Genesis 21

The deriding the grace of the Spirit comes near to slighting the Spirit of grace. Scoffing Ishmael was cast out of Abraham's house (Genesis 21:9). Such as scoff at holiness shall be cast out of heaven.

2. Deride it; these are your holy ones. To deride sanctification argues a high degree of atheism, and is a black brand of reprobation: scoffing Ishmael was cast out of Abraham's family (Genesis 21:9). Such as scoff at holiness shall be cast out of heaven.

Quest. Here it may be asked how it can be truly said, that Isaac was Abraham's only begotten son, seeing Ishmael was also his son, and was borne before Isaac, as is evident, Genesis 16? I answer two ways: first, that Ishmael by God's appointment was put out of Abraham's house, (…

Nay verily: but such are our times, too many among us, both those that give, and those which follow good examples, are as signs and wonders, as the Prophet speaks; they are made a reproach, and a by-word among men, and are foully disgraced by odious terms, Isaiah 8:18. But this…

For, though you yourself cannot bear it; yet trust undoubtedly, that Christ who bears with you, will give you strength to undergo it, unto victory. Thirdly, if the afflictions of a Christian, be the afflictions of Christ; then it is a fearful sin for any man to mock or reproach…

He led the Israelites in the deserts of Arabia forty years; whereas a man may travel from Rameses in Egypt to any part of Canaan in forty days: and this God did to humble them, and try them, and to know what was in their heart (Deuteronomy 8.2.) God promised Abraham a son, in wh…

2. In compliance herewith, holy men and such as walked with God before the giving of the Law, did solemnly swear when occasion did require it, and they were lawfully called. So Abraham swore to Abimelech (Genesis 21:15), and gave an oath to his servant (Genesis 24:3, 9). So Jaco…

There might be many children in those Families of the Patriarchs, who when they were adult, were neither cast out, as Ishmael, nor departed, as Esau; and these continuing in communion with the Church all the dayes of their life, from their being circumcised, as the Reverend Auth…

Take heed of the chair of scorners, those are dogs that are without, that bark at the splendor of God's image, that make Saints a word of disgrace. Scoffing Ishmaels that will be mocking, are sure to be cast out (Genesis 21:9). They do not belong to God: the Apostle interprets t…

Does he feed and clothe his enemies, and will he forget his children? He heard the very cry of Ishmael in distress (Genesis 21:17). O my unbelieving heart! do you yet doubt?

2. Other men's sins. That might be in Sarah but a heady passion, for hearing her son mocked by Ishmael, that made her so desirous to have the bondwoman and her first son thrust out, but God makes use of it to make a separation between Isaac the heir of the covenant, and Ishmael,…

[1 Timothy 5:10. If she have nourished her children, if she have lodged strangers, &c. Genesis 21:7. Furthermore, she said: Who would have said to Abraham, Surely Sarah shall give children suck: but I have borne a son in his old age. 8. And the babe grew and was weaned, and Abra…

No, these of whom Christ is head, these are his body, the Church, that have life from him, and are knit to him by the Spirit, and among themselves by spiritual ligatures (Ephesians 1:22-23) and Christ's fullness (Ephesians 4:16; Colossians 1:18). (Genesis 21:6) All that hear sha…

When Elijah was in distress, the Angel brought him meat (1 Kings 19:5-6). When Hagar and Ishmael were in the wilderness, and the bottle spent, then God comforted her from heaven (Genesis 21:17). When the three children were in the fiery furnace, then God sent an Angel to be thei…

This word of Sarah was very grievous to Abraham: and, no doubt, when he heard this sentence, his fatherly bowels were moved with compassion towards his son Ishmael: for he was born of his flesh. And this the Scripture plainly witnesses, Genesis 21, when it says: And this thing w…

And they which do no wrong, but are content to suffer wrong (and that for a good cause,) are in this respect blessed (Matthew 5:10). The third point, is touching the kind of persecution: and that was scorning or mocking (Genesis 21:9). It may be demanded, how mocking can be pers…

Also when he discomfited the kings (Genesis 14:16). Lastly, when God granted him issue even at the time when he was past power to beget any (Genesis 21:2). For albeit the Prophet had a special respect to God's adoption, when he commanded him to go out of his father's house: yet…

7. And they had no child By an extraordinary purpose of God it was appointed that John should be born out of the common and ordinary course of nature. The same thing happened with Isaac, (Genesis 17:17; Genesis 21:1-3,) in whom God had determined to give an uncommon and remarkab…

The Angel calls to Abraham, and shews him another Sacrifice, just when his hand was giving the atal stroke to Isaac, Genesis 22. 10, 11. A Well of water is discovered to Hagar, just when she had let the Child, as not able to see its death, Genesis 21. 16, 19. Rabshakh meets with…

So that the Lord Christ being the first-born, is but the same which we have insisted on, of his being Heir of all, which was the privilege of the first-born. And this privilege was sometimes transmitted to others that were not the first-born, although the natural course of their…

First, For the family, stock, or lineage whereof he was to come; there was a threefold restitution of it, after the promise had for a long time run in general, that he should be of the seed of the woman, or take his nature from among mankind. The first was to the seed of Abraham…

But now they desire a better, that is, an heavenly; therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he had prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac, and (or even) he that received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of wh…

Neither is the word any where else used in the Scripture, and may as well have something foreign in it, as come from its root. So also v. 17. is no where else used for sobolescet, or pliabit, as it is here rendered; from a Son, which is but three times used in that signification…

The point here to be obserued is this, That to reuile and slaunder, yea (as Luke saith) to hate a man for a good cause, especially for religion, is persecution: which shewes how fearefull the common sinne of the age is, whereby men reuile their brethren, with base and odious tea…

They professe that they know God, but by their works they denie him. And such a one was Ismael, who for mocking Isaac the sonne of the promise, was cast out of Abrahams familie, that is, out of the Church of God, Gen. 21. 10, 11. for Abrahams familie at that time was Gods visibl…

Secondly, special; attended with peculiar love, favor, good will; special care towards them, with whom he is so present. So Abimelech observed that he was with Abraham (Genesis 21:22): God is with you in all that you do: with you, to guide you, bless you, preserve you, as we sha…

He did not answer passion with passion, that would have put all into a flame presently; but he answered passion with meekness, and so all was quiet. Another instance of Abraham's meekness, we have in the transactions between him and Abimelech his neighbor (Genesis 21:24-25). He…

And if they called our master, Beelzebub, no nicknames fastened upon his followers can seem strange (Matthew 5:25). Mocking was an old way of persecuting the covenant-seed, for thus, he that was after the flesh, betimes persecuted them that were after the Spirit; compare Genesis…

This is the preeminence of the true sons of any family. The ground on which Sarah pleaded the ejection of Ishmael was that he was the son of the bondwoman, Genesis 21:10 — not a genuine child of the family and therefore could have no right of heirship with Isaac. The apostle's a…

§. 16. Of husbands' ready yielding to their wives' humble suits. Again, it being a token of reverence in a wife humbly to make known her desire to her husband, he ought to show so much courtesy as readily to grant her desire: this courtesy the forenamed Ahasuerus afforded to Est…

Though Shechem loved Dinah, and had deflowered her, yet would he not marry her without the consent of his and her father (Genesis 34:3, etc.). Ishmael had learned as much either by the instruction he had received out of Abraham's house, or else by the light of nature; for he sto…

It is noted of Elkanah, that he suffered his wife to tarry at home while she gave suck to her son, and would not force her to go up to the tabernacle as his other wife did, but gave her all the ease and content he could, saying to her, Do what seems good to you (1 Samuel 1:23).…

For in that sense, we are to count it all joy when we fall into temptation, in the other, that we enter not into it. Again actively considered, it either denotes in the tempter, a design for the bringing about of the special end of temptation, namely a leading into evil; so it i…

The Psalmist had truths enough to support him (Psalm 73:17), yet he says, Until I went into the sanctuary of God, I was foolish and ignorant, I was as a beast before you. There is so much dullness upon the children of God that they cannot remember seasonable thoughts; as Hagar h…

Haec audiunt quasi somniantes: Luther says of the most, In seeing they see not; in hearing they hear not. There was a fountain by Hagar, but she could not see it (Genesis 21:19). God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water, and…

How? Because he mocked him, compare it with (Genesis 21:9): Sarah saw the son of the bondwoman mocking Isaac; and in the reddition and interpretation, the Holy Ghost calls it a persecution: so they are called cruel mockings (Hebrews 11:36). There is as much cruelty, and as deep…

2. We have but a glimmering light when we are blinded with passions, and are in some sort ignorant of what we know, cannot deduce those conclusions which are evidently contained in known and avowed principles. Hagar could not see the well before her eyes by reason of her passion…

Secondly, it is a grievous affliction; for the man of God, that was after God's own heart, he says, the reproach which I so feared. It is called persecution (Galatians 4:29) compared with (Genesis 21:9) and you shall see it was mocking and reproach. The scourge of the tongue is…

And there is an enmity between these two, and this enmity vented by reproach (Galatians 4:27). But as he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now; that persecution was by bitter mockings, so Ishmael (Genesis 21:9). Sarah saw…

5. They are set to work by Satan; thereby to keep off young beginners, and to discourage and molest the godly themselves: for bitter words pierce deep and enter into the very soul. 2. It is a grievous temptation, it is reckoned in Scripture among the persecutions (Galatians 4:29…

The godly have evil natures as well as others, which cannot be beaten down, but by afflictions. We are froward in our relations; Hagar was proud in Abraham's house (Genesis 16:4): her mistress was despised in her eyes; but very humble in the desert (Genesis 21:16). David's heart…

First, by Scripture. Genesis 21:33. Abraham called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. The gods of the nations were upstart gods, but lately found out, and soon destroyed; but he is the eternal God, who ever was, and is, and ever will be.

The natural man who remains still in the old family, has nothing to do with these promises; he may read over the promises (as one may read over another man's will or inventory) but has no right to them; the promises are like a garden of flowers, fenced in and enclosed, which no…

Abraham the Patriarch was a Magistrate, a great Prince, that had three hundred and eighteen servants armed trained men born in his house, he had not only the Covenant in his own flesh, but he made all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money to be cir…

An unbeliever has nothing to do with these privileges. Ishmael was the son of the bond-woman; he had no right to the family: cast out the bond-woman and her son, as Sarah once said to Abraham (Genesis 21:10). So the unbeliever is not adopted; he is none of the family; and God wi…

And so the stability and certainty of the decree and oath is not to make the children of David secure, but watchful in their duty: But this is not a condition without which the Messiah should not reign, but without this he should not reign to their comfort and everlasting good.…

6th Commandment: You shall not kill. He breaks this commandment: who bears malice to another (1 John 3:15); who is given to hastiness (Matthew 5:22); who uses inward fretting and grudging (James 3:14); who is froward of nature, hard to please (Romans 1:31); who is full of rancor…

There are innumerable places to this purpose which speak of the eternity of God directly, and by consequence: by consequence, those words (2 Peter 3:8), "One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," which words, however interpreters have troubl…

Now by proportion he that swears by false Gods, swears by God indirectly, because the false God is, in the opinion of him that swears, a true God, and so his oath binds, and is to be kept. Secondly, Abraham accepts the oath that Abimelech tenders to him in the name of a false Go…

Other doubts touching this history, of less moment, I omit, and pass to the next. The sixth allegation, is out of (Genesis 21:9), where Ishmael is said to mock at Isaac when he was weaned, at which time Ishmael was fifteen years of age at the least. For he was born when Abraham…