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The Intolerance of Grace: Why the Bondwoman Must Go (Genesis 21:8-14) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  It is good to be here with you. We are looking at a stack of
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  notes today that centers on one specific, very chaotic day in
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  the life of Abraham. That's a good way to put it,
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  Triotic. We are opening up Genesis
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  chapter 21, specifically verses 8 through 14.
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  And it really is a day that starts with a party and ends
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  with, well, a deportation, a casting out.
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  Yeah, it's wild. And the sources we have today
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  are looking at this through a very specific lens, reformed
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  theology. We're going to see how this one
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  family drama basically sets the stage for some huge concepts
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  like election and grace. It really is a heavy text.
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  I mean, you have to picture the scene.
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  It begins with a feast, the weaning of Isaac, which is a
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  moment of pure joy, right? And it ends with a fracture so
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  severe it splits the household apart forever.
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  It feels like a total roller coaster when you read it.
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  You start with this scene of, you know, celebration, a promise
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  fulfilled, a child growing up, and by the end of the day you
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  have a woman and a boy wandering in the wilderness with almost
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  nothing. Just some bread and a skin
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  water, that's it. And that's the scene.
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  But the point we're going to keep coming back to is that this
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  isn't just a domestic squabble. I think that is the mistake
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  people make when they read Genesis.
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  They see a family drama, you know, like a reality TV show.
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  Yes, but this is the core conflict of the entire Bible
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  playing out in one tent. It is a collision between the
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  flesh and the spirit. Right.
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  The question at stake here isn't just who gets the bigger bedroom
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  or something trivial like that. No, the question is who will
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  inherit the Kingdom of God? And the stakes are just
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  incredibly high. We are going to be talking about
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  some major doctrines today. We're going to see unconditional
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  election in action. We'll see the distinction
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  between the covenant of grace and the covenant of works
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  playing out with real people. And honestly, we're going to see
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  what some might call the necessary intolerance of grace.
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  That phrase might make people uncomfortable, the intolerance
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  of grace, but it is essential. Grace cannot tolerate
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  self-reliance. It just can't coexist with it.
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  And that's what we are going to see in this passage.
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  OK, let's unpack this. We start in verse 8.
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  The child grew and was weaned. Now for us today, weaning is
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  just a thing that happens. Maybe you stop buying formula,
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  you switch to solid food. It's.
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  A quiet transition, mostly. But in the ancient Near East,
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  this was a massive deal, wasn't it?
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  Huge. Absolutely huge.
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  You have to remember the context of infant mortality in the
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  ancient world. It was incredibly high.
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  I mean heartbreakingly high. So just surviving was a big
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  deal. A child surviving to the age of
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  three, which is typically when weaning happened back then, was
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  a major milestone. It meant the child had passed
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  through the most dangerous years of infancy.
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  It was a public confirmation that the air was established.
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  He was going to make it. So when the text says Abraham
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  made a great feast, this wasn't just a birthday party with some
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  cake and balloons. No, this was a covenant
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  celebration. Think about what Abraham has
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  endured up to this point. Years of waiting.
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  Decades of, well, silence from God.
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  At times the barrenness of Sarah, the shame of it.
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  The failed attempts to help God. Right.
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  And now look at the reality. God kept His word.
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  The laughter that we saw back in Genesis 18.
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  Remember when Sarah laughed in skepticism in the tent?
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  Yes, she laughed, because it seemed impossible.
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  That same sound laughter has now been transformed.
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  That skepticism has been turned into fulfilment.
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  I love the connection to the name Isaac.
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  I mean, you kept literally means, he laughs.
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  That is it. That's the whole point.
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  The tent is now filled with laughter, but it's holy laughter
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  now. It's the laughter of relief.
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  It's the laughter of a promise that has actually physically
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  come true. You can just imagine the
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  atmosphere. The servants are celebrating.
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  Sarah's beaming. Abraham is, I imagine, just
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  profoundly relieved. The promise is visible.
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  It's walking around. It's eating solid food.
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  So this isn't just yay, no more breastfeeding.
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  This is a political statement. In a way, it's Abraham telling
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  the whole camp, the whole world. Here is the air.
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  He survived the gauntlet, the line continues.
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  Right. And you have to realize Abraham
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  is over 100 years old. Sarah is 90.
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  He has been living with the anxiety of who takes over when I
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  die for decades. This feast is the exhale.
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  It is the moment he can look around and say God did it.
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  But, and here is where the tension just snaps, this very
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  moment of fulfillment is what unveils the contest.
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  It's like you can't have the promise established without the
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  opposition revealing itself. That is a principle you see all
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  through Scripture. As soon as the promise is
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  visible, the flesh resents it. So let's look at that pivot
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  point. It happens immediately, verse 9.
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  And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne
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  to Abraham, mocking. Right.
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  And notice how the text identifies him.
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  It is so deliberate. It doesn't just call him
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  Ishmael. It says the son of Hagar the
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  Egyptian. The son of Hagar the Egyptian.
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  Why do you think that is? Is that just Sarah being petty?
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  You know, throwing shade. It's more than pettiness.
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  I think the text itself is emphasizing his origin.
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  It's reminding the reader, and probably reminding Sarah of
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  where he came from. It's.
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  From the Plan B. Exactly.
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  Go back to Genesis 16. Hagar was the Plan B.
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  She was the human scheme. Sarah and Abraham got impatient
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  and tried to help God out by natural means.
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  So Ishmael represents the best that human effort can produce.
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  He is the son of the bondwoman. He is, in theological terms, the
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  flesh and. He is mocking.
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  I want to stop here because I feel like the English
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  translation mocking might be a little weak.
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  It sounds like he's just teasing.
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  What is happening in the Hebrew here?
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  Oh, this is one of the most powerful parts of the text.
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  The word is mock, and if your ears are tuned to Hebrew, you
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  hear the root word immediately. It's the same root as yuck
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  Isaac. The root is UC.
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  So wait, you're saying he was Isaac King?
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  Essentially, yes, that's a great way to put it.
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  It's a play on words. Ishmael was Isaac king, but it's
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  in what's called the peel stem in Hebrew.
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  OK, for those of us who skipped Hebrew class, what does the peel
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  stem imply? It implies intensive repeated
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  action. This wasn't just a one time
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  chuckle, and it definitely was an innocent play.
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  Some modern commentators tried to soften this and say oh they
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  were just playing tag, but the grammar doesn't support that and
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  neither does the context. This was counter laughter.
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  Counter laughter. That's a Putin phrase.
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  What does that look like in the tent?
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  What's he doing? Well, think about it.
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  You have Isaac, who embodies the true laughter of God's grace.
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  And then you have Ishmael the mimic.
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  He's about 14 years old at this point.
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  He's a teenager. He's not a little kid.
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  Not at all. And here is this toddler Isaac,
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  maybe 3 years old, getting all the attention as the heir.
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  Ishmael is likely strutting around, maybe pantomiming what
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  it means to be the heir, maybe acting like he's the first born
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  who deserves all this. He is scoffing at the promise.
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  It's a direct challenge. It's rivalry.
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  It is absolute rivalry and we don't have to guess about this
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  because the apostle Paul confirms it in the New
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  Testament. In Galatians 4.29, Paul looks
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  back at this exact event and he doesn't call it teasing, he
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  doesn't call it playing. He calls it persecution.
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  OK, but let's push on that for a second.
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  Calling it persecution feels like a stretch, doesn't it?
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  I mean, he's a teenager making fun of a toddler.
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  Is Paul really being fair in Galatians when he equates
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  mocking with persecution? It does sound extreme to our
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  modern ears. We think of persecution as
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  something physical, you know, being thrown to lions.
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  But you have to look at the power dynamics in the tent.
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  Because Ishmael was the alpha for 14 years.
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  That is correct. For 14 years he was the only
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  son. He was the presumptive heir.
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  Everyone assumed he would inherit Abraham's wealth and
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  position. So he's not just teasing a baby,
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  he's pantomiming the king. He's challenging the legitimacy
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  of the transfer of power. It's political sedition wrapped
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  in a joke. So his whole identity is being
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  threatened by this little kid. His whole identity, he thought
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  his father's effort and his mother's strength had secured
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  the future. And now here comes this miracle
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  baby, born of a dead womb purely by grace.
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  And the flesh cannot stand it. It cannot tolerate grace.
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  So the flesh cannot tolerate the self celebration of the Spirit.
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  Precisely. The legalist always hates the
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  doctrines of grace because grace robs him of his boasting.
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  If Isaac is the heir by promise alone, then Ishmael's strength,
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  his first born status, his 14 years of history, it all means
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  nothing. And that provokes mockery.
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  It provokes persecution. So Sarah sees this.
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  She sees this counter laughter, this isaacing, and her reaction
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  is immediate and severe. Verse 10 So she said to Abraham,
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  cast out the slave woman and her son.
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  She doesn't mince words. There's no negotiation.
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  No. And that verb she uses?
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  Cast out. It's intense, right?
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  It's not. Send them to their room.
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  It is. The Hebrew is garo.
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  It's the same word used for divorce.
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  It's the same word used for driving enemies out of a land
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  during a conquest. It implies a permanent, violent
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  severity. Plea break.
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  Yes. She isn't saying, hey Abraham,
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  maybe Hagar and the boys should go live in the guest tent for a
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  week. She is saying get them out.
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  Sever the tie. Good.
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  And her rationale is what's so interesting.
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  She doesn't say he's being mean to my kid.
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  She says For the son of this slave woman shall not inherit
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  with my son Isaac. Right.
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  Her logic is theological. She cuts right to the heart of
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  the matter. Inheritance cannot be shared.
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  OK, but why not? Why couldn't they just split the
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  land? I mean, Abraham was rich.
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  He had plenty of flocks, plenty of servants.
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  Couldn't he have made it work? Because the inheritance isn't
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  just land. It's not just about flocks and
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  herds. It's the covenant.
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  It's the promise of being the line through which the Messiah,
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  the Savior of the world, comes. It's the promise of being God's
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  peculiar people. You cannot have that shared
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  between the child of the flesh and the child of the promise.
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  Co inheritance would blur the line that God himself drew.
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  You cannot blend promise with pragmatism.
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  This is really the antithesis we talk about so much in reformed
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  theology, The war in the tent. It is the antithesis.
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  It's the impossibility of mixing law, which Hagar and Ishmael
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  represent, and grace, which Sarah and Isaac represent.
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  You see, Sarah is acting as the guardian of the New Covenant
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  principle here. We often look at Sarah in the
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  earlier chapters and we see her lack of faith, her scheming.
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  Yeah, she doesn't come off great.
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  But here, here she is the theologian of the house.
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  She has a moment of absolute clarity.
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  She realizes that if Ishmael stays, the principle of grace is
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  compromised. It's like saying you can be
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  justified 90% by Christ and 10% by your own moral effort.
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  And Sarah says no, absolutely not.
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  The bondwoman must go to protect the freedom of the air.
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  That is the only way. There is no middle.
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  Ground but Abraham core Abraham verse 11 says, and the thing was
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  very grievous in Abraham's sight, and it specifies on
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  account of his son. We have to pause here and feel
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  the human cost of this. Yeah, Abraham isn't a
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  theological robot. He is a father, and he loves
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  Ishmael. He does remember back in Genesis
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  17 when God promised Isaac would be born.
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  Abraham's first response was a prayer for Ishmael.
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  He said, oh, that Ishmael might live before thee.
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  He wanted Ishmael to be the one. He had pinned his hopes on him.
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  He had raised him for 14 years. That's a lot of memories.
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  That's a lot of bonding. He probably taught him to hunt,
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  to manage the flocks. That's his boy.
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  Certainly, and this shows us that covenant administration
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  following God's will often cuts right through our deepest human
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  affections. It's not easy.
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  Repentance isn't easy. Leaving behind the flesh isn't
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  easy. Because we have affection for
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  our own works. We like our Ishmael as we raise
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  them. They're familiar to us.
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  So Abraham is distressed, he is torn, and then God intervenes in
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  verse 12. And honestly, God's response is
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  surprising. You almost expect God to say,
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  Sarah, calm down, let's be reasonable.
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  You do you expect him to mediate?
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  But he says, be not displeased. In all that Sarah has said to
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  you, listen to her voice. Listen to her voice.
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  God validates the demand. He clarifies that while Sarah's
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  tone might have been sharp and calling Hagar, this slave woman
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  is certainly sharp. Her theological instinct was
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  100% correct. The separation must happen.
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  And then God gives the reason. And this is the key dogma, isn't
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  it? For in Isaac shall your scene be
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  called. This is the bedrock of the
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  doctrine of unconditional election.
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  It's stated so clearly. Let's define that.
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  What are we seeing here? What does that mean in this
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  context? We are seeing that biology does
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  not equal inheritance. Abraham has two sons.
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  Both are his biological offspring, but only one is the
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  covenant seed. So it's not about bloodline in a
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  purely physical sense. Not at all.
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  God narrows the line. He bypasses the first born,
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  which by ancient custom is the one who should get the double
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  portion and the leadership, and he chooses the second born.
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  He bypasses natural strength for miraculous promise.
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  It reminds me of Romans 9. Paul just hammers this point
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  home. It is Romans 9.
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  Paul quotes this very verse. He says it is not the children
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  of the flesh who are the children of God, but the
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  children of the promise are counted as the seed.
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  This is crucial for us to understand today.
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  Being born in a Christian family doesn't save you.
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  Being baptized as an infant doesn't automatically save you.
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  Being a nice person doesn't save you.
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  So what does? What determines the inheritance
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  is God's calling in Isaac. Shall your seed be called?
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  It's an act of God's sovereign choice.
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  Why is this doctrine of elections so important for
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  assurance? Because some people find it
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  scary. They think, Oh no, what if not
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  chosen? I understand that fear, but it's
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  actually the only thing that stabilizes faith.
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  If the inheritance depended on my pedigree or my potential or
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  my performance, I would be in constant terror.
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  Because you can always fail. Because my performance
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  fluctuates, I sin. I have doubts.
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  But if the inheritance depends on God's calling, on His
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  promise, then it is stable. It rests on Him, not on me.
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  My assurance is in His faithfulness, not my own.
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  OK, so God closes the door on Ishmael being the covenant air,
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  but then we get to verse 13. God says to Abraham, and I will
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  make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is
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  your offspring. Yes, and this brings us to the
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  important doctrine of God's mercy and what we call common
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  grace. Let's distinguish those graces
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  because I think people get confused.
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  They think if you aren't among the elects then God just hates
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  you and makes your life miserable from start to finish.
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  And that is not what the text says at all.
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  We have to distinguish between special grace or covenant
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  interest, and common grace. Special grace belongs to Isaac.
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  That's redemption. That's the messianic line.
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  That's eternal salvation. That's the inheritance.
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  That's the inheritance. But common grace belongs to
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  Ishmael too. That's temporal survival.
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  That's political nationhood. God promises to make him a great
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  nation. That's earthly blessing,
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  sunshine and rain. So God distinguishes, but he
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  isn't cruel. He is not cruel.
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  Election does not cancel God's benevolence as Creator.
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  Ishmael is Abraham seed and God honors that connection.
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  He cares for the boy. We see that later in this very
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  chapter when God opens Hagar's eyes to the well, he hears the
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  boy crying. But, and this is the hard part
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  for many, Ishmael is cared for, but he is not the heir.
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  It's a theological balance, then.
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  It's not all or nothing in that sense.
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  It is. We have to avoid universalism,
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  which says everyone is an heir and there are no distinctions.
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  That's not true. Isaac is the heir.
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  But we also have to avoid a kind of deterministic cruelty that
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  says God delights in the misery of the non elect.
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  He blesses Ishmael significantly on this earth, but the spiritual
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  eternal inheritance is exclusive to the line of promise.
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  So Abraham hears this word from God.
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  Listen to Sarah send them out. I will take care of Ishmael, but
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  Isaac is the one. And now we get to the obedience
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  of faith. Verse 14.
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  So Abraham rose early in the morning.
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  There is that phrase again. Why Akim Babukar?
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  We see that with the sacrifice of Isaac too, don't we?
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  In chapter 22. Yes, it's a marker in Genesis.
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  It indicates immediate, unquestioning obedience.
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  There is no negotiation here. There's no God.
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  Let me think about it for a few days.
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  No delay. The Puritans used to have a
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  saying. Delayed obedience is
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  disobedience. Abraham acts immediately.
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  But look at the provisions. This part always gets me.
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  It feels so stark. He gives Hagar bread and a skin
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  of water. It is a stark contrast, isn't
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  it? Just hours before, inside the
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  tent there was a great feast. Abundance, wine, meat, laughter,
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  joy. Outside the tent, bread and a
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  skin of water. What's the significance of that
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  meager provision? What's the theology there?
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  It's a picture of what the Law, the Covenant of Works, can offer
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  you. Hagar represents the Law, and
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  the Law can give you the bare resources of survival.
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  It can give you some bread and some water.
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  It can tell you what to do. But it's resources are finite.
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  It runs out. It always runs out.
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  Verse 15 tells us the water was spent in the bottle.
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  The resources of the flesh of your own works always run dry.
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  That is such a powerful image. The water was spent.
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  It always runs out. If you are trying to live by
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  your own resources, by your own moral performance, your bottle
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  will run dry in the wilderness. But the resources of the
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  Father's house, where Isaac is, they're infinite.
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  There's a well that never runs dry.
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  So he puts the burden on Hagar's shoulder.
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  Notice that detail. It's so specific.
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  Ishmael is a teenager. He could have carried it, but
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  the text says he puts it on her shoulder.
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  The the law places burdens on us that we cannot bear, and he
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  sends her away. The Hebrew word is shella.
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  It's a formal dismissal, a final act.
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  And they wander in the wilderness of Beersheba.
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  The name Beersheba means well of the oath.
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  It's deeply ironic. They are wandering near the
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  place of the Covenant oath, near the water, but they can't find
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  it without the promise. The religious person wanders
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  near the well but cannot find it.
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  They are lost in the wilderness of legalism.
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  Wow. OK, this brings us naturally to
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  how the rest of the Bible receives this story, because we
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  aren't just reading this in a vacuum.
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  The Apostle Paul picks this up in Galatians 4 and he runs with
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  it. He does, and he treats it as a
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  full blown gospel allegory. This is fascinating because Paul
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  isn't saying the history didn't happen.
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  He absolutely acknowledges the history.
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  But he says these things contain an allegory.
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  They signify something deeper. So break that down for us.
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  Who is who in Paul's mind? For Paul, Hagar corresponds to
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  Mount Sinai. She represents the earthly
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  Jerusalem, the system of slavery to the law.
• 18:13
  She's the covenant of works. Sarah, on the other hand,
• 18:16
  corresponds to the Jerusalem above.
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  She is free. She represents freedom and
• 18:20
  grace. And the persecution Paul talked
• 18:22
  about, he connects that directly back to Ishmael.
• 18:25
  Yes, He who is born according to the flesh persecuted him who was
• 18:29
  born according to the spirit. That aligns with Ishmael's
• 18:33
  mocking. Paul is fighting the Judaizers
• 18:35
  and Galatians. These were people coming into
• 18:38
  the church and saying, yes, believe in Jesus, but you also
• 18:41
  have to keep the ceremonial law. You also have to get
• 18:44
  circumcised. You also have to do these works
• 18:46
  to be fully saved. Adding to the Gospel.
• 18:48
  And Paul says that is the spirit of Ishmael.
• 18:51
  You're trying to bring Hagar back into the tent.
• 18:53
  That's intense. So adding law keeping to the
• 18:55
  gospel is, in Paul's mind, literally bringing Hagar back.
• 18:59
  It is. It's trying to make the child of
• 19:01
  promise share the inheritance with the child of the flesh, and
• 19:04
  Paul's command to the Galatian churches is the exact same as
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  Sarah's command to Abraham. Cast out the bondwoman and her
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  son. You cannot have the inheritance
• 19:13
  if you are trying to keep the law for justification.
• 19:16
  The tent isn't big enough for both.
• 19:18
  But there is a twist here, isn't there?
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  When we look at this through the lens of Christology, because we
• 19:23
  talked about Isaac being the child of promise, but in the
• 19:26
  Gospel, who actually gets cast out?
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  This is the great exchange. This is where the beauty of the
• 19:32
  gospel shines through these Old Testament shadows.
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  Jesus is the true Isaac. He is the ultimate child of
• 19:39
  promise. He is the beloved Son in whom
• 19:41
  the Father is well pleased. But he wasn't kept safe in the
• 19:44
  temp. No, Hebrews 13.12 says Jesus
• 19:47
  suffered outside the gate. He was cast out.
• 19:50
  He was treated like the slave. He was treated like the exile.
• 19:53
  He was treated like Ishmael. He was sent into the wilderness.
• 19:56
  Why? For what purpose?
• 19:58
  So that we who are naturally spiritual Ishmaels, born of the
• 20:01
  flesh, mockers of God by nature, so that we could be brought into
• 20:06
  the tent, He took the place of the exile so we could get the
• 20:09
  inheritance. He bore the thirst, remember on
• 20:11
  the cross I thirst. His water was spent so that we
• 20:14
  could drink living water that never runs out.
• 20:16
  That changes everything. It means the casting out that
• 20:19
  Hagar and Ishmael experience was a foreshadowing of what Christ
• 20:23
  would bear for us. Precisely the intolerance of
• 20:26
  grace fell on him so that the welcome of grace could fall on
• 20:28
  us. So what does this mean for the
• 20:30
  listener today? How do we apply this?
• 20:32
  Because we don't have bond women in our houses to cast out,
• 20:35
  obviously. No, but we have Ishmaels in our
• 20:38
  hearts. What do you mean by that?
• 20:39
  Our own works. Sins, idols, things we've
• 20:42
  nurtured, things that are born of the flesh.
• 20:46
  Maybe it's a specific sin you've been managing instead of
• 20:48
  killing. Maybe it's a reliance on your
• 20:51
  own professional success for your identity.
• 20:53
  Maybe it's a secret bitterness you're holding on to.
• 20:56
  These are the things we've produced by our own efforts.
• 20:59
  And we love them, don't we? Just like Abraham loved Ishmael.
• 21:03
  It's hard to let them go. We do.
• 21:05
  They are grievous to part with. We say, Lord, I'll serve you,
• 21:09
  but please just let this Ishmael live before you.
• 21:12
  Let me keep this one thing, this one habit, this one
• 21:15
  relationship, but the command is cast out.
• 21:17
  Mortification of sin. Ruthless mortification.
• 21:20
  You cannot just manage sin. You have to expel it.
• 21:22
  You have to cut off the supply lines.
• 21:24
  You have to send it into the wilderness and let it die there.
• 21:26
  There is also an application for the church here, isn't there for
• 21:30
  the institution? Absolutely, the Church must
• 21:33
  guard the gospel. We have to be like Sarah in this
• 21:36
  regard, as jarring as that sounds.
• 21:38
  We cannot allow the mockery of pragmatism or liberalism to
• 21:42
  share the inheritance with the pure gospel.
• 21:45
  What does that look like in a practical sense It.
• 21:47
  Looks like people saying, well, the Bible is great, but we
• 21:49
  really need modern psychology to fix people.
• 21:52
  Yeah, or the gospel is nice, but we need political activism to
• 21:56
  really change the world. That is bringing Hagar into the
• 21:58
  tent. That is saying the promise isn't
• 22:00
  enough. We need human effort too.
• 22:02
  It's Ishmael's logic. It's Ishmael's logic and the
• 22:05
  church has to say no, cast out the bondwoman.
• 22:08
  The tent is not big enough for works and grace to be Co heirs.
• 22:12
  And finally, for personal assurance, I think this is where
• 22:14
  we land. This is the comfort in this hard
• 22:16
  story. It is if you are resting on the
• 22:19
  promise, on Christ alone, you are safe in the tent, you are
• 22:23
  Isaac, you belong. You don't have to worry about
• 22:25
  being cast out because Christ was cast out for you.
• 22:28
  Your place is secure. But if you are resting on your
• 22:30
  bottle of water, your own performance, your good quiet
• 22:33
  times, your ministry success, your moral record.
• 22:37
  It will run dry, it always does, and you will be left thirsty and
• 22:40
  alone in the wilderness wondering why God, God seems so
• 22:42
  far away. So the call then is to stop
• 22:45
  trying to blend the two lines, Stop trying to have it both
• 22:48
  ways. Stop trying to be justified by
• 22:50
  your works. Trust solely in the God who
• 22:53
  calls the things that are not as though they were.
• 22:56
  Trust in the laughter of Isaac, which is the joy of the finished
• 22:59
  work of Christ. This has been a deep dive into a
• 23:03
  text that on the surface looks like a messy, tragic family
• 23:07
  story, but underneath it's the very structure of our salvation.
• 23:12
  It is the movement from the feast to the separation, and we
• 23:15
  have to see that the separation is necessary for the joy of the
• 23:17
  feast to be preserved. You can't have both.
• 23:20
  Here is a final thought for you to chew on as you go about your
• 23:22
  week. We often think of intolerance as
• 23:24
  a bad word. We want to be inclusive, open
• 23:27
  and welcoming. And in many ways, we should be.
• 23:30
  But in the Gospel, the intolerance of grace is actually
• 23:33
  our salvation. That's right.
• 23:35
  If God allowed the bondwoman to stay, if he allowed our works to
• 23:39
  share the inheritance, we would all remain slaves to the law.
• 23:43
  By insisting on the air, by insisting on the exclusivity of
• 23:46
  Christ, he secures our freedom. The door is narrow, but inside
• 23:50
  there is a feast. Thank you for joining us on
• 23:52
  Reformed Thinking. We'll see you next time.
• 23:54
  Grace and peace.