The Story of Abraham #3 - Sarah and Isaac

The Story of Abraham

Part 3 Sarah and Isaac

Genesis 18 and 21

God had promised Abraham many descendants. When that didn’t happen right away, Sarah, his wife, gave her slave, Hagar, to Abraham to have a child through her. A son was born of this union but the results did not turn out as Sarah had hoped. Her slave had come to despise her.

Sarah dealt harshly with her and Hagar ran away into the wilderness. The angel of the LORD met with Hagar in the wilderness and commanded her to return to her mistress. Hagar had her son and his name was Ishmael.

One day while Abraham was sitting in front of his tent. Three men approached and Abraham recognized one as being the Lord. He invited them to stay and rest while he cooked them a meal.

Abraham stood under a tree and watched while they ate, they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife? And he answered, “Behold she is in the tent.”

And the Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent. She and Abraham were old and stricken in age, and it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, I will now have this pleasure?

And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely have a child now that I am old?’”

Is anything to hard for the LORD?” He asked, “I will surely return at the appointed time I have said, and Sarah shall have a son.”

And Sarah denied it, and said, “I did not laugh.” But the LORD said, “Nay, you did laugh.”

The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and had Abraham a son in his old age. And Abraham called his son by Sarah, Isaac.

And Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. And Sarah was ninety, and she said, “God has made me to laugh, so that all who hear will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have had him a son in his old age.”

And the child grew, and was weaned, and Abraham gave a great party the same day that Isaac was weaned.

At the party Sarah saw Ishmael, the son of Hagar, making fun and mocking. So she said to Abraham, “Make this bondwoman and her son leave, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”

And this made Abraham very sad because he loved his son Ishmael.

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be sad because of the boy and bondwoman. In all that Sarah has said listen to her, for in Isaac shall your seed be called. And of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is your son also.”

So Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took some bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, and put it on her shoulder, and sent her and the boy away. And they left and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

And when the water was gone from the bottle, she put her son under a bush, and went and sat down over from him a good ways off. And she said, “Let me not see the death of my child.” And she lifted up her voice and cried.

Then God heard the voice of the child, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What is wrong with you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the child where he is. Get up, lift up your child, and hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

Then God opened up her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the child a drink.

And God was with the child, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran.

But God had said to Abraham, “for in Isaac shall your seed be called.”

Ishmael was the result of human effort but Isaac was the result of God’s promise. God also blessed Ishmael to be a great nation, but it would be through His promise, Isaac, that His seed would be called. Scripture does not say, ‘and to seeds’ meaning many people, but to “your seed” meaning one person, who is Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). Born again believers under the New Covenant are “children of the promise”.

In Galatians 4, Paul uses the story of Sarah and Hagar to illustrate the result of two different covenants: the New Covenant, based on grace; and the Old Covenant, based on the Law. In Paul’s analogy, believers in Christ are like the child born of Sarah – free, the result of God’s promise. Those who try to earn their salvation by their own works are like the child born of Hagar – a slave, the result of human effort.

To learn how to become a “child of the promise” see Plan of Salvation.