My barber has become a father. There beside the mirror in his shop are the photographs to prove it, one of the beautiful baby girl, another of her in dads arms. There is no question but that he is a happy man. Of course there is also another side to parenthood, there are the disturbed nights, the strain on the pocket and the heartaches that are going to come along the way, but overall we know that the gift of a child is a blessing from God. Children bring happiness.

It was so for Sarah and Abraham. At last their own son was born. Abraham named him Isaac, as God had told him to. But Isaac was a very special child. He was the focus of God’s plans for not only raising up a special nation, but also bringing God’s blessing to all mankind. Isaac means ‘he laughs’. Laughter features in the story of Isaac’s birth. Abraham and Sarah were old people. Sarah had been unable to have children; she was barren. In a sense you could say her body clock had stopped ticking. When God told Abraham in chapter 17 that Sarah would have a son, Abraham laughed. So did Sarah laugh when she heard the promise, but it was the wrong sort of laughter.

It was the sort of laughter that said to God ‘you must be joking’. God left them with a profound question to ponder. He said to Abraham and Sarah ‘is anything too hard for the Lord?’ As Abraham and Sarah pondered that question, as they sought to live in faith, God showed them the answer to the question. Sarah became pregnant. Their son was born. Sarah now laughed in happiness and thankfulness. God is gracious; he keeps his promises.

God still keeps his promises today. Sometimes however, people get misled regarding what God promises. You come across Christian preachers sometimes, who in God’s name make promises that cause people disappointment and disillusion, promises of healing for example. Have you come across the sort of crusade preacher who promises you that if you give ten pounds to his funds you will get ten times as much cash back? Or there is the mistaken belief that any promise that is there in the bible is for everyone.

Some of God’s promises are to all; others are to particular individuals. God in his wisdom treats us all as individuals, but for some he has a very special purpose, as was the case with Abraham and Sarah. One issue that our passage this morning raises, is the matter of the gift of children. For the majority of people, children are a gift that they receive quite naturally.

For some of us they are a gift that we receive in our old age. But there are some of us do not receive the gift of a child of our own. Does that mean that those without children are outside God’s love? Not at all. There are special promises in God’s word to those who do not have children. The word eunuch which in a narrow sense literally referred to men who had been emasculated, applies to all who have no children, here in the Isaiah 56 v 4 – ‘For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant- to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.”

Jesus also has in mind those to whom the gift of marriage and children is denied in Matthew 19. In verse 12 he affirms that not everyone is the same, there are different reasons why some do not marry or have children. ‘For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.’ Jesus reminds us that there is something that is far nobler than parenthood, it is a life given in love and service to God and others.

One of the problems we have stems from the fact that we are a fallen race. By nature, we like to be at the centre of things. Our wishes are most important. We are prone to jealousy if others seem to be getting more blessings than us. We have seen that in earlier chapters of Genesis with Cain and Abel. Abraham knew all about it in his own family, because his family situation had become rather complex.

As time had gone on for Abraham and still no son had arrived, Sarah had come up with an idea. Why not use a surrogate mother to provide an heir for Abraham? She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar. Sarah had suggested to Abraham that he could have a child with Hagar. Abraham had gone ahead with the idea, and Hagar had become pregnant. But then all hell had broken lose. Hagar having achieved what Sarah could not, mocks her mistress.

Sarah blames Abraham for causing the problem; she has a point there. Sarah responds viciously to her slave girl and she runs away. God sends his angel to find Hagar, the angel tells her to go back to Sarah and to change her attitude. The angel promises Hagar God’s blessing. Hagar obeys and returns to Abraham and Sarah. Her son Ishmael is born. That story points out a lesson to us that one woman is quite enough for any man. One woman to one man is God’s way for the human race.

Abraham and Sarah had made the mistake of doing their own thing, cooking up their own scheme to attempt to solve their problem. We all have a tendency to do the same. We sometimes think up gimmicks to try to solve the churches problems. It would not be hard to think of bright ideas of that kind that have been more of a hindrance than a help to the work of God’s kingdom. Politicians do it too. The government problem is that it needs more taxes. It can’t put up income tax or people won’t vote for them so they come up with the idea of allowing lots of casinos in order to get tax from them. No good will come of it.

What I want you to notice is that God is gracious. He shows faithfulness to Hagar and her son, as well as Abraham and Sarah. Some time after this that God Speaks to Abraham and Sarah again and he actually gives them new names. Abram becomes Abraham; the name means father of many nations. Sarai becomes Sarah, and with the name comes a promise that she will be a mother in her own right. God also confirms his covenant with Abraham and asks Abraham to respond by accepting the act of circumcision.
Abraham responds by accepting circumcision for himself and for his entire household. That was an act that expressed in real tangible terms his faith in God and his commitment to the covenant. The next year, Isaac is born; there is joy and thankfulness.

But there are still problems to be faced for Abraham. We come to the events that we read of in chapter 21 v 8-21. There are new dynamics in the family now. Both Sarah and Hagar have sons. Ishmael is now a teenager around fifteen years old. Yet God has said that his covenant promises to Abraham will be fulfilled through Isaac.

On the occasion of the special celebration when Isaac is weaned, Ishmael mocks Isaac. Remember Isaac means ‘he laughs’. The scholars tell us that what the scripture literally says is that Ishmael ‘isaacs Isaac.’ He laughs at his infant half-brother. Once again it is the wrong sort of laughter. There is an underlying pride and jealousy. It was the sort of laughter that was saying to the infant; ‘ ‘you don’t really think that you are going to get the better of me little squirt?’

This rather spoilt the party. Sarah quite understandably is furious. She demands that Hagar and Ishmael are sent away. Abraham is distressed. In fact the commentators tell us that the Hebrew word is stronger, and also has overtones of anger in it. These people may have lived 4000 years ago, but they had the same emotions as us 21st century people.

What is Abraham to do? We can imagine how he feels. He has two sons and he loves both of them. Can they really live in peace together? Sarah believes that they cannot. But Abraham is a friend of God, and God speaks to Abraham. He tells him to obey his wife. I know the bible tells wives to obey their husbands but I’m sure just like he told Abraham God sometimes tells other husbands to obey their wives. God tells Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. God promises to care for and bless Ishmael.

So Abraham, with a heavy heart sends Hagar and Ishmael away. What hope is there for them? In fact they come close to despair. But God is good to them. The story tells us God hears the boy’s cry. That cry was in a very real way a prayer. God answers prayer. God keeps promises. Ishmael became the father of a nation. You catch a glimpse of his descendants later on in Genesis, when Joseph is sold as a slave to the Ishmaelite traders; they are the descendants of Ishmael.

The Arab peoples today trace their ancestry to Ishmael the son of Abraham. Today’s story is an ongoing story. It reflects a gracious God who keeps his promises. Notice in all these events though that the channel of God’s blessing is Abraham. His covenant promises of blessing for the world are through Isaac, but there is also blessing for the family of Ishmael ‘because he is your offspring’ (21 v 13).

Of course the legitimate heirs of the covenant with Abraham are the Jewish people. They have always been proud of their ancestry. What they have tragically not always perceived is that their call by God was to be a blessing to all the nations. That promise was to be fulfilled through another baby, a baby born in Bethlehem in the fullness of time. In fact Jesus warned them of the danger of thinking that being descendants of Abraham was enough. He said that God could turn stones into Abraham’s children. What people really need to have is the faith of Abraham, to be friends of God, to keep his covenant of love and faithfulness.

But where does that leave us? We can’t claim to be blood descendants of Abraham. The good news is that through Jesus we can become God’s children. To those who receive Jesus, God gives the power to become children of God.

The New Testament tells us that if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s descendants and heirs according to the promise. Christ came to reconcile alienated children to God. All those who call out in prayer, can be part of the family of God. You and I can know the reality of the blessings promised to Abraham, and be bringers of good news, hope and blessing to others.
 

Amen.

Return to top of page