And Jehovah visited Sarah as he had said, and Jehovah did to Sarah as he had spoken.
Genesis 21 opens after two chapters that exposed human failure. Its first line answers all of it. Twice it says that God did what He had said. Everything turns on the two clauses — the Lord visited, and the Lord did. Neither one depends on anything Abraham or Sarah contributed.
This opening comes at the end of a long run of exposure. One writer reads its placement as deliberate.
The world and the flesh have been exposed. Now, in Genesis 21, we learn that God's set time has come and the long promised heir is born (vv. 1-7). The slave woman and her child are cast out (vv. 8-21). And the world has to admit that God is with the man of faith (vv. 22-34).
This verse records a promise completed. It answers a long wait.
Here we have accomplished promise — the blessed fruit of patient waiting upon God. None ever waited in vain. The soul that takes hold of God's promise by faith has a stable reality which will never fail him.
Abraham already had a son before Isaac. One writer asks what Ishmael contributed to God's promise.
Ishmael was of no use whatever, so far as God's promise was concerned. Nature can never do anything for God. The Lord must visit and the Lord must "do." Faith must wait, and nature must be still — yes, nature must be set aside completely, as a dead, worthless thing. Then the divine glory can shine out, and faith finds in that shining all its rich and sweet reward. There is such a thing as God's "set time," His "due season," and for this the faithful must be content to wait. The time may seem long, and hope deferred may make the heart sick. But the spiritual mind will always find relief in this assurance: it is all for the final display of God's glory.
One writer sees Isaac's birth as the picture of a greater Son, given at the right moment.
The power of God was now accomplishing what His mouth had promised. The child is born of Sarah, the son given to Abraham. He is a type of Him, the Son, whom God sent forth when the fullness of time had come. That Son came to accomplish redemption, to be the centre of all His purposes for heaven and earth, and to be the judge of all He will cast into hell.
Another writer weighs the word "visited" and sees more than a visit in it.
It was a "son born" that was to make Abraham's heart glad — and we know whom Isaac is a type of. Is it not of Christ come to dwell — no longer merely to visit — that the figure speaks?
One writer stretches the same pattern over a far longer wait than Abraham's.
Abraham's faith had waited long, until he was 100 years old. Then grace, seen in Sarah, bore the fruit that God had promised. This pictures how believers all through the Old Testament waited for centuries. Then the grace of God came to its full, beautiful fruit in the birth of the Lord Jesus. He came at God's appointed time, after the law had proved itself unable to bring forth any fruit for God. He has come to fill the hearts of the faithful with deepest joy, just as Abraham and Sarah were so delighted with their son that they named him Isaac, meaning "laughter."
Sarah had already laughed at the promise in unbelief. Now the same woman laughs again, with the opposite meaning.
So Isaac's birth was the occasion of joy in measure, as his very name means. Sarah laughed no more in unbelief, as she once did. She laughed in gladness of heart, in fellowship with all who hear of the goodness of the Lord. It is a lovely witness to the power of grace when faith wins the victory in what had been one's weakness, and sin, and shame.
- Said — God spoke a promise, and this verse shows the same God keeping it. The doubled wording ("as He had said… as He had promised") makes His word, not the circumstances, the reason it happened.
- Waited — the delay was not neglect but a "set time." Faith must wait and nature must be still. Ishmael proved that human effort adds nothing to what God has promised.
- Visited — the Lord came and acted where nature could do nothing. One writer sees behind this visit the greater coming of Christ to dwell.
- Given — Isaac was born at the appointed hour. Writers call him a type of the Son whom God sent forth in the fullness of time, at the end of centuries of waiting.
- Laughed — Sarah's laugh of unbelief becomes a laugh of joy she wants others to share. Grace wins its clearest victory at the exact point of past failure.
And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.
God had named a date. Years later, after every human shortcut had failed, Abraham and Sarah had a son in extreme old age — at the exact time God had said.
The delay was not slowness. One writer sees proof here that human effort adds nothing, and that faith must wait.
Nature can never do anything for God. The Lord must visit and the Lord must "do." Faith must wait, and nature must be still. Yes, nature must be set aside as a dead, worthless thing. Then the divine glory can shine out, and faith finds in that shining all its rich and sweet reward. There is such a thing as God's "set time," His "due season," and for this the faithful must be content to wait. The time may seem long, and hope deferred may make the heart sick. But the spiritual mind always finds relief in one assurance: all of it is for the final display of God's glory.
"In his old age" is not a small detail. It is the whole point. The child came from bodies that had no life left to give. One writer sees in this the principle on which God works and on which His covenant rests.
God's purpose, or secret, or covenant, rested on resurrection. It rested on setting aside the flesh in its strength and resources. It rested on God doing something beyond and above nature, which is the same as resurrection — giving life to the dead and powerless body of Sarah. And so Isaac is born out of the dead bodies of Abraham and Sarah. With Isaac is God's covenant. Ishmael may be blessed — as he is — but the covenant is with Isaac, and with Isaac alone. This tells us again that God has taken resurrection as the principle of His action, the ground of His counsels.
Verse 1 says the LORD visited Sarah; verse 2 says God had spoken. One commentator says the change of name is deliberate, not a sign of two different authors.
To blame this difference on different authors is the hopeless or spiteful excuse of unbelieving ignorance. First of all, "Jehovah" occurs with emphatic repetition (v. 1). His dealings as ruler were in question. Jehovah had promised, and He showed Himself faithful to carry it out. But it was just as important, in the next place, to show that the One who spoke here was God in the supremacy of His nature (v. 2). So the name "Elohim" is used here, and all through the chapter.
An appointed time for one birth points forward to another. Commentators read Isaac as a picture of Christ. The long wait of Abraham and Sarah pictures a far longer one.
This pictures the believers all through the Old Testament. They waited centuries before the grace of God bore its beautiful fruit in the birth of the Lord Jesus. What an answer to their patient waiting in faith! He came at God's appointed time, after the law had proven itself unable to bring forth any fruit for God. He has come to fill the hearts of the faithful with deepest joy. Abraham and Sarah were so delighted with their son that they named him Isaac, which means "laughter."
Another writer names the reach of that one birth:
In the birth of Isaac we have a striking type of Christ, of whom we read, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4). Christ is the One who secures all the blessings promised to Abraham — for Israel, the direct seed, and for the Gentile nations.
Abraham already had a son. Isaac did not improve that son. He was a new person altogether. C. H. Mackintosh reads this birth as a picture of what happens inside a sinner.
In principle, Isaac was to Abraham's household what the planting of the new nature is to the soul of a sinner. It was not Ishmael changed, but Isaac born. The son of the slave woman could never be anything else. He might become a great nation. He might live in the wilderness and become an archer. He might become the father of twelve princes. But he was the son of the slave woman all the while. Isaac, on the other hand, might seem weak and despised, yet he was the son of the free woman. His position and character, his standing and prospects, were all from the Lord.
- Spoken. God fixed the hour in advance. The birth came "at the time of which God had spoken," so the delay was appointment, not neglect.
- Silent. Nature must be still and faith must wait. Human effort adds nothing to what God alone will do.
- Spent. Isaac came from bodies as good as dead. Resurrection is the principle on which God's covenant rests.
- Sovereign. The name changes to "God" in verse 2. The One speaking is not only the faithful promise-keeper of verse 1. He is God in the supremacy of His nature.
- Son. Isaac points to Christ, sent when the fullness of time had come. God gave Abraham a new son, not a mended one. The new nature comes the same way — Isaac born, never Ishmael changed.
And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
Genesis 21:3 is a single quiet sentence of record-keeping: the child is born, and Abraham gives him a name. Yet God had settled every word of it years before — the son, the mother, and the name.
Abraham did not choose the name at the cradle. God had given it long before. He renamed both parents and tied the covenant to one child who did not yet exist.
God enlarged Abram's name, and He raised Sarai's too: He would give Abraham a son by her. "You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him" (Gen. 17:19). God would not forget Ishmael, but His covenant would be with Isaac, whom Sarah was to bear at this set time in the next year.
So naming the boy was obedience: Abraham repeated back what God had already said. The covenant would run through Isaac, not through Abraham's other son, Ishmael.
Isaac means "laughter." Both parents had laughed when God promised the son. One writer sees the name itself as God's verdict on one of those laughs.
It is remarkable that it was God who gave the name Isaac ("laughter") to the son of the promise. We tend to think that gloom and severity are the marks of devotion. But Abraham laughed in God's presence. God did not rebuke him for it. His laughter was an expression of faith, and God approves it in the naming of his son.
Sarah's laughter changed too. She had once laughed in unbelief; now she is the one who explains what the name means, and she needs no prophet to help her.
So Isaac's birth brought joy, in its measure, just as his name implies. Sarah laughed no longer in unbelief, as she once had (Gen. 18:12-15), but with gladness of heart, sharing it with all who hear of the goodness of the Lord. It is a lovely witness to the power of grace when faith gives the victory in what had been one's weakness, and sin, and shame. And so, if Abraham gives the name to his son, Sarah needs no prophet, but explains the mind of God in it for herself, and forever.
The verse names both parents: the son was born to Abraham, and Sarah bore him. Both were long past the age of having children.
God fulfilled to Abraham and Sarah the promise of a son. What was impossible for man came to pass. Isaac was born, we may say, on the principle of resurrection: a living child springing from parents who, as far as having children goes, were dead.
The child arrives neither early nor late. One writer sees in that long wait, and in the joy that ends it, a picture of a far greater birth.
This pictures something greater. Believers throughout the Old Testament had waited through centuries. Then the grace of God was seen in all its beautiful fruit, in the birth of the Lord Jesus. What an answer to their patient waiting in faith! He came at God's appointed time, after the law had proved itself unable to bring forth any fruit for God. He has come to fill the hearts of the faithful with the deepest joy. It is like the delight of Abraham and Sarah, who named their son Isaac, meaning "laughter."
Another writer reads the name itself as a pointer to Christ.
Isaac's name means laughter, the laughter of God in view of man's helplessness. Isaac the promised one, the only one, in his wonderful birth and in his name is a type of the promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God's laughter over Satan, sin and death.
Isaac is not only a picture of Christ. The apostle uses him — and Ishmael too — to describe what a believer is.
In the letter to the Galatians the apostle uses Isaac, not as representing Christ, but as representing believers — those who are the subjects of sovereign grace. He says, "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise." He uses Isaac to set out all that we are as born of the Spirit. He uses Ishmael to set out our old nature — all that we are as born after the flesh.
- Promised — God gave the name before the child existed. Abraham obeys a word; he does not invent a label.
- Impossible — his parents were past having children, so his birth stands "on the principle of resurrection." It is God's work alone.
- Laughter — Isaac means laughter. God chose the name, approving Abraham's laugh of faith, and Sarah's laugh of unbelief became shared joy.
- Christ — the long wait ending in a promised son pictures the Lord Jesus, who came at God's appointed time. He is God's laughter over Satan, sin and death.
- Us — believers are children of promise "like Isaac," born of the Spirit, not by natural strength.
And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Isaac is only days old when Scripture records the first thing done to him: Abraham marks him with the sign God had appointed, on the day God had named. The verse ties a father's obedience to a sign that speaks of death to the flesh. Why did the promised son need such a mark at all?
Abraham had every reason to spend those days celebrating. One writer looks at what he did on the eighth day instead, and why God chose that day.
But Abraham's joy in no way weakened his duty of putting his son under the sign of death for the flesh. He circumcised Isaac as required, when he was eight days old, "as God had commanded him" (v. 4). The eighth day points to resurrection in contrast with nature. Circumcision was instituted, not when Ishmael was born, but with Isaac in view, the seal of the covenant. The principle was God's righteousness. Man was judged as evil and the flesh put to death.
God fixed the day, and the number carries its own message.
The "eight days old" shows what a beautiful inheritance we are destined for, because the eighth day speaks to us of new creation. The first week of the old has run out. It is only in the power of knowing this that practical circumcision can be kept up.
Another writer puts it in one line:
Surely the eighth day signifies that circumcision is in resurrection, not in nature.
God gave circumcision to Abraham as the seal of His covenant. The sign made a verdict visible on the body.
What does it mean? The flesh put to death before God; the sentence of death placed on man in His sight, and this in Abram's own person as well as in his descendants afterwards.
The same writer carries the sign forward to what it pictures for the believer.
Every child of Abraham takes the place of death by this sign, which pictures our death with Christ, the full deliverance of a person who has died with Him. Until someone knows what it is to be dead in this way, he cannot enjoy what it is to be free for God.
What did the mark actually do for Abraham? One writer spells out what God was saying through it.
But what does the sign signify? Plainly, it is a symbolic witness that faith, not flesh, is the principle of relationship with God. God says, in giving Abraham circumcision, "You must carry in your body the sign that your flesh is worthless. You must have in yourself the sign that the sentence of judgment is on the flesh. You must submit to receiving a mark which means that faith is the principle on which you stand in relationship with Me." But if circumcision is the sign of a covenant of grace — of relationship with God on the principle of faith — then it is a seal on the righteousness of faith. And that righteousness was already Abraham's before he was circumcised.
Isaac was eight days old. A newborn cannot take in what is done to him.
Circumcision was to take place as early as eight days old. At that age the child could not understand anything about it. Its meaning remains the same whether people understand it or not, just as is true of baptism, which also teaches death to the flesh. You can see the connection between the two in Colossians 2:11-14. In the present age baptism has replaced circumcision. It is the sign that puts a person in the place of death, the outward acknowledgment that the flesh is reduced to nothing.
- Promise. God set up the sign of the covenant with Isaac in view, not Ishmael. It waited for the promised son.
- Command. Abraham's joy did not soften his duty. He acted on the eighth day, because God had said so.
- Death. The sign passed sentence on the flesh. Abraham carried it in his body: human ability counts for nothing.
- Faith. The same mark sealed a righteousness Abraham already had. Faith, not flesh, is the ground of relationship with God.
- New creation. The eighth day stands outside the old week. Circumcision belongs to resurrection, not nature — and knowing that is what keeps it real in practice.
And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Genesis 21:5 fixes a date on a miracle: the son God had pledged arrives when the father is a hundred. The number is not filler — it measures how long faith waited, and how far past natural hope God let things go before He acted.
The age here marks the end of a long wait, counted from the day Abraham left home. One writer traces the whole delay:
Through long and lonely years Sarah and he lived in this foreign land. They owned not so much as a foot of it. And there was no sign of the heir who would receive his flocks and his herds, his silver and his gold, and through whom God would fulfil His word... But not until eleven years after he entered the land was Ishmael born, and then not of Sarah. And the son of Hagar could not live before God. Abraham still had to wait... And though twenty-five years had passed since he left Haran, hope deferred did not make the heart sick.
The chapter says the birth came at the time God had spoken of. Commentators press that phrase. The delay was not God being slow. He was keeping His own time, and nature could add nothing to it.
Nature can never do anything for God. The Lord must visit and the Lord must "do." Faith must wait, and nature must be still. Nature must be set aside completely, as a dead, worthless thing. Then the divine glory can shine out... There is such a thing as God's "set time," His "due season," and for this the faithful must be content to wait. The time may seem long, and hope deferred may make the heart sick. But the spiritual mind will always find relief in this: all of it is for the final display of God's glory... Nature had nothing to glory in. Man's extremity was God's opportunity. All is triumph when God is allowed to show Himself.
(Older translations read "at the set time.")
Abraham was a hundred, Sarah ninety. Children do not come at those ages. That is why the ages are recorded: this birth was not the work of nature.
What was impossible for man happened. Isaac was born, as we may say, on the principle of resurrection: a living child coming from parents who, as far as having children went, were dead.
The covenant runs through Isaac, not through Ishmael. Ishmael was born in the ordinary way, years earlier:
God's purpose, or secret, or covenant, rested on resurrection. It rested on the setting aside of the flesh in its strength and its resources. It rested on God doing something beyond and above nature... Ishmael may be blessed — and he is — but the covenant is with Isaac, and with Isaac alone. This tells us again, plainly, that God has taken resurrection as the principle of His action, the ground of His plans.
The verse sits right before Sarah's words about laughter, and the two belong together. Her first laugh came from unbelief. This one does not.
Verse 5 tells us that Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. Faith did indeed have to wait, but was in no way disappointed: God is faithful... She had laughed at first when the Lord announced the set time for her to become a mother. When He challenged her about it, she added the shame of untruth. But grace changes everything here. God, she admits, made her laugh now. It was no longer within herself, but from Him; and others who heard would share her joy.
Writers read Isaac's impossible birth as a picture of a later one. Every natural hope had to run out first, so that the child came by promise alone.
Isaac is this child of promise. He was born to Sarah when she was 90 years old and Abraham 100. Their bodies were as good as "already dead" (Rom. 4:19), and any natural hope of children was long gone. But it was God who intervened in sovereign grace to fulfil His own word... Isaac then is a beautiful picture of Christ, the promised Seed (Gal. 3:16), who came to earth not because man kept the law successfully or anything like it, but because of the unbreakable promise of God, fulfilled by grace alone.
- Promise delayed — twenty-five years passed between the word and the child. God's "set time" is an appointment, not slowness.
- Promise held — waiting is not wasted; the whole delay works toward the display of God's glory.
- Promise, not flesh — at a hundred, nature is out of the running. Nature can never do anything for God, and the covenant runs through Isaac alone.
- Promise fulfilled — faith waited and was not disappointed. Grace turned Sarah's unbelieving laugh into shared joy.
- Promise embodied — a child born from bodies as good as dead begins the line that leads to the promised Seed, Christ.
And Sarah said, God has made me laugh all that hear will laugh with me.
God had promised a son, Sarah had laughed at the promise, and now the child is in her arms. How did a laugh of doubt become a laugh of praise that she expects everyone who hears to share?
Sarah is not repeating her old laugh. She names its new source: God made her laugh.
Faith did indeed have to wait, but it was in no way disappointed: God is faithful. "And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me" (v. 6). She had laughed at first when Jehovah announced the set time for her to become a mother. When He challenged her about it, she added the shame of a lie (Gen. 18). But grace changes everything here. God, she owns, made her laugh now. It was no longer within herself, but from Him.
The failure she once tried to hide becomes the very place where grace shows its power.
It is a lovely witness to the power of grace when faith wins the victory at the very point of a person's weakness, sin, and shame. Abraham gives the name to his son. But Sarah needs no prophet: she explains the mind of God in that name herself, and for ever.
Sarah's next words ask who could ever have said this to Abraham. That question is the point: nature had nothing to contribute.
Her faith recognises and owns that the birth of the son is completely of God, and lies entirely outside the thoughts of man. So she asks, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?" It was so impossible to nature that no man would have said it. Only God would have said it; and only One who is Almighty could carry out what He said.
Another writer describes the same thing as life coming out of death.
What was impossible for man came to pass, and Isaac was born. It was, we may say, on the principle of resurrection: a living child born to parents who, as far as having children went, were dead. Now Sarah could laugh indeed, and feel that all others would laugh with her. This time her laughter had nothing of unbelief in it; it was a note of triumph in what the power of God had brought to pass.
Isaac's name carries this verse in a single word. Commentators differ slightly on whose laughter it recalls — one writer traces it to Abraham's, since Abraham fell on his face and worshipped when told, while Sarah did not; another sees both parents in it.
Isaac, "laughter," recalls the laughter of both his parents in view of his birth, and suggests the joy that the coming of the true Son brings.
Sarah does not keep the laugh to herself. Older translations read "all that hear will laugh with me," and this writer reads it that way.
It is a laugh which is catching. When it has a place in our own hearts, it will spread to others, as Sarah said, "all that hear will laugh with me." What a blessed thing to be so filled with the holy joy that the coming in of Christ gives to the soul, that others are touched by it.
But not everyone joins in. The chapter itself sets two reactions side by side.
In the two incidents that follow we see the effect of the birth of the heir. In one scene there are those who rejoice; in the other there are those who mock.
Abraham had two sons: one by Hagar the servant, one by Sarah. Only one birth produces this song.
Laughter from God was not to be connected with Hagar's son, but with Isaac, the son of Sarah… This is a true type of grace. The law knew nothing of praise. Hagar's son was born of the flesh. Sarah's child was the child of God's grace and power. So it was afterwards with Hannah. The childless woman who bears a child can only break out in praise.
The long wait is part of the picture too.
Though faith (Abraham's) had waited long, until he was 100 years of age, grace (seen in Sarah) in time bore the fruit that God had promised. This pictures believers throughout the Old Testament. They had waited through centuries before the grace of God appeared in all its beautiful fruit in the birth of the Lord Jesus… He has come to fill the hearts of the faithful with deepest joy, just as Abraham and Sarah were so delighted with their son that they named him Isaac, meaning "laughter."
- Waiting. Faith had to wait a hundred years, but it was never disappointed — God is faithful, and the son came at the set time.
- Gift. The laugh is no longer Sarah's own; God made her laugh, and she owns it. What had been her weakness, sin, and shame becomes the place where grace wins.
- Impossible. No one would have said such a thing to Abraham. A living child from parents as good as dead is life on the principle of resurrection. Only the Almighty could say it and do it.
- Reach. The laugh is contagious. Everyone who hears joins in — though the same chapter shows some who rejoice and some who mock.
- Fulfilment. Only Sarah's son, not Hagar's, carries this joy. The childless woman who bears can only break out in praise. The name "laughter" points on to the joy that came with the Lord Jesus.
And she said, Who would have said to Abraham, Sarah will suckle children? For I have borne [him] a son in his old age.
Sarah asks a question nobody could have answered: who would ever have said that she would nurse a child? She answers it herself, by pointing to the son born to Abraham in his old age.
Her question has only one possible answer, and it is not a human one.
Her faith sees and owns that the birth of the son is wholly of God. It lies completely outside the thoughts of man. So she asks, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?" This was impossible to nature, so no man would have said it. Only God would have said it; and only One who is Almighty could carry out what He said.
Sarah's phrase "in his old age" is the point of the whole sentence. Both parents were past the age of having children. So the birth came by a power that works where nature has stopped.
What was impossible for man happened, and Isaac was born. We may say it came on the principle of resurrection: a living child from parents who, as far as having children went, were dead. Now Sarah could laugh indeed, and feel that all others would laugh with her. This time her laughter held no unbelief. It was a note of triumph in what the power of God had done.
The Genesis story never tells us that Sarah believed. Hebrews 11:11 does, and it rests on one settled conviction.
Here, centuries after Moses wrote, the Spirit of God put on record what He saw in her. It was faith about something that in nature would have seemed impossible: "She judged Him faithful who had promised" (Hebrews 11:11). That is a fine reason for faith. With her it was not, Can it be? but, He had said it, so it shall be. She rested in this on the word of her God alone. For who before her had become a mother at ninety?
Sarah's own strength was not the resource. What she had given up hoping for, God supplied.
When God has spoken, do we not judge Him faithful, and expect Him to fully carry out what He has promised? Will He not also give the necessary strength for whatever purpose He may see fit to use us? … Mere natural hope was dead, so that long before this she had given up any such expectation. So God teaches that He alone is the true Resource of His saints.
Abraham gave the boy his name. Sarah is the one who unfolds what God meant by it.
It is a lovely witness to the power of grace when faith gives the victory in what had been one's weakness, and sin, and shame. And so, if Abraham gives the name to his son, Sarah needs no prophet, but explains the mind of God in it for herself, and forever.
Grace leaves her not just glad, but wise.
From now on Sarah, old as she was, has become a child of wisdom; and wisdom is proved right by all her children.
Abraham was a hundred before the promise arrived. One commentator sees in that long wait a picture of a much longer one.
Faith — Abraham's faith — had waited long, until he was 100 years old. Yet grace, seen in Sarah, bore the fruit that God had promised at last. This pictures how believers all through the Old Testament waited for centuries. Then the grace of God came to its full and beautiful fruit in the birth of the Lord Jesus. What an answer to their patient waiting in faith!
- Impossible. No man would have said Sarah would nurse a child. Only God said it, and only the Almighty could carry it out.
- Dead. Both parents were past having children. Isaac came on the principle of resurrection: life where nature had nothing left to give.
- Faithful. Sarah's faith was not "Can it be?" but "He said it, so it shall be." She judged God faithful, and He gave the strength she no longer had.
- Laughter. The woman who once laughed in unbelief now explains God's mind in her son's name. That is what grace does with old weakness and shame.
- Waited. Faith waited until Abraham was a hundred, and grace then bore the promised fruit — long waiting answered at last in the birth of the Lord Jesus.
And the child grew, and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Abraham's promised son has grown past infancy, and the household stops to celebrate. A feast for a weaning looks like a small family detail. Commentators find much more in it: the joy of a kept promise, and the moment every rival claim in the house comes into the open.
The birth of Isaac had already filled Abraham's tent with laughter, and this day adds a second celebration to the first.
We get both the birth and the weaning. Each of these events was the occasion of joy in the house of the father. The child born was called "laughter," the child weaned was celebrated by a feast.
This is the first time the Bible speaks of weaning. One writer treats that opening scene as God's full thought on it: a house whose laughter has changed character.
It has often been said that the first reference to a matter in Scripture gives us the full thought of God about it. So there is great blessedness in seeing that this first reference to weaning describes a scene of holy mirth and joy. I have no doubt that this is the day which in a moral sense was in the heart of Abraham. It is the day the Lord Jesus refers to when He said, "Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad." Through the exercise of weaning, Abraham's home was filled not with the laughter of irony or unbelief that had marked it before, but with the laughter of holy mirth. It is a laugh that spreads. Once it has a place in our own hearts it will reach others, as Sarah said, "everyone who hears will laugh over me."
A weaned child no longer feeds at the breast. For believers, that step pictures growing out of infancy into the settled knowledge that they are God's children.
It is the father's joy to have children. It is his further joy that his children should know themselves to be children. This was the birth and the weaning of Isaac in the Book of Genesis. All of this comes up again in the letter to the Galatians. We are weaned as well as born. Paul was in labour for them again. As he says: "my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!" ... Paul longed and laboured that they might be brought into the Isaac-state, the liberty of knowing themselves adopted.
Some writers read the stages of Isaac's life as a map of a larger story.
The teaching pictured in the weaning feast is of striking importance. In the unfolding of God's ways, the birth of Christ is foreshadowed in the birth of Isaac; then the death of the Lord Jesus is pictured in Isaac's circumcision. The weaning of Isaac therefore would speak of the establishing of Christianity as seen in the book of Acts.
Others read the feast as a turning point in the life of a soul.
The "great feast" which Abraham provides stands for that wonderful day in the history of the soul. It is the day when Christ is acknowledged as the only One to have the place of unchallenged supremacy. Some have called it the "coronation day." It pictures "Christ's day," when He shall be supreme and without a rival.
One writer traces the same picture from Abraham's house into everyday Christian life.
You see in the picture that when Isaac was weaned there was a great feast; he was to have a recognised position. Ishmael and Isaac had been going on together, as is the case with many believers. Ishmael was Abraham's son by natural birth, brought up in his house. Once you have acknowledged Christ, you will not have a good conscience if you stop doing so. There is a moment when you have done it, but if tomorrow you are drawn away by Ishmael, you will not be happy until Christ is restored to His right place in your heart; you will be like a bird with a wounded wing.
The celebration does not end in unbroken harmony. Honouring the heir brings Ishmael's true feelings to the surface.
But there is one discordant voice heard among the rejoicings of the great feast — Ishmael mocks! When Isaac is given his rightful place, the true character of Ishmael is exposed... If we insist that man after the flesh must go, and that Christ alone must have first place, we shall find that Ishmael is still a mocker. The flesh in us cannot bear the thought of being set aside; but it must go!
- Promise — the birth brought laughter into the father's house; the weaning brought a feast. Two joys over one promised son.
- Weaning — the first mention of weaning in the Bible is a scene of holy joy, and that joy spreads to everyone who hears.
- Growth — believers are weaned as well as born. They leave infancy for the settled liberty of knowing they are God's children.
- Coronation — the feast marks the day the heir is acknowledged, the day Christ is given a place with no rival.
- Exposure — when the heir is honoured, the mocker shows himself. The flesh cannot bear being set aside, so it must go.
And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.
Abraham held a feast on the day Isaac was weaned, and one boy in the household would not join the joy. What Sarah saw that day shaped the rest of Abraham's family story.
(The ESV says "laughing." Older translations say "mocking," and the writers quoted here use that older word.)
The same event drew two opposite reactions under one roof. One writer puts the contrast at the centre of the scene:
The arrival of such a child marked a great turning point. And it was soon found that he was set for a sign that would be spoken against, as well as for the joy of the chosen. Abraham makes a feast, but Ishmael mocks over the same event. Here was the revealing of hearts. One taunts what the other glories in. But Sarah is bolder still. She will not just share Abraham's joy; she would judge the scorners. "Cast out the slave woman and her son," she says. Here was another heart revealed. She would sweep out everything that could disturb Isaac's full and unrivalled heirship.
Ishmael had long lived in Abraham's household without any recorded trouble. What changed was the public honour now given to the younger son:
There came a day when "a great feast" is made in honour of the heir. This honour put on the heir stirs up jealousy and hatred in those who had long held a place in Abraham's household.
Ishmael's character had not changed that day; it had only become visible. The writers read the two sons, and their two mothers, as a picture:
Sarah stands for the covenant of grace; Hagar for the covenant of law. Hagar's son also pictures the flesh. Isaac pictures the nature that grace gives. Ishmael shows his true character. As long as there was no Isaac, we hear nothing of Ishmael. The presence of Isaac makes known what was in the son of the slave woman. The presence of the new nature makes known what the flesh really is.
Isaac was the child God had promised, not a prize Abraham earned. That is what the mockery targets:
He looks at Isaac as worthless and unimportant. He mocks Sarah's old age, next to the strength and good looks of Hagar. "So also it is now." There is nothing man's nature dislikes more than grace. He cannot bear the thought that God makes one person differ from another, and that man does not make that difference himself. Man naturally frets more against God's grace than against His holiness. He assumes that by some method of his own he can meet God's holiness. But grace is God's ability to meet man in his greatest need, and to bless him beyond words.
Genesis calls it mocking. Paul calls the same act persecution:
"But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now" (Galatians 4:29). The Spirit of God saw in the mocking of Ishmael an expression of the deep-rooted hatred of flesh toward Spirit. Paul knew much of this. Had he been a preacher of circumcision, he would have been spared much. That would have put honour on the first man, and no persecution would have followed for him.
The pattern did not stop with Ishmael:
On the day when Isaac was weaned, Ishmael mocked. It is the same now: the one born according to the flesh, under the bondage of law, will persecute the one born after the Spirit, in the liberty of grace. The flesh and the Spirit are always opposed. It was so in Abraham's house, it is so in the world, and even in the heart of the believer.
Sarah's demand looks harsh. Yet God told Abraham to listen to her:
It is all the more instructive and important to notice that here Abraham was weak, and Sarah strong. He did not give glory to God as she did. So God called on Abraham to listen to Sarah's voice… She was in the secret of the Lord more deeply than her husband, while he gave the claims of flesh too much room.
The same clash meets anyone who gives Christ first place:
Bringing in the true Isaac, and giving Him undisputed first place, exposes all that man is after the flesh. It stirs up the deep hostility of his heart. If we insist that man after the flesh must go, and that Christ alone must have first place, we shall find that Ishmael is still a mocker.
- Feast — Public honour to the promised heir triggered the mocking. Until Abraham celebrated Isaac, no one heard a word about Ishmael.
- Exposure — The new nature does not reform the old. It shows what the old always was.
- Grace — The mockery resents a blessing man did not earn and cannot claim by right.
- Persecution — Genesis says "mocked." Paul calls it persecution — the pattern for how flesh treats Spirit ever since.
- Decision — Sarah judged rightly where Abraham was weak, and God backed her. What mocks the heir cannot share his inheritance.
And she said to Abraham, Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son -- with Isaac.
At Isaac's weaning feast, Sarah demands that the slave woman and her son leave the house for good. Her words sound like a jealous mother's outburst. Scripture later treats them as a settled rule about who inherits, and why.
The feast honoured Isaac. That honour brought something ugly into the open.
But there is one voice out of tune among the rejoicings of the great feast — Ishmael mocks! When Isaac is given his rightful place, the true character of Ishmael is exposed. In the same way, the true Isaac is brought in and given first place beyond dispute. That exposes all that man is in the flesh. It stirs up the deep hatred of his heart. If we insist that man in the flesh must go, and that Christ alone must have first place, we will find that Ishmael is still a mocker. The flesh in us cannot bear the thought of being set aside. But it must go!
The gap between the two boys made the scorn easy.
In Abraham's house, where he first appears, he was insolent. Isaac was little more than a feeble infant when he was a sturdy youth of fourteen. He plays with this newly weaned child; he mocks Isaac, who was an easy target for him. The flesh, or the strength of nature, might well despise Isaac, for he was a child and could not speak. He was weakness itself in the hand of his older brother. He is too weak to do anything for himself; someone else must take up his cause.
Sarah spoke, but the New Testament treats the sentence as coming from a higher source than a wife's demand.
God Himself stepped in to tell Abraham not to be grieved at acting on Sarah's word. However he felt about it, his feelings were not to rule in this matter... In fact, Galatians 4:30 calls Sarah's words "Scripture": "What does Scripture say? 'Cast out the slave woman and her son.'" In other words, it was God who put those words on Sarah's lips.
On this occasion the wife saw further than the husband.
Here is something instructive and important: Abraham was weak in this matter, and Sarah was strong. He did not give glory to God as she did; so God called on Abraham to listen to Sarah's voice... Abraham must not treat Sarah's feeling as mere offended pride. She was not just a mistress who could not put up with the airs of an ambitious, mocking Ishmael. She shared the Lord's secret more deeply than her husband did. He was allowing the claims of the flesh more than he should. The plan to send the slave woman's son out of the house grieved him.
The reason given is inheritance. Writers turn to Galatians 4 to explain it.
In his Letter to the Galatians, the apostle asks us to see in these two children "the two covenants": one producing bondage, the other liberty. He also asks us to see in them samples of Abraham's fleshly seed and spiritual seed. The first was "born according to the flesh," the second "born according to the Spirit." Nothing could be sharper than the dividing line between the two covenants and the two seeds. They are completely distinct from each other, and can never by any process be made to blend.
The refusal is not of the person only, but of a partnership.
Grace refuses partnership with law or flesh. The child of promise alone inherits.
Nobody suggests reforming Ishmael. The answer is removal.
The birth of Isaac did not improve Ishmael; it only brought out his real opposition to the child of promise. He might have carried on quietly and properly until Isaac appeared. But then he showed what he was. He persecuted and mocked the child of resurrection. So what was the remedy? To make Ishmael better? Not at all... Here was the only remedy. "What is crooked cannot be made straight." So get rid of the crooked thing altogether. Then give your attention to what God Himself has made straight.
Obeying cost Abraham something real.
It was very painful work for Abraham to have to thrust out his son. "The thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son." But it made no difference. Ishmael had to go, because the son of a slave woman could never inherit promises made only to the spiritual seed. If Ishmael had been kept, it would have been an open allowance of the claims of the flesh. Abraham would have found something "according to the flesh," and so would have had grounds to boast.
- Honour — Isaac's weaning feast gave the heir his place, and that place drew Ishmael's mockery into the open.
- Exposure — the mocking did not create the problem. It revealed a character that had stayed quiet until Isaac came.
- Authority — Galatians calls Sarah's demand "Scripture." The words are God's, not a household quarrel.
- Separation — the two sons picture two covenants and two seeds. They never mix. Nothing mends the flesh; it must go, and the child of promise alone inherits.
- Cost — Abraham grieved, but obeyed. Keeping Ishmael would have meant keeping a claim of the flesh in the house.
And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
Sarah demanded that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away, and it wounded him, because Ishmael was his own son. Here God's purpose cuts straight across a father's love, and older translations put it strongly: the thing was "very grievous in Abraham's sight."
Abraham's grief was genuine, but it was not Abraham at his best. God tells the husband to listen to his wife.
It is even more instructive and important to notice this: in this matter Abraham was weak, and Sarah strong. He did not give glory to God as she did; so God called on Abraham to listen to Sarah's voice... She was let into the Lord's secret more deeply than her husband. He was allowing the claims of the flesh more room than he should, and the plan to send the servant's son out of the house grieved him.
God does not argue with Abraham's feelings. He gives a reason that stands above them, and He stands behind the words Sarah spoke.
Abraham found this extremely hard to do, because, after all, Ishmael was actually his son (v. 11). So God Himself stepped in to tell him not to be grieved at acting on Sarah's word. However he felt about it, his feelings were not to rule in this matter. The reason he must put Hagar and Ishmael out is told him plainly: "through Isaac shall your offspring be named" (v. 12). Again we get the clear message that grace and law cannot be mixed. In fact, Galatians 4:30 calls Sarah's words "scripture": "What does the Scripture say? 'Cast out the slave woman and her son.'" In other words, it was God who put those words into Sarah's lips.
The pain was unavoidable, because of what keeping Ishmael would have meant.
But it was most painful work for Abraham to have to thrust out his son this way. "The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son." But it made no difference. Ishmael had to go, because the son of a servant woman could never inherit promises made only to the spiritual seed. If Abraham had kept Ishmael, it would have been an open allowance of the claims of the flesh. He would have found something gained by the flesh, and so would have had something to boast about.
One writer turns the scene on the reader. What Abraham felt about his son, we feel about the law we will not let go.
It was indeed "grievous" to Abraham to cast them out; it went against his feelings and affections to do so. But it was no more "grievous" to Abraham to do this than it is for us to turn the law out of doors. It clings to us so tightly. It seems so grievous to give up the works of our own hands and to renounce what we have been proudest of. But until Hagar is gone, there is and can be no peace in Abraham's house. Until we give up the law completely, along with every hope we place in it, there is no peace in the soul. As Scripture says, "since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God."
Abraham's sorrow did not stop him. The next morning shows what faith does with a hard word.
Here was a severe test for Abraham. "The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son." Yet he responded to it. He made the renunciation. "Abraham rose up early in the morning" — here we see the energy of his faith.
Another writer names both the cost and where it leads.
To refuse the flesh will call for self-denial, and this involves suffering. So casting out the slave woman was "grievous in Abraham's sight." Yet God reminds him that all blessing is tied to Isaac.
The ones sent away did not drop out of God's care.
Hagar and Ishmael stood for something unhappy in this picture, and they belonged to the world rather than to the house of faith. Yet they were needy creatures, and as such objects of mercy.
- Grief is real. The verse does not hide Abraham's pain. But his feeling ran with the flesh, while Sarah was closer to God's mind.
- Grief is overruled. God does not remove the sorrow. He gives a reason above it — "through Isaac shall your offspring be named" — and He claims Sarah's demand as His own word.
- Grief has a cause. Keeping Ishmael would have been an open allowance of the claims of the flesh, giving Abraham something to boast in.
- Grief is ours too. Letting go of what we have prided ourselves in feels just as hard — and until it goes, there is no peace in the soul.
- Grief ends in blessing. Abraham rose early and obeyed. Mercy still reached the ones he sent away, and all blessing stayed tied to Isaac.
And God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy handmaid [in] all that Sarah hath said to thee hearken to her voice, for in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee.
God tells Abraham to do the one thing his heart refuses: send away his own son. He gives a reason: the promise runs through Isaac alone, and the rest of the Bible keeps coming back to that one line.
God was not asking Abraham to feel differently. He was asking him to act on a word that cut across his feelings.
Abraham found this extremely hard to do, because, after all, Ishmael was actually his son (v.11). Therefore God Himself stepped in to tell him not to be grieved in acting on Sarah's word. However he felt about it, his feelings were not to rule in this matter.
The pain was real. God did not remove it. He overruled it.
But it was most painful work for Abraham to thrust out his son. "The thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son." Yet it made no difference. Abraham had to put him out, because the son of a slave woman could never inherit promises made only to the spiritual seed. Keeping Ishmael would have been an open allowance of the claims of the flesh. Abraham would have found something "as pertaining to the flesh." He would then have had something to boast about.
God tells Abraham to listen to Sarah. In this moment it was she, not he, who gave God the glory.
Notice something instructive and important here: in this transaction Abraham was weak, and Sarah strong. He did not give glory to God as she did. So God called on Abraham to listen to Sarah's voice, whatever the natural submission of wife to husband might be. It is that very submission in which the apostle Peter points to this same Sarah as an excellent pattern for Christian women. But here the weaker vessel was by grace the stronger of the two.
Her demand was not a wounded mistress settling a score. The New Testament treats it as God's own verdict.
When Galatians 4:30 refers to this matter, it calls Sarah's words "Scripture": "But what does the Scripture say? 'Cast out the slave woman and her son.'" In other words, it was God who put those words into Sarah's lips.
God's reason is not Ishmael's conduct. One son came from human effort, the other from God's promise.
The apostle quotes the saying recorded in Genesis 21:12: "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." His inspired comment on this is: "This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring." The flesh can produce nothing except what is flesh… God knew it was a corrupt source and therefore a source of nothing but corruption. So He passed by Ishmael, the child of the flesh. His election rested on Isaac, the child of promise — the son who owed his origin to the resurrection power of God, shown in His promise of earlier years.
The difference between the two sons runs deeper than family history.
One son was by a slave woman, the other by a free woman; one born after the flesh, the other by promise, and the two mothers stand for the two covenants… Grace refuses partnership with law or flesh. The child of promise alone inherits.
One house cannot hold both freedom and bondage. Someone has to speak, and someone will be grieved.
But there must be liberty in the house for all who are of God, and no entangling with the yoke of bondage. Every remnant of law, world, and flesh must be expelled, and only what is of promise may remain… Then comes the decisive moment. What is of the flesh persecutes what is of the Spirit. Grace enables the Sarahs to speak out, and God will have it heard and acted on, though an Abraham may be grieved.
Choosing Isaac was not the same as discarding Ishmael.
For Abraham's sake Ishmael does not go without His blessing. He fathers twelve princes and becomes a great nation. …So a saint's reasonings fall, and God's will alone stands — even in blessing outside the covenant of promise.
That one sentence is what made God's later command to sacrifice Isaac so hard. The promise itself hung on this son.
"Your son" — this word stirred in Abraham the tenderest of feelings; and he had to sacrifice that son! And more: this name reminded him of the promises of God. It was in this son that God would fulfil them, for He had plainly told him, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."
- Promise, not production. Ishmael came from Abraham's own effort; Isaac came from God's word. Only what God promises can inherit what God promises.
- Promise overrules feeling. Abraham's grief was real. God did not deny it. He told him not to let it rule.
- Promise speaks through Sarah. God directs Abraham to his wife's voice, and the New Testament calls her words Scripture.
- Promise refuses partners. Law and flesh cannot share the house with grace; the child of promise alone is heir.
- Promise still blesses the outsider. Ishmael is sent out yet made a nation — God's choosing of one is not the abandoning of the other.