We're away now for a good bit, and we'll continue on, considering these verses before us this morning. Let's give our attention to God's holy and inspired word, beginning in verse 8 of Genesis 21. And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, cast out the slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God spoke to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.' So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar and putting it on her shoulder along with the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot. For she said, let me not look on the death of the child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy. And the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, and he grew up and lived in the wilderness, became an expert with the boat. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. At that time, Abimelech and Philcol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, God is with you in all that you do. Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear. When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized, Abimelech said, I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today. So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart, and Abimelech said to Abraham, what is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart? He said, These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well. Therefore, that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Philco, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. Amen. Let's go to him again in prayer. Let's pray. Lord, your word is life and light for us. We pray now that you would send it out, Lord, to make your will known. You would please work it in us, Lord, shining it like a light into the darkness of our minds and hearts, that we would be illuminated with an understanding of Jesus, your son. Let us, Lord, look to him as the heir of all things, as the one in whom we receive an inheritance that is perfect and undefiled. We long for him. We pray that you would make us more mindful of His glory as we consider this passage. We pray this in His name. Amen. You may be seated. As kids, my brothers and I would often squabble over things like my dad's coin collection, or we'd look at his pickup truck, and we would squabble and say, I get this when my dad dies. Oh, I get this. You can have this. We were essentially dividing up our inheritance ourselves. We saw all of the prized possessions of my parents, and we laid our stake on them. We claimed them in that unfortunate moment when our parents would go on. That's all we knew about inheritance as kids, something coming to us. We knew, maybe vaguely, that we were heirs and that, Lord willing, there would be something passed down to us, but we were very prideful or selfish about it. In the passage we're looking at this morning, there is much to do about heirs and inheritances, or at least an inheritance. There is a foreshadowing of what God will do through the ultimate heir, the heir of all things, through Jesus Christ, who receives the nations, who is the son ultimately of Abraham through Isaac, is the one as well in whom we receive the ultimate inheritance, which we don't lay claim to, which we don't seek after or strive for in our own prideful selves, by giving up of our pride and looking humbly to the gospel and trusting in the son who receives the nations, including ourselves, as his own possession. This passage might seem a bit odd. It's two stories that don't seem well to go together. But if you notice in the reading, there are a number of connections between the two. The story of Hagar being sent out because there's a threat that Ishmael makes to Isaac, who is his son of promise. And then this interaction between Abimelech and Abraham over a well. But notice a few of the connections here. Both take place in Beersheba, this land of wilderness nearby. Both concern a well, possibly even the very same well. And both concern God's protection, provision for his people, and then even for people like Hagar and Ishmael, a common, gracious protection for them as well. There's a lot that we'll see in these verses, but I just have two points that you see in your bulletin. Let's summarize well the passage before us. First, we'll consider how God, through Abraham and Sarah here, protects the heir that is coming. And then secondly, we'll see how he then protects or secures the inheritance that will be given to his people, and then we'll make a few points of application for us this morning. So let's begin in verse eight. Again, we've tracked thus far in Genesis, especially with Abraham's narrative. We've seen a lot from when he left the land of his father, Ur, and then ultimately Haran, and made his way to a place that he didn't know, to what would be called the promised land that God said would belong to him and to his descendants, which is a very ironic promise, given the fact that he has no descendants, and he's very old at the time, and would only get older until the point that God does miraculously, supernaturally provide a son, Isaac, who is born of Sarah. Sarah, who herself was around 90 years old, while Abraham was around 100 years old. But if you know the story well thus far, you know that there is another son in the picture, Ishmael, who's born to Sarah's servant, Hagar, who, if you remember when we went through the passages dealing with Abraham and Hagar and Sarah and Ishmael, Ishmael is, in the culture of that day, a completely legitimate child of Abraham. He is the son of Abraham. And we also have to keep in mind that we don't know all that, or Abraham doesn't know all that we know, right? Abraham doesn't know the fullness of the story as it progresses from Isaac to Jacob and then down to the new covenant and all that God does through this son, Isaac. Abraham doesn't possess the book of Galatians and learn of what's going on here. And so for at least, you can imagine, 13 years before Isaac was born, Ishmael was the son of promise, the expected one. Yet it was not in God's plan that that would be the case. And so we get to chapter 21, verse eight. We read here that the child, referring to Isaac, grew and was weaned. He would have been probably two or three years old at this time. And we might not understand the weight of this situation, the weight of such a statement. There is rejoicing to be had. We see here that Abraham made a great feast on that day. Why would he do that? Well, there's a basic practical reason. Because in that time, a child, an infant, making it to the point of weaning was a milestone. The most dangerous portion of life had been passed when infant mortality was very, very common. And so it's a moment of rejoicing at a child who has reached this milestone in life. He survived the most dangerous part of life in those days because God has protected him. Therefore, it's only natural to throw a party, and that's exactly what Abraham does. And this isn't some small party. This isn't a little birthday cake with one candle saying, you know, happy third birthday, Isaac. No, this is a great feast that Abraham throws for all of his household, which are hundreds of people. Yet this feast is soured. Look at verse nine. Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, that language is significant there, whom she had born to Abraham. Laughing this is speaking of Ishmael born to Hagar and He is looking upon Isaac. Remember this is like a 14 year old or maybe even 16 year old looking upon a baby really a toddler and Laughing now you laugh at toddlers toddlers are some of the most funny people on planet earth. I laugh at them often But this is not Jovial laughter. This is not laughter over the foolish mishaps of a child. No, this is mockery. This is not simple sibling rivalry or jesting. This is dangerous. And Sarah recognizes that. She recognizes the seriousness of this laughter. There's also a bit of a play on words here. Isaac's name means laughter. And so here, whereas earlier in the passage or in the chapter, if you look back at verse six, Sarah said, God has made laughter for me and everyone who hears will laugh over me. She uses Isaac's name as a means of praising God. a joyful laughter in that God has answered his promises in a most amazing and unexpected way that a woman 90 years old has given birth to a son. But the laughter of chapter 21 verse 9 is not that same. This is the laughter that if left unaddressed could devolve into the same sort of situation and tragedy that played out between Cain and Abel. This is a laughter that would lead to eventual bloodshed. We read that in Galatians, didn't we? Galatians 4, 29. There's a lot in Galatians 4 that doesn't really touch this passage. As Paul says, Hagar and Sarah sort of can be interpreted allegorically, that is symbolically to refer to Mount Sinai and those who are enslaved to trying to earn their salvation or keep their salvation by obeying the law. And then Mount, the New Jerusalem, the covenant of promise, it says it's by faith that we inherit the promises of God. But we do have in Galatians 4, verse 29, this statement that essentially Ishmael, in this moment, laughing over Isaac, was persecuting him. It was a mockery. It is this primordial enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and it is playing out here under Sarah's nose. And she has matured at this point. Up to this point, she's not exactly been the most stellar character. but she has been wonderfully matured over the gift of Isaac. And so she goes to Abraham. She brings her concern as a mother. She is infused here with, maybe there's some ungodliness in her anger. We don't know yet if that's the case, but nevertheless, the solution is the same. Cast out this slave woman with her son. for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. Now this was displeasingly read to Abraham because Abraham loved. Well, Ishmael, this is not pleasant to him, but then God intervenes in verse 12 and he makes it clear that this is the right action. Even if Sarah's, you know, as a mom is inflamed with that sort of mama bear type anger over her son's, persecution or being threatened by an older boy. Even if that's the case, the solution remains the same. But notice, this is not God being vindictive or even harsh. This is not God here taking the side of an angry woman. This is God showing wonderful compassion, even as Hagar and Ishmael are removed. Here we see God's gracious protection in many ways. Verse 12, God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy, because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you and know that it's through Isaac that your offspring shall be named. But he says, I will make a great nation out of Ishmael because he is your offspring. So God promised here that he would still bring blessing and he would protect his promise. There's a lot of God's protection here, protection of the heir, according to promise, which is Isaac, but also protection of Abraham's other son, Ishmael here. Isaac is protected in that the threat is removed, is the threat to his life that Ishmael posed against him. will be taken out of the situation, and also the threat of his inheritance. Because Ishmael had, again, in that day, in that culture, every claim to the rights of a firstborn. And as often is the case in the scriptures, God chooses and works through not the firstborn, but the youngest, the unexpected one. It's the case with David, it's the case with Joseph, it's the case with many. God here protects his gift to Sarah, protects Isaac. But he also protects Ishmael and his mother Hagar. He swears to keep and protect them. Ishmael would himself become a mighty nation, a great warrior, skilled with the bow. Yes, he would dwell in the wilderness, but he would make a good name for himself. God would protect them. Now, this is a truth that Abraham is merely told by God, but It's one that Ishmael and Hagar must learn the hard way. Abraham, he does this. We read here, he gets up early in the morning. That's a common thing for Abraham. We'll make that... Note next week in Genesis 22 in verse three, even as God told him to go and offer his son Isaac on an altar, he still got up early in the morning. It shows his dedication, his zeal, his readiness to obey God. It shows Abraham's maturity. He's not waffling. He doesn't sleep in. He doesn't try to keep as much time as he can with Ishmael. Note he goes immediately to the task, trusting that God is able to bring good out of it. Gives them exactly what they need. A skin of water, it would be enough. It would be all that Hagar could carry. Puts it on her shoulder. They read that he puts it on the shoulder along with the child. Keep in mind child, the word here in Hebrew could mean teenager. There was no such thing really as a teenager in that day. It was either a child or an adult. And so he had not yet reached his full maturity. So though he is probably 16 years old, he's still referred to as a child. And they depart. And they wander in the wilderness of Beersheba. And God gives Hagar exactly what she needs as well. She gets to a point where she's completely famished. All of the water is gone. She's wondered. Ishmael himself is is fainting and passing out and no doubt crying out. And so as you read here, she lays her son beneath a bush and she goes about a bow shot away. I don't know how long that is, maybe a hundred feet or so. And she sits with her back to her son and she calls out to the Lord and God answers and God works. He appears in the situation. You read in verse 17, he says, what troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard not only your voice, That's why he's speaking to her, but the voice of the boy as well. So get up, lift up the boy, hold him fast. I will make of him a great nation. There's God's continual promise to be kind and compassionate to them. And then he opens her eyes and lo and behold, right there nearby within reach is a well. She can go and fill her the skin of water, bring her some to Ishmael and they can continue on. We're not told the rest of their story of what happens here, but verse 20. We do read that God is with the boy and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness, became an expert with the bow, and his mother took a wife from him from her homeland, the land of Egypt. God kept his promise. God heard Ishmael's cries. His name means God hears. We see that played out here in this very gift of the Lord to sustain and protect them well. God, even though he's the God of Israel, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, he shows his compassion and protection even to someone like Ishmael and Hagar. We'll make a point of that in our application in a bit. But before we get to our application, let's consider the second story here. The context is the same. The setting is the same as Beersheba. There's a well involved here. Meanwhile, this is no doubt, on the very hills of Hagar being sent out. Maybe even the party that Abraham threw attracted the local king, Abimelech. Or maybe Abimelech was invited himself and at the party this interaction has taken place here. So Abimelech and Philcol, his commander, like his first ranking official as right-hand man. They're with Abraham, and they say to Abraham, rightfully, God is with you in all that you do, so swear before us, let's make a covenant here, that we'll dwell in peace, that we won't, I won't, you know, come against you, and you won't come against me, that you won't deal falsely with me or my descendants, and I won't deal unkindly with you. He even notes here in verse 23 that he has dealt kindly with Abraham, which He did when Abraham and Sarah entered his region and concocted the very same lie that they had done many times and brought much harm to Abimelech. But Abimelech was kind and here wanted to secure an even greater kindness between him and Abraham. Yet this was the reason or the the time for Abraham to bring up a bit of concern. There was a well that he had dug in that land in Beersheba. Again, perhaps the same well that Hagar stopped by and God opened her eyes to see. And yet this well was seized by the men of Abimelech. Abraham brought this up to Abimelech. And this is a crucial matter, by the way. Wells had significance. In a land with a semi-arid climate, a well was life-giving. It fed not only your watered yourselves, right, but also your flocks of the people who worked for you. It kept you alive. Like, literally, it was living water. And for someone to come and seize it is to cut you off from living water, you could say. It's to put you in great threat. And so Abraham raises this issue with the Bimelech before they bring peace and eventually peace is made. There's a gift from Abraham to a Bimelech of seven lambs that are to symbolize like his his full covenant with a Bimelech that he will bring peace to him and that This well must be secured. Actually the name Beersheba, we read in verse 31. It's because they swore an oath there, both Abimelech and Abraham, they made a covenant there. Beersheba means the well of the oath, which your text might have as a footnote there. In other words, Abraham here is brokering a deal with Abimelech for not only this well, but the surrounding land. This is, This is a big action. This is Abraham placing a stake in the land. This is making a claim upon that area. This is Abraham securing a part of the promised land for his own posterity and making that secure even through making a covenant here with Abimelech. In other words, this is a furtherance of God's promise coming to fruition. God promised that this land would be Abraham's. Earlier in the chapter, or in the book, or eventually, he would receive a small portion of the land in a cave, where he and Sarah would be buried. Now, here, he receives a small portion in a well. And it shows that he is planting his flag, or the flag of the kingdom of God, you might say, In this land, God's promises are coming to fruition. The inheritance is being secured. And this means much because there will be great conflict. Just as we've seen already between Ishmael and Isaac, that conflict of the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent will continue to broil and will continue to bust out into life. And there will be much bloodshed even in this land of promise. I think the text itself reminds us or foreshadows to us of what will come. We're reminded that Hagar is an Egyptian and her son Ishmael is the son really of an Egyptian and Abraham as well but it's Ishmael and his people who will be a source of persecution and threat to the sons of Isaac in the land in the future and it's the Egyptians themselves who will persecute God's people in bondage in Egypt and And even more than that, there's two mentions in this chapter of the Philistines, who haven't yet arrived on the scene in the days of Abraham, but who would. And so Moses, writing Genesis, kind of highlights this, that this is the land that will be the Philistines, who will be a constant thorn in the side of God's people. That the land, the inheritance, will be always under attack. But in this granting of a will, we have a portion, a small part of the inheritance gathered, secured by Abraham in the fulfillment of God's promises. Now what does Abraham do at this point in verse 33? He plants a tree. In other words, he establishes something that is firm, a tamarisk tree that would grow, would be significant, would set its roots down, would stay anchored to the ground for decades and decades and centuries even. It's like a testimony to the fact that this is where God has given him a portion of the land. And there he called upon the name of God, but not just, he called just not out to the Lord, but to the Lord who is the everlasting God. This is the first time we meet the name of the Lord here as everlasting God. And that too is significant. It shows that God is the ultimate witness to this portion of the promised land. And as God is eternal, so this is the eternal possession of Abraham's people. This is God, working to fulfill his promises. So this chapter and these two stories, they show us that the true heir is Isaac. He's singled out. He will carry on the covenant promise that God makes to Abraham that will eventually lead to blessing for the nations, for you and for me, that'll eventually conclude with or come to culminate in Jesus himself, in whom all the nations are blessed. And we have here the inheritance partially secured, foreshadowing the moment in the future when Christ will lay claim to all of creation, when he will come into his inheritance and secure more than just a small piece of land there in Israel, but which he will take possession of the entire cosmos. All this is leading us to consider the one who gives us life-giving water. He might strengthen us as his people and bring to us the inheritance that is our salvation. So how can we apply this? A couple of points of applications that can help us out as we consider these two stories from Genesis 21. First one is this, and it's more theological that we could or should consider the line of promise. Never take our fingers off the pulse of God's promise as it's found in Scripture. No matter what part of the Bible you're in, whether it's Genesis or Ezra, find how God has kept his promises and has this constant stream that leads us to Jesus himself. And no doubt this is strong here. The rapids are raging in this chapter. For the supreme heir of all things comes from Abraham, through Isaac, eventually through Jacob, through David, and on down through Mary. And God's gift to her of a son. Jesus, who we're reminded in Hebrews 1, is the heir. of all things. Jesus, who is the Son of God established on the hill of Zion in Psalm 2, to rule the nations with a rod of iron, the one who receives the nations, which is a way of saying all the peoples of earth, all the kingdoms of this world, that he receives it as his inheritance. Yet Jesus, who gains that inheritance through persecution, oppression, And then final victory, Jesus who goes to the cross as the heir to secure the inheritance, who lays down his life, who dies to receive what is promised to him by the father that is merely foreshadowed in the land of promise, in the land of Canaan, in these narratives here in Genesis. Christ who comes and crushes the head of the serpent, even as he's protected by his father, the same way Isaac is protected here. that he might accomplish his task, which is our salvation, which helps us see then our second point of application, which is the fullness of our salvation. You know, God protects here Isaac in the promise. He's been with Abraham in many of Abraham's journeys, whether in folly or in faithfulness. And as God protects him, he gives him so much. He forgives him his sin, yes. He is with his people in mercy to continue to remain steadfast in his love for them even as they go astray like lost sheep. He is a gracious and forgiving God. That's his character. It's his love. It's his grace. It's on display. It's what Jesus won for us on the cross. But our salvation involves so much more than just basic forgiveness. Forgiveness is a mean to a greater end. That end is to possess God himself, to have him and all of the blessings that he gives to us through his son. That is, God just doesn't only give us forgiveness, he gives us a full salvation that includes the glorious forgiveness of sins and an inheritance that he provides for us in his son. that is eternal life, that is blessing, that is all things and new heavens and new earth, that is the fruit of his peaceful and strong, powerful reign over all the forces of evil. We're reminded of this inheritance and some of the greatest verses of the New Testament There are a lot of good verses in the New Testament, obviously, but 1 Peter 1, verses three through seven speaks of what we have according to God's great mercy. Yes, we have the forgiveness of sins through being born again and Jesus' resurrection, but we have so much more. Listen to these verses. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That is, God gives us the promise, the living hope of a full inheritance. It is our salvation that we wait for when Christ comes again and comes to judge the living and the dead. Another point of application we see here is God's gracious protection. It's really shot through this passage. He protects Isaac. from Ishmael and from the conflict that would eventually, if left unaddressed, boil over into great tragedy. He gives him his gracious protection there, but he also protects Ishmael and Hagar. We see how he runs the world, in a way, in this chapter, a microcosm of how God blesses even unbelievers, even those outside of his covenant, through what we call common grace. Isaac, you could say here, as God brings the promise down through him as a recipient of special grace, saving grace, that God works in him covenantally, bringing him to new life, granting him the new birth, calling him to himself, forgiving his sins and giving him a beautiful inheritance. God protects Isaac, absolutely, but he also protects Ishmael and Hagar. He sends his reigns on the just and the unjust. He provides food for both those who are his people, but also others. We see his special saving grace on display in the gospel that is reserved even for a few, for those who call upon the name of the Lord. And yet we see his common grace, which is reserved for all. For common grace is simply a stay of his judgment and a giving of blessings that are not deserved. We see it on display in this passage as God cares for even Ishmael and Hagar. Another point of application we see here involves Abraham's ready obedience. He rises early in the morning, both in this chapter and in the next. Just as all words in the scriptures are God's words, they're important, so are these. Not meant to be glanced over too quickly. Not just that Abraham is an early riser. Here in this chapter and in the next, in a moment when he's given a very, very hard task that requires tremendous faith, what does he do? He goes right to it. He seeks it out. He does it immediately, you could say, as quickly as he can. He's ready in his obedience, and that absolutely is an encouragement to us in the Lord. To not be afraid to face hard tasks and to bring such tasks or bring to it a robust faith, knowing that God will provide, that he will work out his promises, even when we can't understand how. Boy, we'll see that next week. Ready obedience pleases the Lord. We see as well here a microcosm of the church's experience in the world. The church is called to celebrate something grand. Even the grandest thing, the good news of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the defeat of Satan and sin, the glorious reign of Christ who will come again to judge the living and the dead, to be a joyful, celebratory people, even as we face the persecuting mockery of the world. just as the case here unfolding in this feast when Isaac is weaned. The church celebrates and rejoices, and the world mocks. We have whole books of the Bible written to address this, books like 1 Peter, that remind us that even though we face such mockery, we have a glorious inheritance. The Lord is ours, and he is with us. And just as he kept his promises and protected Isaac, and Abraham, and Jacob, and many, many faithful throughout the ages, he will protect and be with us. And then finally, this chapter reminds us that small events like this reverberate throughout history and culminate in the greatest event, like the cross, Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection, entering into his glory, taking his possession, as Hebrews 1, 2 tells us, as the heir of all things. These two narratives that we've looked at here, though they might seem a bit unconnected to Jesus and his rule and reign absolutely are, as they foreshadow the true heir that is to come, and the inheritance that he secures, not just for himself, but for you, which is your salvation, which is all the good that you receive from the Lord, as you are named through Isaac, as children of promise, to rely upon the grace of God, rather than your own works, who trust in him to provide for you, to give you his glorious salvation. This is the Lord's sovereign protection for you. It's what we all rest in as we await Christ's glorious return, when he will bring us to our full inheritance, when he will give us what God is keeping for us now, what we long and wait for, even as we do not see him yet, one day we will, and we'll receive our heart's desire. So as we long and wait for that day, let us wait confidently, trustingly, that the Lord protects us, his people, as he gives us, through his son, our glorious inheritance. Let's pray.