Hello and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight, is study #15 of Genesis, chapter 21.  We have been reading Genesis 21:8-11:

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.

From this passage, we have taken a trip to a couple of other places in the Bible, including Hebrews 5:12-14:

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

I will stop reading there.  We have been discussing a few things here.  Last time we looked at the word translated as “full age,” and we saw how God uses this to relate to the two stages of the New Testament era, one stage is of childhood and one stage is of adulthood, as it were.  There are those that are “children” in understanding and there are those that are “grown up” in understanding, the latter of which would be God’s people that are living on the earth at this time of the end.

Notice that God says that “strong meat” belongs to them that are of “full age” or “perfect.”  The word translated as “strong meat” is Strong’s #4731.  It is translated as “sure” in 2Timothy 2:19:

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

It says, “the foundation of God standeth sure,” and Christ is that foundation.  He is the Rock.  This verse is referring to Christ.  The foundation is extremely secure, trustworthy and faithful, and the word “sure” points to this fact.

In 1Peter this same Greek word is translated another way, in 1Peter 5:9:

Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

The word translated as “steadfast” is our word.  It is sure and solid, like Christ the Rock.  This is the word that God is using to speak of “strong meat” in Hebrews 5:14: “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age…”  It is “sure” meat.  It is “steadfast” meat.  And the “meat” has to do with doctrine, so what the Lord is saying is that these things are true and faithful.  They are trustworthy.  They are sure.  When you first hear them, they may sound almost foreign.  I know when I first heard some of the doctrines we have learned in the last few years, they sounded so unusual and almost like they could not be correct.  For example, when I first heard the doctrine of the end of the church age and we should not be in a corporate church, I did not fully understand it.  Or, when I heard the doctrine that “hell” was not a place of eternal suffering, but it is the grave or eternal death, I thought, “What?  Is this true?  Is this really what the Bible teaches?”  Because we had been taught so long by the churches the “milk” of the Word, we thought the doctrines were truth and not to be questioned.  Or, when we first heard that Christ performed His atoning work from the foundation of the world and not at the cross in 33 A.D., the way it struck us at first just did not sound right.  But then the Bible has proven these things and confirmed them, and God humbles us under His mighty Word and we submit to these truths.  Then as we study these things further, we find that these doctrines are “plain as day,” as the Bible teaches these truths in many places.

It is “strong meat” or sure and steadfast meat.  The “meat” does not have to be a complete roast.  For example, it says in Matthew 3:4:

And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

He was not eating steak.  His meat was locusts and wild honey.  And “wild honey” was included as part of his meat.  There is an historic parable in Acts 27 that describes a shipwreck.  The shipwreck spiritually illustrates the destruction of the churches at the time of the end when God brought judgment upon the “house of God,” the corporate churches.  Significantly, at the point in this narrative where the ship is being destroyed, the Apostle Paul comes forth with some bread.  We should not miss how “meat” comes to light at this juncture in this true historical tale.  Very shortly, they would leave the ship and go to an island, a picture of coming out of the churches and going out into the world.  This all related to them taking some “meat,” in Acts 27:33-38:

And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat. And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.

It shortly led to them leaving the ship and making it to shore.  They took bread, and the bread is the “meat.”  Of course, we can see how bread relates to the Bible and to doctrine.  Remember what Jesus said to His apostles after He had warned them about the “leaven of the Pharisees.”  They reasoned that it was because they had not brought bread.  Christ had not told them He was speaking a parable, which demonstrates the nature of the whole Bible, so  Jesus corrected them with the deeper spiritual meaning.  The “bread” was not physical bread but it was the “doctrine” of the Pharisees. 

So, when they that were on the ship ate some bread or took some meat, they learned “doctrine,” because the destruction of this ship was pointing to the end of the church age and the time when God would unseal His Word and open the Scriptures to bring forth “strong meat” or doctrine that would enlighten, strengthen and give His people direction in what they should do. 

After eating, they came out of the ship that was now good for nothing – it was shipwrecked.  They went to the island of Malta, which pictures the world.  So, too, God’s people ate of the “meat” of the Word of God at the proper time and season at the time of the end.  The book had been unsealed, just as Joseph unlocked the storehouses where he had stored grain during the years of plenty and he used the grain to feed the people during the years of famine.  There was corn in Egypt.  It is the same idea, spiritually, as the bread.  What happened when his people heard there was corn in Egypt?  They were manipulated by Joseph to come out of the land of Canaan and enter into Egypt, a picture of leaving the corporate churches and going out into the world, as typified by Egypt.  And there was the bread, the spiritual food for God’s elect people.

We will go to one more verse that relates the Word of God to “meat,” in Job 34:2-3:

Hear my words, O ye wise men; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge. For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.

We can see why God would use the picture of “meat” to refer to His Word, the Bible.  We do not literally eat the Bible.  We do not carve it up and swallow the pages.  But we hear what it says, and the Word of God enters our ears.  Our ears receive the Word like our mouths receive meat.  That is the reason God uses this analogy in likening His doctrine to meat.

There is another Scripture that relates meat to doctrine.  It is a different word for “meat,” but it is the same idea.  It says in Hebrews 13:9:

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

First, God spoke of various strange doctrines and then He quickly transitions to a discussion of “meats.”  We will not take the time to look at his again, but we could also look the vision given to Peter of unclean animals when the Lord commanded, “Rise, Peter, slay and eat.”  That was “meat” and God used that to paint a picture of the Gentiles being fellowheirs with the Jews, because the Gentiles were thought to be “unclean.”  But that was “meat” that God used to teach doctrine.

This is the reason that moving on to “strong meat” is essential and necessary for anyone who is truly born again. 

Going back to Genesis 21, it says in Genesis 21:8-10:

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 Isaa.

We have discussed, in Galatians 4, how the two women and their two sons represent two covenants, and how they were together.  Both women lived in Abraham’s household with their sons for a time and, yet, there came the time of weaning (coming off the “milk”), and that was the time Ishmael very unwisely chose to mock.  He mocked the fact that the little boy Isaac was moving on to “strong meat.”  We do not know the details about this mocking, but we know it was during the feast to celebrate Isaac being weaned.  Perhaps, Isaac had been set down with some “meat” and he was enjoying it.  For whatever reason, Ishmael started to laugh.  The word “mocking” is the same word translated as “laugh.”  It is the same word used of Abraham and Sarah when they were told they would have a son in their old age.  So, Ishmael is laughing at his half-brother Isaac when Isaac was moving on to meat. 

Historically, he may have had a reason to laugh, but Sarah took opportunity to bring up the fact that it was time to cast out the bondwoman and her son, saying he would not be an heir with her son Isaac.  Spiritually, it is a picture of those within the churches and congregations (the wheat and the tares) that were growing together, like Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau.  The Bible paints this same picture in various ways.  But, here, it was Ishmael and Isaac in the household of Abraham and they were dwelling together.

But something was changing.  Isaac was coming off the milk and moving on to the meat.  At that point, Ishmael mocked.  And it was also at that point that Hagar and Ishmael were cast out.   We can see how that fits in so well with the many verses we read about not being “children” in understanding, but to be “men.”  It is time to move on to perfection.  It is time to grow up.  There was partial understanding when we were a child.  But then the Bible says, “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”  And “that which is perfect” is the Holy Spirit.  When He came to instruct us by opening the Scriptures to reveal all these wonderful truths, then we move on to strong meat. 

But that was also the time when the natural-minded people still in the churches would mock.  They mocked the understanding that the people of God had come to understand.  Of course, that has been our experience, has it not?  With every “new” truth God has opened in His Word, there has been mocking and ridiculing, without fail.  It is getting progressively worse, so we can see why God would go along with Sarah’s request to cast out the bondwoman.  The time of the two dwelling together and raising their children together is done – it is past.  It cannot happen any longer because God has determined that the time of the end is the time to bring forth the “strong meat” of His Word to His people as they move on to perfection.  That cannot be done if we continue to share “room and board” with those of another covenant.  They are children of the bondwoman.  They are children of a gospel of works, and not of the Gospel of grace.  So, the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, arranged things to separate His people and bring them out.

Yes – I know the elect came out or were cast out of the churches and the bondwoman was cast out of Abraham’s home, so it would seem to be reversed.  But we must understand that Abraham’s home would represent the kingdom of God and they have been cast out of the kingdom of God, spiritually, because their only claim to it had to do with the outward representation that the corporate church had with the kingdom of God.  But they were never truly citizens of the heavenly kingdom of God.  One must be saved to have one’s citizenship in heaven, so the Lord cast them out from all relationship to His kingdom.  That is what is in view with the casting out of Hagar and her son, but it had to be done.  It appears to be cruel, but for spiritual purposes, it was needful that Hagar and Ishmael be cast out.

Lord willing, we will try to see where all this leads us when we get together in our next Bible study.