Two Births, Two Nations
The Old Testament lectionary reading for this morning comes from Gen. 21. We don’t often have
opportunity to spend some time in Genesis, so that is what I’d like to do a bit this summer. Though we
join Genesis here almost in the middle of the book, this is where the lectionary picks up after initiating
the reading of Gen 1 and a portion of Gen 2 last week.
What makes this reading for today particularly interesting is that speaks to the two major holidays we
are now in between. It has to do with family turmoil and provides something of a “reality check” after
the focus on God as the ideal of fathers last Sunday. The reality is, no earthly father fully measures up to
God’s standards, since we are all sinners. Notwithstanding, God can and does work out his purpose
despite the frailties of the human condition. It also has a national focus, also something of a different
check as we approach Independence Day on July 4. And it certainly has to do with the perennial issue of
Mideast conflict and possibilities of peace.
The chapter begins with the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham of an heir. You’ll remember that
God had called Abram out of the polytheism of the land of Chaldeans to go to Canaan. God had said to
Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). Abram was 75 years old when he departed from
Haran with his wife Sarai for Canaan (12:4-5).
Along the way Abram becomes concerned when the promise of God will be realized. He asks God
whether it will be realized through his servant Eliezer, since God has given him no children. God
stipulates that a son coming from his own body will be his heir. God shows him the stars and says that’s
how many his offspring will be. Gen. 15:6 then says of Abram, “he believed the Lord; and the Lord
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reckoned it to him as righteousness,” words the apostle Paul cites in the NT for the doctrine of
justification by faith. Abram believed God, but he didn’t understand what God was doing!
Abram, Sarai, and their servants would be living in Canaan for ten years before the next major event,
when Sarai tells Abram that since God has kept her from having children, he should sleep with her
maidservant Hagar: “it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” So, Abram does as Sarai urged, and
Hagar the slave-girl conceives a child to be named Ishmael, which means God hears. “He shall live at
odds with all his kin” (16:12). Abram is 86 when Hagar bears this son and names him Ishmael.
Thirteen years pass and God appears to Abram again, reminding him of the covenant and his promise
and giving him the sign of circumcision for all the males of his house. God explicitly says he will give
Abram a son through Sarah (17:16), to which Abram laughs. “Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and
said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety
years old, bear a child?’” (17:17). It wouldn’t seem possible, but God assures Abraham it is so: “Your
wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac” (17:19), which means “he laughs.” “I will
establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him” (17:19). Ishmael
will also be blessed and become great, the father of “a great nation” (17:20), but the covenant promise
to Abraham is fulfilled in Isaac. It is in Gen. 21 that this all comes to a head!
Sarah conceives and bears Abraham their promised heir, the son named Isaac, whom Abraham
circumcises in obedience at eight days. Two or three years later perhaps, when Isaac is weaned,
Abraham throws a feast, but Sarah “saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to
Abraham, playing with her son Isaac” (21:10). The nature of the play can only be conjectured, but some
suggest there was something sexual about it, since the Hebrew word is sometimes used that way.
Others think it best simply to say that the word, which is the verb from which the name Isaac comes,
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means that Ishmael was acting like he was the one for whom the party was held; he was “Isaacing,” so
to speak, setting himself up as an equal to Isaac though only the son of a slave girl.
Talk about family turmoil! Abraham is a model of faith, but he had some serious family issues! It was
partly because he’d listened to his wife that he was in this pickle , but mostly because of doubting God!
Now Sarah demands that Abraham cast out the slave woman with her son! Sarah is now the one
contemptuous of “the other woman” she’d in fact invited into intimacy with her husband.
Abraham is very disturbed about this, primarily because he has a genuine love for Ishmael. In addition,
it may have been against custom to send him away, since ancient Near Eastern law held the son of a
slave woman to have a claim on his father’s property. Abraham wants to do the right thing and it is up
to him to issue the decision. God tells Abraham, however, “whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells
you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you” (21:12). God can and does use the
foibles of human beings to accomplish his purposes. “Here is an instance of God using the wrath of a
human being to accomplish his purposes. A family squabble becomes the occasion by which the
sovereign purposes and programs of God are forwarded” (Victor Hamilton).
Sometimes it is hard to understand how God can be accomplishing his purposes through the frailties and
foibles of sinful humanity. In another context, Rev. 17:17 says “God has put it into their hearts to carry
out his purpose,” and so he does. There is some reason for why things occur. It is not all arbitrary and
random, though to us it often seems that way. God remains in charge, carrying out his will, through all
the idiosyncrasies and even evil of humanity. In the end, God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
Abraham and Sarah should have believed God more fully than they did, instead of taking matters into
their own hands, but we can all certainly sympathize with their plight. Who of us would have done any
differently? They remain remarkable paragons of faith, even despite their failings. That also should
encourage us! We can be the same, faithful friends of God, despite our failings.
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Abraham reluctantly sends Hagar and Ishmael on their way the next morning with some bread and
water for a difficult journey in the wilderness of Beersheba. I can say from my brief time in the Holy
Land that those wilderness areas would be difficult to survive in, with the tremendous heat, animals of
prey, and little water. But God has also promised to make of Ishmael “a nation,” though he is not the
one by whom the promise will come.
Who are these nations? Well, the Jews are, of course, the children of Abraham through Isaac, while the
Arabs and Muslims think of themselves as the children and progeny of Ishmael, according to
Muhammad’s claim. In fact, we will see next week that the Qur’an replaces Isaac as the child Abraham
is called to sacrifice with Ishmael. Indeed, the Qur’an conflicts with the Torah in just about every point
as regards Abraham. And so it should not surprise us that Arabs and Jews have been in conflict from the
outset, as we see yet today.
Still, there is a deeper idea of nationhood involved here, a spiritual one. As Paul says, “not all Israelites
truly belong to Israel, and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but ‘It is through Isaac
that descendants shall be named for you’. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the
children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants” (Rom. 9:6-8). What Paul is
saying is that it is not physical birth through the line of Abraham that counts one as a child of Abraham
and heir of the promise, but spiritual birth in him who is the fulfillment of the promise: “If you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). It is believers in
Christ who are the true children of Abraham, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s
own people” (1 Pet. 2:9). As much as we love America and wish the best for her, “our citizenship is in
heaven” (Phil. 3:20) first and foremost. As much as we pray for and work for God’s blessing on America,
let us recognize that we have a greater citizenship with all who belong to Christ throughout the world.
We belong to that great nation whom no one can number, as many as the stars of heaven, who are
blessed in father Abraham, the one by whom God achieved his promise of redemption in Jesus Christ.
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