Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #23 of Genesis, chapter 21.  I am going to read Genesis 21:14-16:

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

We have been carefully considering what the Lord has said here.  Remember that this is all related to the time of Isaac’s weaning, which we have learned has to do with the time of the end when the Lord would open the Scriptures to “mature” His people, because God likened the church age to a time of “childhood” and the time of the end to a time of “maturity,” as His people moved from the milk of the Word to the meat of the Word.   In this case, Isaac represented the body of Christ as He moved on from his mother’s milk to “strong meat.” 

It was at that time Sarah said to her husband, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.”  After the Lord confirmed Sarah’s words, Abraham hearkened to her and he gave Hagar a bottle of water and sent her out of the camp into the wilderness.  The wilderness was a hot and thirsty land.  It says that she “wandered in the wilderness.”  The word translated as “wandered” is Strong’s #8582 and it is a word that is translated as “go astray.”  It indicates that someone is off the path of keeping the Word.  The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”  We have transgressed God’s commandments and offended Him by sinning against Him.  So, this is significant that God is speaking of Hagar and her son Ishmael as wandering in the wilderness outside the camp.  It is a picture that emphasizes that when God makes it known that Hagar represents man’s “works,” as she represents mount Sinai in Arabia where the Law of God was given; her son Ishmael is the son of this bondwoman which points to someone born through a “works gospel” or someone that is not born again and is only a professed Christian. God let it be known that her works were not acceptable, and He drove her out through the action of Abraham.  It was really God indicating that the covenant of works is not acceptable, just as He drove Cain out when his works were not acceptable.

So, Hagar was going astray in the wilderness.  It is as if people under that type of covenant do not know what to do.  Going astray in the wilderness could be a good thing insofar as they might finally realize that they are sinning against God and going the wrong way.  It says that she wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.  Then it says in Genesis 21:15:

And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

The word “bottle” is only used a handful of times.  It is also found in Habakkuk 2:15:

Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

Woe is him that gives his neighbor drink for the purpose of looking upon his “nakedness.”  We can see here that it is not like offering a bottle of cold water to quench the thirst of a sinner; that is, it is not pointing to the pure Gospel that would satisfy the spiritual thirst of an individual.  He is giving his neighbor drink to look upon his nakedness.  Obviously, it is another kind of gospel in that “bottle.”  Hagar’s “bottle” was spent.  The word “spent” has to do with being “consumed.”  It is a word that relates in a couple of places to a famine, so her water has been consumed; it is gone.  It is finished.  She has no more water to offer her child Ishmael, who was born of her.  Again, the Lord is indicating that at the time of the end He would open the Scriptures, which began at the time of the end with the judgment upon the churches when He let it be known to those in the churches that their works were not acceptable to Him.  Basically, God was saying, “I do not care if you call yourself a Christian.  I do not care that you were baptized with water.  I do not care that you partake of the Lord’s Table.  I do not care that you give of your resources to your church.  I do not care if your pastor thinks you are an outstanding member of the church and that he thinks you are on your way to heaven.  I do not care about any works that are not the works of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Your works are filthy works.”  The Bible tells us, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”  God does not accept any of the typical works that those in the churches would offer.  Remember when these people come to the Lord Jesus in the last days when the door has been shut?  Let me read one place this is found, in Matthew 7:21-23:

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Christ tells them to depart from Him, just as Hagar and Ishmael were told to depart from the camp of Abraham, according to the will of God.  God told him, “Listen to what Sarah told you.  Cast out the bondwoman and her son.”  You see, when God opened the Scriptures, He revealed the end of the church age and, amazingly, He revealed that it was the time of the separation of the wheat and the tares.  And all those that would stay in the churches and refuse to hearken to His voice and His commandment to depart out of the midst would be bundled as tares for the burning, which means they would not be saved.  They would experience the wrath of God. 

Again, those in the churches said, “Lord, Lord!  We have done this and that.  We have been a faithful member of this church for forty or fifty years.  How can you say these things?”  It is because the time had come to show who would receive the blessing and who would not.  It was the time to show which covenant God would accept and which covenant He would not accept; He does not accept the covenant represented by Hagar.  He accepts the covenant of promise, or the covenant of which Isaac was born. 

So, Hagar was driven out into the wilderness.  The hope we had for people at that time was that they would realize the truth of what God was saying concerning the judgment upon the corporate churches and concerning the necessity to come under the Gospel of grace and to be born of promise and not of works.  However, most people that populated the congregations refused to hearken and refused to acknowledge these things were the truth.  They refused to obey God because they trusted in their works: their church attendance; their claim to be Christians; their membership and their names in the rolls of the Lutheran Church or the Catholic Church, and so forth.  They trusted in the assurance of their pastors, elders or deacons that they were a child of God and certainly blessed because they had “accepted Christ” or because they had been “water baptized,” as was the case in some churches.  Or, they trusted in a church that told them, “You are members in good standing that are partaking of the Lord’s Table, and grace has been imparted to you and your children.”  To leave the churches meant that the pastor would think they were heretics, and heretics are not saved.  That church would no longer keep them on the church roll, so they thought, “If I am not a member of the church, I will not go to heaven.  It will mean my (water) baptism was insignificant and I can no longer partake of the Lord’s Table.”  So, they feared the thoughts of men.  They feared being cast out of the congregation more than they feared God, just like Israel before them.  Many in Israel believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and knew that only someone of God could do such miracles and, yet, they feared to confess Him because they would be cast out of the synagogue.  They valued the membership in the synagogue more than the spiritual membership in the city of God. 

Likewise, the professed population of those that fill the congregations of the world valued their earthly membership in their denomination over and above heavenly citizenship in the eternal kingdom of God.  That was viewed by them as a “light thing” in comparison to losing membership in a physical, outward corporate church.

This is all in view, as well as people involved in other religions that perform good works to get right with God, especially the Islam or Muslim religion.  They have their clerks.  They have their leaders, just like Israel had rabbis and just like the corporate churches had pastors and elders.  In the religion of Islam, they laid out all the works that must be performed to be accepted by God and to enter into the kingdom of heaven.  Ishmael is the progenitor and many in the Muslim religion are descendants of Ishmael; and God had a plan to save a good number of his descendants.  If they trusted in their works, they would find themselves in the wilderness at a time when God sent forth His Word outside of the corporate churches.  He sent His Word to the nations and people of other religions had “opportunity,” as it were, to become saved, because God sent forth the Latter Rain.  It was the purest form of the Gospel that had ever gone forth into the world and it went forth over the course of that “little season” during the approximate 17 years of the second part of the Great Tribulation. 

The Gospel was going out into the nations of the world where these other religions, like the Buddhists, the Muslims and the Shintoists were found, and it was possible for them to receive a tract or receive an internet or radio message that told them Judgment Day was coming on May 21, 2011, the time when God would cease to save anyone after that day.  It was possible for them to stay in their religion and God could open their spiritual ears while they were still in their religion.  That was a blessing because that was not possible for those professed Christians that stayed in the Christian churches and congregations.  God’s Spirit had abandoned the churches and Satan’s spirit had entered in, so God was not there to save anyone.  It was a necessity, therefore, if anyone was to become saved, they would have had to come out of the churches into the world where they could potentially become saved. 

But, again, that requirement was not necessary for a Muslim.  He did not have to come out of his site of worship and neither did other religions, because God was not judging their “houses,” but He was judging the “house of God,” the corporate (Christian) churches.  So, the Gospel went forth and God began to work in the lives of a great multitude of people across the face of the earth.  According to what the Bible says, a good number of them would have been “sons of Ishmael” or descendants of Ishmael.  But it was first necessary for their gospel of works to end and they would need to come to the realization there was nothing they could do to get themselves saved.

That was Hagar’s situation.  She was certain her son Ishmael would die, but it says in Genesis 21:17-19:

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

This is a wonderful thing for Hagar and Ishmael.  They had been hopeless.  There was no hope in the situation they were in and, yet, we read in verse 17: “And God heard the voice of the lad.”  Notice it does not say that He heard the voice of Hagar, but it was Hagar that lifted up her voice and wept.  So, in the next verse we would expect to hear that God heard her voice, but it does not say that.  It says, “And God heard the voice of the lad.”  We wonder why.  The reason was that God made the promise to Abraham regarding Ishmael in Genesis 17:18-20:

And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

God said, “I have heard thee.”  What was Abraham’s request?  Abraham had requested, “O that Ishmael might live fore thee!”  We spent some time looking at the name “Ishmael,” which means “God has heard.”  Ishmael was out in the wilderness and things looked bad.  It was an awful situation – the water was gone.  Then we find that Hagar was at her wit’s end as she lifted up her voice, weeping.  And God heard the voice of the lad.  This goes back to Abraham’s prayer or plea. 

You know, the word “prayer” means “to ask,” and Abraham was asking God that Ishmael might live.  Abraham was a type of God Himself.  And God said, “I have heard thee.” When it comes to salvation, does God hear the voice of the sinner or does He hear the voice of Christ praying on the sinner’s behalf?  The answer is that Christ first hears the voice of Christ as Christ makes intercession and prays on behalf of specific sinners – those chosen before the foundation of the world and whose sins were laid upon Him and for whom He died and rose again.  When Christ prayed for them, which He essentially did when He bore their sins at the foundation of the world, God heard that prayer and heard the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ prays for His elect, as it says in John 17:8-9:

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

Christ prays specifically for them – not for the world.  This is a spiritual picture.  There is no real indicator that the man Ishmael was born again in his soul, but those he represents would be many of his descendants at the time of the end of the world.  God had made promise that He would save many of them, so He says, “I have heard the voice of the lad.”  Christ is the one that first made the prayer, but because He has done so, at some point in the lives of the elect God would hear their voice through Christ.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study we are going to look at this a little more.  There is a wonderful illustration of salvation that is taking place in Genesis 21.  When God has ceased to save and there is no more salvation, it is a blessing when we can look in the Bible and read of a time when God was saving.