Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight, is study #11 of Genesis, chapter 21.  I am going to read Genesis 21:7-12:

And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age. And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

We are moving along in this chapter, and we have gotten to the point when the promised son had finally come.  He was drinking milk from his mother.  He was feeding upon milk as Sarah gave him suck.  That is the only way we can understand what it said in verse 7: “Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck?”

Again, as I mentioned before, there seemed to have been no difficulty or problem between Sarah and Hagar or between Sarah and Hagar’s son Ishmael until Isaac had grown a bit, as it says in verse 8-9: “And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.”  At the time of the feast given to celebrate Isaac’s weaning, was the time the problem occurred.  To be weaned means that Isaac was coming off the milk.  He was getting too big or too mature to live just on milk.  Everyone knows this – you can give them only milk for so long, and then they must go on to eat solid food.  If a child is four, five or six years old and they are still drinking only milk, there is a very serious problem.  Why have they not moved on to solid food?

People in the world know this and people in the corporate churches understand this, but the people in the corporate churches do not understand that God has a similar plan when it comes to spiritual truth.  There is an initial time when the “milk” of spiritual truth is given, but there comes a point where God indicates that it is time to move from the “milk” of spiritual truth to that which is more comprehensive and deeper.  That is how God pictures His overall program of revealing truth to His people, including those that have an outward relationship to Him, like the corporate churches.  There is a time to give “milk” and then there is a time to give solid food or “strong meat,” as the Bible calls it.

We are going to see how this is laid out by going to some verses.  We will start by turning to 1Samuel 1, where we read of Hannah who also had been barren for a time, but not barren for so long a time as Sarah.  Then God blessed her with a child.  It says in 1Samuel 1:19-28:

And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before JEHOVAH, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and JEHOVAH remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of JEHOVAH. And the man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer unto JEHOVAH the yearly sacrifice, and his vow. But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before JEHOVAH, and there abide for ever. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only JEHOVAH establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of JEHOVAH in Shiloh: and the child was young. And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto JEHOVAH. For this child I prayed; and JEHOVAH hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to JEHOVAH; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to JEHOVAH. And he worshipped JEHOVAH there.

Then Hannah and Elkanah left him there and returned to their home.  Of course, they could not leave a little child that was still receiving milk from his mother.  He had to be independent enough so the priest could set some food in front of him and he could eat and drink.  This helps us to know for sure that the completion of the weaning process is the time when a child is no longer drinking milk from his mother and can eat solid food.

We also find the word “weaned” in Psalm 131:1-2:

JEHOVAH, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

Here, God is making another application.  He is not speaking of a physical baby, but he is speaking of a person whose spiritual condition is as a “weaned child.”   Because it speaks of behaving and quieting oneself, one thing we can learn is that someone that is “weaned” from milk will be “quiet” before JEHOVAH.  That is an important truth for us to understand. 

When we come to the Bible, we are like a woman, which is the spiritual reason that God says the woman is not to teach or usurp authority over the man.  A woman is to be “quiet” in the congregation.  A woman is not to teach when men are present because she is an example of all the elect, the bride of Christ, the spiritual woman the Lord purchases as His own to be His bride.  We are to be “quiet” before the Bible, and the only way to do that is to compare spiritual with spiritual and then the Holy Ghost teaches.  Is the Holy Ghost a male or a female?  He is a male.  God constantly uses the figure of a male to refer to Himself.  He is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not “neutral.”  He is also masculine, so the Holy Ghost is the “man” that teaches, and the reader of the Scriptures is to “get out of the way” and to be “quiet.”  We are not to interject or usurp Him with our own ideas, thoughts and conclusions: “This is what I think or feel the Bible is saying.” 

Who cares what a man feels or thinks?  It is worthless.  What we are concerned with is what the “man,” the Holy Ghost, teaches regarding the Scriptures, so we are “quieted” before Him and we are in submission to Him, like a wife is to be in submission to her husband: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.”  The wife waits upon her husband to lead, just as we wait upon the Spirit of God to direct us.  This verse indicates a “weaned” spirit, not someone still on the “milk” of the Word that has not developed spiritually to the point where his spirit is not quieted before God.

Let us go to Isaiah 28 where we can learn something else about this word “weaned.”  It says in Isaiah 28:9-10:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?...

God is asking whom He shall teach knowledge and make to understand doctrine.  We do not understand doctrine because we are smart.  We do not understand right doctrine because of our own ability, like we have any innate wisdom.  You can look back on your life and I can look back on my life, and we will see no innate wisdom.  It is the wisdom of God that He bestows upon His people to give them knowledge and wisdom.  “Whom shall he make to understand doctrine?”  It is by the grace of God, according to His will, if we have any understanding of right doctrine. 

It is no wonder there are so many false doctrines.  It is no wonder that the whole church world has “gone off a cliff” in their blindness, believing the most foolish things imaginable.  It is because they are operating out of their own minds.  That is where man’s mind will lead you – right off a cliff!  It will lead into the depths of hell.  But God had mercy upon a remnant and He causes or makes us to understand right doctrine: "My sheep hear my voice.”  The voice of Christ is the Word of God, the Bible, and we follow it.  As we listen to doctrine, we are listening for how the doctrine was arrived at. 

Some people do understand that we should compare Scripture with Scripture, but then they will add something that just does not harmonize with anything in the Bible and, therefore, the ears of the child of God just will not accept it as right doctrine.  But when doctrine is arrived at by the influence of God as He leads us to compare Scripture with Scripture in a thorough fashion and the conclusions harmonize with the Bible as a whole, the ears of the child of God will hear it: “Yes – that verse fits with it and here is another verse that confirms it.”  The child of God “takes it all in” and our mind thinks of the Scriptures we have learned and when it all fits like pieces of a puzzle, then we accept it.  You know, it is not being “jammed” into a spot where the corner of a puzzle piece is starting to bend because it is being forced.  It fits perfectly and when we see it, we know that God has made us to understand.  He has led us, opened our ears to it and prepared our ears to receive it.  It is all according to His grace and it is all His doing when we understand doctrines, like the end of the church age; or the doctrine of annihilation over and against hell; or the doctrine of the atonement being performed at the foundation of the world; or the doctrine of spiritual judgment that began on May 21, 2011, and so forth.  It is all the grace of God as He mercifully and kindly granted us ears to hear these things.

Again, it says in Isaiah 28:9:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

He that is weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts will understand doctrine and knowledge.  The wise will understand, as Daniel was moved to write.  None of the wicked will understand.  You can see from Isaiah 28:9 that the problem with the entire church world today is that they have remained “babes.”  They are still on mother’s milk, the “milk of the word.”  They have not been drawn from the beasts and, therefore, they fail to understand doctrine and they do not possess knowledge.  Of course, this has to do with the underlying fact that they are unsaved – God has not made them to understand.  On the other hand, the wise will understand because God is in control of the understanding process and He has taken us from the “milk” to the “strong meat.” 

Sometimes, “strong meat” is not a very pleasant experience in a young person’s life.  It is very comforting and comfortable to the baby that has only known milk to continue to feed upon the milk of his mother.  The mother is nourishing and loving, so it is a little “traumatic” when one takes the child from the mother and sets him down at the table to eat food.  So, we can see why some desire to go back to former things, like former doctrines, but it is unseemly.  It would be like a young boy that has been taken from his mother’s breasts and now he is 10 or 15 or 20 years old and he wants to go back and feed upon the milk.  That is exactly what people do when they are returning to the churches.  They want to go back to a “gentler” time period where they felt comfortable.  There were not all these difficulties.  There was no great tribulation and constant affliction.  It was much easier just to drink of the milk.  And, yet, there is no going back.  It is perverse.  When someone has matured and grown, they cannot go back to the mother’s milk.  They must advance and go forward.  And that is always the direction of God’s people: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  Do not go back, like the Israelites in the wilderness wanted to return to Egypt. 

This is very interesting what we read in Isaiah 28, as God goes on to say in Isaiah 28:10:

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

In other words, we must compare Scripture with Scripture, and the Holy Ghost teaches.  And we are “quiet” at that point.  The “man” is teaching, as we quiet and behave ourselves before the Word of God and God Himself.  We wait to hear what He will instruct us.  We wait to hear what knowledge and doctrine He will teach us and make us to understand.  We have talked about this methodology often, and with good reason, because it is God’s method for us to come to truth and to “strong meat” and right doctrine. 

We will discuss the link between “milk” and “strong meat,” as it relates to doctrine when we get together in our next Bible study.