21:1-7 The Birth of Isaac
The LORD dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
At last, after several false starts, Abraham sees the fulfillment of God's promise to him in 18:9-15, the son of promise born not by a secondary wife ('concubine'), but by Sarah herself! god had even predicted the time of the child's birth (18:14), about a year after he made the promise. You may recall that, when Sarah heard God's promise, she laughed silently in her mind, but God knew this, and asked why she laughed; was it because she thought God unable to do this? And Sarah denied that she had laughed. Now, when Isaac was born, the theme of laughter returns. Only now it is not the laughing at a prediction deemed ridiculous, but in sheer joy at a totally unexpected miracle: a child born to a couple both in extreme old age. To commemorate this new laughter, Abraham named the boy "Isaac", which in Hebrew means "he laughs." Sarah also makes a new connection, when she says, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” The earlier actions of both parents that showed their lack of faith are now forgotten, swallowed up in the sheer blissful joy of God's miraculous faithfulness to his promises.
The naming was only the first step taken by Abraham in gratitude to God. The second was to circumcise the new son, applying the sign of God's covenant to his son's flesh (Gen 17:1-14). This was done on the eighth day of the boy's life, in accordance with God's covenant stipulations (Gen 17:12).
21:8-14 Trouble with Hagar's Son Ishmael
The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, making fun of her son Isaac. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” 11 The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. 13 As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
Weaning occurred later in ancient times than it does in modern ones: mothers sometimes nursed their children for as long as two years. We cannot be sure that Isaac was that old when the weaning celebration was held, but it is certainly possible. At two years, the boy was old enough to understand the difference between innocent playing and mockery. The text in verse 9 uses a Hebrew verb that can be translated in a fairly wide spectrum of English choices: sometimes it means just playing, at other times love-making (as in Isaac's fondling of his wife Sarah in chapter 20, sometimes mocking or making fun of someone, and even the dancing about that occurs in man-to-man combat (see 2 Samuel 2)! Paul in Galatians understood the verb in this passage to mean mocking. Certainly, Ishmael's innocent playing with Isaac should not have angered Sarah, as this action apparently did. So we have to understand—with Paul—that Ishmael was old enough to resent this child who would take his place as the number one son, and he was thoroughly capable of making the toddler miserable, by poking fun at him. It was this that convinced Sarah (v. 10)—and later also the Lord (v. 12)—that Hagar and her son could no longer live with Abraham and Sarah. God did not wish Abraham to be saddened; so he promised to also bless Ishmael and his descendants (v. 13). Abraham reluctantly obeyed God and sent Hagar and her son away, after first giving them adequate provisions.
21:14b-21 God Cares for Hagar and Her Son
And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Hagar traveled south, in the wilderness near the city of Beersheba. But the water that Abraham had provided ran out, with no spring, well, or oasis in sight. And in the desert you don't want to be without water. It means a very agonizing death. The boy Ishmael was more vulnerable to this than his mature mother. So Hagar put him in the meager shade afforded by some desert bushes, to make him a little more comfortable, and she turned away, not wishing to see or hear him in his final suffering. Verse 16 says she "lifted up her voice and wept", meaning she wept in loud sobs. Perhaps she also cried out to any god who might hear her. And the only God who exists did! Her prayers and weeping were heard by God, who through his angel reassured her that he would preserve her life and that of her son, and that God would make from his descendants a great nation. Then miraculously a well appeared to her sun-faded eyes, and she "went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink." god kept his word, and Ishmael grew up, married an Egyptian woman, became the ancestor of many powerful Arabian tribes.
This episode is intended to show us how God's primary mission through Abraham and his descendants was not his only concern: as the Creator of all humanity he was always concerned to help those in suffering who cry out to him for help. He asks nothing of Hagar but to believe his promise and follow his instruction. IN this she proves as much a woman of faith as heer erstwhile husband Abraham was a man of faith.
21:22-34 Abraham and Abimelech Again
At that time Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do; 23 now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have resided as an alien.” 24 And Abraham said, “I swear it.” 25 When Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. 28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you shall accept from my hand, in order that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba; because there both of them swore an oath. 32 When they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham resided as an alien many days in the land of the Philistines.
God is not finished using Abraham to bring blessing to others besides his own family. Earlier he brought anything but blessing to King Abimelech of the city of Gerar. But now God will use the prosperity that he brings to Abraham as a means of allowing the patriarch to enter into a covenant with Abimelech. Covenants—or as they are called in secular parlance, 'treaties'—were a standard form of social interaction in the ancient world. These were the ancient equivalents of contracts and agreements in the modern business world. Abimelech saw how God was prospering Abraham and wished to make an agreement of mutual respect and protection. He would not harm Abraham or in any way hinder his way of life, if Abraham would make a similar pledge to him. This Abraham did. And in keeping with that agreement, any apparent infringement—including that about which Abraham complained in v. 25—could be considered a sign of breach of contract, and a violation of oaths taken at the time of the treaty by both parties in the names of their gods. Such breaches would be punished by the violator's own god (or God).
Again, the application of this to today is that God intends Christians to show complete honesty and integrity in all dealings, not just with fellow Christians, but with anyone. And we are to honor all commitments, whether in writing or by word of mouth.
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