Shadowland: Beginnings: Week 26

Genesis 21

The Promised Seed

• 21:1 "the Lord visited Sarah as he had said" - did he also miraculously restore her attractiveness? "Shall I have pleasure?"
  Christ was the promised seed. Gen 3:15
  At the annunciation of Isaac, Sarah says, "How shall this be?", and the Angel replies, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" At the annunciation of Christ, Mary says, "How shall this be?", Luke 1:34, and the Angel replies, "with God, nothing is impossible." Luke 1:37
• 21:2 "Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son." - "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." Hebrews 11:11
  "At the appointed time." - "He that believeth shall not make haste." Isaiah 28:16 "when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son". Galatians 4:4 There was long time between the promise of Isaac in Genesis 12 and the fulfillment, and between the promise of Christ in Genesis 3 and the fulfillment.
• 21:3 Isaac is named at the annunciation to Abraham. "Laughter" or "delight". - "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17 Christ is named at his annunciation to Joseph. Matthew 1:21
• 21:4 "on the eight day" See John 20:26.
• 21:6-8 "Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing" Psalm 126:112 This was not the cynical laughter of unbelief. Even so, the angels rejoiced at the birth of Christ.
• 21:9 "He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." Galatians 4:29
• 21:12 Casting out Hagar and Ishmael was a type of crucifying the flesh. Galatians 4:30
  

Isaac as a type of the new birth

1. Abraham and Sarah were "dead" before Isaac was born, and had to be quickened. Romans 4:19
2. God worked a miracle for Isaac to be born.
3. The birth of Isaac was a cause for celebration. In the same way, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:10
4. The birth of Isaac aroused opposition from the "flesh".
5. The birth of Isaac revealed the true character of Ishmael. It is only after the new birth that we begin to see the true extent of our depravity.
6. Isaac was circumcised on the eighth day. "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Colossians 2:11
7. Isaac grew by feeding on his mother's milk. "As new born babes, desire the pure milk of the Word." 1 Peter 2:2
8. While God saw only Isaac as the heir from the beginning, there came a day when the son of the bondwoman was cast out. "who shall transform the body of our humiliation to its becoming conformed to the body of his glory." Phillipians 3:21

God's Grace to Ishmael

• 21:17 Ishmael was the one praying. I think Abraham told him of God's promise, and he also believed God.
• 21:20 "God was with the lad." Ishmael was a type of the flesh for our instruction, but he was also, like Hagar, an individual whom God loved.
  "became an archer." Revelation 6:2?
• 21:21 "A wife from Egypt." And Ishmael's generations (or signature) comes at the beginning in the Egyptian papyrus style, rather than at the end in the Sumerian tablet style.

The Covenant With the Philistines

• 21:24 Abimilech desires the be part of God's blessing of Abraham. He is a small visible evidence that indeed, "in you all the nations of the world will be blessed." In the same way, God approved of the covenant with Rahab. This is also a type of millenium: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech. 8:23).
• 21:25 "a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away." - Compare Genesis 26:19-22
• 21:30 "Sheba" means "oath" or "seven" - hence the seven ewe lambs and the name of the well.
• 21:31 "Wherefore he called that place Beer–sheba; because there they sware both of them." - the first tangible evidence of God's promise to give the land to Abraham's descendents.
• 21:33 "Planted a tamarisk tree" - a very slow growing tree requiring human cultivation to grow in the desert that would benefit Abraham's great great grand children. By planting it, Abraham demonstrates faith that God would indeed give the land to his descendents.