for others; trouble that could have been avoided had we been patient. But our fears are in control, not God. Fears that cause us to take action; fears that are evidence that while we say we trust God, we actually do not.

Trust doesn't worry about tomorrow or the future, such as Lot's daughters were doing.

I recently read a book by Gregory A. Boyd entitled "The Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now," in which the author reminds us that God is the Great "I AM," not "I WAS" or "I WILL BE," but "I AM." I spent some time thinking about those two words, and about the author's premise that we can, if we choose, experience the presence of God consistently if we would but recognize that He is with us ALWAYS. The I AM is in the RIGHT HERE AND NOW with us…in other words in EVERY MOMENT…and it is those moments, one by one, that we are to redeem, or use wisely, to worship Him and love Him…and others.

The reason we lose the experience (or the knowledge or recognition) of His presence is because He is in the PRESENT while we are either living in the past (hurt, bitterness, or regret) or in the future (worry, fear of the unknown, etc.) If we would only remember Him in the now, rather than forget Him as we let our fears overwhelm us and push God aside. If we could only trust that He is here with us, has not forsaken us, has everything under control, and wants us only to seek HIM…rather than working out our own future in our own ways…and missing what He has for us RIGHT NOW in THIS MOMENT!

To dwell with God in the HERE AND NOW takes a choice: that choice is called FAITH. We "choose" to bring our thoughts under submission to the presence of God, or we choose to let our thoughts drag us away from dwelling in the presence of God to instead dwell in the midst of our fears, worries, hurts, regrets, etc. Faith is not believing something until it becomes real; faith is choosing to believe that what God has spoken is real whether we can see it or not. For example, His Word that says He is always with us and will never forsake us is real right this very moment, regardless of whether I feel His presence. My feelings don't change God's truth; but my feelings can prevent me from living as though His Word is true, if I allow them to do so rather than taking them captive to the knowledge of (the remembrance of, the recognition of) Christ. HE is here…with us! And He is keeping us, no matter whether we are in feast or famine. Knowing that, keeps us CONTENT in all situations, as Paul the Apostle was, no matter what his situation.

Faith is not a feeling; it is a CHOICE. It is training our minds, our busy chattering minds, to hold tight to those thoughts of God while rejecting those thoughts of fear, worry, etc. It is by this practice of training our minds to focus on God NOW that we are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ; Jesus walked in God's presence BY CHOICE during every moment of His ministry; and the miracles God performed through Him proved it. Perhaps our lives will show God's presence in such display when we are living in God's presence moment by moment as well.

God was with Lot and his daughters, but they could not recognize it, for their fears for the future, blinded them to it. That momentary losing of the knowledge of the presence of God in their lives, led them to desire something else more than God, and that led them to sin; as it will do to us as well.

If we are to faithfully display our powerful and loving God to the lost world around us, if our faith in words is to line up with our faith in action, then we must repent of our fears and worries, of excluding God from this moment and the next. We can have memorized hundreds of scriptures, but unless we are LIVING those truths, living in righteous obedience to those truths (the Word of God dwelling IN us), then we have only gained head knowledge (are puffed up) and our actions do not match our words. It is by the choice of FAITH that we will see our actions line up with our words, with HIS Word! Only then are we faithful witnesses of the GREAT IAM, showing that we DO trust Him…in this moment…

Ah, but that moment is now in the past and so we must trust Him in THIS moment…

Oops! and NOW in this one,,,,

THIS is how God takes care of our future…by taking care of THIS moment. The future is here in but a moment; just as the past is behind us in but a moment. We are to face reality, the reality of this very moment; we are not to escape it by running back to the past or ahead to the future. And we are to face it with God, not without Him. We are to be led by Him in this moment, to know His will for us in each moment and to walk WITH Him…not behind Him and not ahead of Him.

For God is WITH US NOW! We must learn to recognize it and to remain with Him where He is. THE GREAT I AM IS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!