Genesis 21:8-14. 8And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10So 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.” 11And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12But 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. 13And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” 14So 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 in the wilderness of Beersheba.
The story of Abraham and Sarah quickly changes once again. From a day of great happiness, laughter, and rejoicing, to a very sad day.
Do you remember the story of Hagar and Ishmael? Hagar is Abraham’s second wife (yes, that’s weird) and Ishmael is Abraham’s first son. Back in Genesis 16 when Hagar was going to be a mother, she decided that she no longer needed to act like Sarah’s servant. Sarah got mad and mistreated Hagar. Hagar ran away. But then God told Hagar to go back home and to be Sarah’s servant.
In today’s story it’s been about 17 years since all of that happened. Isaac is around three years old and Ishmael is 17 years old. The verse says that Ishmael was laughing. We’ve talked about Sarah’s laughter at God back in chapter 18. Here Ishmael is laughing at Isaac. But it’s much worse than it sounds. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says that Ishmael was “persecuting” Isaac. Now, we don’t know exactly how Ishmael was hurting Isaac, but we sure know that it was not good. In fact, it was so bad that Sarah said that Hagar and Ishmael had to leave the family and the Promised Land.
It seems that Ishmael doesn’t think that he should have to be the servant of a little three-year-old boy. Do you have any younger siblings? Imagine if God said that you need to be their servant and that they would be your master. No way! The oldest son should be in charge. This was especially true back in Bible days.
But God said that Isaac would be the promised son, the heir of Abraham, and the one that God would fulfill all his promises through. Not Ishmael. Why? Why Isaac and not Ishmael? Because Isaac was born from a miracle of God. Isaac came from Abraham and Sarah’s faith. But Ishmael came from Abraham and Sarah’s failure to trust God. Ishmael came from trying to fix a problem without waiting for God to fix it (do you ever do that?).
Seventeen years later it looks like Ishmael is not going to trust God. He is not going to submit to God’s plan, and he definitely isn’t going to submit to his little brother. Sarah can see that Ishmael is going to try to steal everything from Isaac. Is she jealous? Probably. But she is also protecting God’s plan. God wants Abraham and his family to love God and do what is right. Maybe Ishmael has already shown that he is not willing to obey God and do what God calls right and good.
So Sarah (and God) tell Abraham to send Ishmael away. Boy, that must have been hard. But the lesson for us is that sometimes we too have to separate from people who refuse to do what God wants. God doesn’t want his people to be mixed up with people who won’t believe in him and trust him. For us today, God’s people are the church. What if your church was full of mostly people who didn’t love God and want to obey him? What if your pastor was like Ishmael and made fun of Christians? Does that sound ridiculous? Good! It should sound ridiculous.
People who love God and Jesus, and people who hate God and Jesus are not in the same spiritual family. Yes, Ishmael and Isaac were in the same physical family, but they were not in the same spiritual family. Ishmael did not believe God but Isaac will grow up to believe God.
Are you in God’s spiritual family? I hope so. Always remember that people who do not trust in Jesus are not in the same spiritual family as you. Yes, you should love them and be kind to them. But you have to be careful about letting them influence you. Would Ishmael have influenced young Isaac in a bad way? It appears so. This is why your parents want you to have good friends who will help you to trust in God and keep encouraging you to look to Jesus. And that’s why God wants you to be that kind of friend with all the other Christians you know too.
You: Is there anyone you know of that might be influencing you to disobey God?
You with Jesus: Why do Christians who love Jesus sometimes have to separate from other people?
Prayer: Father, I want to have faith in you and not myself. I want to trust your promises and not my own good works. Help me to be careful about who I let influence me, and to choose friends who will point me back to your love and grace. Amen.
TLICfamily 