Father, I ask that you would gently but powerfully pour the Holy Spirit upon myself and upon all who are watching this video, listening into this sermon.
We ask, Lord, that you would draw us close to yourself, that you would help us to understand that you are God, that you are sovereign over all things, that you are good and loving, and that you keep your word.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
So, one of the things which is regularly talked about in movies and in literature nowadays is whether or not we are, in fact, just controlled or pushed around by blind, uncaring fate, or whether we have significant choice.
And, of course, it would be a pretty depressing movie or story if at the end of it it was the case that it was just pure and utter blind, uncaring fate.
So, usually when movies talk about it, in a sense, they try to say that there is some type of a choice.
We also see, in small ways but increasing ways, discussions about whether the world is empty or full.
It goes along, actually, with the previous type of question in the sense that if, in fact, everything is just a result of Allah's will, if, in fact, everything is just the working out of karma and karmic destiny,
if, in fact, the world is, as certain naturalistic scientists describe it, that there's just cause and effect, then, in a sense, the world is empty.
But we don't feel that the world is empty.
We feel at times that there's things which are beautiful and loving and that when you see certain types of things,
it's not just that you're imposing your desire for meaning and significance onto the event,
but you have a sense that you're recognizing something which is there.
At the same time, there's also questions about whether or not, and this is sort of going to sound like it's a bit of a left turn,
but they're actually a bit connected with each other.
Some people think, and some Christians think, that God only answers their prayers.
And, of course, if you aren't a Christian, that's going to be very, very offensive,
the idea that somehow or another God only answers your prayers.
Like, that just seems wrong.
And, in fact, many people, if they had the comfort to say that to a Christian who seems to talk as if that's the case,
would actually say that not only is that arrogant, George, if I was the one making that claim,
but it's actually not true.
Like, George, if you just look at it,
if it was true that God answered Christians' prayers but not non-Christians' prayers,
and, by the way, I have to be careful.
Like, if God answers, because it's not as if, like, on one level you can sort of divide the world into Christian and non-Christian,
but, obviously, everybody in the world doesn't think of themselves as non-Christians.
They think of themselves as themselves.
And so, really, a better way to put it is, you know, the Buddhists would say,
you know, George, I think, you know, God answers Buddhist prayers.
I think he answers Hindu prayers.
I think he answers secular people's prayers, spiritual people's prayers,
boutique religious people's prayers.
And, in fact, George, it doesn't even seem as if there's any evidence for the idea
that God has any particular desire to answer Christians' prayers,
because, I mean, if you look around,
Christians aren't richer, more powerful, more successful than non-Christians.
And, in fact, actually, if anything, it looks as if God is answering everybody's prayers other than Christians,
because the Christian church is declining, and it's not very popular.
So, anyway, we're going to look at a very, very old story,
and it's in Genesis chapter 21.
This is the second to last of our series of sermons on the life of Abraham.
And this story is a very simple story,
but, like, a lot of these stories, like, all of these stories, of these Abraham stories,
they're simple, but they're deep.
And there's lots of different ways you could,
there's lots of things you could mine from these particular stories,
but we're just going to look at one aspect of this story.
But it speaks into this whole thing of fate, of choice,
of the world being, the universe being empty,
or it being full of prayer and different people groups
and their different understandings of God.
And this one story actually has some very profound insights
into each of these questions.
So let's look.
We're going to be looking at Genesis chapter 21.
And what happened just before this is Genesis chapter 20
was a story which helped us reflect upon the question
of why it is that people do wrong things,
like why do I gratuitously sometimes do something which I know is wrong?
And the other thing about that story is it gave some profound insight
into the religious and spiritual imagination
and how the gospel subverts our religious and spiritual imaginations,
our natural ones.
But even while it subverts them,
it actually fulfills the deepest longing
of the spiritual and religious intuitions.
That was in Genesis chapter 20.
We looked at it last week.
So let's look at this story, Genesis chapter 21.
And it begins with a simple, beautiful verse that,
I mean, that's a verse if you're a Christian.
If you're from another type of faith commitment or searching or skeptic,
this is a verse which in many ways captures the essence of the Christian life.
And for Christians, it's a verse that captures
one of the essences of the Christian life.
And it's very simple.
It goes like this.
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.
Very, very simple.
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.
Here's a very, very beautiful, gentle image of the Lord visiting.
And the Lord visits to act, to deliver, to meet, to connect.
And he visits Sarah,
and he does exactly what he had said that he was going to do.
He makes promises to Sarah
that Sarah sometimes doesn't believe,
but at other times sort of has believed.
She's not a perfect person,
but he has visited her,
and he does what he's promising.
In fact, this first verse, in a sense,
summarizes all of the chapter.
And it's also something which is very important
because it helps to explain the gospel.
You see, for Christians, the gospel is this good news
that even though you are very, very far from God,
the triune God, the true and living God,
and even though he has no obligation
to love you or to care for you,
and even though you have done many things
that make you not deserve his love,
and even if there are things about you
which are very shameful or very, very unsuccessful,
that the promise of the gospel is that Jesus,
the God, the Son of God, visited the human race.
And just as he had promised in the 39 books
of what we Christians called the Old Testament
and our Jewish friends called the Tanakh,
there's this constant promise
that God would do something
that human beings could not do for themselves
that he would deliver,
and that he does this in the person of his Son,
in not just the life that Jesus lives,
but most importantly, his death that he dies,
and then his resurrection.
And that this is God's means
to reconcile people to himself.
It's God's means that when we put our faith and trust
in the person of Jesus and what he's done,
that God makes us his child by adoption and grace,
that he visits us, so to speak,
and that now the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
in a sense, now live within the Christian,
that Christ is our hope of glory,
and that we now live as the child
of our Heavenly Father in his world.
And that's the gospel,
that God visited us,
just as he said he would,
and he keeps his promise,
which is if we put our faith and trust in Christ,
that we will be his child by adoption and grace,
that he doesn't weigh our merits,
but pardons our offenses.
And so in some ways,
this very, very simple little verse,
which encapsulates a story,
also encapsulates what you'll see time and time again
in the stories that come,
and ultimately in the story of the New Testament,
of the gospel,
and the promise of the New Testament.
And in this particular case,
what we see is that God has promised
that he was going to do something
which was humanly and naturalistically impossible,
that God was going to intervene
in the natural world
in a way that we would call a miracle,
that Sarah,
who has been barren for a long, long, long time,
never able to bear children in her entire life,
even when, in a sense,
her reproductive capabilities were there,
but long after that has ceased to exist,
and she's truly barren,
that God would create a miracle baby,
that she would, in fact, have a baby.
And so that's what's going to happen
in the rest of the story.
Let's just look at it.
The next verses are very, very simple,
just to show that, in fact,
God, who's promised that he would do a miracle in Sarah,
that he would bring life out of barrenness,
he visits her and keeps his promise.
Look what it says, verse 2.
Abraham was 100 years old
when his son Isaac was born to him.
And Sarah said,
God has made laughter for me.
Everyone who hears will laugh over me.
And she said,
who would have said to Abraham
that Sarah would nurse children?
Yet I have born him a son in his old age.
And so God has performed a miracle.
Now, in fact,
actually sort of even emphasizes
that not only that the baby is born,
but she's going to nurse the baby,
like there's a whole...
One of the things I like to say,
and it's very true,
is that the more science develops,
science doesn't disprove the miracles,
because science can't disprove miracles.
Science increases the wow.
Now, bringing up this thing of the miracle,
and another thing,
if the Bible just ended here,
what we would have is a classic story
that could be turned into
a blockbuster Hollywood movie.
You know, Abraham is 100,
Sarah is 90,
God has visited Sarah,
he's kept his promise,
a miracle has been performed,
Isaac is born,
and they all lived happily ever after.
And there you go,
you have a classic Hollywood movie,
and they all lived happily ever after.
But one of the things about the Bible
is...
Actually, on one level, by the way,
the story ends
with that those who are God's children
by adoption and grace
live happily ever after
into eternity
in the new heaven and the new earth.
But that prophecy,
which is still in the future for us,
the Bible is a very, very,
very realistic book.
A very realistic book.
And in fact,
part of the problem we have
with the Bible
is how realistic it is.
And the Bible is
both a realistic mirror
and a realistic window.
It is a mirror
in the sense that
it helps us to see ourselves
as we really are,
and it's a window
in the sense that
it helps us to see the world
as it really is.
A world where there really is a God,
the triune God,
who really exists,
who has created all things,
who sustains all things.
That that's the world
that we actually live in,
even if it's not the world
portrayed by academia,
by government,
by the courts,
by the media,
by the public intellectuals.
That in fact,
the real world
that actually is the one
that we inhabit
is one where
the triune God
has created
and sustained all things,
and we human beings
live in it.
So in this particular thing,
you have a miracle.
Now,
you actually,
the story in a sense
just can't end here
by saying,
and they all lived
happily ever after,
because if you've been
reading the story,
if you've read the story
from chapter 12,
13,
all the way on to here,
you'll see that God
has made a couple of promises.
He's promised not only
that this boy will be born,
but that he's going
to be the heir.
He's going to also be
the beginning of a line
that will culminate
with God blessing
the whole earth
through this seed,
this offspring,
this line.
And there's also been
promises made
about the land.
And so those things
still have to be dealt with.
They have to be wrapped up.
They have to have something
that talks about how,
it's not just that the birth
is going to be enough.
But the other thing is
is that miracles
have consequences downstream.
And so what we're going to see
is that if a miracle
actually happens,
it's going to have
consequences downstream.
And it's not,
in a sense,
going to be enough.
Now, what do I mean by that?
And let me help you
to try to understand
how it works
and how it all fits in
with science.
I love,
you've heard variations
of this analogy before.
If you've heard me preach
many times,
you know,
Lord have mercy.
And one of the analogies
I like is of the pool table.
And so you can imagine
you have a pool table
and it's a very,
very large one
and you have a machine
which is designed
to have the cue
hit a particular ball.
And assume for a second
that in principle
scientists could study
the felt on the pool table,
study the,
how bouncy
the edges
of the pool table are,
knows the roundnesses
and everything about the balls
and they place the balls
in a particular,
you know,
the balls are placed.
and scientists
in theory
could have the machine
use the cue
to hit the first ball
to send the ball
in motion.
And in theory,
scientists could
mathematically plot
how that ball
is going to move,
what balls
it's going to hit
and how those different balls
will all be hit
and how they'll bounce around.
And it would in a sense
be able to map
how all of those things move
and where they end up.
And so one of the ways
to understand,
and that's how science works,
right?
It figures out,
it studies
how these natural processes work.
But science can't say
anything at all
about a miracle
because just as
in this experiment,
which is all,
let's say,
perfectly done,
let's say a millisecond
after the cue
hits that first ball,
a millisecond after it,
your six-year-old
adds an extra ball
on the table
right in the middle.
Now,
now all of your predictions
aren't going to be correct.
Now,
the laws of motion
and all of those other things
are all still true,
but there's now
an extra ball
on the table,
which means now
that those balls
that you've calculated
their directions
are going to,
some of them
are going to hit that ball
and they're all going to move
in different ways
and the end result
will be a very different thing
than you had predicted.
And that,
in many ways,
is one of the best ways
to understand
what the Bible understands
as a miracle.
It's not that it suspends
the laws of science
or the laws of nature.
It is that God,
who sustains all things
and is sovereign
over all things,
occasionally he does
a new thing.
He puts,
in a sense,
a new pool ball
or billiard ball
onto the table.
And when the miracle comes,
there's now going to be
consequences downstream,
right?
The balls were all going
to end up in a different place
than if God had not done
the miracle.
And so,
one of the things
that we have to,
in a sense,
look at,
like,
see,
what this starts
to point us to
and what this story
is going to do,
because the story
doesn't just end
with the miracle.
The story looks
at what happens
downstream
from the miracle.
In fact,
if I have a title
for this talk,
it will be
downstream
from a miracle.
And that's what
this story
is going to show you.
The miracle happens,
but one moment,
like,
there's Ishmael,
there's Hagar.
You might not know
who these people are
if you're watching this
and haven't followed
any of the other stories,
but if you have,
there's these other people
around.
There's consequences
for them,
like,
how's this miracle
going to affect them?
And so,
what this story
at a very simple level
does,
it shows that
for Christians,
and this,
this,
by the way,
I think,
perfectly fits
our experience.
You see,
when I said,
you know,
earlier that,
you know,
if you have a world
of pure cause and effect,
whether it's from
the will of Allah
or karmic destiny
or just cause and effect,
it's hard to see
how there could be
really beauty
and meaning
and significance
in the world,
yet we feel there is
beauty and meaning
and significance.
And we feel
that we have choices,
but the fact
that we have choices
doesn't mean
that there's no longer
other cause and effect
or consequence.
And so,
how do you put
all those things together?
And the Bible
presents this wonderful picture
in the sense of a dance,
guaranteed by God,
a dance of providence,
which is where God
acts in the flow of events
to bring about
a result that he wants,
where miracles,
where God intervenes,
and also human beings
that God has endowed
with the dignity
of causality,
in other words,
that we can actually
freely choose.
And so,
the world isn't
simplistically reduced
to cause and effect,
nor is it simplistically
reduced to mere choice,
because,
by the way,
if the world was reduced
to mere choice,
once again,
the world would be empty.
It would not really have
inherently some type
of beauty or meaning
and significance
that we are to recognize.
And so,
the Bible,
in stories like this,
wonderfully puts together
this dance
of the existence
of the triune God,
of cause and effect,
of human beings
being able to choose,
of providence
and of miracle.
And let's see how this now
starts to work itself out
in this story,
because Abraham
has another son
who's about 12 years older
or something like that,
10 to 12 or 13 years older.
What happens?
Well,
we'll look at verse 8.
And the child grew
and was weaned,
and Abraham made
a great feast
on the day
that Isaac was weaned.
And in the culture,
archaeologists
and anthropologists
and scholars tell us
that probably was
somewhere between
the ages 2 1⁄2 and 3,
close to 3,
that the weaning
would have happened.
Verse 9,
But Sarah saw
the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian,
whom she had born,
sorry,
but Sarah saw
the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian,
whom she had born
to Abraham,
laughing.
Now,
just sort of pause here
for a second.
In this particular version
of the Bible,
which I've read,
it's one of the most
literal versions,
the ESV.
And sometimes
the literal versions
aren't very helpful,
because there's a
very, very strong
connotation
in the original language
that it's cruel,
mocking laughter.
laughter.
So it's not
the laughter
of a 12-year-old
having lots of fun
or a 14- or 15-year-old
having lots of fun.
It's the laughter
of the bully.
It's the laughter
of the powerful
in terms of ridiculing
and shaming
the weak.
It's the laughter
of not only shaming
the weak,
but the promise
or the hope
of the person laughing
that harm
and damage
will be done.
And that's what's
being communicated
here in this
particular text.
So,
what's going to happen?
Well,
what we see here
is these next
two verses
are a really important
way to help us
to understand
how God interacts
with the world.
How there can still
be both human freedom
and there also
can be,
like as some Christians
say,
God only has plan A.
He doesn't need
a plan B.
Human beings
still have freedom,
but God still
sometimes,
not sometimes,
He superintends
events towards
His desired end.
Verse 10,
So,
she,
that is Sarah,
said to Abraham,
cast out this
slave woman
with her son,
for the son
of this slave woman
shall not be heir
with my son Isaac.
and the thing
was very displeasing
to Abraham
on account
of his son.
Now,
some of you
who are very familiar
with the Bible
will know that
those words of Sarah
end up becoming
very important
as part of an argument
in the book of Galatians,
but we're not going to
necessarily go there
right now.
The point is
that Sarah
means harm
to Hagar
and her son Ishmael.
She does not desire
their good.
She desires
to hurt them.
She is a
tigress
in a sense
when it comes
to standing up
for her son.
And even if,
and from her point
of view,
Abraham's not
doing enough
about it,
she's not going
to stand idly by.
She's a tigress.
She's not a labradoodle.
And she's going
to defend
her son.
Now,
by the way,
this also ends up
having a bit
of an impact
because if you go back
and you read
all of the earlier things,
it's very,
very clear
from the earlier
parts of the story,
the earlier stories
that make up
the story of Abraham,
that in fact
the promise is
that God was going
to provide
one son
of promise,
the line
that would eventually
culminate in
Jesus the Messiah.
And so,
how is this going
to work out
if there's
Ishmael
and if there's
enmity
and how they're
going to be
with Isaac?
And Abraham
doesn't like
what Sarah
wants to do,
but what's going
to happen?
Is Sarah
going to win
or is Abraham
going to win?
Well,
as we see
in the moment,
well,
let's see what
happens.
Look at
verse 13.
Verse 12.
But God
said to Abraham,
be not displeased
because of the boy
and because of
your slave woman.
It's really
more of a sense
of,
he can still
be in a sense
displeased.
The implication
of this
is more
in the original
language that
it's part of
his promise
that I'm going
to do something
about this
on God's part
through providence.
Continues on,
whatever Sarah
says to you,
do as she
tells you,
for through
Isaac
shall your
offspring
be named.
And I
will make
a nation
of the
son of
the slave
woman
also
because
he
is
your
offspring.
Now,
if you've
watched some
of these
other sermons
on the
life of
Abraham,
one of the
things I
say constantly
is,
I mean,
not only in
a sense
is this
a story,
but it's
a story
within
a bigger
book,
which we
now know
of as
the book
of Genesis.
And the
book of
Genesis
is also
part of
a larger
story,
which is
the five
books,
all ultimately
and primarily
written by
Moses,
Genesis,
Exodus,
Leviticus,
Numbers,
and Deuteronomy.
And of
course,
part of a
larger book
still in
terms of the
rest of the
Old Testament
and the
New Testament.
But Genesis
50 ends
with a
very,
very important
story,
and we
can see
that this
story here
is foreshadowing
this,
and it's a
very important
thing for us
to understand
a little bit
about how
we have
human freedom
and how
God interacts
with our
freedom while
still being
sovereign.
There's a
story at
the end
in terms of
Joseph and
his brothers,
and his
brothers hate
Joseph,
and so
they sell
Joseph as
a slave to
some wandering
traders.
They literally
take their
younger brother
and give him
to these
traders.
They take
money for
it, and
they sell
their son
into slavery.
And then
the story
proceeds,
and all
these other
things happen
in the story,
but at the
end of it,
by a series
of providential
events,
Joseph ends
up becoming
the second
most powerful
person in
the nation
of Egypt,
and there's
a famine,
and his
brothers come
back, and
his dad
comes back,
and all of
that stuff,
and it
ends up
that Joseph
is able to
save the
life of his
family.
And after
Joseph's
father dies,
the brothers
say, by
the way, we
want you to
know that
before our
father died,
he privately
told us not
to hold
against us
the fact
that, you
know, like,
we sold
you into
slavery a
little bit,
because, you
know, they're
pretty worried.
Joseph is the
second most
powerful person
in Egypt,
and they
sold him
into slavery.
And there's
a very, very
powerful phrase
there that
Joseph says,
that you
meant it
for ill,
you meant
it for bad,
but God
used it
for good.
You meant
it for evil,
but God
used it
for good.
And what we
see here is
the same type
of a story
being told
here in this
thing.
Sarah means
this thing
for Hagar,
for evil,
but God
is going to
use it
for good.
Let's see.
how this
works.
And by the
way, if you
think about it
for a second,
this is going
to be very
important for
us to
understand when
it comes to
the gospel.
You see,
this story,
in a sense,
is preparing
us for the
gospel in a
very, very
subtle way.
You see,
what happens
in the gospel
is, like,
how does
Jesus end
up being
born where
he's born
fulfilling
prophecies,
and how does
he end up
dying where
he dies
fulfilling
prophecies,
and how does
he rise from
the dead,
and everything
like that?
And a lot
of these
things are
completely and
utterly out
of control.
Well, what
happens is an
emperor in
Rome just
decides that
he wants to
do something,
and all these
people groups
happen to
move around.
But he
makes his
decision because
for whatever
reason he
wants to have
more power or
just show how
powerful he is,
but the result
is that Jesus
is born exactly
where God has
prophesied that
the Savior would
be born.
And that when
it comes time to
the Jewish
religious leaders
and the Roman
leaders,
they all are
just acting out
of their own
agenda, and in
every case of
those agendas,
they're desiring
harm for Jesus,
but the result
of them acting
out of their
own agendas
and acting to
wanting to
harm Jesus
is that once
again, multiple
scripture texts,
the prophecies of
them is fulfilled,
and Jesus ends
up dying just as
he has also
predicted.
One of the
reasons you can,
in a sense,
trust the words
of Jesus is that
when you look at
the eyewitness
biographies of
Jesus, Jesus
himself predicts
he's going to
die in a way
that he can't
orchestrate,
because it's
something that
has to be done
by Roman power.
He doesn't say,
I'm going to
kill myself,
because then you
could just say,
well, I mean,
I don't know,
he's sitting up
and he's a bit
of a scam,
but he predicts
he's going to
die in a way
that only the
pagan Roman
authorities can
actually do,
and he dies that
way, vindicating
his words,
and then he
rises from the
dead.
And in all
those cases,
whether it's
the emperor,
whether it's
the Romans,
whether it's
the leaders,
the Jewish
leaders,
everybody is
acting according
to their free
will, and
they all act
in a way
which means
harm.
But it ends
up that God
uses it for
good, because
the death of
Jesus upon the
cross is his
death as the
Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the
world.
And his
resurrection is
the promise of
the vindication
and the promise
of life and
the hope of
glory for the
Christian.
And so
everybody uses
their freedom
freely, but
God superintends
the events by
providence that
even though
everybody in the
story means evil,
God brings great
good out of it.
It's one of the
ways that God
intervenes in the
world.
So what happens
to the child?
Well, let's look
verse 14, what
happens to
Ishmael.
So verse 14,
so Abraham
rose early in
the morning and
took bread and
a skin of water
and gave it to
Hagar, putting it
on her shoulder
along with the
child, and sent
her away, and
she departed and
wandered in the
wilderness of
Beersheba.
Now Abraham is
taking God at
his word that he
will do as he
said and as he
has promised.
We don't know
how much bread
she had.
Archaeologists,
anthropologists say
that she probably
had about what
we would now
consider almost
12 litres of
water, which is
going to last a
couple of days
maybe in the
wilderness, but
it's not going to
be enough.
God has to
intervene in
some ways, whether
it's through
providence or
miracle, if that's
going to happen.
And we can see
that Sarah's
intent was
murderous.
She hasn't had
this word from
God that Abraham
has.
She's quite happy
if Sarah and
if Hagar and
Ishmael meet
their doom.
So what
happens?
Well, let's
listen.
And this story
which happens, it's
a beautiful
illustration of
the fact that
Christians believe
that there's only
one God, and
the one God who
really exists and
truly exists is the
only God who can
answer prayer, and
that he answers the
prayer of Christians
and of Buddhists
and of Hindus
and of the
Jewish people and
of people with
boutique
spiritualities.
He's the only
God to hear your
prayer, the
triune God.
There is no
other.
And whether you
acknowledge him
or not, there is
only that triune
God who can hear
your prayer, and
only he can
answer them.
And it's a
longer sermon, and
a different sermon
to say that
sometimes he says
no, sometimes he
says yes, sometimes
he says not yet, and
sometimes he says
yes, but he
answers it in a
very, very
unexpected and
unanticipated way
that you might only
realize many, many,
quite a bit later
how he'd answered
your prayer in an
unexpected way.
But let's listen to
the story, verse
15.
When the water
and the skin was
gone, because
they'd been wandering
in the wilderness,
she put the child
under one of the
bushes.
Now, I just have to
pause here for a
second, and this
is one of the
problems, this is
actually one of the
ways that this
version of the
Bible is very
helpful, because
throughout the story
there's two different
Hebrew words, and
when the word boy
is used, boy
basically means, so
later on in the
Bible, Solomon, when
he's 40, calls
himself a boy.
And so boy
really doesn't
describe an actual
age, it describes
not being capable,
it describes not
being mature enough,
it describes not
being worthy enough
and competent
enough, and that's
what the word boy
means.
And the word child
captures this idea
of the biological
and, in a sense,
the maternal or
the paternal
relationship.
And so throughout
this story, when
it's emphasizing, I
mean, if you, you
know, Louise and
I, all of our
children are older,
like quite a bit
older, but I just
said all of our
children, I called
them my children,
even though some of
them are, you know,
have children of
their own.
But they're still,
they'll always be our
children.
And so throughout
this whole story,
when you see child,
it's emphasizing the
relationship between
Hagar and Ishmael.
And whenever you see
boy, it's emphasizing
the fact that they're,
in a sense, of their
weakness and not being
competent.
So back earlier, it's
not that, in the
original language, it's
not the case that
somehow or another,
Ishmael got on
Hagar's shoulders.
No, no, they left
together.
The skin of water, the
bread was given to the
two of them and they
go wandering off.
And when here, when it
says, when the water,
verse 15, of the skin
was gone and she put
the child under one of
the bushes, the word
put is all right, but
it's actually better to
understand it as
thrown.
And if you've ever
watched any movie of
two people or a group
of people and they're
wandering in the
desert and they're
about to, their water's
gone and they're
getting very, very weak
and close to the point
of exhaustion, you
see them holding
each other and
supporting each other
up and at the end
it might be that they
just sort of like put
the person down because
there's a tiny little
bit of a shade.
And that's what's
being communicated here
is that Ishmael is
close to death.
The water is, the
lack of water is
affecting him more
than Hagar.
Verse 16, then she
went and sat down
opposite him a good
way off about the
distance of a
bow shot.
For she said, let
me not look on the
death of the child.
And as she sat
opposite him, she
lifted up her voice
and wept.
And God heard the
voice of the boy.
He's not Jewish.
He's not, in a sense,
from this point of
view, part of God's
people, so to speak.
He's not Jewish.
He's, yeah, he's not
Jewish.
But God hears his
prayer.
Listen again, verse
17.
And God heard the
voice of the boy and
the angel of God, in
a sense, another way of
referring to God, called
to Hagar from heaven and
said to her, what
troubles you, Hagar?
Fear not, for God has
heard the voice of the
boy where he is.
Up!
Lift up the boy and
hold him fast with your
hand, for I will make
him into a great nation.
Then God opened her
eyes and she saw a
well of water.
And she went and filled
the skin with water and
gave the boy a drink.
And God was with the
boy and he grew up and
lived in the wilderness
and became an expert
with the bow.
He lived in the
wilderness of Paran and
his mother took a wife
for him in Egypt.
So one of the things
that we see here is
that God answers
Ishmael's prayer.
You see, there's only
one God, the Father,
the Son, the Holy
Spirit, three persons,
one God.
He alone is the
creator of all things,
the sustainer of all
things, sovereign over
all things.
And so there's only
that one true and
living God that any
prayer can go to.
And he hears the
prayer of the wicked
and the good, the old
and the young, of the
gay and the straight,
of the Buddhist and the
Hindu and the Muslim
and the Christian.
There is only one God
who can hear everybody's
prayer.
And you might wonder
about that.
And it doesn't necessarily
the case that he answers
the prayers of Christians
with more yeses than
non-Christians.
Now that, of course,
maybe requires a longer
whole sermon.
I just want to point at
how this...
Take a step back to
understand why this is.
And it connects with
the gospel.
Imagine that you have a
friend.
And you have a friend.
We'll call her Sue.
You know, and Sue's
pretty.
And she's nice.
And she's pleasant.
And, you know, she has a
job.
And she's kind.
And she's creative.
And all of that.
But for some reason, no
guy ever asks her out.
And no guy wants to
marry her.
And she'd love to
marry.
But just no guy asks
Sue out.
Well, one day, Sue's
grandmother decides to
buy her a lottery ticket.
And Sue, to everybody's
surprise, wins $60 million.
And, of course, it's in
the paper.
You know, Sue Smith or
Sue Sinclair wins $60
million.
And within the next month,
20 guys want to date her.
Now, you can almost
begin to see how, in
some ways, winning $60
million would actually be
more of a curse than a
blessing.
Sue has wanted to get
married.
Now, do they want to
marry her because she's
Sue or because she has
$60 million?
How would she even know
whether that's the case?
I mean, she might actually
even have to go and live
somewhere and change her
name and pretend she has
no money so that she could
at least find somebody who
would love her for herself
and then have to navigate
the fact that she
misrepresented herself and
that she's actually Sue
Smith and is worth $60
million plus whatever
interest has been made over
that time period while it
went on.
You know, because, you
know, in a sense, isn't
that more what we desire?
That we desire to be known
for who we are and either
have people be our
friends for who we are,
not just for what we can
give them, or to have that
love relationship with
another person who loves us
for who we are.
And in fact, actually, if you
think about it for a second,
wouldn't you say that if you
met somebody who'd say they'd
rather have a million dollars
than a husband or a wife who
would love them, know them, and
love them?
Wouldn't you think that that
person was shallow?
And you see, this basic
intuition that we have about
ourselves, that we want to
have people love us for
ourselves, you see, that's
ultimately what God's end game
is.
That God wants us to begin to
love him for who he is.
He calls us into a love
relationship with him.
And you see, that's one of the
reasons why God doesn't
necessarily say yes to
Christians' prayers more than
non-Christians.
See, if it was in fact the
case that, I don't know, every
time I prayed, or most of the
time I prayed, God gives me a
yes and I get it, people would
start to notice, good grief,
you know, George is very
successful, he has lots of
money, like things are working
out for him, how's it going?
I'd say, well, I just pray,
you know, I'm a Christian, and
as a Christian, when I pray, God
just says yes.
And people will say, I want to
become a Christian.
Well, they don't want to become
a Christian because they want
to know the triune God.
They don't want to become a
Christian because they realize
that they're far from God and
rebel.
They want to become a Christian
so they can get the stuff they
want.
But God's desire is to have this
relationship of love with you.
Now,
just this final story, I'm very
conscious of the time, I took a
couple of minutes to introduce
it, but the Bible doesn't have a
jaundiced view of the human race
that we only want to do evil
things, and it's just a matter of
God merely working through the
evil things that happen so that the
things that he wants to have
happen, happen.
The Bible is realistic, and to be
realistic, it isn't just that people
desire evil things and that God,
something happens as a result of
it.
In fact, the Bible recognizes that
sometimes people want to have fair
treaties and do things which are
fair, and that actually happens,
and it's very interesting.
Look what happens in verse 22, and
it begins by at that time.
So it's actually saying that the
same time this thing is going on
with Hagar and Ishmael, at the same
time this other thing happens as
well.
So it presents, on one hand, it's
showing that there's this dance,
there's this dance between causality,
that we can cause things, there's this
dance, that there's an ordered
universe, there's this dance of the
fact that God is sovereign, there's
this dance that sometimes God acts by
miracles, but that there's this
providence, and that people, not only
do they act out of evil, but they act
out of good things, and it's going on
at the exact same time.
And look what it says, just very, very
briefly.
At that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the
commander of his army, said to Abraham,
God is with you in all that you do.
Now therefore swear to me here by God
that you will not deal falsely with
me or with my descendants or with my
posterity, but as I have dealt kindly
with you, so you will deal with me and
with the land where you have sojourned.
And Abraham said, I will swear.
Now God is using providence downstream.
He's used providence downstream to make it
now that there's only going to be Isaac.
It's very clear who that seed is, but also
now that the land is becoming more, in a
sense, a place where Abraham has a true
claim to it.
Verse 25, when Abraham reproved Abimelech
about a well of water that Abimelech's
servants had seized, Abimelech said, I do
not know who has done this thing.
You did not tell me, and I have not heard
of it until today.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave
them to Abimelech, and the two men made a
covenant, a treaty, a contract.
Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock
apart, and Abimelech said to Abraham, what
is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that
you have set apart?
And he said, Abraham said, these seven ewe
lambs you will take from my hand that this
may be a witness for me that I dug this
well.
Therefore that place was called Beersheba,
because there both of them swore an oath.
So they made a covenant at Beersheba.
Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of
his army, rose up and returned to the land of
the Philistines.
Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba
and called there on the name of the Lord.
In other words, he worshipped the Lord.
And he worshipped the Lord, the everlasting
God.
And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of
the Philistines.
So we have this wonderful picture.
You see that the dance that on one hand,
sometimes people wish real ill, but God will
turn that ill into good.
God is provident even though human beings are
using their free will for evil.
And sometimes human beings just want to have a
fair treaty and they want to have friends and
they want to be good neighbors.
And this is also in a way that God can use
sovereignly to have his purposes fulfilled
because he will visit his people and do as he
has said and keep his promises as he has said.
So here's the thing just in summary.
Yes, I've said that God answers the prayers.
If you're a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Muslim,
the triune God hears and answers your prayers.
And if you're an atheist and you pray,
he hears and answers your prayers.
There's only one God and he's a God who hears
and he's a God who sees.
But what difference does it make to be a Christian?
See, this is all preparing us, as I said earlier,
about the gospel, about how it all works,
where Jesus died on the cross,
and how even this beginning bit about God has visited us
and done what he had said he's done,
done what he's promised,
and he's promised a savior and a deliverer,
and he's done that.
And he's promised that if anyone turns to Christ,
that he will turn no one away,
that he will take you,
and he will be your savior and your Lord.
He will take you into himself,
and he will come and live within you,
and he will be yours.
And just like others,
we Christians are called to pray,
but here's the difference that it makes to be a Christian.
There is an everlasting God,
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
the same God who is everlasting,
the same God who heard Abraham,
who heard Ishmael,
is the only God.
There is an everlasting God.
But he, to me,
as a Christian,
is not just the everlasting God.
He is my Father.
He is my Father in heaven,
and I live in his world.
Every day I wake up,
and I wake up in his world.
And I am his child
by adoption and grace.
He,
when I put my faith and trust in Jesus,
I become adopted as his child,
and I only become his child
by his grace to me.
I become his child
because of John 3, 16.
For God,
the words of Jesus,
for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son
to the end that all who believe in him
will not perish,
but have everlasting life.
So,
the everlasting God is my Father.
I live in his world.
He is with me,
and he loves to hear my prayers.
And he holds me in the hollow
in the palm of his hand.
And nothing will ever cause him
to let me go.
And I have the hope of glory
because even if I have very hard things
that I have to face,
I don't have to face them alone.
I face them with my Father,
and he will bring me,
he will bring me
into his kingdom
and into eternal glory,
not because of my strength,
but by his.
So,
every day,
I am invited to live.
And you,
if you are a Christian,
are invited to live
in your Father's world.
Let's pray.
Father,
pour out the Holy Spirit upon us.
Help us to know
that you hear our prayers,
that you love to hear
the prayer of your children.
Help us to know
that this is your world,
that you are our Father in heaven,
but this is your world,
and that you are sovereign,
and that we can live today
and every day
as your child
by adoption and grace,
following Jesus,
our Savior and Lord,
the one who redeemed us,
and empowered by the Holy Spirit,
that you give
willingly and lovingly
and powerfully
to all who become your children
by adoption and grace.
Help us, Father,
to live in such a way.
And we ask this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.