Genesis 21
Genesis 21:1-34 (NLT)
1 The LORD kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised.
2 She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would.
3 And Abraham named their son Isaac.
4 Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.
5 Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.
6 And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me.
7 Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”
8 When Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion.
9 But Sarah saw Ishmael—the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar—making fun of her son, Isaac.
10 So she turned to Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!”
11 This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son.
12 But God told Abraham, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.
13 But I will also make a nation of the descendants of Hagar’s son because he is your son, too.”
14 So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food and a container of water, and strapped them on Hagar’s shoulders. Then he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush.
16 Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “I don’t want to watch the boy die,” she said, as she burst into tears.
17 But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
18 Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.”
19 Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink.
20 And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. He became a skillful archer,
21 and he settled in the wilderness of Paran. His mother arranged for him to marry a woman from the land of Egypt.
22 About this time, Abimelech came with Phicol, his army commander, to visit Abraham. “God is obviously with you, helping you in everything you do,” Abimelech said.
23 “Swear to me in God’s name that you will never deceive me, my children, or any of my descendants. I have been loyal to you, so now swear that you will be loyal to me and to this country where you are living as a foreigner.”
24 Abraham replied, “Yes, I swear to it!”
25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well that Abimelech’s servants had taken by force from Abraham’s servants.
26 “This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Abimelech answered. “I have no idea who is responsible. You have never complained about this before.”
27 Abraham then gave some of his sheep, goats, and cattle to Abimelech, and they made a treaty.
28 But Abraham also took seven additional female lambs and set them off by themselves.
29 Abimelech asked, “Why have you set these seven apart from the others?”
30 Abraham replied, “Please accept these seven lambs to show your agreement that I dug this well.”
31 Then he named the place Beersheba (which means “well of the oath”), because that was where they had sworn the oath.
32 After making their covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech left with Phicol, the commander of his army, and they returned home to the land of the Philistines.
33 Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he worshiped the LORD, the Eternal God.
34 And Abraham lived as a foreigner in Philistine country for a long time.
The faithfulness and goodness of God and His word cannot be handed over to the judgments of reason and outward perceptions. What God was doing in Abraham and His descendants could not have been verified by the events of His or their lives. The realm of God’s promises is not confined to the span of lifetimes as they extend beyond millennia and continents to eras far beyond any physical perception. They are powerful, though, for securing a bond with the Great I Am that settles the soul in peace, confidence, and hope far outweighing any contradicting circumstances. When what He has said replaces those things with a timeless heart reality, patience has a perfecting work that endures all the temporary with a hold on the eternal and yields a life lacking nothing, no matter appearances to the contrary. Though he wandered as a foreigner who owned nothing more than a burial plot, at every step, Abraham possessed a land of promise to be occupied by him through his children. Though his promised son came when he was 100, that son carried the seed of 12 tribes that would become a nation. God’s Word was even powerful for the son of his own efforts. His promise to Hagar was equally sure.
God’s promises contain a reality that must surpass any outward perception for them to be walked out and fulfilled. They are timeless and require no validation from human calculations and analysis, just faith and the embrace of its substance as an anchor in the now. Emulating Abraham’s faithful walking as a foreigner till his final breath will look like something quite different as the promise we hold to applies to our unique lives. It will, though, require a reality vision unlimited by the confines of surroundings. The sustaining of necessary joy will come in a possession that may be completed in someone we have yet to meet. It will be fulfilled, though, for those who hold to it, by the One whose Word can never fail.