Ep. 8 - Abraham

The Promise Repeated

After Abram came back from that whole thing in Egypt, God came to Abram to reassure him that God’s promise would still come true, God would still make Abram into a great nation.  God said to Abram, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.  And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.” (13:14-16) Wow, ok!  So, God was still going to make Abram into a great nation.  And He was still going to give Abram’s descendants all the land of Canaan. But not only that, but Abram was going to have a lot of descendants – millions and ga-gillions.  (Which BTW kidzos your descendants are your children, and your children’s children, and your children’s children’s children, and so on…everyone born in your family, even after you’re gone).  So, obviously it was time for Abram to have a bunch of children and get this whole thing started, right?  Well…not exactly.

Sarai’s Solution

One year went by, no children.  Two years went by, no children.  Three years went by, still no children.  Ten whole years went by…with no children.  Abram’s wife, Sarai, was 75 years old now and well past the age of having children.  Abram was 85 years old!  What was going on?  I mean…God knows how the whole descendants thing works, right?  How would Abram have all these ga-gillions of descendants if he did have even one single child?

Eventually, Sarai decided that enough was enough, and it was time to do something.  She was way too old.  She was never going to have children.  And in her mind, God’s promise would not come true.  “Well,” she probably thought, “maybe God just needs a little bit of help.”  So, she thought about it a little bit, and then went to Abram with a plan.

Now, before I tell you about Sarai’s plan, we have to keep in mind that Abram and Sarai lived over four (4) thousand years ago.  That’s a long long time ago.  Things were a lot different back then.  And one of the things that was very different…is that it was common that men had more than one wife.  That’s right kidzos, you heard me, men had more than one wife.  For one Papa, sometimes there was two or more Mamas.  This was especially the case for rich men (like Abram), who often had lots of wives. 

Now, Sarai had an “Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar”.  And Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children.  Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall have children by her.” (16:2) So Sarai’s “plan” was that Abram should marry her servant Hagar, and that Abram would have children with Hagar since he couldn’t have children with Sarai.  Now that seems like a…weird solution, right kidzos?  I mean, how many dad’s do you know that two wives?  Zero.  Yah, but I just have to say it again…back then, 4 thousand years ago, having more than one wife was normal.  So, because it was normal, Abram actually thought about Sarai’s idea, and…decided to go through with it.  And Abram and Hagar got married.  Oh boy.

And wouldn’t you know it, right away Hagar got pregnant.  And at first, I’m sure that Abram and Sarai were super happy and excited (yay…second wifey got pregnant?).  Finally, Abram was having children!  They were having a family!  God’s promise was finally starting to come true!  But you know kidzos, there a reason why men are supposed to be married to only one wife.  God created the family in the Garden of Eden.  And God designed men to have one wife, and he designed women to have one husband.  And when we step outside of what God has designed, there’s gonna be problems.  And that’s exactly what happened. 

Soon after Hagar found out she was pregnant, the Bible says that Hagar began to “despise” Sarai (16:4).  Hagar probably started think about how important she had become.  I mean, Hagar was now going to be the mother of Abram’s children, and the key to God’s promises.  She was going to have millions and ga-gillions of descendants, not Sarai.  So…who was Sarai now?  Yes yes, Hagar was supposedly Sarai’s maidservant still, but now Hagar and Abram would found a great nation.  Who did Sarai think she was anyways?  And so, the problems began.

Time went by, and Hagar had a son.  And they named him Ishmael.  And even though Sarai and Hagar did not get along, and even though things were definitely not ok at home, Abram was happy to have a son.  And as Ishmael grew up, Abram began to spend time with him and raise Ishmael as the son that would inherit God’s promises.  And I imagine that Abram did all the things that fathers do with their children – you know, like going for walks together, working on projects together, maybe they wrestled in the living room, maybe they had some tickle-fests, maybe they went snowboarding together, maybe Abram even let Ishmael drive the lawnmower every once in a while.   

But then, when Ishmael was 13 years old, and when Abram was almost 100 years old, God appeared to Abram again, and said to him, “My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.  No longer shall you be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.” (17:4-5) Well that all sounded good so far.  Abram got a new fancy name - Abraham, which means “father of many”.  God was telling Abram…I mean Abraham…God was telling Abraham that he wouldn’t just be the father of one great nation, but many nations now.  He guessed that it was a good thing that Sarai had figured out the whole Hagar thing, right?  But then God continued.  “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations;” (17:15-16)

Eeer?  What?  What was that?  Sarai…I mean Sarah…Sarah was going to have a son, and Sarah was going to be the mother of many nations?  What?  At first, Abram laughed to himself and thought, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old?  And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” (17:17) And then, Abram thought about Ishmael, his son, whom he loved.  What was going to happen to Ishmael?  And so Abram plead with God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” (17:18)

But God said, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.” (17:19)

Oh boy, Abraham had messed things up again.  The whole time God had intended that Sarah was would have a son, and that through Sarah and Abraham’s descendants God would form a great nation.  But, just like in Egypt, Abraham had failed to trust God.  Just like Sarah, Abraham just hadn’t thought that God could do it.  He hadn’t thought that God could figure out how an old person could have children.  And because of Abraham’s decision to marry Hagar and have a child with her, well…things were about to get pretty messed up.   

And the Bible says, “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken.  For Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.  And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him – whom Sarah bore to him – Isaac.” (21:1-2) Sarah, who was 90 years old, had had a son.  Abraham was finally getting the picture.  God really can do anything.  If God wants a 90-year-old woman to get pregnant and have a child, well that is what was going to happen. 

Ok, so God has given Abraham a miracle child, a child for whom there was no doubt that he would be the key to God’s promises.  But unfortunately, what should have been a very happy time for Abraham, became a time of sadness too.  Remember how Hagar and Sarah didn’t get along?  Well now that Sarah had a son, things undoubtedly got even worse.  And let’s not forget about Ishmael.  Poor kid.  For 13 years he had been raised as if he would be the one to found a great nation, and then all of a sudden out of nowhere and by no fault of his, it was taken away from him.  And now there was another son who, all of sudden, was going to be the one to inherit this special promise.  Ishmael started to resent Isaac.  And Abraham looked around at this mess he had created.  Abraham loved both his sons, and both his wives.  But all he could do is watch while jealousies, and rivalries, and resentments built up in his own family.

A few years went by, and things really came to a head.  They were having a party for Isaac.  And in the middle of the party, Sarah happened to look over and at Ishmael (who was maybe 15 years old at this point) and saw Ishmael making fun of Isaac.  Enough was enough.  Sarah went to Abraham and said, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son.” (21:10) Sarah wanted Ishmael and Hagar gone.  No one was going to mess with her son!  But to Abraham, Ishmael was his son too!  How could he tell is own son to just go away?  The Bible says that “the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight, because of his son.”  (21:11) Abraham was upset.  And he went to God to ask Him what he should do.  And God had a surprising answer.  God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman.  Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.” (21:12)

Basically, God told Abraham that Sarah had the right idea – and that Hagar and Ishmael had to go.  Sarah’s motivations may not have been the best, but God knew that if Hagar and Ishmael stayed, that there would be just be constant fighting in Abraham’s home.  And that was not a good environment to raise Isaac.  It wasn’t entirely bad news for Hagar and Ishmael.  God had also said, “I will make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.” (21:13) Ishmael would indeed still inherit part of the promise, and Ishmael’s descendants would still become a nation.

But despite this, Abraham must have been devastated.  His own son would have to leave.  He might not ever see him again.  I mean, when he first heard God say it, he probably couldn’t even imagine how he was going to go through it.  But Abraham had learned, the hard way, that he needed to trust God.  To trust that this was the best thing, and that God would take care of his wife and son.  And so, the Bible says that, “Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away.” (21:12) And as Abraham’s wife and his son walked away, I’m sure that Abraham cried and cried and cried. 

Abraham had learned a hard lesson.  Abraham learned that even when he didn’t understand how God was going to do something, even when it seemed impossible, that he needed to trust that God would find a way.  God is not at all limited by what we think is possible.  And because this is true, Abraham now knew that he could 100% trust that God would fulfill his promises…in God’s own time and in God’s own way.  And that lesson is for us too kidzos.  Just like Abraham, we can 100% trust that God will fulfill His promises to us.  We don’t have to force it, we don’t have to worry…He will find a way…every time.