CHAPTER 21

THE BIRTH OF ISAAC

Now last time we saw in Chapter 20 that Abraham and Sarah had to make confession and put away that sin which was a habit that went back to an agreement they’d made 25 years before that wherever they went that Sarah would say that Abraham was her brother and not her husband.  And they had two very unfortunate experiences; one was in Egypt and this one in the 20th Chapter.  But this sin must be dealt with, confessed and put away, before Isaac could be born.

Now in Chapter 21 we have the birth of Isaac.  Will you listen.

And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.  For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.  (Genesis 21:1-2)

Now you’ll notice that there is a very striking similarity between the birth of Isaac and the birth of Christ.  And I believe that the birth of Isaac is given to us for that reason; to set mankind before Christ came this great truth.  Isaac was born at the set time God had promised.  And Paul says in Galatians 4:4, “That in the fullness of time, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law.”  

Now I’m reading on here in Genesis 21:3.

And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.  

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.  

And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.  

And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.  

And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.  

And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.  

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.   

Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.  And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.  (Genesis 21:3-11)

Now I break off the reading there at Verse 11 because here there’s some very remarkable truths that we need to lay hold of.  First of all, the birth of Isaac was a miraculous birth.  It was contrary to nature.  In the 4th Chapter of Romans, “Abraham did not count his own body, which was dead, nor yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”  (Romans 4:19) Now out of death, God brings forth life.  Now this is a miraculous birth!  

And we need to call attention to this, that God did not flash on the world the birth of Christ, the supernatural birth of Christ as being something new.  He began to prepare men for it, and so way back here at the birth of Isaac you have a miraculous birth.  Now we find also here that God had to deal with both of these—both Sarah and with Abraham.  And we saw that in the last chapter, God had to deal with them.  They had to recognize now that they could do nothing; that it would be impossible for them.  Abraham is 100 years old; Sarah’s 90 years old.  In other words, the birth of Isaac must be a birth that they have nothing really to do with.  

Now the coming of this little boy Isaac into the home sure did produce a great deal of difficulty.  Fact of the matter is we find that this boy that was the son of Hagar, Ishmael, he was mocking, and we begin now to see the nature and the character of this boy Ishmael.  Up to this point, he seems to be a pretty nice boy, but now with the appearance of this other son in the family, he really shows his true colors.  That is an illustration, by the way, of the fact that a believer has two natures.  Now until you’re converted, you’ve got an old nature, and that old nature controls you to do what you want to do, or as the popular secular song has it, “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly.”  And what man does that comes naturally is not always the nicest sort of thing.  But when you’re born again, you receive a new nature.  

And when you receive a new nature, then that’s where the trouble always begins.  Paul could say in the 7th [Chapter] of Romans that there was this battle going on between the old nature and the new nature.  Paul could say, “What I would not, I do it”—that is the new nature; he doesn’t want to, but the old nature wants to do it. (Romans 7:19) And the old nature is in control.  So that the time comes when you have to make a decision; which one are you going to live by.  You’ve got to make a determination and that is in this matter of yielding to the LORD.  You have to either permit the Holy Spirit to move in your life or else you have to do it by the energy of the flesh.  There’s no third alternative for the child of God. 

Now you have something that’s quite interesting here.  The son of the bondwoman must be put out.  That’s exactly what we have here.  “And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.”    After all, Ishmael’s his son just as much as Isaac is as far as the flesh is concerned.  And, after all, Isaac has just been born; that little bitty baby doesn’t know too much about him yet, but this boy Ishmael has been in the home there.  And Abraham’s attached to him.  And the thing’s very grievous if he’s going to have to send him away.

Now again I go back to the thing we said at the time—that the thing that Sarah and Abraham did, God did not approve of it.  Now this is a heartbreak to Abraham.  He’s going to have to send this boy away, and it’s going to be a heartbreak to him, but God can’t accept it.  This sin is sin.  God just didn’t approve of it.  And doesn’t intend to approve of it at all.  It was a heartbreak to Abraham to send that boy away.  And it was to relieve the embarrassment, and poor Sarah just couldn’t take it with that boy around mocking her, this older boy.  

You can’t live in both natures.  You’re either going to have to make a decision.  James says, “A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways,” and that explains the instability, the insecurity among many Christians today.  They want to go with the world, and yet they want to go with the Lord.  They are spiritual schizophrenics.  They’re trying to do both.  And you can’t do that.  They have a race among the Greeks years ago.  They put two horses together, and a men puts one foot on one horse and one foot on the other, and he starts out.  Well, that’s a great race as long the horses are together.  But you and I’ve got two natures; one’s a black horse and the other is a white horse, and when they take out, I tell you it’s great if they go together, but these two horses, you just can’t hitch them together.  They won’t work together.  One goes one way, and one the other.  And when they do, you and I have to make up our mind which way we’re going; whether we’re going with one horse or with the other; with one nature or the other.  And that’s where we’re told today to yield ourselves.  “Yield…your members as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).  And what the flesh could not do, or the law could not do through the weakness of the flesh, the Spirit of God can now accomplish.  The law tried to get a hold on man, but the old nature couldn’t measure up to it, but now the Spirit of God can.  That is the great message that you find here!

Then we’re going to see something else that took place here—that “the child grew and was weaned,” you’ll notice. And Abraham then made a great feast because of that.  And that was the thing this little fella did.  He first lived by feeding on his mother’s milk, but there came a day when he had to be weaned, and we’re told today that newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word.  You see a little baby in the crib; mama getting a bottle ready for him, and everything in his entire body is working.  He’s got his feet up in the air; he’s got his hands up in the air, and he’s yelling at the top of his voice.  He wants his bottle.  “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow….”  (I Peter 2:2)  Now there comes a day when you really want to grow up, and instead of just reading Psalm 23 and John 14—they’re very wonderful, but instead of just reading those two chapters, then try going through the Bible.  Read the entire Bible.  Grow up.  Don’t be a babe all the time.  So that we find this boy Isaac growing along.   He’s a real lesson for us today.  And that is something that you and I need to recognize.  

Now this does begin now to reveal the character of the son of Hagar, Ishmael.  This is the nature that you’ll see manifested later on in the nation; a nation that is antagonistic, his hand is against his brother.  And that’s been the picture of him.  Down through the centuries, that has been the picture of him.

Now there’s something else for us to note here that is quite remarkable, and that is in the birth of Isaac you have, as I’ve already suggested, actually a comparison or a foreshadowing of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And the birth of Isaac is that which sets it before us.  And as we’ve said, God did not spring on mankind all of a sudden the virgin birth.  He had several miraculous births before this: the birth of John the Baptist was, the birth even of Samson was, and now here the birth of Isaac.  And there’s quite a comparison, and I’d like to call your attention to the comparison between the births of Isaac and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

(1)  First of all, both had been promised.  You will recall that when God called this man out of the Ur of the Chaldees 25 years before this, why God had said, “I’m going to give you a son.  Going to give a son to you and Sarah.”  And 25 years went by, and God made good His promise.  Now God had said to the nation Israel, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and that date came when he was born in Bethlehem, and it was the fulfillment of prophecy, you see.  Both had been promised.  

(2)  Then there was a long interval between the promise and the fulfillment.  Actually, you have about 25 years from the time God promised this.  Now you could even go back as far as David.  God had promised there’d come one in David’s line, and that’s a thousand years before Christ was born.  It’s quite a remarkable parallel here.  

(3)  And then the third thing is the announcement of the births to Sarah and Mary seemed incredulous and impossible.  Now you’ll recall that when the servants of the Lord visited Abraham when they were on their way to Sodom, they announced the birth, and it just seemed impossible.  Sarah laughed, and said, “Why this thing just can’t be; it’s just beyond belief.  It’s just something that just seems impossible.”  And after all who was the first one to raise a question about the virgin birth?  Well, it was Mary herself.  When the angel made the announcement, she says, “How can these things be seeing I know not a man.”  Note that this parallel is quite striking indeed.  

(4)  And then both Isaac and Jesus were named before their birth.  You find that both Abraham and Sarah were told, “You’re going to have a son, and you’re going to name him Isaac.”  And then you find out at the birth of the Lord Jesus that he was named before; that’s the thing that the angel said to Joseph.  He said, “You’re going to “call his name JESUS because he’ll save his people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)   So that this is something that we need to note here.  

(5)  Then there is a fifth corollary.  Both births occurred at God’s appointed time.  Now I’ve called attention to that.  Here in the second verse it says, “At the set time which God had spoken to them of,” Sarah brought forth Isaac.  And Paul in Galatians 4:4 says, “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.”  

(6)  And then the sixth thing is both births are miraculous, and I’ve called attention to that.  

(7)  And then, the seventh thing:  Both sons were a particular joy of their father.  This is the thing about this man Abraham, called the name of his son that was born unto to him when Sarah bore him, Isaac.  This was the name he gave back at the time when God made the announcement; he laughed because of the sheer joy of it all.  And then out of heaven, the Father spoke and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  (Matthew 3:17)  Both were a joy.  

(8)  And then both sons are obedient to their father, even unto death.  Now the next time, we’re going to get into the 22nd Chapter, and when we get in there, we’re going to see that this boy, Isaac, was offered up by his father.  Now he’s not like the Sunday school card that was given to me as a boy portrayed it.  It showed a little bitty fella and, because it says lad, we assume that he’s probably 8 or 9 years old.  Well, he just happened to be about 33 years old when this took place, but he was obedient to the father even unto death.  That was true of Isaac, and that was true of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And so we find here this is a marvelous picture of the birth and the life of Christ in the birth of Isaac.  

(9)  But not only that, but the miraculous birth of Isaac is a picture of the resurrection of Christ.  Now we’ve already turned on another occasion to Romans 4 (Verse 19).  There Paul said that Abraham not counting that his own body that was then dead and then the deadness of Sarah’s womb.  So out of death came life.  That’s the resurrection, you see!  And when Paul emphases that, he mentions the fact that He was delivered for our offenses; He was raised for our justification.  And so you have in Isaac here the entire picture, and it’s quite a remarkable picture by the way.

Now, let’s advance on into this chapter here, and you’ll find how God graciously deals with Abraham and also with Hagar and her son Ishmael.  Verse 12.

And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

God makes it clear to Abraham, He’s not going to accept Ishmael as the one He’d promised.  

And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.  (Genesis 21:13)

Now He’d said, “Of thy seed, I will make nations to come from you.”  And so God says a great nation will come from this boy Ishmael.  

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.  

And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.  

And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.  

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.  

Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.  

And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.  

And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.  And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.  (Genesis 21:14-21)

Now if you read the rest of this, you find out that you drop the line of Ishmael.  We’re not following it, but they’re out there in the desert today; the Arabs would qualify.

Now we find here in Verse 22.

And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest:  Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.  (Genesis 21:22-23)

In other words, Abimelech wants to make a contract or a treaty with this man Abraham, and Abraham and Abimelech became good friends because of this.  Verse 32:

Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.  

 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.  (Genesis 21:32-33)

He’s calling upon God’s name everywhere he goes.

And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days.  (Genesis 21:34)

Now we’re told later on Abraham was always a stranger and a pilgrim in this land that God had promised him, and this is an evidence of it at this point.  

Now next time we see the offering of Isaac, and, Friends, this is one of the highlights of the Bible, this chapter we’re coming to.