The Four Separations of Abraham (2): Ishmael and Isaac
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Scripture reading: Gen. 16:1-3
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
Introduction
This is the second study of a two-part series on the four separations of Abraham. Last week we looked at Abraham’s separation from his father and his nephew. Abraham separated from them in order to obey God’s command to move to the promised land.
For us who want to enter into the promised land, what do Terah and Lot represent?
His father Terah is whatever holds us back.
His nephew Lot is whatever turns us back.
In other words,
Terah: Leave behind whatever makes you stay behind.
Lot: Turn around from whatever makes you turn around.
Today we’re looking at the last two separations in Abraham’s life. His separation from Ishmael, and his separation from Isaac.
Separation from Ishmael
Separation from Ishmael
So what’s the story of Ishmael?
Ishmael was Abraham’s first son. God had promised him descendants as the stars in the sky and the sand of the sea, but Sarah his wife hasn’t got pregnant in the past decade. And so Sarah makes a suggestion. “I’ve got an Egyptian maid, Hagar. Why don’t you have a son with her instead?”
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
If you are Abraham, and your wife offers you to sleep with this other girl, and she’s probably very good looking, and she says it’s a part of doing God’s work. Sounds like a pretty good deal. And so in full reluctance, Abraham obeys his wife and reluctantly takes Hagar and gets her pregnant. And one year later, Ishmael is born.
The Bible then does a timeskip. Abraham is 86 years old in one verse, and he’s 99 years old in the next. I’m talking about Gen. 16:16 and Gen. 17:1. Two verses, side-by-side. Let’s read it.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
So Abraham is 86 years old when Ishmael is born, and then he’s 99 years old when God speaks to him again.
13 years of silence
So for 13 years, Abraham’s been getting the silent treatment from God. And then God comes to him when he’s 99 years old and reconfirms the promise of descendants, not born through Hagar, but through Sarah. And remember by now Sarah 90 years old.
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
But through the power of God, Sarah the 90 year old grandma gets pregnant and gives birth to Isaac. And after Isaac stops breastfeeding and starts eating solids, Sarah says to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael.
Get rid of Hagar and Ishmael
Ishmael’s now about Sec 1. And Sarah says to get rid of him. But Abraham loves Ishmael so much, he doesn’t want to separate from Ishmael. He tries to get God to side with him, but God also tells him to send Ishmael away.
So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.
But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
Let’s pause here for a second and think about what’s going on. If you were God, wouldn’t you side with Abraham? Why is it so important that Abraham separate with Ishmael?
What does Ishmael represent?
Ishmael represents doubt in God. Not trusting God. Not trusting that God can fulfil His promise. Ishmael is the fruit of Abraham’s doubt. God’s promised Abraham many descendants. Abraham wants God’s promise to be fulfilled, but he doubts whether Sarah can get pregnant. And so he leans on his own understanding without trusting in the Lord. And as we learned last week from Sam’s message, when we lean on our own understanding, it’s as if we’re leaning on a spear, just as king Saul leaned on his spear.
Proverbs 3:5 (ESV)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Why does this matter so much? Why couldn’t God just go along with Abraham and Sarah’s plan? Why couldn’t Jesus come as a son of Ishmael?
The answer is that Abraham didn’t depend on God in order to have Ishmael. That’s like trying to charge a MacBook, so you plug the one end of the cable into the laptop, but you also plug the other end into the laptop. A MacBook cannot charge itself, and we cannot save ourselves.
So in order for us to be saved, we need to reach out to God and depend on Him.
That’s why salvation had to come through the line of Isaac. Only God can save us. No one else.
Rev. Abraham Park said that the separation from Ishmael represents the level of faith in which we surrender our own plans and powers to submit before the great will of God.
Ishmael represents a small idea of God who isn’t all loving, all powerful, and all knowing.
Abraham believed in God’s promise of descendants, but didn’t believe that God was wise enough, powerful enough, or even responsive enough to fulfil the promise. He thought that his way was wiser and more clever. But that’s actually him doubting God.
So we need to separate from the Ishmaels in our lives. Our doubts, our small-mindedness about who God is and what God is capable of, we need to leave that behind. And everything about life changes when we swap a small convenient god for an almighty, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God.
So that’s the difference between being in the line of Ishmael and the line of Isaac.
The line of Ishmael searches for salvation through human methods.
The line of Isaac searches for salvation by depending on God.
The line of Ishmael does things their way.
Because they don’t think God’s way is better.
The line of Isaac does things God’s way.
The line of Ishmael doesn’t wait for God’s timing.
The line of Isaac waits patiently upon the Lord.
Expect more from God
So in summary, we need to expect more from God.
Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Separation from Isaac
Separation from Isaac
Now it’s been several years since Hagar and Ishmael have been sent away. And Abraham’s heart is probably fixed on Isaac, who is now a strong young man. But then God calls Abraham to do something unthinkable. Sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering.
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
But wait a minute. This seems to contradict God’s covenant. On the one hand, God said that Abraham will have many descendants through Isaac. On the other hand, Isaac hasn’t started a family yet and you’re telling me to kill him.
God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
So what’s going on here? God is testing Abraham on two things.
It’s a test of love,
and a test of faith.
God knows how much Abraham loves Isaac, because Isaac’s the promised one who came from God. And Isaac is the one through whom all the covenant promises of God will be fulfilled. Without him, there is no covenant blessing.
God’s now asking Abraham to choose between the blessing or the Giver. Will you obey My command even if it means you don’t get your blessings?
It’s like a wife asking her husband, “If your mother and I are drowning in the ocean, who would you save?” But this time it’s between God and God’s blessing. Who will you choose? Who do you love more?
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
As one scholar put it,
‘The importance of this is that Abraham is portrayed as willing to forgo every aspect of the promised blessing for the sake of his relationship with God; all other blessings are subordinate to this relationship.’
I want you to close your eyes and picture what heaven is like. What do you see? Okay, open your eyes. How many of you pictured yourself hanging out with Jesus? Heaven is being with Jesus for eternity.
“O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without Thee, it would be hell; and if I could be in hell, and have Thee still, it would be heaven to me, for Thou are all the heaven I want.” - Samuel Rutherford.
Secondly, it’s a test of faith. God had been guiding Abraham through the journey of faith, from one level to a higher level. God proves Himself each time.
When Abraham left Ur and Haran for an unknown land, God protected him.
When Sarah was taken by Pharaoh, God protected her.
When Lot got kidnapped and Abraham chased the allied forces in order to get him back, God protected them.
And God even proved that He can make a 90-year-old grandma fertile again.
And now God is leading Abraham into even greater faith. God promised that the covenant would be fulfilled through Isaac. So the question is,
“Can God keep the covenant even if the covenant-fulfiller dies?”
Abraham believed it. He passed the test of faith. He believed that even if Isaac died, God could and would raise him from the dead.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
But we know what happens next.
Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
So Abraham passed the test of love and faith.
And 2000 years later, Jesus comes as the true Isaac. Like Isaac, He was born of a miraculous birth through the Holy Spirit. He lives to an age where He is strong enough to carry the wood for the sacrifice. Jesus carries the wood up the hill of Golgotha, and He is bound and nailed to the cross as a burnt offering. What? The cross was a burnt offering? You have to cut off the head, the four limbs, and remove the guts.
Jesus wore the crown of thorns. His four limbs were pierced by nails, and the Roman soldier pierced His side. And being lifted up on the cross, His internal organs would rupture due to the intense heat from the sun. In other words, He was a burnt offering.
And while God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, no one stopped Jesus from dying on the cross. Why? Because God so loved us, He took our sins and placed it upon Jesus, so that we could be born again as children of Abraham.
Isaac was born by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit. And we need to depend on the Holy Spirit in order to be spiritually born again.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
So from Abraham’s separation from Isaac, we learn to chase the God of blessings more than the blessings of God. Why? Because God gave His one and only Son for us, that we may spend eternity in heaven with Him. And that’s the greatest blessing of all.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Terah: Leave behind whatever makes you stay behind.
Lot: Turn around from whatever makes you turn around.
Ishmael: Stop trusting your gut and start trusting your God
Isaac: Chase the God of blessings more than the blessings of God.
I pray that as we carry on our journey of faith this year, we will grow in our holiness. These four steps seem impossible right? And actually they are. I never thought it was possible for me to leave my sinful addictions. I thought I was going to be the same way forever. But God helped me through His Word and Holy Spirit, and God will help you too. Why? Because you are the sons and daughters of Abraham.
For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
May we follow in the footsteps of Abraham our spiritual forefather, and I believe that God will help us.