Day 7, January 7 Bible Reading

Day 7, January 7

Gen. 21: 1-21 Isaac’s birth / Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away

Gen. 21:22 – 22:19 Abraham’s covenant with Abimelech / God tests Abraham

Gen. 22:20 – (chap) 23 Nahor’s sons / Sarah’s death / Abraham buys a burial plot

Gen. 21: 1-21

Sarah had the son that was promised. Remember when Sarah laugh? Abraham named him Laughter (Isaac). Abraham was a good sport. He did not hold Sarah’s laughter against her, and made it a positive permanent living memory. Sarah also positively opined, God has made me laugh, and brought laughter into my life, and all who hear will laugh with me.
Well all except Hagar the other women. She heard Hagar laughing (same root word). Saraj saw it as mocking. Funny when Isaac was born, Hagar was now seen as a threat, after you offered her to your husband.
God confirmed that both Ishmael and Isaac were Abraham’s seed. The difference? Both were Abraham’s children, but one was the son of promise and the other of flesh.

Are all humans children of God? Yes. However while all are children of God, that is not the real question. Just as BOTH Ishmael and Isaac were sons of Abraham, the real question is whether you are a son of the flesh or of the spirit. So, we are all children of God. But some are children of flesh (Ishmael) and some are children of the spirit or promise (Isaac).
Many people say "I am a child of God" and use that as an excuse to conclude that no matter what, I can do whatever I want, without regard for what is truth, and somehow God will overlook it all... That is Lawlessness

Sarah is allegorized as the New Covenant. Galatians 4:22-31. Hagar is allegorized as the Old Covenant. Galatians 4:22-31. Isaac is allegorized as a New Covenant believer. Galatians 4:22-31. Ishmael is allegorized as an Old Covenant legalistic believer. Galatians 4:22-31.

Just as Hagar was cast out, we are to cast out the OLD COVENANT. Cast out the bondwoman means forsake the old covenant.

God heard the voice of Ishmael? Say what? God valued Ishmael also? Both Hagar and Ishmael were saved from dehydration and Ishmael was a great archer.

Remember Abimelech from yesterday’s reading? He came with the commander of his army to make sure Abraham’s lineage don’t mistreat his posterity. Remember that when we get to Isaac.
They had a little dispute about a well, but Abimelech informed Abraham this first time he is hearing about this. Never have a dispute in public before you actually take the hard step and approach the person in question. Perhaps they were not aware.
This is the famous story of Abraham being told to sacrifice Isaac, who as a big 30 or so year old man, and he was stopped by an angel. (Several commentators have weighed in on the question of how old Isaac was when he was to be sacrificed: 18 to 20 years old (Leupold, 1:625); 25 years old (Josephus, 1.13.2); about 33 years old (Adam Clarke, 1:140); and over 20 years old (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, p. 29).)
The key to Abraham’s faith is that INTENT to God is the same as the ACTION. Remember faith without works is dead? Well just having INTENT and trying to act even if you fail counts. How about that.
Abraham and Isaac were on Mount Moriah. Why was this significant? Well Solomon’s Temple was built in and Herod’s Temple was built there before being destroyed.

We are introduced to Abraham’s brother Nahor’s family. Notice the name Rebecca there, who will be Isaac’s future wife.
Throughout the story of Abraham and Sarah, we see the way Abraham treats other people. He gives Lot first choice of the land. He makes business deals everywhere he goes. He seeks to establish fair covenants between him and those he interacts with, and he is always fair about paying his fair share. In fact, he will often give up material goods that are rightly his, just so no one could say anything negative about him.
When Sarah dies, although Abraham is filthy rich, he owns no property. From the response of the Hittites, among whom he lived, apparently he treated all his neighbors with great kindness, and perhaps generosity, and hospitality, so much so that they were eager to give him a portion of their land to bury Sarah, but Abraham, even in his grief, insisted on paying his fair share.
Other than not being fully honest about Sarah being his wife, and even in those situations Abraham was careful to make it right, we see great integrity in Abraham’s dealings with those around him.
What is your level of integrity in dealing with your family? Your neighbors? Your friends? Your co-workers? Those you interact with, both regularly and only once? Would the people in your life be willing to bless you in the same way that those in Abraham’s life were?