Genesis 21

(Gen 21:1-34): The long-awaited time had come. Sarah gave birth to Isaac at 90 years of age! Abraham was a centenarian (Gen 21:5). Is this the first recorded miracle? God keeps His Word – as He had said…at the set time. Wondering what that set time was had to be very frustrating for Abraham and Sarah because they were 75 and 65, respectively, when they left Haran. God is not bound by time. Abe named him Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old as instructed by the LORD (Gen 21:3-4).

Ishmael was 14 when Isaac was born (Gen 16:16; cf. Gen 21:5). Sometime after Isaac was weaned (2-3 years later?); Ishmael made sport of him (Gen 21:9). Sarah demanded that Abraham cast out Hagar and Ishmael because Ishmael was not to be heir with Isaac (Gen 21:10). Abe was very displeased. Sarah wanted him to banish or drive Hagar his wife and Ishmael his son into the desert. But God spoke to Abe and reminded him that Sarah was right, for in Isaac your seed shall be called (Gen 21:12; 17:19). Paul would speak of this. The only comfort Abe could draw from this banishment was that God would make a nation of Ishmael (Gen 21:13). This had to be one of the most difficult things he had ever done since leaving Mesopotamia. But God’s will took precedence over his personal will, and Abe sent them away with a skin of water and some bread, and they departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba (Gen 21:14).

With the water gone, Hagar placed Ishmael under a shrub and moved a bow shot away because she couldn’t stand to watch her son die. She wept aloud. God had promised her countless descendants, but the circumstances were crowding in, telling her and her son that they were both going to die of thirst (cf. Gen 21:18; 16:10-12; 21:13). God heard the voice of Ishmael from under the shrub (Gen 21:17), and the angel of God (first occurrence in Genesis) called to Hagar out of heaven. God reminds her of the promise made to her and to Abraham, for I will make him a great nation (Gen 21:13,18; 16:10-12).

The severest of circumstances will not transcend the promises of God. God said it that settles it. God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; both survived the ordeal. Ishmael became an archer and lived in the Wilderness of Paran. He married an Egyptian (Gen 21:20-21). The Arab nation came from Ishmael.

The Angel of the LORD came to her the first time she ran out into the desert back in Gen 16:7, 9, 10, 11. The Angel of the LORD appears 6 times in Genesis: 4 times in reference to Hagar and Ishmael and 2 times referring to Abraham and Isaac. When Hagar and Ishmael were still under Abraham’s tent the Angel of the LORD (Yahweh) was used. When Hagar and Ishmael were banished from Abraham’s tent, the angel of God (Elohim) was used (Gen 21:17).

Abimelech, along with his military commander, Phichol, visits Abraham. He recognizes God is blessing everything Abraham does and wants to make a kindness-for-kindness pact (Gen 21:22-23). Abraham questioned Abimelech’s kindness with the seizure of Abraham’s well by his servants (Gen 21:25). But the matter is quickly resolved and they enter into an agreement. Abraham gave Abimelech seven ewe lambs as a witness that Abraham had dug the well that was stolen by Abimelech’s servants (Gen 21:30). Both men swore an oath there and Abraham called that place Beersheba (Gen 21:31), the well of the oath or the well of the seven lambs.

Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God (Gen 21:33). The word everlasting is used 5 times in the story of Abraham (Gen 17:7, 8, 13, 19; 21:33). This is the first reference in Genesis to God as the Everlasting (the Eternal) God. It takes an Everlasting God to make an everlasting covenant.

Father, why don’t we think of You and see You in terms like the great patriarch, Abraham? By the planted tamarisk tree at the well of seven lambs, he called upon Yahweh, the Everlasting God! At what point do I understand everlasting? If I look left or right in a linear line, there are only two vanishing points. Yahweh, you are unlimited in Your wisdom, power, and grace! Your matchless Majesty defies understanding! 

LORD, Your word transcends all circumstances. There is nothing on earth or heaven above that will prevent You from satisfying Your promises to me. I am ashamed that I have allowed situations to convince me differently. May I trust in Your Word, no matter the outcome! 

Though the circumstances should overtake me by your will, yet will I hope in Your Word to the end. Cast me not from Your tent, O Father of mercy, for I am a spiritual son of Abraham, a son of the Most High God. Be my Beer Lahai Roi (Gen 16:14), the well of the One who lives and sees me! <><