Abraham, Sarah, and the Allegory of Law vs. Grace | Genesis 20-21

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Good evening once again, and good to have everybody back with us. And we'll turn to Genesis chapter 20. And while you are doing that here in the studio, I'd like to say a word to our television audience. We're going to call the next month Letter -Writing Month, and we're just going to ask that you let us know just in a word or two whether you are listening, whether you're enjoying the program. We certainly don't covet any kind of flowery compliments or anything like that. That's not what we're looking for. But please just jot it down on a piece of scratch paper and mail it to us on the back of an envelope. If that was good enough for the Gettysburg Address, it's good enough for a note to me. And for the sake of our contributors, because after all, they're the ones that are giving sacrificially and they're the ones that we'd like to be able to share and say, well, at least some people are listening and enjoying the program. So if you'll do that, we would just be so grateful. We have never made an appeal for money as long as we've been on the air, and we are approaching almost a year, and the Lord has been good. We just barely stay in the black. So we're not asking specifically for dollars, but spend 30 cents and write us a note and let us know how you enjoy the program. Now then, if you will pick up with me in Genesis chapter 20, we're going to leave off talking about Lot. I didn't quite finish the chapter, but I'll let you do that in your leisure. And the children of those two daughters, of course, who had children by their father Lot, also joined the ranks then of the Arab nations who become the very enemies of Israel. Now I won't have time in this half hour, but maybe in our next program I'll try to put on the board the family tree of everybody that came out of Terah, the father of Abraham, and help you to see how that as they intermarried with these forefathers up in Syria, which was really the family of Terah, and how that the whole Middle East and all of these enmities are within the family. But if you are aware of statistics at all, and of course I know statistics as Mark Twain said can lie like the Dickens, but statistically you see something like 75 or 80% of all murders take place within the family. And you have it here. And so there is that intense hatred from all of the kinfolk associated with Abraham. But now in chapter 20, and remember this is in Abraham's 99th year, we already saw that Ishmael was born and was 13 years old the last time we were in reference before we got to chapter 19. And so now in chapter 20, as I reckon time, this has to be while Sarah is now with child and about to have Isaac. Now I point that out just to show you how number one, even a man like Abraham had times of weakness and failure, but most importantly to show you how that Satan is going to constantly ever since the Garden of Eden, try to thwart God's plan of redemption by prohibiting the appearance of the Messiah. And when you follow that back, that means he's going to do everything he can to destroy the Jewish people. Now, if you've wondered why have the Jewish people gone through such terrible, terrible times in their history, well, it's the Satanic effort to keep the Messiah from coming. The latest one and the one that you remember the best is when Herod made the decree to kill all the boy babies. Well, what was the purpose? To hopefully remove the Messiah. You get back into the book of Esther and that Jew hater had convinced the king, who happened to be Esther's husband, she was queen, to annihilate the Jewish people. And without realizing what he was doing, he put out the decree, if you'll remember. And so there's been this constant effort, satanically inspired, to somehow thwart God's plan of redemption. And so in chapter 20, I think again, even though Abraham was a man of faith, yet the power of satan was so upon him that we just about see Sarah lose out. Verse 1, Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. Now Gerar was a border town between Canaan and Egypt, and remember he had learned his lesson once that he was not to go into Egypt. So he doesn't go into Egypt, but boy he gets as close as he can by sitting on the border. Now I call this fence dwelling. This is a good picture of a lot of Christians. Oh, they want one foot in the world, but they want one foot in the Lord's business, and so they're on the fence, and it isn't possible, it won't work. So anyway, he goes down and he dwells in the border town of Gerar, and Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister. Now there's a lot of little tidbits in here that make it so interesting. Now remember, how old is she? Ninety. And yet she is still so attractive that old Abraham knew that the minute that these pagans would see her, and in perfect accord again with the laws of Hammurabi, what could they do? Oh, they could bring her into his harem at ninety. And so again, Abraham is going to use that same ploy. Well now Sarah, if they come for you, don't tell them you're my wife, just tell them you're my sister, and she was a half-sister. See, he avoided a total lie. But remember now, if I'm not stretching the point, the Scripture doesn't say it, but like I said, in the analogy of the time element, she must be pregnant with Isaac. And this is why I think Satan is going to use every opportunity to stop it in its tracks. And so verse 2, continuing on, he says, "...tell them that she's my sister, and Abimelech the king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. Sure enough, old Abraham wasn't worried for nothing." Verse 3, but God intervenes, because after all, God is intensely interested now in this promised child, Isaac. And so God came to Abimelech, this pagan king, in a dream by night, and said to him, "...behold, thou art but a dead man. For the woman which thou hast taken, she is a man's wife." Now remember, he gets this by way of a dream. Verse 4, "...but Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?" In other words, Abimelech is pleading. Now listen, I'm not guilty. Are you going to put me to death anyway? Verse 5, "...did she not say unto me, or said he not unto me, she is my sister? And she, even she herself, said, he is my brother." See, she went along just to protect Abraham. So Abimelech says, "...in the integrity of my heart, and in the innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore permitted I thee not to touch her, and therefore restore the man his wife." Now again, I'm not going to take the time to finish the chapter. You can do that in your leisure. But Abraham and Sarah now take off back to where they belong, which of course is over in the main area of Canaan, and Beersheba in the southernmost part of Canaan is where Abraham takes up his major dwelling place. Now then we come into chapter 21, and as I told our studio class before we started, this is one of my favorite lessons in all of Scripture. Now I know I've got a lot of them, but this one is just the epitome of how all of Scripture fits together in order to teach a New Testament truth. Now if you'll remember a couple of weeks ago when Hagar fled from Sarai, and God told her, you go back and you dwell with Abraham and Sarah. Well I told you that God had a reason in it, and now here it comes. Chapter 21, "...the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken, for she conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time." Now with God there's no ifs, ands, and buts, everything is concise, and so at the precise time that God had set, Sarah is about to have her promised child. Verse 3, "...and Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare." Now this is the way it happened, and they called him Isaac. Verse 4, "...according to the covenant now that God had instructed in previous chapters, Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years old, divisible by five remember, when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children nurse? Who would have imagined at the age of ninety that she would still not only have a child, but nurse it? And she says, I have born him a son in his old age, the child grew, and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned." Now I don't like to imply things that are not as they should be, but always remember that especially back here, and I think even into the present time, many of the tribes in the Middle East will not wean their children until they're three, four, sometimes even five years old. So always realize that when these lads were weaned, they were already of a pretty good stature and had a pretty good understanding. Now verse 9, Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which is Ishmael, fourteen years old now remember, whom she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Now this just got at the heart of the true mother. She just couldn't stand to see this teenage lad begin to torment her own little fellow. And so Sarah now gets all upset. Verse 10, "...wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even Isaac." Now she's speaking from a mother's heart, but she's also speaking the very truth of God, because isn't this what God said? Oh, this son that's going to be born, the promised son, is the one in whom the covenant will continue. But there's more here than meets the eye. Now get the whole picture. Ishmael and Hagar were sent back, and now they've spent some twelve or thirteen years under the roof of Abraham's tent. But now Isaac comes on the scene and becomes a little lad, and now the instruction is, cast her out. Now continue on so that you'll see this isn't just a human dilemma. Verse 11, "...from Abraham's point of view it was grievous, for he had come to love Ishmael." And so verse 11, the word is used, "...and the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of the bondwoman, in all that Sarah hath said." And what did she say? Cast them out. "...in all that Sarah hath said, hearken, or listen to her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Remember a couple of weeks ago we showed you that the Greek word here now is singular, and it refers to Galatians chapter 3 verse 16 where it says, "...and that seed is Christ." So it's going to be through this covenant line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, and all the way through until finally we come to Mary, and the Christ comes on the scene. Verse 13, and then we're going to take a look at these other verses, "...and also of the son of the bondwoman," God is again making the promise that He made before, "...I will make a nation, because he is thy seed." And of course even today the Arab people will still adamantly claim that Abraham is their father. Now if you'll go back with me to Galatians, because this is the beauty of studying especially Genesis, how that Genesis fits so wonderfully with all the New Testament, but I think particularly the writings of Paul. In Galatians chapter 4, and you have to always remember as you read the book of Galatians the reason for it being written. Paul wrote it under extreme circumstances, because you see he had such an eye disease problem that normally he would have a secretary take dictation, and they would write as he dictated. But now the word was coming back to the apostle that these churches whom he had established up there in Asia Minor, which is present day Turkey, were being besieged with Judaizers that they couldn't be saved unless they kept the Jewish Law, circumcision and all the rest of it. And they were falling for it, because after all works always appeals to the human intellect. And when Paul got wind that these Galatian believers were turning back under legalism, he didn't take time for his secretary to come on the scene, but he evidently wrote this little letter belabored as he was with his poor eyesight because of the urgency of the hour. And now in chapter 4 verse 19, I hope I've got time to finish this, I'll be real distraught if I don't. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice. And I always tell my classes, you know what I think he's saying? I'm going to have to shout at you, I'm going to have to get your attention, for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, you see what he's saying? You who want to go back under legalism, do you not hear the law? For it is written, Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, Ishmael, the other by a free woman, Sarah. Now isn't that amazing? Here we come to those events that took place 2,000 years earlier, and Paul now says in verse 24, what is it? This is an allegory. Now you know what an allegory is, it's just simply a living illustration of something. Verse 23, but he who was of the bondwoman, Ishmael, was born after the flesh. Do you remember when we were back there in chapter 17, I pointed out that God had nothing to do with the birth of Ishmael? That was all man's idea. All right, now here it comes, Ishmael was born of the flesh, but he, Isaac, of the free woman was by what? Promise. For 25 years God had promised, you're going to have a nation come from you, you're going to have a son. See? It was the son of promise. Now verse 24, and these things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, that's Hagar. All right, now let's put a little something on the board, and maybe it'll help. Way back here at Mount Sinai, after Israel had come out of Egypt, and they had crossed the Dead Sea, and now they're encamped around the mountain, and you remember that God called to Moses, and He told Moses to come up into the mountain, and what did God give Moses? The Law, see? And He gave Moses the Law, the Ten Commandments, and all the rest of it. Now Moses comes down off the mountain, and who does He give the Law to? Israel, see? Now you answered my question. What did God use to give the Law to the nation of Israel? A man, didn't He? Absolutely. He gave it to Moses up there on the mountaintop, and Moses came down off the mountain, and he gives to the nation of Israel God's Law. All right, now this is a comparison then with Ishmael, because you see, Israel, as I've been pointing out ever since we came up through Genesis, that Israel is God's earthly people with earthly promises, and everything concerning them is earthly. I think you all understand that by now. And so Ishmael also was of the flesh by way of the slave girl, and so consequently the allegory is that the Law given to Israel through Moses was fleshly, it was carnal. Now don't get me wrong, the Law was spiritual. It was God's perfect Law, but in its setting, and in its usage, and in its practice, what was it? Oh, it was fleshly. It was all dependent upon the activities of the people that were under that Law. But now look at the next one. Verse 25, "...for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and it answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." Now at the time that Paul is writing Galatians, about 58 A.D., the Temple is still operating in Jerusalem. Israel is still under the Law. They're still practicing it. The sacrifices are being offered by the thousands. They were still under the Law. Now verse 26, "...but Jerusalem which is above, heavenly, is free, and it's the mother of us all." Now referring to Sarah of course, who was the free woman, who had the child by promise, and she stands in contra-interdiction to the Law as it was given to Moses at Sinai. So now then, drop all the way down to verse 29, "...but as then, he that was born after the flesh, Ishmael, persecuted him who was born after the Spirit, Isaac, even so is it now." I pointed out in my class last night, down through human history, who has been the biggest persecutors of the true believer? Religionists. In the name of religion they persecute the true believer, and Paul indicated it here. So it's always been and always will be. Now then, verse 30, "...nevertheless, what saith the Scripture?" Not what some denomination says, not what Judaism says, not what anybody else says, but what does the Word of God say? "...cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." Let me put it up here this way, standing over against Sinai and the giving of the Law, now we have the same God who now speaks from heaven to the apostle of the Gentiles, and He gives to Paul those doctrines of grace. Paul comes from that Mount Sinai experience back there for three years, and now he comes to the Gentiles, not to the nation of Israel, but he comes to the Gentiles with this message of grace, and it is all heavenly connected, whereas Israel was earthly. Now if we've got a moment, turn back with me to Romans chapter 6, and maybe we can put the frosting on the cake, I hope so, because beloved, the whole world of Christendom is constantly trying to subjugate us to legalism. I mean even good men are still writing books trying to convince the Christian community of legalism, and legalism is simply that anything we can do in the energy of the flesh as over against the finished work of the cross, which is by faith and faith alone. You've got Romans 6, verses 14 and 15, and I think this just says it all. Plain English, there's no getting around it, where Paul writes for sin, and when I teach Romans you know I always use the word old Adam, the old sin nature, "...shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law," but what? Under grace, see? Under grace. Do you see the big difference? You know I've been amazed, I've had so many people come into my classes and they said they've never heard that there was a difference between law and grace. There's all the difference in the world. It's like daylight and dark to come out of the darkness of legalism and to step into the light of God's grace. Remember what is grace? Unmerited favor. Nothing that I can do is going to count with God, it's all based on what He has done on my behalf. Then read verse 15, what then? "...shall we sin," shall we let old Adam control our life, "...because we're not under the law, but under grace." See that difference? And Paul is constantly reminding us of this very thing, that our salvation tonight is based on the grace of God, and not of anything that we can merit. And legalism, God hates it. That's why He told Abraham to cast out, separate them. And I always point out when I teach this, do you know He didn't tell Abraham, hey give Ishmael a separate tent so that he won't have to go too far? That isn't what He said. He said cast them out. And Sarah said it all when she said, He shall not dwell under the same roof with my son. Now put that into the context. Law and grace cannot mix. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.