Genesis · chapter 21 of 50
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Genesis 21 tells how Isaac, the promised son, is born when Abraham is a hundred years old, and how Sarah is filled with laughter and joy. When Isaac is weaned, Sarah asks that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, and God tells Abraham to do it and promises to care for Ishmael. God hears the boy in the wilderness and shows him a well. At the end, Abraham and Abimelech make a covenant at Beersheba.
Genesis 21 is the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham twenty-five years earlier. Isaac is born, and with him God's covenant moves forward. But the chapter also includes a painful farewell: Ishmael and Hagar leave the household. Even so, God keeps his care for those who leave the family and reaffirms his faithfulness to all.
The Lord visits Sarah as he had said, and she conceives and bears Abraham a son in his old age, at the time God had told him. Abraham names him Isaac and circumcises him at eight days old, as God commanded; Abraham was a hundred years old. Sarah says God has made laughter for her and that everyone who hears will laugh with her. Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?
The child grows and is weaned, and Abraham makes a great feast that day. Sarah sees the son of Hagar, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking, and asks that the servant and her son be cast out, for he shall not be heir with Isaac. It is very distressing to Abraham, because of Ishmael. But God tells him to do what Sarah asks, for through Isaac his offspring will be named; he will also make a nation of the servant's son, because he is his offspring.
Abraham rises early in the morning, gives bread and a skin of water to Hagar and sends her away with the boy. She wanders in the wilderness of Beersheba, the water is spent, and she puts the child under a bush and goes away so as not to watch him die. God hears the voice of the boy, and the angel of God calls to Hagar from heaven and tells her not to fear, for God has heard; he will make Ishmael a great nation. God opens her eyes and she sees a well of water. God was with the boy, who grew up, lived in the wilderness of Paran and became an archer, and his mother took a wife for him from Egypt.
At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, tell Abraham that God is with him, and ask for an oath of loyalty. Abraham complains about a well that Abimelech's servants had seized, and the two make a covenant with seven ewe lambs. The place is called Beersheba. Abraham plants a tamarisk tree and calls there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God, and lives many days in the land of the Philistines.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord visits Sarah as he had said, and she conceives and bears Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time. The text stresses that God fulfills his word exactly as he gave it and when he promised it.
Sarah says that God has made laughter for her and that all who hear will laugh with her. Her old laughter of disbelief turns into laughter of joy, and the name Isaac, which recalls laughter, stands as a testimony to God's faithfulness.
God tells Abraham not to be distressed over the boy and the servant, because through Isaac his offspring will be named. God affirms the line of the promise and at the same time cares for the one who is sent away.
God hears the voice of the boy, and the angel of God calls to Hagar from heaven and tells her not to fear. God is not indifferent to the cry of those who seem outside the covenant: he hears, sees and provides at the moment of greatest despair.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: One hundred years old. — Genesis 21:5
Answer: That God had made laughter for her and everyone who heard would laugh with her. — Genesis 21:6
Answer: That Abraham cast out Hagar and her son Ishmael, because he would not be heir with Isaac. — Genesis 21:9-10
Answer: To do what Sarah asked, because the line would come through Isaac, but that he would also make Ishmael a nation. — Genesis 21:12-13
Answer: He heard the boy's voice and opened Hagar's eyes so she saw a well of water. — Genesis 21:17-19
Answer: Beersheba. — Genesis 21:31
Genesis 21 shows that God keeps his promises even when it takes a long time in our eyes. Abraham waited twenty-five years, and the wait gave way to a new laughter. In a group you can encourage those who are waiting for an answer from God, reminding them that God's timing is not late.
It also shows God's care for those who suffer the consequences of others' decisions. Hagar and Ishmael were in the wilderness through no fault of their own, and God heard them. Ask whom you could accompany who is in the wilderness today, and how to remember that God hears the weeping of every person, whether or not they are inside our circle.
Genesis 21 ends with Abraham calling on the Everlasting God at Beersheba, with a promised son and a covenant of peace with his neighbors. In Genesis 22 God will test Abraham in the hardest way: he will ask for Isaac.
Sarah asked for it when she saw Ishmael mocking Isaac, and it pained Abraham greatly, but God told him to do it and promised to care for Ishmael. The episode is painful and the Bible does not hide it, but it shows that God did not abandon Hagar or her son.
The Hebrew verb is related to the name Isaac, which sounds like laughing. It can mean mocking or playing, and the context points to mocking. Galatians 4:29 interprets it as a conflict between the son according to the flesh and the son of the promise.
Beersheba means well of the oath or well of the seven. It is the place where Abraham and Abimelech make a covenant over a well, and it will later be an important place for Isaac, Jacob and the history of Israel, which will be summed up in the phrase from Dan to Beersheba.