21:1
At last Isaac is born. Note that there is little fanfare, just the simple statement that the Lord was gracious to Sarah, and Isaac was born as the Lord had said it would happen. Neither was there any breakthrough incident of faith for Abraham. They had been following God for twenty five years. There were times of faith and triumph, and times of doubt and failure. The key thing was that they kept following God. So it is with us. Sometimes dramatic things do happen, sometimes there are incidents where faith becomes alive in us in a new and deep way, but a lot of the time, most of the time, we are a similar mixture of faith, doubt, triumph and failure. The key thing is that we keep following Christ. You see, it is God who fulfilled His promises.
We should also note the emphasis on Sarah here. “The Lord was gracious to Sarah”, “the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised”.
21:2,3
So Sarah became pregnant, and gave birth to Isaac “at the very time God had promised”. Abraham had a son in his old age. God fulfills His promises. We can be forever looking for signs, it is a very human thing to be doing, but we need to learn just how faithful our God is. When He has said He will do something, He will do it. Abraham named his son “Isaac”, as he had been commanded by the Lord. Isaac means “laughter”, or “he laughs”.
21:4,5
In line with God’s command, Abraham circumcised the boy on the eighth day (Gen 17:10-12). As we know, there were major disputes over circumcision in the early church, and this episode helps us to appreciate why some thought Gentile Chrisitans should be circumcised. Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born.
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