God's Work with Planet Earth

We’ve already covered God’s promise to make Abraham’s descendants a great nation. The problem was, Abraham had no children until he was nearing 100 years old. God promised, but He waited for what probably seemed like eternity to Abraham and Sarah.

Hagar & Ishmael

In fact, by the time Abram was 86 years old, they got impatient enough to try to help God keep His promise, which resulted in disaster. Long story short, Sarah thought she was too old to have children, in spite of God’s promise, so she suggested to Abraham that he take her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to bed and get a son through her. Abraham went along with this plan, and Ishmael was born.

Abram and Sarai (their names before God’s special blessing) had gone to Egypt during a famine in Canaan (Genesis 12), and so it makes sense that they probably brought Hagar into their house while they were there.

In Genesis 16, once Hagar became pregnant with Ishmael, she stopped respecting Sarah. Sarah was so angry she took it out on Abraham and then on Hagar. Hagar ran away into the wilderness.

“Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” And the Angel of the Lord said to her: “Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” Genesis 16:9-12

First of all, the phrase “Angel of the LORD” in this passage uses the tetragrammaton in Hebrew, meaning Jehovah. This was no ordinary angel, and many Bible scholars believe it is actually Christ appearing in the form of an angel.

Second, notice the same attitude that we saw with Adam and Even when they disobeyed, and their son Cain when he became angry at his brother Abel. God knows already, but He’s asking questions, not to gain information, but to get His people to think about what’s going on and to engage and reason with them.

Third, God reassured Hagar that He was looking out for her, and would bless her son and his descendants. Ishmael went on to marry an Egyptian woman (like his mother was), and had 12 sons, just like Jacob did. They settled in Shur and Paran, and they spread into the Sinai Peninsula and the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula.

So even though Abram and Sarai did something outside of God’s plan, which resulted in tribes of Arabs who still hate Israel to this day, God still blessed Hagar and Ishmael.

“And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

Then 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. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” Genesis 17:18-21

The Son of Promise

You can imagine how happy Abraham and Sarah were when Isaac was born! But trouble was brewing because of their mistake in not trusting God and their wavering faith. Ishmael was 14 years older than Isaac, and he started making fun of him and mocking him (Genesis 21:8-11).

Once again Sarah got angry, and instead of Hagar leaving because of harsh treatment this time, Abraham sent her away with Ishmael. (Genesis 21:12-21)

Abraham’s Test

In Genesis 22, Abraham received a command from God to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on a specific mountain. God condemn’s child sacrifice in many places in the Old Testament, so this is puzzling. But we need to understand that, as is usually the case with God, there was more than one purpose here.

• Abraham’s faith in God was tested.
• The world would receive an illustration to help us understand the significance of God giving His “only Son” to atone for the sins of humanity.

I can only imagine the mental agony and anguish Abraham experienced on that 3-day journey to the place which is called “The Temple Mount” today. But he never turned back.

Related to God’s second purpose above, here are some similarities between Isaac and Jesus:

• Isaac was Abraham’s only son (from his wife, Sarah), and John 3:16 says Jesus is God’s only Son.
• Both the births of Isaac and Jesus were promised ahead of time – they were prophecies
• Both had miraculous birth’s:
  • Isaac because his mother was very old
  • Jesus because His mother was a virgin (Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:26-34)
• Both Isaac and Jesus were mocked and persecuted by people in their own family
• Isaac carried wood up the mountain, Jesus carried a wooden cross
• Both Isaac and Jesus could have avoided being sacrificed:
  • Isaac was young and strong, and could have resisted his aging father Abraham and run away, but he didn’t.
  • Jesus could have called on a legions of angels to save Him (Matthew 26:53), but He went through with His crucifixion, knowing what was coming and what was at stake.
• Abraham believed God could resurrect Isaac in order to keep His promise (Hebrews 11:17-19), and God did resurrect Jesus.
• Both Isaac and Jesus had done nothing to deserve death
• Isaac traveled with Abraham to Mt. Moriah for three days, while Jesus was in the grave (at least parts of) three days
• Around a thousand years later, King Solomon built the Temple on the same Mount Moriah, and another thousand years after that Jesus taught people on that mountain and He was crucified nearby.

I could go on, but here’s where the similarity ends. When it came down to it, “the Angel of the LORD” (or the LORD in the form of an angel) stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac.

“But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

So he said, “Here I am.”

And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Genesis 22:11-12

God then provided a ram to be sacrificed in Isaac’s place. Just as Jesus would be called the “Lamb of God”, and “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). In other words, this was the center of God’s plan for the salvation of humans since before the world was created.