Slices
Prepare
How easy do you find it to trust God when the answer to your prayers seems to be ‘Wait’ or ‘Not yet’? Pray for peace and patience if you’re in that situation. Ask God to help you trust him.
Bible passage
The birth of Isaac
21 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.
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.’
Hagar and Ishmael sent away
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, ‘Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. 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 slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.’
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bow-shot away, for she thought, ‘I cannot watch the boy die.’ And as she sat there, she began to sob.
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.’
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
Explore
It was 20 years earlier that God had made a seemingly impossible promise to a man with no children (Genesis 15:1–6). Subsequently, God reaffirmed this promise when he met 99-year-old Abram, whose name he changed to Abraham, meaning ‘Father of many’. Finally, when Abraham was 100 years old, his wife Sarah gave birth to a son and – despite his great age – Abraham would live to raise Isaac to adulthood. However, although she had originally requested that Abraham have a child with Hagar, Sarah let her jealousy of her maidservant overshadow her joy. This, in turn, upset Abraham, who sent Hagar and her son Ishmael into exile at Sarah’s request. Arabs and Jews are descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. Sadly, the animosity between them continues.
Are we in danger of trying to solve difficult situations our own way, as Sarah did (v 10)? God was at work in this tricky situation and intervened miraculously in Hagar and Ishmael’s fate to weave it into his great plan (v 18). God’s grace, care and faithfulness are constant.
Respond
‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose’ (Romans 8:28). Thank God for this amazing truth. Praise him that he is at work in our lives, despite us!
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Genesis 28,29; Psalms 7,8
Pray for Scripture Union
Give thanks to God for the wonderful way in which Soul Children songs – both music and lyrics – are proving to reveal Jesus to children, particularly those without church backgrounds. (This week's prayers relate to this article.)
