TWO SONS, TWO NATIONS

June 11, 2023

Reading: Genesis 21:1-20

Focus: Genesis 21:1 and 17-18 – ¹Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. 

¹⁷God 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. ¹⁸Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

Father God, Thank You for your blessings.  Thank You for your promises.  Help us to wait on You for the answers to our prayers.  Help us to trust that You know what is best for us.  Open our minds to Your word.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

It’s been a year since Lord told Abraham and Sarah that Sarah have a son.  Who would have ever imagined that a man of 100 and a woman of 91 years would have a baby together?  But God had promised a child to Sarah and Abraham.  You can just imagine the celebration.  The promised child had finally arrived.  Just as He had promised, Sarah gave birth to Isaac.  She laughed again, this time with joy. Isaac’s name reflected her joy.  Isaac means ‘laughter’.  Who would have thought that a 91-year-old woman would have a baby, if not for the intervention of God. As the angel told Mary centuries later, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37). However, there were still consequences of the earlier attempt to help God along to be dealt with.  We might be forgiven of a sin we committed, but any consequences must still be dealt with.

But even in this time of joy, there was one who did not rejoice.  Ishmael.  From his birth, Ishmael had been the only son and heir to Abraham.  For thirteen years, between his birth and the birth of Isaac, Ishmael had been Abraham’s only son.  For thirteen years Ishmael did not have to share his father with anyone.  His expectations were to inherit all that Abraham had after he died.  But now, all that had changed.  His attitudes had been influenced by the strife between his own mother and Sarah. To put it bluntly, Ishmael was jealous of Isaac.  He had lost his position as heir and he took it out on Isaac. 

Ishmael could have chosen to follow his father’s God, but he chose not to.  Rather than accepting Isaac as a brother, he and all his descendants became enemies of Isaac and all of his descendants.  Rather than following the God of his father, he and his descendants followed other gods.  His stepmother hated his mother, and eventually, she had them kicked out of the camp.  There was always strife between the two women. That had to have some effect on his personality.  Isaac’s and Ishmael’s father doted on the younger boy to the extent that Ishmael felt left out and forgotten.  Much of what happened in Ishmael’s life was totally out of his control and was no fault of his own. However, he chose to be a part of the problem rather than become a part of the solution. 

Often there are circumstances in our lives that we have no control over. But we do have the choice to be weighed down by those circumstances or to leave them behind and, with God’s help, become a better person despite them.  Do we become part of the problem or part of the solution. God’s answer to our dilemmas is not control, but a changed life. It is our choice, just as it was Ishmael’s. 

When Isaac was weaned, the entire family group celebrated.  But Ishmael picked on Isaac instead of celebrating and Sarah caught him at it.  Sarah complained to Abraham. She demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. But Ishmael was just as much Abraham’s son as Isaac was and it hurt to think of sending him away but God told Abraham not to feel badly about it and to send Hagar and Ishmael away.  God reaffirmed his promise that Ishmael would also be the father of a great nation.  He was Abraham’s son too.  So, Hagar and Ishmael were given provisions and sent away.

Many times, we feel like we are being sent to the ends of the earth.  We don’t really know where it is going to lead us or if we will ever find the place that God has for us.  Hagar and Ishmael were sent into the desert with food and a canteen of water.  I don’t know how they were expected to survive it and I imagine that Hagar didn’t know either.  Then, the obvious happened.  They ran out of water.  Ishmael was so thirsty and Hagar had nothing to give him.  She put Ishmael under a shrub and left him there to die.  She wandered off so that she wouldn’t see him die. 

Hagar knew God.  She knew God promised to make a nation of Ishmael’s descendants, but now it looked as though that promise was not going to be kept.  But God was watching.  He sent an angel to Hagar to reaffirm His promise to her and showed her how close she actually was to a well of life-giving water. So, Ishmael grew up in the desert and became a skilled warrior and his mother found him a wife from Egypt.

God kept his promise to Abraham and Sarah as well as the promise He had made to Hagar.  But all of Abraham’s descendants have had to deal with the consequences of Sarah’s attempt to ‘help’ God keep His promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah.  I can’t help but wonder how this story would have been told if Sarah had just trusted God to keep His promise even when it looked impossible. Both Isaac and Ishmael became the fathers of nations.  But those nations were, and still are, at odds with each other.   Today the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac still fight with each other every day in the Middle East.  There is an everlasting hatred between them.  These are consequences of Sarah’s actions.

Consequences of our actions are often very troublesome.  When we jump in where God is trying to move things to benefit us, we often block what God is trying to do.  We miss blessings.  We miss growing in our faith. And we may wind up walking a totally different path from what God had intended for us in the first place.  A second best.  All because of our choice to “help” God, as Sarah did.  I know that it is often very hard to wait on God to move.  But I also know that God’s ways are not our ways.  He sees way farther down the road than we do to the results of His choice for us. He also sees what will happen if we choose to act first instead of waiting in faith. The consequences.

Years ago, I worked for a bank in a small town.  A young man had been hired to be a runner for the bank.  He took supplies to the drive-through tellers which were in a separate building from the main bank and any other errands that were needed.  One day, after a delivery of cash to the drive through went missing.  An investigation and review of the security footage revealed that this young man had taken the cash.  When confronted with the evidence, he admitted what he had done and where the cash was.  It was retrieved.  That young man was fortunate.  With the recommendation from the bank officials, the young man was not charged, but he lost his job with the bank.  The bank officers felt that the tellers in the drive-through had not done their job by putting the cash into the vault, instead they left the bag of money sitting against the wall by the vault door.  The temptation had been too great for this young man to resist.  He took the money and he could have gone to prison for bank robbery.  But his act was essentially forgiven.  As a consequence, he lost his job.  Sin may be forgiven, but forgiveness does not remove the consequences of our words or actions. 

As children, we must be taught that there are consequences to our actions.  Sometimes the consequences can be painful but we must learn what is right and what is wrong.  As we grow up, we sometimes don’t look ahead and calculate the consequences of our actions.  Sometimes we do.  We are always faced with choices.  What we choose can shape our lives.  What we choose can affect others’ lives too.  So, when you are faced with a choice, turn to God and ask for His guidance.  He can and will guide you onto the right path with consequences that will benefit you and possibly others as well.

Are you dealing with consequences?

Father, thank You that we can always come to You for forgiveness.  Help us remember that we need to think before we act and remember that what we do, good or bad, has an effect on us as well as those around us.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

Food for Thought

1. Do you think that Sarah ever thought about the consequences of giving Hagar to Abraham in the hope that she would have a family? Why?
2. Why was Sarah so upset by Ishmael’s teasing of Isaac?  Was she being fair to the boy?
3. Do you think that Hagar thought God had forgotten her?  Why?
4. Have you ever tried to help God resolve a problem for you?  How did that work out?
5. Have you ever had to deal with consequences of things you have done or said?  Was it easy or difficult?