COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 58 - ABRAHAM FACES HIS HARDEST TEST

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

After these things, the scriptures say that God tested Abraham.  It happened just the same way that He tested Hagar.  First God called out his name:  “Abraham?”  And we all know the correct answer to this question.  Abraham said “Here I am.”

When I see this in my mind’s eye I picture Abraham praying all alone beside his altar at the old well.  God told Abraham to take his only son (remember that Abraham had legally disinherited Ishmael not so long ago) to the Land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that God would show him.  To make this very clear God also called out the name of Isaac.

Nothing could have ripped out Abraham’s heart more than this test.  He loved Isaac more than anything or anyone and God was asking him to offer him up as a burnt offering. 

We would do well to take a history lesson at this point.  Was it just a casual thing for a man to offer up his son as an offering to God in those days?  No!  It was a common thing for the pagans living in the land.  They would offer up their sons and daughters to the idols that they worshiped in exchange for prosperity, but The God of Abraham had never demanded such a thing of anyone. 

I wonder, did it cross Abraham’s mind to question this?  Isaac was the promised son.  Isaac was irreplaceable.  All of Abraham’s dreams and hopes were all wrapped up in what God would do with Isaac.  Yet, we see in the scriptures that Abraham did not question anything.   Abraham loved God enough to trust Him with his dreams and hopes.  Have you ever had to let go of your dreams and wait on God to give you His dream?  It happens sometimes.  In taking Isaac up to the altar Abraham would be giving up every dream he had ever hoped for.  This takes great faith.  

Why would Abraham not question this? 

One thought is that since Abraham was from the Godly line of Seth and Shem he would have believed in the promise from God of the coming “seed of the woman” who would be sent to reverse the curse on humanity.  Remember how Abraham had planted the Tamarisk tree?  There was so much deep significance in that one act.  Another aspect could have been that Abraham was also remembering The Tree of Life that originally grew in the Garden of God.  Did Abraham look at this tree and remember how God had promised to restore the world?  At the altar at the well so close to this tree, had he asked God about this very thing?  Did Abraham believe that Isaac was this redeemer who would restore the world?

This wasn’t the first time God had tested Abraham, but this was definitely the greatest test God had ever given to Abraham.  We can look back and see that there were ten tests altogether:

Test One:  When as a very young man God had asked Abraham to stand up to his father and deny his religion of idolatry.

Test Two:  When later God told Abraham to leave the country of his birth for an unknown destination.

Test Three:  When a famine came to the promised land after Abraham had moved there.

Test Four:  Sarah’s abductions by foreign kings.

Test Five:  Fighting against the four kings and interceding for Lot.

Test Six:  Seeing a vision of a future captivity just before the covenant was made with God.

Test Seven:  Circumcision at age 99. 

Test Eight:  Sarah’s years of infertility.

Test Nine:  Evicting Hagar and Ishmael.

Now Abraham comes to the test of his life that will affect everything and everyone all throughout humanity from the moment the testing is over.  This is the big one.  God had tested Abraham many times, but this one test was the BIG test, the final exam.  Abraham had done the undergraduate work, but now he had to pass the test that would assure full graduation into God’s good grace.  This was it!

It started out like all the others, with God calling him by name; “Abraham!  Abraham!” and with Abraham’s answer being:  “Here I am.”

This time the “Here I am” was extremely significant because it was the only sound that we hear from Abraham for the next three days as they journeyed to Moriah.  Other than to answer God with that one phrase, Abraham walked in silence.

We are told that Abraham rose early the next morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him.  Many think the two young men were Eliezer and Ishmael (both of them by now had lost all hopes of being the one to inherit Abraham’s wealth and had returned to being nothing but honored servants.)  Since Eliezer led the soldiers that guarded Abraham’s tents, it is easy to suppose that Ishmael had perhaps joined this group, but that is merely speculation.  At any rate, these two were probably the two chosen to go with Abraham and Isaac on this journey of agony. 

Many old sages have pointed out the progression of the spirituality of Abraham between the first test and the tenth test.  In the first test he is asked to leave things of the flesh, things of the earth, things that are material.  In the tenth test he is being tested on a much higher spiritual level, being asked to leave and go to a place of atonement and sacrifice, to attain something of significance in the spiritual realm.  Abraham has grasped the fact that God is Eternal, that He sees the beginning from the end and everything in between. 

Abraham has learned that God’s understanding of things is so much higher than his could ever be.  He has by this time in the process of all these tests gained the knowledge that you do not need to question God.  When God speaks you are only to obey.  Such a simple fact had been learned from so many complicated situations that God had led Abraham through.   This last test would require his greatest trust, his strongest faith.

This wasn’t the first trip to Moriah for Abraham, he had been there many times.  He understood that it was the place where God had created the universe.  It was the place from whence the dust had been taken when God created Adam.  It was the place where Adam and Eve and their sons had offered sacrifice to God.  It was the place that Noah had offered sacrifice after the flood.  Noah’s son, Shem, had been commissioned right at Moriah to be the family high priest after the Order of Melchizedek.  

How did Abraham know all of this?  He knew it directly through Shem.  Shem  had established a school in the land of Moriah for Torah study after the great flood.   Abraham had attended his teachings.  In the lineage of the geneology from Adam to Noah, Abraham was the next to be appointed after Shem as family high priest.  When Shem, representing The Order of Melchizedek, met Abraham in the valley after the Battle of The Kings, Shem had blessed Abraham with the blessing that passes the appointment from the serving family high priest to the next serving family high priest.  Melchizedek was the order of this family of high priests.  Shem had passed the order on to Abraham, who would in turn pass it on to Isaac.  

Yet, here they were walking to Moriah to offer Isaac up as a burnt offering.   What would Shem say about this?  Shem had called the place on Moriah where they were headed  Shalayim, which means “perfect.”  This spot later came to be known as Jerusalem.  Many people still do not realize that Shem, though much older than Abraham, actually out-lived Abraham.  Abraham had learned much from Shem.  Shem lived to be 602, and 35 years beyond the years of Abraham, which is pretty amazing.   

Abraham did not consult Shem.  He quickly followed God.  If he had consulted Shem, perhaps Shem would have suggested, like many others have thought over the years that Abraham misunderstood God’s words to take Isaac and “offer” him there.  Some think that God was only asking Abraham to take Isaac to Moriah and dedicate him to the work of THE LORD that was going on there.  The same words that describe a burnt offering also describe the act of ascending, or going up, as smoke rises.  If you trade the similar Hebrew words for each other the Hebrew words for “offer him up” could also translate to “cause him to ascend.” 

We all know how Abraham’s logic could be at times.  Perhaps he got it right, or perhaps he got it wrong, it does not matter, as God was in control of this whole event, and God called the shots.  The important thing was only for Abraham to follow to the very best of his ability whatever he understood God to be saying to him.  It was only important that he did this willingly and without a moment’s hesitation, showing great courage and bravery and with a totally pure desire to be used of God in any way that God saw fit.   By now the rules of Abraham's life had been reduced to two little words:  Follow God.  Abraham had come to know that all other things fell into place around those two little words.

Instead of questioning anything that God had asked of him, Abraham immediately began to prepare for this sacrifice.  He went to chop the wood for the altar.  Could this have been some of the wood from the Terebinth tree that he had planted at the grove of the trees that grew in Mamre, where he had lived so happily in his tent with Sarah and sat under when The Angel of The LORD came calling to tell him that Sarah would have a son?  We do not know. 

Perhaps the chopping of some of this tree for wood for this altar was Abraham’s way of saying to God, will you cut off this branch that we have planted together and you have promised me?   Once it is chopped and burned, it cannot be replaced.  This part of the tree can never be again.  Was it a prayer of action instead of words?  We have no way to know.   All we know is that Abraham chopped the wood himself and made sure that it was all kosher for the altar of God.

Abraham then saddled his own donkey.  He did not ask his servant to do this for him because he wanted to take all responsibility for this strange journey on his own shoulders.  He was taking Eliezer and Ishmael along; so he did not want anyone blaming them for whatever transpired.  They were easy suspects.  They had many reasons for wanting Isaac out of the way but had always been too noble to implement or exercise these reasons.  Abraham wanted no one taking the blame, so he saddled his own donkey in front of all the other servants as proof that he had not just been dragged along into a concocted scheme, but had taken this journey because he chose to do so of his own free will.

He said his goodbyes, probably allowing Sarah to believe that he was taking Isaac to visit Shem for schooling, and they all started on a long, three day journey, Abraham and the three who were like sons to him, the most beloved son, Isaac, carrying the wood for the sacrifice.

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 57 - THE BUSH AND THE WELL

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Most of the story of Hagar and Ishmael has been told; but there is a little bit more that we should cover here before we make a turn and leave them for a while.  There is so much to tell and time limits how much we will be able to discuss.  How I wish that were not the case.  This is a very important topic.  Today I want to look closer at the little details that are often overlooked in the typical discussions of the story.  God is in the small things as well as the larger things and in this story, the small things make a huge difference in the large things.  

Let's try very hard to remember every little thing about these two because they are a big part of the thread in the whole tapestry that God is weaving as He forms and shapes the nation of Israel and eventually all the nations of the world as we know it today.

God has been writing this story for years and years, slowly changing the hearts, fully telling the truth, finding and loving the lost and the hated forever.  Not just yesterday!  He is Eternal.  All of these nations and peoples that are so loved of God came originally from Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.  It is important to walk a while in each of their shoes and to see what God taught each of them.  We need to know who they really are so that we can realize who we really are. 

We have already discussed that Hagar was set free by Abraham.  She and Ishmael went to live near a well in the desert.  One would think from reading the scriptures that it was the last Abraham saw of Hagar, but is that a realistic assumption?  Many think that Abraham kept up with Hagar and Ishmael and provided for their welfare.  Even though Sarah and Hagar were separated and maintained separate homes with their own sons, it seems that Abraham loved and cared and provided for both sons.
 

If you think about this long enough, you come to realize that the well which was only a few bow-lengths away from the place where Hagar lay Ishmael to die was possibly located very close to where Abraham and Sarah were living in Gerar.  It would not have been too far for Abraham to travel, or to receive news of the needs of Hagar and Ishmael.  

   

If you think about it all even longer you might come to suspect that this very well was probably the same well that we later hear about when Abraham and Abimeleck made an agreement to live peacefully with each other in the land for three  years.  This was a sort of treaty between them that happened long after Abraham and Sarah had left Abimeleck’s palace where amazingly even after Abraham had deceived Abimeleck, King Abimeleck had promised them use of the land to graze their cattle and promised them that they would be free to live on the land as they wished without harm.  Years had passed since Abimeleck made this promise and he had been good to his word.  Abraham and Sarah had been allowed to dwell in the land even though they were foreigners.  When it came time to seal the deal with a treaty, Abimeleck reminded Abraham that he had kept his end of the promise.  Now it was Abraham's turn to make promises.

Many were amused when this treaty was formed.  They marveled that Abimeleck would even think of making an agreement with Abraham after the way Abraham had lied to him and deceived him into thinking that Sarah was his sister.    Yet; Abraham had prayed for Abimeleck and his household and the Philistine King had seen the results of those prayers.  It must have made quite an impression.  There had been much healing.   Abimeleck knew also from a dream that God was blessing Abraham and that Abraham was a prophet of God.  Perhaps Abimeleck was afraid God would bless Abraham so much that he would lose all of his kingdom to him.   Was it not rumored that Abraham thought his descendants would inherit this land eventually?   This three year treaty probably seemed the best way to go.  They could live together in peace for a period of time, then Abraham and Sarah could journey on to somewhere else.  The King would no longer be threatened with these people taking over his territory.  In his eyes, it was temporary and he would like to end the temporary arrangement without too much of a fight and on agreeable terms.

Abraham’s perspective of this treaty would have been quite different from that of Abimeleck, having been told by God that his descendants would eventually be given the land.  Abraham might have seen this treaty as the beginning of many more to come.  He wanted to live peacefully in the land and he wanted to have a good relationship with the king that now ruled the land.  

So the two men made the treaty, each of them looking at it from their own perspective; Abraham thinking this was God's first step in His plan for his descendants to acquire the land, and Abimeleck thinking he was preparing them for the date when they would make their eventual departure.  Each man entered the treaty seeing their own possible advantages.

However, to make the deal sweeter, there was a well that Abraham had dug, and he had noticed Abimeleck’s men were constantly fighting with his men over the water rights for this well.  Abraham pointed this out to Abimeleck and mentioned that he had set aside seven female lambs as a gift to Abimeleck in exchange for the well.  Abimeleck, knowing that the deal would never be sealed without this, accepted Abraham's terms.  What harm would it be for Abraham to own the well if he had to leave.  Abimeleck's people would just take it over at that time, wells could be reclaimed easily enough.

When this treaty was finished and sealed this particular well was considered to be the legal property of Abraham.  It was the first thing that he had actually bought and paid for and owned exclusively in the new land.  It was the most important move that he could have made.  In this dry land, water rights meant survival.  This was a very important well.  It was the often overlooked first step in God fulfilling the covenant that promised the land to Abraham and his descendants.
  

Knowing that God had finally given him a piece of the property that had been promised for years and years, Abraham built an altar at this well and gave thanks to God.  He was full of joy and elated to see the promises coming to pass!  He thanked God for the well, and for the beginning of the fulfilling of the rest of the promise.  Isaac’s birth had fulfilled a large part of this promise and a small piece of the rest of it was now beginning to come about too.  Abraham was determined that Isaac’s children and their children would live in this land that had been promised by God to Abraham.  This one little bit of the land where the well was had given Abraham much hope for the future.

Abraham realized at this late point in his life during this time that God first begun to fulfill the rest of the covenant that God had a different perspective on time than he did.  Abraham realized for the first time that God was eternal and everlasting.  The importance of this truth overwhelmed Abraham.  It sunk into his very soul and he thought a lot about the fact that God goes on forever and ever, infinite, without end.

He had known that God was powerful and righteous, but this was the first time that Abraham had pondered the fact that the God he faithfully served was forever and ever.  Here at this well Abraham called God El-Olam which meant Eternal God.  Abraham pondered the fact that an eternal God had given him a promise and that promise would belong to all of his descendants.  They would know and call on this name of this very same Eternal God all through history.  

Abraham  finally realized here that every thing he had done and would ever do would affect the eternal blessings of God toward his descendants.  That is why Abraham planted a Tamerisk tree beside this well.  

Tamerisk trees grow slowly.  You do not plant them for your own shade.  You plant them to shade the people in the generations to come.  Abraham praised God that his descendants would come and sit under the shade of this Tamerisk tree near the well of Abraham where they would draw water to satisfy their thirsts in the years to come.  

It was a huge moment of faith for Abraham.  

It was a gigantic leap in his understanding of how big God really is and how eternal his blessings and promises are.  Abraham praised God here and offered up his thanks.  With the planting of the Tamerisk tree he had planted down roots.  He continued to live a godly life with Sarah and Isaac in Gerar.  There he once again opened his doors to strangers and told them about El-Olam - The Everlasting God.  The House of Abraham was once again spreading the word about the One True God of Heaven and Earth.   It must have been a wonderful time for Abraham and Sarah and Isaac.  These must have been the most precious years of their lives.

Abraham was so happy with the way things were going that he decided to give a huge celebration on the day that Isaac was weaned.  We have already discussed this story too, and we noted the way that Sarah persuaded Abraham to turn Hagar and Ishmael away so that only Isaac would inherit from Abraham.  

Abraham was quite perplexed but discussed this with God first, which also shows us the change and the maturity of Abraham in this place.  He heard God say to listen to Sarah so he decided to do what he personally did not want to do.  He gave Hagar and Ishmael some bread and a flask of water and told them they were free; and that they must leave.  Perhaps Sarah saw this as getting rid of Hagar and Ishmael, but perhaps Abraham only saw this as separating the two women and their sons.  He only gave them enough bread and water to wonder a short time.  Perhaps he even told Hagar which direction to take.  No one really knows what was happening in Abraham's heart on that day, but what we do know is they stumbled on the provision of a well just in time, just as their bread and water ran out.  

We have also discussed that Hagar wandered in the desert until the water and the bread were gone and she laid Ishmael down beneath a bush and went off a few bow lengths so she did not have to see him die.  She began to cry.  The angel of the LORD heard Ishmael's cry and came to Hagar and Hagar's eyes were opened and she saw the well.

If you think about it, the well that Hagar saw which was close to a bush where she laid Ishmael to die (about two bow-lengths away) was probably the same well that Abraham and Abemileck had formed the treaty over.  It more than likely was the well bought with the seven female lambs.  This well had been the beginning of Abraham's miracle from God, the first rights to the promised land.  It was also Hagar’s miracle from God.  Her eyes were opened in that very spot and she saw how to bring her nearly dead son back to life.  This was the well in Beersheba near Hebron on the Sinai peninsula, not too terribly far from Gerar.  Some people have different theories, but this is what I have come to believe about the well.  
  

The bush that Ishmael lay under was mostly likely a young Tamarisk tree that had been planted a few years ago by his Father, Abraham.   When these trees are young they look more like bushes.   Hagar, being originally from the desert lands of Egypt would probably have known the special qualities of the Tamarisk trees.  

These trees grow in soil with high concentrations of salt.  They have small leaves and small branches.  During the heat of the day these trees secrete salt.  The salt dries.  During the night the salt absorbs water from the air.  In the morning the water evaporates creating the effect of a natural air conditioner and the air beneath this tree is always cooler during the daylight.  God was still looking out for Ishmael.  He gave him air conditioning in the desert heat!
 

Perhaps Hagar, even though she was afraid her son might die, did not walk away for only that reason.  Perhaps she wanted him to have all the benefits of the air underneath this tree.  Perhaps her walking away was a noble sacrifice, giving him the cool air in the midst of the desert heat, and yet she would be close enough to hear him if needed.  

It is also said of the leaves of this tree when they have been shed beneath it make a soft warm bed in the desert during the night.  They tend to absorb the heat from the sand at night and keep one warm.  As hot as it is in the daytime, the desert is also very cold at night.  You can die from cold just as you can die from heat.  Hagar was smart enough to use all of her survival skills to protect her son and to keep him alive.  God was still guiding Hagar, even as she was lost in the desert.  

This is a personal thought that I want to give more research to, but it is my own personal theory that Hagar and Ishmael, lost in the desert, were the first people to encounter the burning bush, even before Moses.  I believe it existed in the area of that Tamerisk tree, or even that it is that Tamerisk tree.  

If you study the areas where there were burning bush experiences, you will find that this well which was probably dug by Abraham and the bush were close in proximity to each other.  Moses met Jethro's daughters as they were drawing water from a well.  There were seven daughters who drew, and there were seven female lambs paid by Abraham to obtain this well for the descendants of Abraham.  Moses saw the bush not too far from this well.
  

Getting back to our original story, we are told that God heard Ishmael’s cry and then spoke to Hagar.  Could it be that God heard Ishmael’s cry because Ishmael was laid down in a holy place?  We are told in the scriptures that the place of the burning bush was holy.  

Let’s read how Moses described the burning bush in Exodus 3:1-5:

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the Mountain of God.  There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.  Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up.”  When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses!  Moses!”  And Moses said, “Here I am.”   “Do not come any closer,” God said.  “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

It is quite possible that Ishmael was laid down right on the same holy ground and God heard his cry and his prayer for himself and his mother.  Then God called out to from the bush to Hagar, much in the same way that He called out to Moses.  God called out to her by specifically naming her name.  God knew Hagar’s name and He told her not to fear, that he had heard the cries of the boy in the bush. 

Wow!  Does that not give you chills up and down your spine?  God KNEW Hagar by name and He told her not to fear.  I can just feel Hagar's countenance changing from very humble to confident and sure.  I can see the hope in her eyes increasing every second.   Just as God remembered Sarah in her time of being an outcast; He also remembered Hagar.   He had heard her son crying under the BUSH, probably the same bush where God called out to Moses.  

The cry of Ishamael in God's ear probably sounded a lot like another little baby's cry from the basket in the river made from the bushes called bulrushes.  Long before God heard the cry of Moses, He heard the cry of Ishamael.   Probably near the same well where Abraham had worshiped God and thanked Him for being eternal and keeping all of his promises.  This incident in the life of Hagar and Ishmael probably happened in the same place where generation after generation we will hear of miracle after miracle for Abraham’s descendants in the years to come.  The stories are uncountable.
 

So be sure to listen up whenever you hear the mention of the bush or the Tamarisk Tree or the well.  It will be meaningful, and it usually involves God calling someone out, using their personal name and giving them personal instructions.  Ask Moses.  Ask Jacob.  Ask David.  Ask Mary.  Ask Abraham.  Ask Ishmael.  Ask Isaac.  Ask 21 Egyptian men who were beheaded for their belief in the cross just recently. 

These cast-out children of Abraham were all in some ways hidden under a bush on holy ground.  At one time they were all lost and afraid.  God had told them all not to be afraid.  Abraham, their leader had made a covenant with God right in this very place.  Here in this same place, Hagar looks up and sees the well that will keep them from ever thirsting again.

The roots of the Tamarisk tree have grown deeper and deeper and generations and generations have passed since the days of Abraham, but many, many of his descendants have remained faithful and loyal to God; no matter where they are, no matter what their circumstances in life.  It is the story of the Tamerisk tree being told over and over again.  It has been played out right before our eyes in present times too.  The Tamerisk Tree speaks of an Eternal God who always keeps His promises.  The tree is still alive and well and it is growing today.

The witness of the children of Abraham of The Eternal God has grown slow and strong, putting down roots like the Tamerisk tree, slow and steady, taking a long, long time, hardly noticed at first, overshadowed by the larger trees of the land who are not so flexible and not so strong.  

The tamarisk trees have now spread across the lands and the nations. People of God have found the truth of The God of Abraham and followed His Son, Jesus Christ.  This means so much to them that they would die before denying the message of the cross of Jesus Christ.  They do not seek this death for their own glory, it finds them and allows them to be a true witness; much unlike those men who falsely think that what they do that breaks every commandment of God will bring them honor and glory.   True People of God never seek their own honor.  They only give glory to God.  This is a test that is always accurate.   These false self-proclaimed prophets of terrorism who also follow a false prophet seek their own glory and their own benefit.  Those who have been willing to die selflessly rather than deny the name and cause of The One True God are the true martyrs.  They are the true ones who will be rewarded by God.   They are the souls of the martyrs under the altar!

 Even today, many more have lost their lives being a witness for this truth that they believe enough to die for.  They have kept an unwavering faith in this God of Abraham.  They knew without a doubt that they had found the most valuable thing ever.   They have been burned, beheaded, tortured and killed, but their witness, like a slow growing Tamerisk tree now spreads its branches and covers a land who seeks for truth.  The trees will talk and their voices will be heard throughout eternity.  They died for an Eternal God.

If no one else speaks for them; even the very rocks will cry out their witness story; that the God of Abraham is The One True God.  Their blood cries out to God even now, just like the blood of the righteous Abel.  God will hear.  He will honor them.  The God of Abraham looks after his people who are tortured, exiled, lost and afraid.   He saw that other Egyptian named Hagar and He came to her rescue.   The same God who loved Hagar and knew her by name, reaches out to those like her living in the midst of every land today.  

The story from the Tamerisk Tree and the story spoken from the blood of the martyrs that call out to God is eternal because it is a story of The One Eternal God - El-Olam - The God of Abraham, and He never changes.  

So remember El-Olam, the One Eternal God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when you hear of a well, or a tree, or a bush.  Listen for the cry of God that calls out to individuals from every land from a very holy place.  He hears.  He sees.  He is eternal.  He wrote the story, and He will finish the story.  He knows the beginning from the end.  Follow Him.  He knows your name!  Every name of every true martyr is recorded in His book, The Book of Life.  The Lamb guards the book.  The Lamb that bought the well of everlasting water from which no man drinking will ever thirst again.  The price has been paid.  The Father who paid the price through His son is constantly calling out names.

There is only one correct answer when you hear Him calling:  "Henini"  "Here I Am."  That was the answer given by Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Moses, Isaac, David and all of the disciples of Jesus Christ in the new testament.  That was the answer of all those who have been recently martyred.  "Here I am."    

Will that be your answer when He calls your name?  

We are living in times when you must decide.  You must know your answer.  God will show you.  He showed Abraham.  He showed Hagar.  HE showed those who recently followed Him forsaking all else.  He always keeps His promises.

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 56 - HAGAR AND ISHMAEL MOVE TO THE DESERT

  Abraham named his son Isaac, which means “he laughs.”  Abraham and Sarah both had laughed to think they could have a son at this state in life.  Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born and Sarah was 90.  All of those who had laughed at Sarah during the boyhood of Ishmael now laughed WITH her after the birth of Isaac.  God had kept his promises.

      

On the day that Isaac was weaned Abraham celebrated by giving a great feast.  Abraham and Sarah wanted the world to join in their celebration of the fact that the birth of Isaac had brought such great joy to them. 

 Yet this birth had ironically brought a sense of sorrow and disgust to Hagar and Ishmael.  Their arrogant false- confidence had been squashed with the birth of Isaac.  Although, in those days The Code of Hammurabi stated that the son of a slave woman had a legal claim on his father’s property:

"If his wife bear sons to a man, or his maid-servant have borne sons, and the father while still living says to the children whom his maid-servant has borne: "My sons," and he counts them with the sons of his wife; if then the father dies, then the sons of the wife and of the maid-servant shall divide the property in common. The son of the wife is to partition and choose."

 Abraham, until the birth of Isaac had said to Ishmael “my son.”  He had stopped saying this to him when Isaac was born, yet we know that Abraham loved Ishmael and was always thinking of him, wanting to provide for him too.  Abraham was in a very hard place in his heart concerning Ishmael, a place where God would have to intervene to bring about the desired results  

  It was obvious that Ishmael was not supposed to be the one to inherit Abraham’s place among the people.  Hagar’s dreams and ambitions were crushed.  Ishmael was very jealous as this had crushed many of his dreams too.  He had been so sure of his future, now he was not so sure.  He resented Isaac in his heart.  

       

 Perhaps Sarah saw a legal fight coming which she wanted to head off at the pass.    Sarah looked out at her son on this day of celebration and saw Ishmael mocking Isaac and she became very angry about it.  The wording of this passage that speaks of “mocking” could mean two things; either Ishmael was mocking Isaac, or Ishmael was playing with Isaac.  It could also mean BOTH things.   Some think that Ishmael, who was already an excellent marksman at 16 was shooting arrows all around Isaac, and they were landing just short of hitting him.  That would certainly bring a reaction from most mothers!

 Whatever he was up to; Ishmael was probably about 16 years old now, and he was old enough to know better.  Sarah was tired of his wild, selfish, dangerous ways.  Sarah talked to Abraham and told him to get rid of Hagar and her son so that this slave woman’s son should never be able to interfere with Sarah’s son’s inheritance.   Sarah was basically asking Abraham to disinherit Ishmael; to make it legal and binding so that Isaac would always be considered the only heir.

  

 At first Abraham was distressed and concerned about this request of Sarah, but God spoke to Abraham and said:  “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.”    God reassured Abraham that He would make the son of the slave into a nation also, because of the fact that he was Abraham’s offspring.

So it was that Abraham harkened to the voice of God and granted Sarah’s wish to send Hagar and Ishmael away.  He gave them food and water to take with them and they began to wander in the dessert of Beersheba.

 It wasn't long before their water ran out and Ishmael became very weak.  Hagar laid him under a bush and went off the distance of about a bow shot away from him because she did not want to watch him die.  She sat down and began to sob

We are told that the Angel of God heard the boy crying (not Hagar’s tears, but Ishmael’s)  and called out to Hagar.  He told her not to be afraid, to go to the boy and take him by the hand, that God would make him into a great nation.  God opened the eyes of Hagar and she saw a well where she filled the flask with water and gave the boy water to drink.

   

Have your eyes ever been opened to see a well in the middle of the desert?   Where death and desolation was all Hagar could see just one minute before; now she sees hope.  Hope is always the beginning of something better.  God promises a future for Ishmael and God provides the sustenance they need to survive.

         

And Ishmael's life as a young man started right there under a bush in the dessert where Hagar lay Ishmael to die.  How strange and yet, how fitting!  I can think of another incident of hope that started under a bush in the dessert, it was a burning bush and the person was Moses, but that is yet another story.    

 So Hagar and her nearly-grown son began a life in the wilderness of Paran.

 God was with the boy as he grew up and he thrived in the dessert.  This location seemed to be in the northeast section of the Sinai peninsula southwest of Edom and south of the wilderness of Zin, near the Judean mountains but as far north as Kadesh or even Beersheba. 

Ishmael grew to manhood in the desert and became a very skilled archer; no doubt killing small animals that provided clothing and food for them. When he was older, Hagar returned to her native Egypt and found a wife for her son.

 Though there are legends and tales from the Oral scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures hardly speak of Ishmael again until the time when he is 73 years old and Isaac and Ishmael are once again spoken of together in the day when they bury Abraham, indicating that they did keep up with one another off and on over the years, and were probably aware of each other’s lives. 

Ishmael had twelve sons who became tribal leaders living in the land from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt as you go toward Ashur.  Ishmael lived to be 137 years old.  

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 55 - THE FAITHFUL HEART OF SARAH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

And so we come to the point in Sarah’s life right before she discovers she is 
pregnant with Isaac.
  

Sarah has been through so much already!  

I wondered - what would have been the state of her heart?

Abraham had taken her as a wife when she was very young.  She was said to be the most beautiful woman on earth at that time.  It is doubtful she had ever known or even dated any man other than her husband.  All she knew of life she had willingly and enthusiastically learned at Abraham’s side.  He had been her shelter, her strong tower, her knight in shinning armor.     She must have adored him in every way.  

In the land of her birth she was the envy of all the women.  Living there, she had it all; the gift of great beauty, the gift of the right husband, the gift of wealth and unending material possessions, a nice home, and a large close extended family.  What more could a woman ask for?

  

One day Abraham came home and said God had told him to leave and go to a place that He would show him.  Everything changed in an instant for Sarah.  She had to follow her husband to a strange and unknown land and give up what every woman secretly desires the most – security.

Did this bother Sarah?  Not at all!  This young woman who had never spent one minute worrying about food, clothing, shelter or safety gathered up her things and said "Let's go!"  

It seems that from the very beginning of her life Sarah had been given the gift of divine insight from God.  She knew in her heart that she was going with her husband on a divine mission of God.  God had made this clear to her, though she probably did not know exactly why and perhaps she never understood all the little details; especially when she considered the fact that she had remained childless for so long. 

So it was that Sarah just smiled and left with Abraham on the back of a camel loaded down with only her most needed possessions.  She rode happily off into the sunset to learn how to live in a tent instead of a house.

Do you think it is an easy thing to learn to live in a tent instead of a house?  Sarah did.  She left behind all those material things that burdened down her time; all of those things that owned her instead of letting her own them.  She now had more time for God and more time for others.  Living in a tent is something all Christians should desire.  You have nothing real to lose and everything valuable to gain! 

 Sarah also quickly learned how to exist without the company of other women, for she was often alone and probably spent hours and hours with no one else to speak to, except for Abraham when he came home tired and grouchy from tending his flocks and dealing with his servants.  

Being alone isn’t always a bad thing either, especially if you know God, as Sarah did.  That is because if you know God you are never really alone.  Sarah allowed God to use the circumstances He put her in to teach her about life.  She spent hours meditating, studying, listening and praying.  All Christians should desire this peaceful growing state in life.  It is really quite necessary in order to be able to grow and move ahead in the journey toward God's kingdom.  Our quiet times tend to eventually make us stronger people.

Up to this point in her life, Sarah seems to have been one extremely happy young woman.  She and Abraham had become very busy teaching all the many people passing through the land how to know, worship and live for The One True God.  They taught at their table, always ending their lessons with bread, wine and fellowship  

Word of mouth quickly spread throughout the land from the people they meet.   They suddenly were blessed with a steady stream of people coming and going.  Their tents were filled with those who wanted to learn more of God’s way of life.  They fed them both physically and spiritually.  No one ever left  unfed.  God kept bringing these people to them, it was part of their mission, part of their destiny.  They were so happy in the midst of this!  Sarah had eyes to SEE God at work in their lives.  She was very, very happy with this life in a tent.  She felt blessed in every way.

 Abraham taught the men and Sarah taught the women.   Sarah’s tent was constantly full of worship.  Her tent actually was the shadow of our pattern of worship today.  Her tent provided the pattern for the wilderness tabernacle that was later used by Moses.  God gave the instructions to Moses, but many things resembled what we know of Sarah’s tent.  

Sarah lit candles on Friday nights to welcome the Sabbath and the candles on the westernmost side of her tent never went out.  The light from these candles was used to bring the fire for the rest of the candles all through the week.  Her tent was filled with constant, never-ceasing unending light.  

A second miracle occurred with Sarah's bread dough.  It never grew stale or moldy and there was always enough to feed everyone that Abraham invited inside.  This resembled what the Israelites experienced in the wilderness with the Manna From Heaven.  This resembles what we now experience spiritually today when we partake of The Lord's Supper or take The Holy Eucharist.

A third miracle was the Cloud of Glory that rested over her tent.   God’s Presence could actually be seen with the eyes in the form of the cloud over Sarah’s tent. This cloud was the precursor of the Cloud of Smoke and Pillar of Fire that led the Children of Israel through the wilderness.  These things are symbolic of God's Holy Spirit that was later sent to The Church after Christ arose from the grave.

All of these things that are so familiar to Christian worshipers today started and were brought about by the first shadows of Sarah's tent and Sarah's heart for God.

When Sarah died all of these things went away.  They did not reappear again until Isaac brought Rebekah to live in Sarah's tent.   

These miracles were simply an outward expression of the spirit of Sarah's heart toward God.  She constantly worshiped with every action she took.  She brought God’s light, His Presence and understanding and warmth into their home and into every other place that she went.  The love of God shone from her countenance.    

In those days, people coming to see Sarah in her tent were encouraged and enlightened.  The fresh bread she served her guest symbolized her servant’s heart.  Sarah listened to God constantly and sought His will for managing her home.  There was good hard work and good peaceful rest in the home of Sarah.  God has used the story of her tent to teach us how a home should always be.  God has used the story of Sarah’s tent to paint a portrait of how His true Church should always be.

But even Sarah had her trials and tests.
  

There came the day when Sarah also had to leave this much loved home.  Once again she had to make a long uncertain journey with Abraham, this time they journeyed to Egypt.  In Egypt Sarah and Abraham would be out of the element of life that God had shown them.  Their ways and customs would seem strange to these people living in a pagan land.  It was much easier to eat and have plenty in Egypt, but it was a land spiritually starved for the knowledge of God.    Sarah and Abraham left one type of famine to go to another type of famine.  It was a land of idol worship and spiritual deceptions.  God did not send them this time, they went on Abraham's own human logic.    

This was the beginning of a whole different dimension of Sarah's life.  We have already studied the story of how Abraham asked her to say she was his sister.  This must have been a very hard time for Sarah, but she was filled up with God’s Holy Spirit because of all of the worship from inside her tent for so many years, and so she was not afraid of the circumstances she found herself living through.  Faith exercised daily with prayer and study makes us braver.   It gives us courage and inner strength and we are able to overcome.  Sarah, though she probably did not agree with him, was obedient to Abraham.  She stayed obedient even though he made some very foolish choices concerning her.  

Abraham basically deserted her and lived like a king in the luxury that was provided for him because of the fact that the King was interested in his “sister.”

Sarah must have been furious with Abraham, but at the same time she must have remembered that God HAD sent them off on a mission together.  Perhaps she was often confused, but Sarah trusted God through all of this.  When the time came that she had to face the lusts of a pagan king, God protected her.  

The obedient Sarah with the servant’s heart did the right thing by trusting God and asking for His intervention and they escaped this dangerous situation unharmed and even better off materially than they had been before.

As for their marriage though, I’m not at all sure that they were better off.  

Sarah must have allowed reality to hit her heart a bit, and she must have noticed that Abraham had not come to her defense and that he had been perfectly willing for another man to have her in order to protect himself.   She was given plenty of time in Pharaoh's harem to ponder this.  This knight's shinning armor was becoming a bit tarnished to the lady.  This cowardly action of Abraham did something to Sarah’s heart that Abraham could not fix.  It changed her perception of who he was.   Most women in such a situation would become bitter and hard-hearted and feel that the one they loved with all of their heart had totally abandoned and betrayed them.  Sarah let some of this self pity creep inside her heart too.  Then; because of the bad feelings which dwelling on all of this caused for Sarah, she began to doubt Abraham’s love for her.  The trust factor in their relationship had been completely destroyed.   It was a strange place for Sarah to find herself.  This surely was not the mission God had destined for her life!  Where had she gone wrong?

Sarah got very distracted, spending entirely too much time with worrying about her own problems and she forgot to pay attention to God’s plan.  

She reasoned that she didn’t feel the same toward Abraham anymore, but she did desire to have back some of the security she had given up for him.  She felt cheated, and as if she had been dealt with unfairly by him.   She wanted to emphasize the legal side of their marriage in order to protect herself from further harm.   In her human search to find back the security she had given up for him, Sarah started to devise a way to make Abraham the father he had always wanted to be.  She thought a child would help their relationship.  She knew the only fault that could be laid at her feet was the fact that she had not been able to give Abraham the child he so longed for.  She knew she was now getting older, and would soon be past the age of bearing a child.

It is possible that she had given up on God fulfilling this promise, or either she felt pressured to do what she could to make God’s will come about in her own way.  

We humans should never play God! It is very dangerous, and it never ends well. 

Sarah decided to use her servant Hagar to make this much wanted child of Abraham happen.  It was a grave mistake!  

For the first time in all of her history, we hear of Sarah’s sin – not so much that she gave her husband another woman (this was not right either) but absolutely that she devised her own plan instead of listening to God to know HIS plan for her life.  

This is where most of us miss the train to glory.  Sarah was no different at this point in her life than any other ordinary woman who had ever lived on planet earth.  She didn't think or pray.  She acted out of her will instead of God's.  
  

The results were exactly what you would expect.  

Hagar became pregnant with Abraham’s child and he began to lavish his attention on Hagar and the child instead of Sarah.    Sarah had already suffered from lack of self esteem due to the incident in Egypt.  Now she suffered from neglect and jealousy too.  These are a horrible combination of emotions. They would never have entered Sarah’s life if she had not chosen her own way instead of God’s way.  These dangerous emotions can make the most beautiful of women do the most horrible things; and they are not ever pretty to behold.  If you want to see beauty turn to ashes just watch a beautiful woman become neglected and jealous.  It is a very ugly picture!
 

 The bitterness became so bad that Sarah resorted more and more to isolation.  For the first time ever in her life she knew what it was like to feel lonely.  Her relationship with Abraham became almost non-existent.  They passed each other in the camp.  Sometimes they had meals together, but there were no words passing between them.  Abraham slept in Hagar’s tent.  Sarah cried alone in the dark.

The team work that they had enjoyed in the days of their past of spreading God’s word became less and less, and Abraham was tuned in more and more to Hagar’s thoughts and ideas about religion and life.  He used the excuse that he was studying the best ways for how to raise his only son.  

Sarah was very, very miserable.  She detested Hagar’s wild ideas and knew they were totally wrong.  She watched the boy being spoiled rotten and it was all totally out of her hands without Abraham’s backing. 

The other women living in the camp with them, the servants and extended family members probably made fun of Sarah.  At the least they pitied her for being childless and not being able to keep her husband satisfied.  Sarah probably had spells of anger that gave way to long bouts of depression, and she was probably on the verge of hate when somehow, some way, (we are not told exactly when or how)  something happened; she found God again and began to release all of her hurt emotions to Him.

 As she prayed and gave up her heart’s tiny little pieces one by one, God ministered to His beloved Sarah.  He did not desert her.  He began the work of healing her broken heart. This took a long time, but God was there when she decided to reach for Him.  She soon discovered that He had never left her side.  She was the one who had moved, and she was the one who decided to move back.  God had been right there all along.  
  

It was in this time of struggle, through the 13 years of Ishmael’s childhood, that Sarah learned the astounding fact that her true husband was God.  God is the true husband of every soul that covenants with Him.  The covenant of God is above all human covenants.  When we put God's covenant first, all other covenants of the human nature fall into their proper place.  The love of God was far greater toward Sarah than the love of Abraham, but God was still there for both Sarah and Abraham.  If each of them followed their covenant with God together at the same time, the human covenant of their marriage flourished.   Anything that happened between them was designed to flow from God's covenant above them.  This is the secret that so many women never come to understand.  Those who do come to understand, usually find it from hardship, just as Sarah did.  

She began to pray to God again.  She began to worship and adore Him.  She woke up to the fact that Abraham would never be a perfect man and she accepted the fact that he would never be capable of loving her as God did.  She leaned on God and trusted Him to help her with Abraham.  That was when things took a turn and began to change.

 One day Sarah woke up to Abrahm standing in her tent with the look of love on his face again.  He had just experienced another milestone in his own relationship with God.  He was full of talk and excited to share this with her.  He had just received another covenant agreement from Heaven.  It had not happened until he had taken a close examination of who he had become and how far away from God he had walked.  He had finally realized his mistake in allowing Hagar to take over their lives.  Abraham had been brought back by God and he was headed back to his original God ordained purpose in life.  He had confessed his sins to God, and now he confessed them to Sarah.   

He had opened his eyes to the way he had treated his wife and he knew without a doubt that she was the one God had intended for him to love forever.  This had been confirmed by God a million times over.  Abraham had even committed to performing a physical sign which would proclaim that he would no longer be listening or living out anything other than God's will for his life.  He had been circumcised and had his whole household circumcised also.   

Sarah gave thanks to God for the change in her earthly husband.  She knew God was the reason for this.  She had been praying and praying, constantly interceding on Abraham’s behalf.  God had answered her prayers in more ways than she could ever realize.
 

 Shortly after this, as Abraham was sitting in front of their tent one day, they were visited by three heavenly visitors who told them that Sarah would soon be blessed with the promised child.  They both laughed.  They knew they were too old now to have a child.  Still, they hoped!  Hope has a way of making miracles happen.  Why would divine messengers not tell them the truth?  Abraham and Sarah believed again in miracles.  They opened up their heart to every possibility of anything that God wanted from them.  

Once again Sarah and Abraham shared the hope of the promises of God.  Once again, Sarah had hopes for her relationship with Abraham to flourish and grow.  Sarah forgave him and they begin to renew their relationship together, a little more each day.  

  It still wasn’t easy.  Abraham still had blind spots, but Sarah never again forgot that God was her true husband.  More tests would come.  Whenever she was disappointed in the human side of Abraham, she turned to the Divine God who led her through each and every situation.  Nothing that Abraham could do from this point forward would ever hurt her again.   No love could equal the love she had begun to receive from God.  It had always been there, right from the beginning, but she had now learned how to reach out and receive it.  She only looked at what God showed her and she only did what God told her.  

Sarah had discovered a wonderful sense of freedom in this and it made her sometimes happier than those days of her youth.  Life from this point on became a lot less complicated, a lot less stressful and a lot more simple.

However; like every thing that seems to have a happy ending, this new found joy merely brought Abraham and Sarah to another test.

 Another famine happened in the land, and this time Abraham took them to the land of the Philistines.  

Almost as if his memory of the past had been erased, Abraham once again asked Sarah to call him her brother.  

Sarah must have been really crushed this time, but she leaned on God instead of falling apart.  She had learned to be strong and to do the right thing no matter what or who came her way.  Her faith never wavered.  When she was again abducted and placed in the king’s harem she prayed like she had never prayed before.

 
God revealed Himself in a dream to this pagan king and kept her safe from harm.  Her true husband came through for her.

  

God did not let Abraham off totally.  Abraham had to pray for this king that had wanted to take his wife.  Sarah must have enjoyed that part of the situation.  Little did she know how the healing prayers of her husband would affect her future also.  Sarah's own infertility was healed as she stood in the prayer for the pagan king and his household.  The one who had always had eyes to see did not even realize what was going on - but God knew what He was doing.
 

It was probably a LONG ride home that day.

They didn’t actually go back to The Groves of Mamre, but settled in the land that had been granted to them by King Abimelech.  They settled down in the new place with all the gold the pagan king had given them and Abraham, at the request of the king, bought Sarah a beautiful new veil.

Sarah began to live like a hidden, almost forgotten treasure.  Somehow she felt happy and content just to be in her tent and to be spending more time with Abraham.  When she went out, she wore the veil.  She liked the security it gave to her; a security she had not found with her earthly husband, a security she had missed when she had first left on their long journey so many years ago.  God had given it back to her,  just in a different form than she had expected.

 Suddenly she felt young and full of life again, even at this point in her lateness of years.  Though she was actually much older now, for the first time ever, Sarah felt more young at heart.  It was in this content place of life, wrapped inside the veil of security she wore with a new found sense of contentment and sureness of God's love that Sarah  finally discovered she was going to have the long promised child of The Covenant.  

Suddenly she realized that all of the time leading up to this moment had  simply been preparation for becoming the mother of Isaac.  Her mission and destiny in life was about to happen.  God had taught her well and she was now ready. 

To be expecting Isaac was yet another sweet miracle that God had granted to Sarah.  Her joy was unending and she sang songs of praise in her tent again!  

She lit the candles and she baked the bread again!  

All the land heard how Her husband had blessed her and her joy was full.

So what was the state of Sarah's heart just before the conception of Isaac?

Well...... there she sat, right in the middle of her tent. thanking God unconditionally as she lived through the scenes in the middle of her story.  She lifted her praise and thanks to the heavens, not even knowing what would come at the end of her story.   It would have been enough for Sarah now, just to know God's unending love, just to feel His Presence hovering over her tent again.

Now that is what I call great faith;  To be content to not know the end of the story until God chose to reveal it.   

Sarah and Abraham were never happier than this very moment in history, except of course, when they laughed together at the moment of Isaac’s birth.  

It was a great miracle and they were so very, very blessed!