Verse
of the day: Genesis 21:12 But God
said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad
or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her
voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.
More
consequences are coming out of Abraham’s and Sarah’s impatience in waiting on
God to fulfill His promise to give them a son. Ishmael, who is about fourteen
years older than his brother Isaac, is seen mocking his little brother, causing
Sarah to demand that he and his mother, Hagar, be put out and told to go away
from them. Although this is a grievous thing to Abraham, God intervenes and
tells Abraham to do as Sarah has demanded. Humanly speaking, this would be heart
wrenching for any of us. However, we must take a step back and note a few
things. First, we must remember that God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to make
a great nation from their seed was to be fulfilled through Isaac who was the
promised son. Ishmael, on the other hand, though the seed of Abraham, came to
be born of Sarah and Abraham’s devices. Therefore, he would not be heir to the
Promise Land. The consequences to their decision, and the future conflict that
still exists today has now begun, as the son of the Egyptian, who is a picture
of the world, now begins to persecute the son of promise. Today there still
exists a conflict between both the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants
of Isaac over that land that was promised to the seed of Abraham; that being
Isaac. We also see a picture here of what happens to us today in being
persecuted by the world. The world, pictured here by Ishmael, persecuting the
promised seed of Abraham. We, the children of God, have been adopted into God’s
family and are now considered the seed of Abraham, and heirs to the promise,
because we belong to Christ (Galatians 3:29); because of this, we ought not to
see persecution as a strange thing that happens to us. Jesus warned us that we
would be persecuted, just as He was, because we belong to Him (John 15:18-20).
As long as we are on this earth, born again believers will always be persecuted
by those who reject God, or who are religious but do not know Jesus as their
personal Savior. We also see, in this, the coming enslavement of God’s people
in Egypt. The son of an Egyptian woman persecuting the son of promise; for four
hundred years the Israelites were slaves in Egypt until God rescued them and
led them into the Promise Land. We too were enslaved to sin, and the fear of
death. Praise be to God who sent His only begotten Son to set us free from the oppression
of sin (John 3:16), and the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15)! Finally, we see
that in order for Abraham and Sarah to enjoy the promise made to them, God
first had to move Abraham to correct that which he had complicated by following
Sarah’s advice in taking Hagar as his wife to bare him a son. Time and time
again we hinder the progress of the work God wants to do in us, and through us,
when we choose to do things our way. The consequences that we have to deal with
in correcting what we have messed up can be a very painful process, sometimes
physically, but so often emotionally. It is foolish for the child of God, the
born again believer, to resort to worldly wisdom, and the world’s way, and
expect the outcome to be what God intended it to be in the first place. This is
not to say that God cannot still accomplish His will and plan in our lives, but
it will come at great expense, and will yield consequences that will
potentially hurt us, and those around us. We see that this did not only affect
Abraham and Sarah, but it also affected Hagar and Ishmael. We must praise God
for His unfailing mercy and grace, for even though He directs Abraham to send
the Egyptian and her son away, He also promises to take care of Ishmael, and
make a nation of him (verse 13). We, who are called by His Name, have inherited
the promise of Heaven, and we must not forget this in the midst of persecution.
We must also do all we can to live life in accordance to God’s direction, by
His Word, and not our own wisdom; trusting that the best route is always the
path God sets for us, for there are many dangers that lurk on the roads we
choose for ourselves, dangers that can hinder what God is trying to accomplish
in us and through us.
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