Verses 1-3 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
God always keeps His promises, and although Sarah was past childbearing age, she had a miracle baby just as the LORD has said she would and at the exact time the LORD said she would. Abraham called this baby boy Isaac, which means “he laughs”, because both he and Sarah had laughed at the prospect of them having a baby in their old age.
Verses 4-7 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.
Remember, Sarah had been barren all her married life and had never had a baby to birth, care for and raise to adulthood. Like all new mothers, she must have been quite overwhelmed with the changes in her body and with the arrival of a brand new life that would occupy her every waking moment and put demands on her that she had not experienced before. Yet Sarah must also have had a great sense of humor as she stated that all who would hear about this miracle would laugh with her. Not much is known from the Biblical account about Sarah’s personality, but the verses above give the reader a glimpse into this extraordinary woman’s attributes. It is no wonder that God wanted to have the nation promised to Abraham come from Sarah and not Hagar.
Verses 8-10 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
In Western cultures, babies are weaned as soon a possible because breast feeding a baby is inconvenient to working mothers and many women worry about their figures and their body’s recovery from pregnancy. Many babies are never breast fed, but given formula from the very beginning of their lives. In Eastern cultures in Bible days, and even today in many places, breast feeding is the norm and can go on for many years. Breast feeding is a method of birth control as usually a woman will not get pregnant while breast feeding due to the hormones present in the body. Apparently, in Abraham’s day, successful weaning of a child required a celebration.
The Hebrew word for “mocking” is “tsachaq”, pronounced tsaw khak, and it occurs 13 times. Six times it has been translated as “laugh” and four times as “mock”. Perhaps because Isaac’s name refers to laughter, Ishmael was laughing to mock both the name and the child. Not really sure. Regardless, Sarah was not happy and insisted that Abraham remove both Ishmael and his mother Hagar so that her son would be guaranteed to be the heir.
Verses 11-13 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son. 12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
The reader may feel that Sarah was cruel and heartless in her demand to have Abraham’s firstborn son sent away, but she was actually in the will of God as it was always to have been through Sarah’s baby that Abraham’s descendants were to become the nation of Hebrew people. It was not God’s decision to have Abraham take Hagar and produce a son. That was solely the result of both Abraham and Sarah failing to wait upon the LORD for His promise to be fulfilled. But God was and is faithful and promised to make a nation from Ishmael that would be great because he was Abraham’s son and God had promised Abraham would be the father of many nations.
Application: There are many promises in the Bible, most of which apply to believers today and which can be claimed by believers as their own. However, to pray and remind God of a promise and to expect Him to honor that promise will not be effective if believers fail to wait for the fulfillment of the promise and try, as Abraham and Sarah did, to make the promise come true through their own efforts. Isaiah 40:31 states, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Verses 14-16 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
Hagar had been a maidservant to Sarah, then a substitute wife to Abraham for the sole purpose of producing a child, and then tossed out of her home because she had produced the child Abraham wanted. Life was very unfair to her, and now she was a single mom, wondering around in a wilderness and out of water. How desperate and helpless she must have felt at that moment, unable to provide the basic need of water for her only son and anticipating both of their deaths.
Verses 17-19 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. 19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
The name “Beersheba” means “well of the sevenfold oath”. It was here that God provided a well of water for Hagar and Ishmael so that their lives would be spared. And it was here that Hagar was assured that they would live and survive the wilderness experience as Ishmael, who was only a child, would produce offspring that would become a great nation. God met her at her point of need and made Himself real to her. As stated before, the phrase “the angel of God” or “the angel of the LORD” usually refers to the physical manifestation of God in the form of Jesus.
Application: Often times it is necessary for the LORD to meet both the believer and the non believer at a time when life is really difficult or even threatened. Why? Because, like Hagar, the threat or trouble has to be bad enough for the person to stop and listen to what God has to say. Hagar lived in Abraham’s camp and would have seen Abraham’s relationship to the LORD. Yet, apparently, she lacked his faith and reliance on the LORD when she was in serious trouble. But God is always faithful and will always meet people at their point of need.
Verses 20-21 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
The name “Paran” means “place of caverns” and it is the wilderness that the children of Israel had to travel through at the time of the exodus out of Egypt. Hagar was Egyptian and she made sure Ishmael’s wife was Egyptian also. So here can be seen that descendants of Abraham were always of mixed race and nationality, Abraham being Syrian and Hagar being Egyptian.
Ishmael became a man of the wilderness and became great. The Hebrew word for “archer” is confusing because, out of the 226 times it occurs in the Bible, it is translated as “multiply” 74 times, as “increase” 40 times, as “much” 29 times, as “many” 28 times, as “more “12 times, and so on. Not really sure why it was translated in the King James Bible as archer in the verse above.
Verses 22-23 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest: 23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
Abimelech was a king and not stupid. He could see that Abraham was getting greater and more influential and he wanted the assurance that his kingdom would be safe for himself and for his son into the future. To make his position clear, he brought his top military commander to the meeting with Abraham.
Verses 24-34 And Abraham said, I will swear. 25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. 26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day. 27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? 30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. 31 Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them. 32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
Abraham had the promise of Abimelech’s land from God and so he did not need to battle over the land. He agreed to Abimelech’s terms and formed a covenant or agreement with him after haggling over a well. Notice that Abraham set seven lambs by themselves as a witness that he had indeed dug the well, seven being the number of divine perfection and the lambs pointing to the sacrificial system that was to come to Abraham’s descendants until the sacrifice of the last lamb, Jesus Christ, on the cross at Calvary.
Wells were very important in a society that was agriculturally based in that cattle or crops could not be raised without it in the wilderness areas that were part of the promised land. Battles over wells were part of normal existence in Palestine and other arid regions.
Verses 33-34 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days.