· This passage is one of many passages in Genesis, that help us see different aspects of who God is and how He works.
· We can see here, that the scandal of human sin, the scandal of ruined human relationships and the scandals that result from fearing man do not thwart God’s unwavering purpose, to pour out His grace on His children –no matter how feeble and no matter how flawed they may be.
Main Idea: In the face of human scandal, God's grace is even more scandalous.
1. God gives His grace despite sin [Verses 1-10]
· In chapter 20, Abraham & Sarah deceived Abimilech about her being Abraham’s sister· And now, at the very outset of these verses, we see that God is still faithful to bless. Their sin did not stop God from keeping His Word.
· Our sin doesn’t stop God from keeping His Word either.
· Although it was very likely only a short period of time after the account of how they had deceived Abimilech, God did just what He had promised to do.
· On the heels of yet another failure, we immediately have the words that the LORD visited Sarah as He had said and He did as He had promised.
· This entire chapter is yet again driving home the covenant faithfulness of God - when man fails with his words and lies, God does not fail and God is faithful to His promises.
· God was gracious to visit Sarah, even though they had sinned.
· God's promises are not limited by human ability or inability.
· God intentionally waited until Abraham and Sarah were too old humanly speaking to have children.
· God waited until there was no question of whether or not Isaac's birth came about by human will or by His miraculous provision. He waited until it was clear that this was no child that came from mere fleshly design but this was a child of grace, born of the Spirit of God.
· And Abraham’s obedience to God in calling him Isaac and circumcising him on the eighth day was in response to God’s grace.
· Abraham’s covenant keeping didn’t bring God’s grace but it was the result of God’s grace and our obedience and our keeping of God’s commands is meant to function in the same way.
· We are meant to make our sacrifices today to God – our sacrifices of saying no to our will and obeying Him, our sacrifices of obedient faith, in full view of God’s mercy – which is our spiritual act of worship.
· Sarah sinned against Hagar & the boy – but her sin didn’t define her.
· Throughout the Bible we can see countless times when God’s people would sin but God would spare them and pour His grace out on them despite their sin.
· Biblical Illustrations:
o Jonah’s life was rescued by a giant fish despite disobeying God.
o David, after being made king by God, sinned grievously, committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed Uriah to try to cover it up. But despite his great sin, he was given greater grace – the Messiah would come from David’s line – God redeemed his adultery and brought Christ through the offspring of Bathsheba.
o Saul was persecuting the followers of Jesus and supporting their stoning. He was a legalistic zealot who thought he was serving God but instead was persecuting the bride of Christ.
o But God’s grace was even greater still and in human terms, the one who deserved to pay for his sins more than the other apostles perhaps, was given scandalous grace and God used him to spread the gospel to all the Gentiles and to write a good portion of the New Testament.
· What scandalous grace – God is not limited by our sins and He does not define us by our sins.
· God now looks at all of our sins as having been paid in full and He treats His children with amazing grace.· If you have been made a joint heir with Christ through faith in His righteous life and His death on the Cross in the place you deserve, then all the promises of Abraham are yours by grace.
· If you find that you have sinned as a Christian – what is the answer – reform yourself? No, Abraham’s obedience didn’t earn God’s favor – but he did obey in response. So, if you are caught in sin – turn and repent and then respond to God’s scandalous grace with a life of obedient worship.
· This story of the sins of Abraham and Sarah and Ishmael against God and each other show that God is by no means limited by how other people sin against us.
2. God gives His grace despite broken relationships [Verses 10-21]
· Sarah resents and dislikes Hagar & Ishmael· Hagar looked on Sarah with contempt.
· Abraham obeyed his wife instead of leading and it caused trouble for them.
· Sarah abused Hagar and now, this is the second time where Sarah wants to get rid of her and her son Ishmael.
· Needless to say, their relationship was broken.
· Ishmael persecuted Isaac.
· This was no picture perfect family. In fact, this family had a lot of problems. Their relationships were broken by sin and they lived with the consequences of their sin and it made life difficult for all of them.
· Abraham cared more about himself than he cared about his wife’s purity.
· They had dishonest relationships with strangers and they severely deceived Pharaoh and were reproved but they did the same thing again and deceived Abimilech in the previous chapter.
· But God was not limited by all of their relational problems.
· And God did not give them the justice they deserved.
· This is absolutely scandalous.
· God passes over the sins of this messed up family. He doesn’t give them justice!
· God counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness and made an everlasting covenant of grace with Abraham and all of his offspring.
Romans 3:24-26 are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
· God had grace on Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and Isaac, despite their broken relationships.
· Because their broken relationships did not dictate God’s grace, they didn’t limit God’s grace and their broken relationships didn’t earn God’s grace.· What we see instead is that God has great grace on Sarah and gave her a son.
· God had great grace on Hagar too and provided for her in the wilderness, even though she had been kicked out by Abraham & Sarah.
· God comforts Abraham in the midst of this broken relationship.
“But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."
· God was gracious to Abraham to guarantee that although there was heartache and separation, both of his sons would be blessed by God.
· And God gave great grace to Ishmael; not only did the Lord preserve his life, He made Ishmael into a great nation· God bestowed His grace on Isaac. God’s choice of Isaac was a result of God’s unmerited grace to choose him – not because of anything Isaac had done or not done.
· Throughout the entire Bible, God has shown that He is the God who redeems broken relationships
· Paul & Barnabas separated over John Mark but God gave greater grace and fruitfulness to Paul/Silas through the separation and reunited Paul & John Mark in the end, so that Mark had become very useful to Paul when he was in prison
· Peter corrected the Jesus and yet He still was patient with him, even after He rebuked him
· Peter denied Christ (who was Peter’s best friend and likely one of the Lord’s closest friends) and yet Jesus forgave him and used him to lead the early church
· God gives great grace despite our broken relationships.
3. God gives His grace despite fear [Verses 22-34]
· When Abraham first came into the land, he feared Abimilech and instead of leaning on God’s Word and trusting God who had been faithful to him in similar circumstances, Abraham bows to his fears and lies to Abimilech as we saw in the last chapter.· After Abraham failed, Abimilech forgave Abraham and gave him great riches and helped to make Abraham prosperous.
· God didn’t punish Abraham’s wavering faith – God gave even greater grace in the face of Abraham’s fear.
· In fact, God made Abraham great and blessed him and caused his reputation to increase.
· God gave Abraham great grace and Abimilech, (the Philistine king), goes to Abraham, (the sojourning alien), to make a treaty.
· God was obviously giving Abraham unmerited grace despite the fact that Abraham had feared Abimilech instead of fearing God.
· In the face of Abraham’s fears, God provides for him
· So how does this apply to us?
· We don’t need to fear people – we can trust in God to keep His promises –we can trust in the grace of God to sustain us and keep us and provide all that we need for life and godliness, even if it seems like we have good cause to fear.
· If you’ve placed you faith in Jesus’ to take away God’s wrath for your sins, then you have no reason to fear.
1 John 4:13-19 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
R. Kent Hughes says about Genesis 21,
“The truth is, without affliction and hardship we would be trivial, superficial, flat-sided beings — people without depth or substance — with shallow faith… Faith does not grow in a hothouse but in the unpredictable climates of life”· God uses human sin, broken relationships and even our fears as opportunities to give us His grace and works all things together for our good. We we’re not saved by our efforts and we are not kept by our efforts - we are kept by God’s great grace.
Potential Application Questions:
1. Where have you seen God be gracious to you despite your sin?2. How has God worked even the sins of others for your good?
3. Where are you tempted to feel like your past sin or the sins of others is keeping God’s grace from you.
4. How does it encourage you to see God’s grace to the sinners in Genesis? How does it give you hope for your future?
5. How does God giving His grace despite the broken relationships in Genesis give hope to you to redeem & work despite your broken relationships?
6. Where are you tempted to fear man, circumstances, finances or something else instead of God?
7. How does seeing that God gave even greater grace in the face of Abraham’s fear give you hope for the future?
