The Birth of Isaac Genesis 21:17

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The Birth of IsaacGenesis 211-7

• Forest Hills Bible Chapel
• 29 October 2006

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Some Background Items

• The announcement of the birth of Isaac, though
  seemingly anticlimactic in its announcement, is
  nonetheless what God had promised (3 times in vv.
  1-2).
• The Lord was gracious to Sarah v. 1. See also
  God remembered Noah (81) God remembered his
  covenant with Abraham (Ex. 224).
• Isaacs name means laughter that is, the
  laughter of joy but see Genesis 189-15.

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Genesis 211-7

• 1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had
  said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had
  promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son
  to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God
  had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac
  to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac
  was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as
  God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years
  old when his son Isaac was born to him.

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Genesis 211-7

• 6 Sarah said, God has brought me laughter, and
  everyone who hears about this will laugh with
  me. 7 And she added, Who would have said to
  Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I
  have borne him a son in his old age.

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The Birth of Isaac

• Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had
  said v. 1.
• Isaac was born at the very time God had promised
  him.
• Ultimately, both Abraham and Sarah had to trust
  God, no matter how ridiculous or unlikely the
  situation might have seemed!
• By circumcising Isaac, Abraham was acting on his
  faith.

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The Birth of Isaac

• To some extent, for every one of us who has
  trusted Christ as Savior and Lord, our laughter
  of disbelief was turned to laughter of joy.
• Sarah rightly understands that what God has
  promised and kept, no human mind could ever
  conceive. v. 7 cf. 1 Corinthians 29-10.

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Pauls Comments

• 21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are
  you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is
  written that Abraham had two sons, one by the
  slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23
  His son by the slave woman was born in the
  ordinary way but his son by the free woman was
  born as the result of a promise.

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Pauls Comments

• 24 These things may be taken figuratively, for
  the women represent two covenants. One covenant
  is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to
  be slaves This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for
  Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the
  present city of Jerusalem, because she is in
  slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem
  that is above is free, and she is our mother.

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Pauls Comments

• 27 For it is written
• Be glad, O barren woman,
• who bears no children
• break forth and cry aloud,
• you who have no labor pains
• because more are the children of the desolate
  woman than of her who has a husband.

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Pauls Comments

• 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of
  promise. 29 At that time the son born in the
  ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power
  of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what
  does the Scripture say? Get rid of the slave
  woman and her son, for the slave womans son will
  never share in the inheritance with the free
  womans son. 31 Therefore, brothers, we are not
  children of the slave woman, but of the free
  woman.

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Pauls Comments

• It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be
  burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
• - Galatians 221-51

12
Pauls Comments

• A right relationship with God is found through
  faith in a promise, and not through natural self
  effort Gal. 421-23
• It is only through faith in Christ, the seed of
  Abraham through Isaac, that true freedom is to be
  found Gal. 424-31
• In Christ, we begin with freedom by going on
  with Christ, we continue in freedom Gal. 51