The Birth of the Heir
Back to Abraham
Genesis 21
In Genesis 17 and Genesis 18 God has been revealed as the Almighty — the One who carries out His promises in spite of the weakness of His people and the wickedness of the world. In Genesis 19 the evil of the world is fully demonstrated; while, in Genesis 20 the evil of the flesh and the weakness of God's people are manifested.
The world and the flesh having been exposed, we learn in Genesis 21 that God's set time has come and the long promised heir is born (Gen 21:1-7); the bondwoman and her child are cast out (Gen 21:8-21); and the world has to own that God is with the man of faith (Gen 21:22-34).
The Birth of Isaac (Gen 21:1-5)
Everything on man's side having broken down, we learn that the "set time of which God had spoken" has come and the promised heir is born. He is called Isaac, meaning "laughter," and in due time circumcised in accordance with the directions and commands of the Lord. Everything takes place in God's set time," and according to God's Word.
In the birth of Isaac we have a striking type of Christ, of Whom we read, "When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4). Christ is the One through whom all the blessings promised to Abraham are secured, whether for Israel, the direct seed, or for the Gentile nations.
The Effect of That Birth (Gen 21:6-9)
In the two incidents that follow we see the effect of the birth of the heir. In the one scene there are those who rejoice; in the other there are those who mock. Again, do not these two incidents strikingly bring before us the twofold effect of the birth of Christ? Sarah said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." Time was when her laughter was the expression of her unbelief; now it is the overflow of the joy of her heart. Moreover, her faith recognizes, and owns, that the birth of the son is so wholly of God, and lies so entirely outside the thoughts of man, that she asks, "Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck?" So impossible was this to nature, that no man would have said it. Only God would have said it; and only One who is Almighty could carry out what He said.
So when at last the Christ of God became Incarnate there were those who, in harmony with heaven, recognized the intervention of God and could rejoice over the birth of the long promised heir. With joy Mary delights to own, "He that is mighty hath done to me great things." Zacharias sees that God hath visited His people, "To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He swore to our father Abraham" — these and all "that looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (Luke 1: 49, 68-73).
But if there were those who rejoiced at the birth of Isaac, there were also those who mocked, and we see what calls forth their enmity. There came a day when "a great feast" is made in honour of the heir. This honour put upon the heir arouses the jealousy and enmity of those who had long held a position in the household of Abraham. So in the history of our Lord, it was the recognition of His supreme and unrivalled place that drew forth the jealousy and enmity of religious flesh. The wise men from he East worship Him as the King of the Jews and immediately all Jerusalem is troubled, and Herod, the false king, seeks to kill the holy child.
The Lesson for Us (Gen 21:10)
There are, however, other lessons for us in this deeply instructive scene. In the Epistle to the Galatians the apostle quotes the words uttered by Sarah to Abraham, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." In this passage the apostle uses Isaac, not as representative of Christ, but of believers — those who are the subjects of sovereign grace. He says, "We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." Moreover, as he uses Isaac to set forth all that we are as born of the Spirit, go he uses Ishmael to set forth our old man — all that we are as born after the flesh. He shows, too, that the man that is after the flesh is entirely opposed to the man that is after the Spirit. "As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now" (Gal. 4: 28-31).
The True Character of the Flesh (Gen 21:11, 12)
Even as the coming of Christ into the world exposed all that man is after the flesh, and awakened the enmity of the flesh, so, in the history of our own souls, the more Christ has His true place in our affections, the more we discover the true character of the flesh that is still in us. if we make Christ a feast — if we give Him His true place in our hearts, we discover there is present with us that old man that ever seeks to intrude and exalt self. This raises the great question, Am I going to spare the flesh by gratifying, indulging and exalting self, or am I going to refuse the flesh that Christ may have the supreme place in my life?
The Corinthian believers were indulging the flesh in a worldly form; the Colossian saints were in danger of ministering to the flesh by religious ritual; while the Galatian assemblies were giving place to the flesh by legality. They were putting themselves under law as a rule of life. But so far from producing a Christlike life they only developed the fleshly life with its vain glory, and envy, and strife. So the apostle says, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son." We are to refuse the law as a rule of life and the flesh which it stirs up. It is not that the believer slights the law, or is indifferent to its moral requirements. Far from this; but he is to refuse to put himself under the principle of law.
Christ hath made us free from the law as a means of obtaining blessing; and we are to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, looking to Him to keep us moment by moment. How truly this was the experience of the Apostle Paul. Christ had the supreme place in his affections, for he could say, "For to me to live is Christ." The result was he refused his own righteousness which was of the law, and had no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 1: 21; Phil. 3: 3). He cast out the bondwoman and her son. To refuse the flesh will call for self-denial, and this involves suffering. So to cast out the bondwoman was "grievous in Abraham's sight." He is reminded, however, that all blessing is connected with Isaac. To deny oneself and follow Christ will entail a cross — or suffering, but it will lead to great blessing in association with Christ. The Picture of Israel
Hagar and Ishmael as wanderers in the wilderness, with he water spent, may set forth typically the present position of Israel, as a result of seeking to obtain the blessing under law, and so rejecting Christ the promised seed. The earthly people of God are cast out of their land and have become wanderers in the world. Yet, as cast out of the and, Israel is still the object of God's providential care even as God provided for Hagar and her son.
The Testimony of the World (Gen 21:22-24)
In the closing scene of the chapter the man of the world owns that God is with the man of faith that walks in separation from the world. Time was when the man of faith slipped, and acting in unbelief, came under the reproof of Abimelech. Now the promised heir has come and is given his rightful place by Abraham, and the bondwoman and her son have been cast out. What is of God is owned as supreme and all that is of the flesh has been refused, with the result that Abimelech has to acknowledge, "God is with thee in all that thou doest." Instead of reproving Abraham, as in former lays, he is reproved by Abraham. Nor is it otherwise today.
If Christ has His true place in our lives, if we refuse the flesh, and by faith walk in true separation from the world, the result will be that the very world will see and admit that God is with us.
The True Character of the World (Gen 21:25-34)
Nevertheless, while the world may have to admit that God is with His people who walk in separation, nonetheless, it will seek to deprive the people of God of their means of spiritual refreshment. It will seek to stop our wells. Like Abraham, we may well resist the world's efforts and reprove the world; but, like Abraham, let us seek to mingle with our reproofs the spirit of grace that seeks to impart to the world something of our blessing as represented by the seven ewe lambs.
The closing verses would appear to present the climax of Abraham's spiritual history. We have seen that the world has to acknowledge that God is with him; now we see that Abraham is with God. He calls on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God, and he lives as a pilgrim in the land.
God's ways are not like human ways,
He wears such strange disguises;
He tires us by His long delays,
And then our faith surprises.
While we in unbelief deplore,
And wonder at His staying,
He stands already at the door,
To interrupt our praying.
He takes a leader from the Nile,
Where mother hands have laid him;
Hides him in palaces the while,
Till He has right arrayed him.
He sends him to the desert's hush,
With flocks and herds to wander;
Then meets him in the burning bush,
New mysteries to ponder.
Why should we doubt His care and grace,
As though He had forgotten?
As though time's changes could efface
What love had once begotten?
As though He'd lost us from His thought
And moved on now without us,
Whose love has always goodness wrought,
And constant been about us?
— J.E.R.
Oh, what a voice was that which once the patriarch Abram heard,
"Take now thy son, thine only son, thine Isaac, so endeared,
And unto far Moriah's land at once arise and go,
Offer him, a burnt offering, there, on a mount that I shall show."
That voice he knew and lingered not — his inmost soul obeyed,
Counting that God could raise him up, though even from the dead.
He took his son, the fire, the knife, with two at his command;
Three days they journeyed on, until they saw th' appointed land.
Then as they trod the way alone, their converse none might share
The father laid the wood he clave upon the son to bear.
The fire, the knife, were Abraham's part, by faith obedient still,
Assured that God who gave the word, would all His word fulfil.
They reached the spot — his son he bound, and on the altar laid;
He took the knife to slay his son, when lo! the hand was stayed;
A voice from heaven arrests the stroke — another victim bled.
And Abraham received his son as risen from the dead.
Fair picture of a mightier love that gave the Son to die!
A holier sacrifice, whose place none other could supply.
The two who "both together" went until the work was done
Which glorifies forevermore the Eternal Three-in-one.
E.H.C.
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