Child of the Promise

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 31, 2016

Child of the Promise

Genesis 21:9-21

But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian,

whom she had borne to Abraham,

playing with her son Isaac.

So she said to Abraham,

“Cast out this slave woman with her son;

for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”

The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.

But God said to Abraham,

“Do not be distressed because of the boy

and because of your slave woman;

whatever Sarah says to you,

do as she tells you,

for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.

As for the son of the slave woman,

I will make a nation of him also,

because he is your offspring.”

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 about

in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone,

she cast the child under one of the bushes.

Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off,

about the distance of a bowshot;

for she said, “Do not let me 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;

and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven,

and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar?

Do not be afraid;

for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand,

for I will make a great nation of him.”

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

She went, and filled the skin with water,

and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up;

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It has to be one of the most dramatic stories

in the Old Testament:

Abraham and his son Isaac

climbing to the top of a high mountain,

called there by God,

called there to offer a sacrifice.

Abraham called to sacrifice Isaac, his son,

the son of his wife Sarah,

the son of their old age,

the son in whom they delighted;

their only son.

Isaac was still very much a boy,

with all his life before him

as he followed his father obediently,

as they journeyed into the wilderness,

as they hiked up the mountain;

Isaac trusting his father,

asking no questions,

even as his father bound him

and laid him on the crude altar

Abraham had built on that mountaintop.

Did the boy show any fear in his face

as his father raised his arm

high into the cobalt sky,

the dagger in his hand glinting in the bright sunlight?

Did the boy see the pain in his father’s face

as his father thought about what it was

that he was about to do?

Did the boy hear the voice of God’s angel

who called out before the knife struck,

“Abraham, do not lay your hand on the boy

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 22:12)

Isaac would grow up and grow old.

He’d become the father of two sons,

Esau and Jacob,

as well as grandfather to many.

Isaac was a child of promise,

God’s promise.

But there was another son,

another child of promise

in Abraham’s story:

his firstborn son,

his son Ishmael,

the son born of Hagar, Sarah’s maid,

the maid Sarah herself gave to her husband

that Abraham might have a son by her,

once Sarah realized that she would

never be able to provide her husband

with a son.

Four thousand years ago

there was nothing unusual about that –

a man having more than one wife,

a man having children by other women.

Jacob fathered twelve sons

who became the patriarchs of

the twelve tribes of Israel,

twelve sons by four different women.

Four thousand years ago,

that was what we would call

traditional biblical marriage.

Sarah gave her maidservant to her husband,

so her husband could have a son,

and Ishmael was born.

But then, a few years later, Sarah gave birth,

gave birth to a son: Isaac,

and with Isaac’s birth,

jealously reared its ugly head.

Sarah could not abide even the idea

that Ishmael, the son of her maidservant,

was the firstborn son,

the one who would stand ahead of her own son Isaac.

So, in anger, she demanded that her husband

send Hagar and Ishmael away,

away:

“Cast out this slave woman with her son;

for the son of this slave woman

shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”

Sarah’s demand sounds to us so cruel,

so vicious, so heartless –

no thought for her loyal maidservant Hagar;

no thought for the young boy Ishmael,

no thought for her husband, Ishmael’s father.

Sara was so filled with rage

that she couldn’t even speak their names,

her words coming out like the hiss of a viper:

“Cast out this slave woman with her son,

for the son of this slave woman

shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”

Abraham did as his wife demanded:

he sent them away, Hagar and Ishmael,

Hagar and his son, Abraham’s son,

his firstborn son.

Abraham provided them with

almost nothing for their journey,

a bit of food and a little water,

only what Hagar was able to carry on her shoulder.

And off they went, into the desert,

The text tells us that they,

“wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

[and] When the water in the skin was gone,

[Hagar] cast the child under one of the bushes.

Then she went and sat down

opposite him a good way off,

about the distance of a bowshot;

for she said,

“Do not let me look on the death of the child.”

And as she sat opposite him,

she lifted up her voice and wept.

Hagar wept, wept for her son Ishmael.

who was about to die of thirst in the desert.

The only thought that could have comforted Hagar

was knowing that she would shortly

follow her son in death,

that she too would die of thirst,

that the pain of losing her son would be short-lived.

But God was with Hagar

and God was with Ishmael:

“the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven,

and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar?

Do not be afraid;

for God has heard the voice of the boy

where he is.

Come, lift up the boy

and hold him fast with your hand,

for I will make a great nation of him.”

Then God opened her eyes

and she saw a well of water.

She went, and filled the skin with water,

and gave the boy a drink.”

Ishmael survived;

Ishmael grew up and grew old.

Ishmael would go on to have sons,

twelve sons,

and probably daughters,

as well as grandsons and granddaughters.

Ishmael would thrive, for,

as the text tells us,

“God was with the boy”.

Ishmael, a child of promise,

God’s promise to Ishmael,

God’s promise to Abraham,

…I will make a nation of him also,

because he is your offspring.”

Ishmael, son of Abraham,

child of promise,

who we, over the centuries,

have turned into an outsider,

even vilified as the patriarch of

of those we are quick to think of as enemies.

Yet, he was precious in the eyes of God,

precious in the eyes of God’s angels,

precious in the eyes of our

ancestor in faith Abraham.

We Christians can be so thoughtlessly exclusive,

as though we were part of a club,

a select few;

We on the inside,

striving to fortify the walls

to keep out those not already in,

letting in only those we approve of,

and sometimes even thinking about ways

to cast out those in with us –

so quick are we to judge.

But doesn’t our Lord Jesus teach us

that God is a God of love,

a God of welcome,

a God of inclusion?

Isn’t that why Jesus teaches us

to love our neighbors?

Isn’t that why Jesus teaches us

to define neighbor as anyone,

everyone?

It was the Reverend Peter Marshall

who described Jesus

in one of my favorite ways:

as standing at the doorway

with his “big carpenter hands”

opened wide in welcome,

teaching us to do the same:

Welcome to you,

welcome to me,

welcome to the tax collector,

welcome to the fallen woman,

welcome to the poor,

welcome to that motley crew of men

who became his first disciples,

welcome to the man from this country,

welcome to the woman from that country,            

“welcome,

sit with me;

be fed.”

The name Ishmael means “God has heard”

and God heard Ishmael’s cry,

Hagar’s cry,

even Abraham’s silent cry,

and God honored his promise to each

that Ishmael would be a child of promise.

In a book written some 150 years before

the birth of our Lord,

a book called Jubilees,

-- a book that is one of dozens, hundreds of books

written thousands of years ago that tell bible stories,

but were not included in the Bible –

the writer tells of how Moses spent his 40 days

on top of Mount Sinai,

how Moses spent those 40 days in history class,

an angel of the Lord teaching Moses

the history of God’s children,

the history of God’s promises.

In a very touching story within the book,

Abraham realizes that he is nearing

the end of his life,

and so he calls all his children to him –

not just Isaac,

but Ishmael, and all Ishmael’s children,

as well as all the children

Abraham had with Keturah

the woman he married after Sarah died.

And we read that Abraham,

“commanded them…

that they should guard the way of the Lord

so that they might do righteousness

and each one might love his neighbor,

and…that it should be thus among all men

so that each one might proceed to act justly

and rightly toward them upon the earth.”

(Jubilees 20:1ff)

Now these may not be words from Holy Scripture,

but it seems to me that

they capture God’s hope

for all God’s children,

that all are children of promise,

that God’s love knows no boundaries

and that we, God’s children,

are called to love our neighbors

and to act justly

and rightly

toward all,

…toward all.

AMEN