Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #25 of Genesis, chapter 21.  I am going to read Genesis 21:17-21:

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. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

We are looking at a wonderful passage that is teaching us as it brings forth the information that God heard the voice of the lad Ishmael.  Again, the timing was immediately upon the weaning of Isaac which can only identify with the time at the end of the world when God separated the wheat and the tares.  God also made it abundantly clear that the true covenant was the one by promise and all by grace, and it was not the covenant of mount Sinai that was based upon being justified through the works of the Law.  This was never made clear in history, but only recently at the time of the end did God make it perfectly clear.

It was at this point, spiritually, that God said He heard the voice of the lad.  We know He had also said the same thing to Abraham earlier when Abraham made intercession on behalf of Ishmael: “And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!”  And God responded, “And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee.”  God heard Abraham’s prayer requesting that Ishmael would live.  In the Bible, being “alive” has everything to do with salvation.  Abraham was not praying that Ishmael might be made physically alive, because he was already alive physically.  We also should not think that Abraham was praying that Ishmael might live an extended earthly life.  Abraham most definitely knew that the promised son had to do with the kingdom of God and the promise of a land for an everlasting habitation.  He understood more than we may think he understood.  But he was praying that Ishmael might live and God heard his prayer. 

In our last study we looked at a passage in Isaiah 60 where God speaks of salvation coming to the Gentiles or the Gentiles coming to the light, which is Christ, as God would draw many of them to Him.  Then we read: “…the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.”

We also read in Isaiah 60:7:

All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

This passage is indicating salvation at the time of the end regarding Kedar and Nebaioth, sons of Ishmael, that would be accepted by God.  They would be accepted upon His altar, just like Abel’s and his sacrifice were accepted because Abel was trusting in the work of Christ.  But Cain and his work were not acceptable.

So, Isaiah 60 is a strong piece of evidence for the salvation of many of the sons of Ishmael, but there is more than that.   God is revealing this to His people currently, but God did reveal this earlier to Mr. Camping.  I am surprised that Mr. Camping did not go into more detail concerning it.  He received a lot of phone calls (on the Open Forum) about the Biblical idea that God would save many “sons of Ishmael” and that many people that were followers of the religion of Islam would be saved at the time of the end.  But I do not think Mr. Camping went into much detail to emphasize it, but I will be emphasizing it right now regarding what God is saying in Genesis 21.  After saying twice that He heard the voice of the lad in verse 17, God says in Genesis 21:18:

Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

There it is.  We read back in Genesis 17 that the Lord said the same thing to Abraham when Abraham requested that Ismael might live before Him.  Then God responded in Genesis 17:20:

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.

Remember that the name Nabaioth, a son of Ishmael, means “fruitful.”  God said He would make Ishmael a “great nation.”  It is being repeated in Genesis 21:18, so there is no mistaking it.  Perhaps you have read this (as I have) and you recognized only that he had sons and descendants and, therefore, nations came from him.  So, what is the big deal?  The big deal is that God does not use the words “great” and “nation” together except when He is describing those that are part of His eternal kingdom, the spiritual kingdom of God.  In every other place, that is the case.  For example, God said this to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-2:

Now JEHOVAH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

Here, God was speaking to Abraham when he was known as “Abram,” and God said He would make him a “great nation.”  We must understand that there were physical descendants of Abraham that became the nation of Israel. Even though the nation of Israel were outward representatives of the kingdom of God, most of them were not citizens of the heavenly (spiritual) kingdom.  God’s promise to Abraham to make him a “great nation” was through Isaac, the promised seed.  In the New Testament, the Lord makes a point to let us know that the promised seed were those of the “spiritual circumcision,” as He says in Romans 2:28-29:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

In other words, there are two “Israels” or two types of “Jews.”  The Bible refers to “spiritual Israel.”  There is a spiritual Israel or spiritual Jews that are people from every tribe, tongue and nation, including the physical nation of Israel itself.  Most are Gentiles, but when we become saved we are spiritually circumcised in heart and become part of spiritual Israel.  That is the “great nation” that God promised Abraham in Genesis 12. 

The physical descendants of Abraham can be part of the physical nation of Israel and we could say it was a “great nation” in some respects, but the Bible does not use that language to speak of the physical nation of Israel, but only to the spiritual nation of those that are saved.  There are nations that we might consider to be great nations because they had enormous armies or great power (like Babylon or Assyria), but God does not call them a “great nation,” but He calls them a “mighty nation” (or some other descriptive language), but never “great nation.”  The term “great nation” is the designation that God reserves for the spiritual descendants of Abraham, as it says in Genesis 18:18:

Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

All that God saves will be blessed with him, and that will be the “great nation.”  Remember we have seen that when God refers to nations in the spiritual realm, He has in view two nations: 1) the nations of them that are saved; and 2) the nations of the (unsaved) world.  Jacob typifies the nations of them that are saved, and Esau typifies the nations of them that are unsaved or the nations of the world.  When the twins struggled together in their mother’s womb, she went to God about it and God said that there were two nations in her womb.  One (Jacob) was the “great nation,” although it does not say it there, but it is the same thing based on what we are reading in these other verses.  The other (Esau) would be the nation of the (unsaved) world.  In reiterating the promise to Jacob, God told him in Genesis 46:3:

And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:

Again, it is a spiritual picture.  Historically, we know that Jacob did go down into Egypt, and the people of Israel began to multiply and became slaves and God delivered them.  But the picture is that these Jews were under the power of Egypt and Pharaoh, pointing to the elect that were under the power of sin and Satan, and God delivered them.  The “exodus” and deliverance of Israel was a picture of salvation and the “great nation” came forth out of Egypt or out of the kingdom of Satan to serve God.  Again, the Bible operates on different levels of meeting.  We know that through the deliverance, they represented the “great nation” of elect.  And, yet, most them were not saved and perished in the wilderness due to unbelief.  But that is another level of meaning and we would need to look at each verse and chapter separately to see this.

On a few occasions, God would make this kind of statement when Israel was involved in sin, as He said to Moses in Exodus 32:9-10:

And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

God is not satisfied with “lip service” from professed believers or from physical Jews that are rebellious in heart.  Even though the Jews were physically circumcised, most were not circumcised in heart.  That does not please God.  He said to Moses, “I will make of thee a great nation,” meaning that He would continue His program of saving the spiritual seed of Israel through Moses.  This was said in Numbers or in other places, using similar language. 

We also read in Deuteronomy 4:7-8:

For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as JEHOVAH our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

Again, the setting is national Israel, but God is referring to spiritual Israel that has God as their Lord and the Word of God.  We have an intimate relationship with the Word of God, unlike any other people including those that had only an outward relationship with His Word, like Israel of old or the New Testament corporate church.  Yes – the churches were caretakers of the oracles of God and they had Bibles in their churches and congregations, but the nation that is “so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law” is the elect of God.  The elect have that personal and intimate relationship with the Saviour.

When we search out this phrase “great nation,” we see it identifies with the elect of God.  Some might say they do not see the distinction between physical Israel and spiritual Israel, but it certainly could not identify with the nations of the world, like the nations under the power of other religions, such as the nations that identify with Islam.  Nowhere in the Bible does God speak of nations like the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Edomites, the Moabites or the Ammonites as a “great nation.”  Again, it is a term that is reserved for the descendants of Abraham.  I think the Bible shows clearly that the spiritual descendants are that “great nation,” which means that we have been understanding this correctly when Abraham makes intercession on behalf of Ishmael and God responded in Genesis 17:20:

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.

Wow!  God said He would make Ishmael a great nation.  In our verse, it says in Genesis 21:17:

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.

God heard the voice of Ishmael.  We spent some time discussing how this must be the voice of Christ, initially, on his behalf.  In salvation, this must happen before anyone can become saved.  Then it says in Genesis 21:18:

Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

As we look at the evidence, we have Abraham’s plea that Ishmael might live.  We have God’s response that He has heard Abraham and that He heard the lad.  We have God’s promise to Abraham that He would make Ishmael a great nation.  In our passage, we also have another direct statement from God to Hagar to lift up the lad and hold him in her hand because God will him a great nation.  The phrase “great nation” is a phrase that identifies with spiritual blessing upon the seed of Abraham, which would be Christ, in the first instance, and all those that are counted for the seed in Christ.  It has everything to do with salvation.

In case the hearer or reader is not understanding this, just look at what God says next in Genesis 21:19:

And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water…

God opened her eyes.  Lord willing, when we get together in our next study we will look at what the Bible has in view when it speaks of opening someone’s eyes.  We will see it has to do with salvation.  What did she see when her eyes were opened?  It was a well of water.  What does that point to in the Bible?

We must allow the Bible to be its own dictionary and to define its own words and terms and, therefore, its own doctrine, as God is bringing these doctrines to the surface by illustrating them for us.  I had understood this somewhat, based on Mr. Camping’s teaching of Isaiah 60, but after going slowly through Genesis 21, I can see it much more clearly.  This is the teaching of the Word of God, the Bible: God had a plan to save many sons of Ishmael or many descendants of Ishmael that would be found among the Arab nations that are predominately involved in the religion of Islam.  It is already accomplished, but we see this in these Scriptures.  And we will look at another Scripture in our next study that will offer further support and confirmation of this very thing.

Lord willing, we will be able to do that when we get together in our next Bible study in this wonderful book of the Bible, the book of Genesis.