In the foregoing messages we have covered nearly ten chapters in Genesis regarding Abraham's experience with God. In those chapters we saw that Abraham, God's called one, had come to many stations and had passed through many stages. Now in Gen. 21 Abraham comes to a wonderful and marvelous station. Here Isaac is born.
The goal of God's calling of Abraham was to bring forth a seed. This matter of the seed was first mentioned in Gen. 12:7 and is referred to many times in the following chapters. In nearly every chapter God touched Abraham concerning the seed. Why was it so difficult for Abraham to have a seed? He was called, at the latest, at the age of seventy-five, but twenty-five years later he still did not have the seed, although God had called him for that very purpose. Because he had difficulty producing the seed, Abraham first relied upon Eliezer, whom God rejected. Then, hearkening to his wife's proposal, Abraham produced Ishmael by Hagar. However, God also rejected Ishmael, saying that He did not want a seed out of an Egyptian maid but out of Sarah. God seemed to say to Abraham, "Yes, you have produced a seed, but it is out of the wrong source. I will never approve that source. I have nothing to do with it. You may love Ishmael and care for him, but I do not." After the birth of Ishmael, God came in to tell Abraham that he had to be circumcised. At that time, God also strengthened and confirmed His promise to Abraham. After his circumcision, Abraham had intimate fellowship with God, enjoying the highest experience with God of anyone in history up to that time.
When, at the time of chapter twenty, the seed still had not come, even such a giant of faith as Abraham could not stand the test. As we saw in the last message, he was apparently bored in his experience of God and took a vacation. Abraham might have said to God, "God, You have promised again and again to give me a seed. You have dealt with me about this and that until I have nothing left. You have said no to everything I have done. Now I am bored and would like a change. I want to take a vacation." Abraham journeyed southward, that is, downward. Like everyone who takes a vacation after working hard, Abraham was seeking easiness. Because of this, he repeated an old failure. But God preserved him, creating a situation in which, in spite of his failure, circumstances, and environment, he had to intercede for Abimelech and his house. Not one thing was an encouragement to Abraham in this matter. Yet, being the giant of faith, he interceded, not with boldness or the release of the spirit, but in a shameful way. Nevertheless, his shameful intercession was answered. Not only did Abimelech's wife and maidservants bear children, but Sarah also gave birth to Isaac. One prayer of intercession received two answers. When we come to Genesis 21 we see that Abraham has returned from his vacation and is back in business again. In chapter twenty he tried to take a vacation and stay away from his divine job, but he did not succeed and God forced him to make an intercession. That intercession brought him back from vacation to his divine employment. Now, in chapter twenty-one, Abraham is back in his "office."
Genesis 21 has two sections. The first section, verses 1 through 13, is thoroughly covered by the Apostle Paul in Gal. 4:22-31, where he allegorizes this portion of Genesis. By means of Paul's allegorization, seeking Christians throughout the centuries have been able to learn the true significance of the first part of Genesis 21. I wish that Paul had allegorized the remainder of that chapter, but he kept silent about it. Most Christians only consider 21:14-34 as a story of Ishmael's dwelling in the wilderness and becoming an archer and of Abraham's dealing with Abimelech over the well at Beer-sheba, not thinking that this portion of the Word has much spiritual significance. But if the first section of Genesis 21 has a spiritual significance, then the second section must also have a spiritual significance. In this message we need to cover the significance of both sections.
In the first section we see the birth of Isaac (vv. 1-7). Isaac, whose name means "laughter" or "he will laugh" (vv. 3, 6), was born according to God's promise (v. 1) at the appointed time, the time of life (v. 2; 17:21; 18:10, 14). As far as Abraham and Sarah were concerned, the birth of Isaac was a great matter. What is the spiritual significance of Isaac's birth? This is easy to see from Paul's allegory in Galatians 4. As Abraham was called by God, so we are God's called ones today. In God's calling us there is a goal, the same goal as there was with His calling Abraham — to bring forth the seed. God has called us to bring forth Christ. If you consider the experience of Abraham as recorded in chapters eleven through twenty and compare it with your own, you may be surprised to see that his experience is the same as yours and that his life is your biography. Our biography was written long before we were born. Whatever our age or generation may be, we all have the same biography. As Abraham was called to bring forth Isaac, so we have been called to bring forth Christ. We have not been called to produce good behavior. God's goal is that we bring forth Christ.
All the difficulties Abraham encountered in bringing forth Isaac were on his side, not on Isaac's. In like manner, it is easy for Christ to come through and out of us, but we have many problems. In fact, we ourselves are the problem. We simply are not the right persons to bring forth Christ. Although we can produce many things and have done so ever since we were saved, it is very difficult for us to bring forth Christ. I was a Christian for many years and still did not know how to bring forth Christ. I did not even know what it meant to bring Him forth. I am concerned that so many of us do not have the thought of bringing forth Christ. Some might even ask, "Hasn't Christ been brought forth already? Why must we bring Him forth again?" Yes, Christ has been brought forth, but every saved person must still bring Him forth.
In order to bring Christ forth, we must be circumcised. Our natural life and strength and our self must be terminated. This termination opens the way for the very El-Shaddai, the all-sufficient One, to come into our being as the all-sufficient grace to bring forth Christ. Abraham experienced this. In Genesis 21, Abraham reached his goal and Isaac was born, having been brought forth through Abraham. Today Christ, the real Isaac, needs us to bring Him forth. Both the Christian life and the church life are simply the bringing forth of Christ. We must bring Christ forth in our meetings, daily life, home life, and on our jobs.
Isaac's birth was not by Abraham's natural strength nor according to Abraham's time. It was by God's work of grace and it was according to God's time, the time of life appointed by God. Abraham was tested by this. His natural strength went ahead of God, trying to bring forth the seed God had promised. According to his natural strength, he had a time of expectation. But all that his natural strength produced was rejected by God. Before Abraham's natural strength was dealt with and terminated, God would not and could not do anything to bring forth through him the very seed He desired to have for the fulfillment of His purpose. Hence, God had to wait. While God was waiting, Abraham was tested. It is the same with us in the matter of bringing forth Christ. Our natural strength always causes God to wait. God's way and His timing are always a hard test to our natural life. God's grace will never do anything to help our natural life to bring forth Christ. He must wait until our natural life has been dealt with and terminated. Then, according to His timing, He will come in as the strength of grace to bring forth through us what He desires to have. If we would fulfill the divine purpose of God's calling, we all must learn this basic lesson. Never try to fulfill God's purpose by your natural strength and according to the time of your expectation. God has His way and His time. Only by His way and at His time can we bring forth Christ for the fulfilling of His purpose.
After the birth, there is the need of growth. Verse 8 says that "the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned." It is not sufficient simply to bring Christ forth. The very Christ whom we have brought forth must grow. In the past few years, many of us have brought forth Christ, but I wonder whether this Christ has grown up. Has there been the time of weaning? Isaac grew up and was weaned away from his mother's nourishment, meaning that he was no longer a young child but had become a young boy. On the day of his weaning, Abraham made a great feast. We can understand the significance of this according to our experience. When in the church life we see that Christ has grown up in certain brothers and sisters, we all will be happy and have a great feast, a great enjoyment.
It is not easy to have either the birth of Isaac or his growth. Likewise, it is not easy to have Christ brought forth, nor to have Him grown up. In the church life we need to have both the bringing forth and the growth of Christ. I thank God that Christ has been brought forth among us, but I hesitate to say that we have had much of the growth of Christ. It is wonderful to see that Christ has been brought forth in a particular young brother, but we are still waiting to see in him the growth of Christ. We want to see that the Christ in him has been weaned and is no longer a baby. Although the Christ in that brother may not yet be a full-grown man, we want to see Him as a strong boy. Christ must be formed not only in us but also among us (Gal. 4:19). In both our daily life and the church life we need the expression of a formed Christ. Then we may have a great feast for the enjoyment of God's grace.
According to Genesis 21, it was not the birth of Isaac that stirred up trouble; it was his growth. When Isaac was born, Hagar and her son Ishmael were not bothered very much. But after Isaac had grown up, Ishmael began to mock him (v. 9). In the biblical sense, this means that Ishmael was persecuting Isaac. God even counted Ishmael's persecution of Isaac as the beginning of the four-hundred-year persecution of His people (15:13; Acts 7:6). Ishmael's mocking was a serious thing because Isaac was God's ordained seed and Ishmael was the counterfeit. The counterfeit always hates the ordained. We, the ordained seed, are hated by the counterfeit. As Paul says in Galatians 4:29, "But as then he that was born according to flesh persecuted him that was born according to Spirit, so also it is now." The growth of Isaac stirred up that persecution.
Sarah, the one who represented grace, would not tolerate Ishmael's mocking of Isaac and said, "Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac" (v. 10). When I read this verse as a youth, I did not agree with Sarah, thinking that she was jealous and unfair. It was she who proposed to Abraham that he have a son by Hagar and now she tells him to cast Hagar and Ishmael out. According to my youthful understanding, I would have cast Sarah out. But one day, as I was thinking in this way, God rebuked me. That day I was arguing in favor of Hagar and Ishmael and sympathizing with Abraham, for "the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son" (v. 11). Although I thought that Abraham should have answered Sarah, telling her that she was cruel, he said nothing to her. Rather, God came in and told Abraham, "Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called" (v. 12). The heavenly Judge made the final decision, telling him to do what Sarah requested. Only Isaac, not Ishmael, was to be counted as the seed. Although Abraham had failed God in chapter twenty, he was quick to obey Him in chapter twenty-one. Verse 14 says that Abraham rose up early in the morning and sent Hagar and Ishmael on their way.
We need to see the spiritual significance of the casting out of Hagar and Ishmael. Like all Christians, you have been trying to do good since the day you were saved. But God has dealt with you, and many times you have been disciplined and cut. If you are a married brother, God has undoubtedly used your wife as the knife to cut your natural life. Every wife is such a sharp knife in the divine hand. Many Christian husbands can only be thoroughly dealt with and disciplined by the cutting of the wife-knife. No husband can escape it. I am happy to see that in the local churches God has used the wife-knives to deal with the natural life of the brothers. In this way, we brothers learn the lesson of hating our natural life and all the good things we can produce out of ourselves.
Although we may hate our natural life and all that it produces, we do not hate it absolutely. Deep within, we still appreciate it and say, "This Ishmael whom I have produced is quite good. He was born of me." Such a concept always delays Isaac's birth. It was only after Abraham had undergone dealing after dealing and failure after failure that Isaac finally came forth.
Christ has been born in our Christian life, but we still keep our Ishmael, hesitating to give up our good behavior. Many of us still boast in our natural goodness, saying, "I am not as proud as some of the brothers and sisters are. I thank God that I was born humble." The sisters might criticize others, saying, "I would never gossip the way Sister So-and-so does. I was not born that way." Even some elders and so-called ministers of the Word cannot keep from boasting of their natural attributes. Perhaps they say to themselves, "Brother So-and-so is so quick to lose his temper. But I thank God that my natural birth is much better than his." Although you may not utter this, it is nevertheless hidden deep within you.
When the Christ who has been born in our Christian life has begun to grow up, our natural goodness will mock Him. Then the grace within us will say, "Cast out the law! Cast out the bondwoman and what you have produced with her by your fleshly effort." Will you do this? You may do it apparently, but secretly you still hold on to Hagar and Ishmael, to the law and to your natural attributes and goodness. Not many Christians today have the boldness to say as Sarah did, "Cast out this bondwoman and her son." Not many would say, "Cast out the law, the effort of the flesh, and all the success of my effort." Rather, we cling to our success and hold on to our natural goodness. But sooner or later God will force us to abandon the law, our self-effort, and all we have produced. The brothers and sisters will then begin to rise up and say, "From now on there will be no more Hagar and Ishmael. They must go." Like Abraham, they will send them away with only bread and water (v. 14). Sooner or later we all must do this. We must rise up one morning, give the law a skin of water, and say, "Law, go your way, and take with you the one you helped me to produce. Don't leave him with me, because I don't want him anymore. I loved Ishmael in the past, but now I give him up." The law and the result of the effort of the flesh must be fully abandoned.
In the first section of this chapter, we have two seeds, two kinds of persons, and two lives. Without the second section, however, we can see neither the source nor the result of their living. In the second section we have two wells, one for Ishmael (vv. 14-21) and one for Isaac (vv. 22-34). Since the Bible does not waste any words, this record of two wells for two kinds of lives must be very meaningful and full of spiritual significance.
Ishmael's well, the source of his living, was in the wilderness close to Egypt (vv. 19-21; 25:12, 18). In the Bible, the wilderness always represents a place rejected by God. God never accepts the wilderness. As long as we are in the wilderness, we are rejected by Him. The best illustration of this is the wandering in the wilderness by the children of Israel. In figure, the wilderness also signifies our soul. If we live in our soul, we are straying in the wilderness that is rejected by God. The wilderness where Ishmael's well was located was close to Egypt. He could easily drift from there into Egypt. This means that when we are in our soul, in our natural being, we are wandering in the wilderness and can easily drift into the world.
Ishmael's source of living made him an archer (v. 20). The difference between an archer and a planter is that a planter grows life and an archer kills it. An archer is a wild hunter like Nimrod in 10:8-12, a killer in the wilderness. This section of the Word even uses the word "bowshot" to describe the distance between the place where Hagar was sitting and the place where she had cast her child (vv. 15-16). Thus, in this portion of the Word, it is revealed that if we stay in the wilderness of our soul and drink water out of the well for Ishmael, the source of his living, we shall be made an archer using the bow to kill life for building up our own kingdom, not a planter growing life for the building up of God's kingdom.
Ishmael's source of living eventually joined him to Egypt, that is, to the world (v. 21). When Hagar took a wife for Ishmael, she took a wife from Egypt, from her own source. Being an Egyptian, she desired to have an Egyptian woman as her daughter-in-law. By taking a wife out of the land of Egypt for Ishmael, Hagar sealed him with the things of Egypt. We see from all this that there is a well, a source of living, which can make us a wild hunter who kills life and can join us to the world.
Praise the Lord that there is another well — the well for Isaac (vv. 22-34). Many verses in the Bible speak of this positive well. Psalm 36:8 says, "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures." The Lord likes to make us drink of His river of pleasures. In John 4:14 the Lord Jesus said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life." This means that God Himself will be our life. In John 7:37 and 38 the Lord Jesus also spoke of drinking: "If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." Moreover, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, the Apostle Paul says that we have all been made to drink of one Spirit, that is, of one well of water. Even the last chapter of the Bible contains a word about drinking: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come!..Let him who is thirsty also come; he who wills, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). This divine well must be the source of our living.
Although Christ has been brought forth and has grown up, in the church life we still must learn that there are two sources or two kinds of living. What kind of living do you have — the living of Ishmael or the living of Isaac? It is insufficient merely to say that you have the living of Isaac. You must examine the kind of water you are drinking day by day. Are you drinking of the well for Ishmael? If you are, that well will make you an Ishmael and will cause you to drift into the world. Are you drinking of the well for Isaac, the well which signifies the divine well, the well of Christ, the well of the Spirit? If you are drinking of this well, the divine water which flows out of it will accomplish a great deal.
The well for Isaac was in Beer-sheba, close to the land of the Philistines (vv. 25-32). This well, unlike the well for Ishmael, is not near Egypt but at the border of the land of the Philistines and the good land of Canaan. Beer-sheba was in the land of the Philistines and later became the southernmost part of the Holy Land. When describing the geography of the Holy Land, the Bible even uses the phrase "from Dan to Beer-sheba" (1 Sam. 3:20), because the distance from Dan in the north to Beer-sheba in the south includes the whole land of Canaan. In the Bible the land of the Philistines has a peculiar significance. It is not a place which rejects God absolutely; it is a place which accepts God but handles the things of God according to human cleverness, not according to God's economy. Consider as an illustration the way in which the Philistines handled the ark (1 Sam. 6:1-9). They did not reject it; they received it, but they handled it in a natural way according to their cleverness. Likewise, in Genesis 20 and 21 we see that Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, did not reject God but accepted Him in his own clever way. Abraham took God according to His economy; Abimelech took Him according to the way of human cleverness. This is the significance of the land of the Philistines.
The well for Isaac was a redeemed well (vv. 28-30). This well, which Abraham had dug, was lost, having been violently taken away by Abimelech's servants (v. 25). Then Abraham redeemed it at the cost of seven ewe lambs. In typology, these lambs signify the full redemption of Christ, indicating that the divine living water has been redeemed, bought back, by Christ's full redemption. Today, while the whole human race is living by a source which is without redemption, we are living by a redeemed source. The living water which we are drinking today is not natural; it has been redeemed at the cost of Christ's complete redemption.
The well for Isaac also needed a covenant (vv. 31-32). The covenant here is a seed of the new covenant. Our living water today is not only redeemed water but also covenanted water. Ishmael drank of wild water, water that was without redemption and covenant. But all the water which Isaac drank was redeemed water, the water of the covenant. Since we have begun to know Christ, the source of our living has also been the redeemed and covenanted water.
In Beer-sheba Abraham planted a tamarisk tree (v. 33, Heb.). A tamarisk, a type of willow tree, has very fine leaves, often grows near water, and gives the impression of the flowing of the riches of life. That Abraham planted a tamarisk after making the covenant for the well at Beer-sheba indicates that the water of which he drank was flowing in a rich way. The Lord Jesus said that whoever believes in Him will have rivers of living water flowing out of his innermost being.
The church life today is by the well in Beer-sheba. When you drink of this well and live by it, you will be like a tamarisk flowing with the riches of life. Whenever people come to you, they will never sense dryness but will be refreshed by the water of life. Beer-sheba, which means "the well of an oath," is the place where the church should be. The church should be at the well of an oath with a covenant, and should also be full of tamarisk trees. We all need to be a flowing tamarisk. If you look at the branches of a tamarisk tree, they will remind you of the flowing of the riches of life. Praise the Lord that there are some real tamarisks in the local churches!
Here, at Beer-sheba, there is the planting, but with Ishmael in the wilderness there is wildness. Many Christian groups today are like a wilderness. They only make people wild. But the proper church life causes people to be planted. Have you been planted? Once you have been planted, you can no longer be wild.
In this section of the Word it is clearly revealed that there are two sources of living. One is the natural source in the wilderness of our soul, whereas the other is the redeemed source in the garden of our spirit. At Beer-sheba, Abraham was contending for the well which had been so violently taken away. Today we also need to fight for the divine well that we may have it for both the Christian life and the proper church life.
Verse 33, which tells us that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, also says that he "called there on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God" (Heb.). Here we see another special title of God — Jehovah, El Olam. In chapter seventeen we saw El-Shaddai, the all-sufficient Mighty One. Here we see El Olam. The Hebrew word olam means eternity or eternal. However, the root of this Hebrew word means to conceal, hide, or veil from sight. Anything which is veiled spontaneously becomes secret. Abraham eventually experienced God as the Eternal One, as the secret and mysterious One. We cannot see or touch Him, yet He is so real. His existence is eternal, for He has neither beginning nor ending. He is the Eternal God (Psa. 90:2; Isa. 40:28).
Here we find another seed which is developed in the New Testament. The God whom Abraham experienced in chapter twenty-one is the same as the One revealed in John 1:1, 4: "In the beginning was the Word..and the Word was God..in Him was life." This life is the very El Olam. The mysterious God in eternity is our eternal life. Eternal life is a divine Person who is so concealed, veiled, hidden, mysterious, secret, and yet so real, ever-existing, and ever-living, without beginning or ending. The title El Olam implies eternal life. Here God was not revealed to Abraham but was experienced by him as the ever-living, secret, mysterious One who is the eternal life. In other words, in Genesis 21 Abraham experienced God as the eternal life. By the tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, Abraham could testify to the whole universe that he was experiencing the hidden, ever-living One as his mysterious life. There, at Beer-sheba, he called on the name of Jehovah, El Olam. In chapter twelve he only called upon the name of Jehovah, not yet experiencing Him as the God who is the mysterious, ever-living One. But here in chapter twenty-one, after having so much experience, with Isaac at Beer-sheba under the tamarisk tree he experienced the ever-living, mysterious One as his inner life and called, "O Jehovah, El Olam!" Although no one could see this mysterious One, He was real to Abraham in his experience. The One we have within us today is the very El Olam, the hidden, secret, concealed, mysterious, ever-living One. He is our life. We may have the same enjoyment Abraham had simply by calling, "O Lord Jesus."
While Abraham was sojourning in Beer-sheba, he must have done many things. But here the Scripture only tells us of one thing — that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba and called on the name of Jehovah, El Olam. By this brief record we can see two things. One is that the planting of the tamarisk tree must have been very significant; the other is that this planting of the tamarisk tree is connected with calling on the name of Jehovah, El Olam. As we have pointed out, Genesis 1 and 2 are not merely a record of God's creation but a record of life, with the tree of life as its center. Likewise this section of the Word is not merely a record of Abraham's history; it also is a record of life, showing by what source Abraham was living. He lived by calling on Jehovah, El Olam, by experiencing the eternal, hidden God as his life. In New Testament terms, he was experiencing the eternal life flowing with all its riches like a tamarisk tree which expresses the riches of the well by which it lives. As the tree of life is the center of the record in chapters one and two, the tamarisk tree is the center of the record here. We may say that the tamarisk tree is the tree of life experienced by us. It is the expression of the tree of life. Our Christian life and the proper church life are both a tamarisk tree, expressing the tree of life by which we live. This goes together with the calling on the Lord who is our eternal life, our Jehovah, El Olam.
This source of living water makes Isaac a burnt offering (22:2, 9). The source from which Ishmael drank made him an archer, one who lived wildly for himself. But Isaac's source of living made him a burnt offering, one who was offered to God for His satisfaction.
This source of living led Isaac up to Moriah, not down to Egypt (22:2). Ishmael's source of living leads people downward, but Isaac's source leads people upward to the mountain in Moriah where Jerusalem was later built. This going up to Moriah kept God's people from the Philistines. We also need to go up from Beer-sheba to Jerusalem, not only having the church life at Beer-sheba but also in Jerusalem. Ultimately, this proper source of life will make all of us Isaacs and will lead us to the New Jerusalem.
Here we have another seed of the divine revelation. Ishmael lived in the wilderness and was joined to Egypt, but Isaac lived in a planted place and was led to Moriah. The mountain in Moriah eventually became Mount Zion upon which God's temple was built (2 Chron. 3:1), thus becoming the center of the good land which God gave to Abraham and his descendants. After his descendants followed the way of Ishmael and went down to Egypt, God brought them out of that land with the intention of bringing them into the good land of Canaan. But their unbelief kept them wandering in the wilderness where Ishmael lived. Eventually, God brought their children into the good land and chose Jerusalem, which was built on Mount Moriah, as the unique center for them to worship Him. As a result of this, all the children of Israel were brought, three times every year, to the very mountain in Moriah to which Isaac was brought. Thus, Isaac's being brought to Mount Moriah was a seed which was developed in the going up to Mount Zion of all the children of Israel.
Out of Abraham two kinds of people came into existence. One is represented by Ishmael who lived in the wilderness and who was joined to Egypt; the other is represented by Isaac who lived at Beer-sheba and who was brought to Mount Moriah. Today there are also two kinds of Christians. One kind is like Ishmael, living for themselves in the wilderness of their soul and being joined to the world. The other kind is like Isaac, living for God in their spirit and in the church and being brought to Zion. Even we, the real Christians, may be like Ishmael, living in and for ourselves and being joined to the world, unless, as typified by Isaac, we live in our spirit and in the church that we might reach God's goal.
