The Son of the Promise

Advent: Clues to Christ  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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15 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

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16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

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21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

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Introduction

During Advent we’re looking at how Jesus is anticipated in the Old Testament. Jesus himself points us back to see this when he said to his disciples in a post-resurrection appearance,
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27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

We considered how the unifying element to the books of the Bible is its main story line which starts with setting the stage, a great conflict, the plot development that resolves the conflict, and the glory of the resolution. The first reference to Jesus comes in when God curses the serpent. He, himself, will move that enmity that man brought into his relationship with God to the serpent. The cost of that move, however, is a cosmic war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. We saw how Jesus is the seed of the woman that would ultimately crush the head of the serpent. On these opening pages of the Bible, the groundwork is laid for the doctrine of the incarnation in that God will act and man (the seed of the woman) will be the means.
This morning we want to keep going and look at another big piece of the plot development, and that comes with Abraham and the promise given to him. Just to recap, after Adam and Eve we saw the war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman played out when Cain kills Abel, but then God gives Eve another son Seth, through whom the promised seed line would come. Seth’s descendents grew corrupt, however, and God brought the judgment of the flood. Yet he preserved the seed line by finding favor with Noah. There is division once again in Noah’s sons as Ham dishonors his father and earns God’s curse. The war is again waged. Over time, the corruption has reached a grand scale as the people seek to build a name for themselves by building a tower to that will reach God. God confuses their language as a result and scatters them across the land. Once again, the serpent seems to have won.
Yet from the line of Shem, a man named Abram is called out from among the nations to receive a promise, one that will further unpack God’s plan to resolve the conflict arisen in the garden and redeem a people for himself.

The Promise

The promise
The promise is found in .

12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

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The promise is important to understand as it shows that the seed of the woman will come from a line that is formed into a nation, a nation that has been singled out from all of the others to become a means of blessing to all the others. It has always been in the heart of God to bring blessing to all the families of the earth. This has often gotten lost in the history of God’s people as they isolate and condemn the world. It’s easy to do that today, is it not? Consider the political climate in which we live with much vitriol aimed at people who think and live differently. It is one thing to evaluate ideas and and actions, as you measure them against God’s truth. But it is quite another to hurl insults (or worse) at the people spouting the ideas and living differently.
Jonah was such a prophet. He was called to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah, the heart of a nation that had been an enemy of Israel. He wanted nothing but their destruction and tried desperately to make it happen, even seeking his own end so that they wouldn’t hear his warning of message from God. God, however, would not be thwarted in his pursuit to bless the families of the world and Ninevah was spared through their faith and repentance at Jonah’s reluctant preaching.
Too easily do we slip into grumbling, complaining, and criticism for people who think differently. You may argue that you keep your grumbling to yourself and that you simply steer clear of those “others.” This too fails to understand the heart of God. Not only does he seek to bless all the families of the earth, but to do so through His people. This is what we find as we unpack this promise, “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Once we understand that, we can unpack the first part.

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great

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I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

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Ed Clowney describes the significance of this blessing this way:
Abram was blessed because he could call on the name of the Lord who revealed Himself to him (). Because he was blessed of God, he could also pray for others: the people of Sodom (), or of Abimelech (). Abram’s being blessed is therefore the key to his being a blessing. As a friend of God, his name was made great, and he witnessed to the great name of God. (Clowney, Edmund P.. The Unfolding Mystery (2d. ed.): Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (pp. 48-49). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.)
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Clowney, Edmund P.. The Unfolding Mystery (2d. ed.): Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (pp. 48-49). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
God had brought Abraham into communion with himself. A few chapters later this is further explained when God says to him “I am your very great reward.” The blessing of Abraham is that he has God’s ear. He has been invited into God’s presence, granted access to his thrown room, and encouraged to become a mediator, an intercessor, for the families of the earth. How often do you find yourself praying for those you so often want to criticize and grumble about? As an inheritor of Abraham’s blessing, you have God’s ear and your blessing (that privilege) is to be the means of bringing God’s blessing (favor) to the families of the earth.
Advent and the unfolding promise of God points to the people of God being the means through which God brings blessing to the world.
This is most clearly driven home in Jesus himself. He was the greater Abraham. Listen to God’s promise again with Jesus in mind.

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

“Go...from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
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The prophet Isaiah explains in ,

6  he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

and again in 52:10,

10  The LORD has bared his holy arm

before the eyes of all the nations,

and all the ends of the earth shall see

the salvation of our God.

The apostle Paul explains in ,
The apostle Paul explains in ,

in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles

When Peter responded to the officials who demanded that he stop preaching to the people about Jesus he explained in Acts 4:12,
When Peter responded to the officials who demanded that he stop preaching to the people about Jesus he explained in Acts 4:12,

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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Jesus himself said it plainly when he explained to his disciple Thomas in ,
He said it plainly when he explained to his disciple Thomas in John 14:6,

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

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The Plot

Evidence of blessing…but no child

Abraham’s story, the plot, develops to highlight this reality even more. After this great promise, Abraham follows the trade routes through the fertile crescent to the land of Canaan. The years pass and the evidence of God’s blessing is plain as the size of Abraham’s flocks and herds and retinue grows. This strength is on display as he must take his train men and rescue his nephew Lot and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. While Abraham’s possessions and power have grown, and with it the evidence of God’s blessing, the years pass and he still has no children. How could God deliver on this great promise to make him into a nation, a nation that would bring blessing to the world?

Your own son…see the stars! Hagar and tension

We see Abraham’s fears and doubts in Genesis chapter 15 and God’s answer.

15 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

The reassuring words sooth Abraham’s fears and now he knows that this nation will come from his own son. But ten years have passed in the land of Canaan, however, and no children have emerged. His wife Sarai grows anxious and offers Hagar, her maidservant, to Abram so that she might bear him a son. It was a familiar enough practice. So Abram took Hagar as a wife and she conceived. But instead of bringing a sense of relief to the household, it brought tension. She gave birth to Ishmael. Perhaps now the promise can be fulfilled. The boy grew and when he was 13 God appeared to Abram who was an old man by this time.
Perhaps now the promise can be fulfilled.
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God’s sign, intercession, and son of promise

God seals his covenant promises to Abram with circumcision, a sign that was to for Abram and all males in his household, a sign that promised a special relationship with God for him and his offspring. As male children are born to him and future generations, they are to receive this sign of circumcision at 8 days old. If you’ve ever watched circumcision then you know it’s a memorable and quite traumatic experience. It forever leaves an identifying mark, God’s claim, upon the child.
As soon as God enters into this covenant with Abraham, we see its significance as he becomes an intercessor for Lot and his family. Sodom is about to be destroyed because of their wickedness and the Lord reveals this to Abraham who begins to intercede on Sodom’s behalf. As a result, God saves Lot and his family from the destruction.

The Challenges for Sarah

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Even as God makes this covenant with Abraham, he tells him that it will not be through Ishmael that his great promises will pass, but through a son that Sarah will bear from her own body. It was a remarkable promise given Sarah’s great age, for Sarah was 90 years old.
The plot thickens as Abraham travels to the South and encounters King Abimelech’s, who, thinking Sarah to be Abraham’s sister, takes her into his harem. It seems the seed of the serpent has made a move to prevent God’s promise from happening. But God warns Abimelech in a dream that she is another man’s wife and threatens to put him and all who are his to death if he does not give her back. Not only is he to give her back, but he is to ask Abraham to pray for him that he might not die. Again, we see the special relationship and calling Abraham has to be the means of blessing to the nations.

Finally, a son! Isaac and the lesson of patience

The story of Abraham’s growing age and doubt, his taking of Hagar at Sarai’s suggestion and giving birth of Ishmael, the struggle between Hagar and Sarai, the miraculous birth of Isaac from a too old Sarah, the sacrifice of the promised seed. “Now I know you love me for you did not withhold your only son (of the promise) whom you love.”
Abraham and Sarah finally, after many years of nothing, had a son whom they named Isaac. Some 24 or so years had passed since Abraham was first given his promise. It is a lesson for us to know that God’s answers don’t always come in the timeline of our choosing. Who knows what lessons we must learn before he answers? God’s delay is never for naught. It teaches faith and dependence.
The story of Abraham’s growing age and doubt, his taking of Hagar at Sarai’s suggestion and giving birth of Ishmael, the struggle between Hagar and Sarai, the miraculous birth of Isaac from a too old Sarah, the sacrifice of the promised seed. “Now I know you love me for you did not withhold your only son (of the promise) whom you love.”

Abraham’s test - offer Isaac as a burnt offering

The trials for Abraham are not yet over, however. When Isaac is 13 years old God tests Abraham. He tells Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves, up the mountain and offer him as a burnt offering. It is an ultimate test! How could God carry out his promise to bring about blessing to the nations through Isaac, the son born of God’s explicit promise, if Isaac is dead? And yet Abraham did not hesitate or question God. Those years of waiting and trials had done their work in training Abraham’s faith.
So Abraham takes Isaac up the mountain, builds an altar and lays the wood in order, binds his son Isaac, lays him on the altar, and takes out the knife to slaughter his son. But God intervenes,

“Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

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How could Abraham offer his son, this son of the promise? Because he had learned to fear God, to love God, and to trust God. The writer of Hebrews explains,

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead,

As the father of God’s people Abraham was a type of God the father. To Abraham God says in essence, “Now I know that you love me because you have not withheld your son, your only son, whom you love.” Because he is a type we can say to God, “Now I know that you love me because you have not withheld your son, you only son, whom you love.”

The People

Salvation has come to you through the family of Abraham. You have heard the gospel from the people of God, heirs to this great promise of God. You have been taught and discipled by the people of God, showing that this promise of God to bring God’s blessing to the nations through the promised seed of Abraham is indeed a reality.
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You’ve seen how God assures us of the genuineness and depth of his love by not withholding his only son, even as Paul wrote,

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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From we learn that his people of God through whom God’s blessing to all the families of he earth is the church, made of people who live their lives out of their faith in God to sustain them rather than faith in their own goodness. He builds this case by referring back to the difference between the children of Hagar and Sarah.
From we find Paul applying this picture to identify the nation through whom the blessings of the promise will flow. They will flow through the “children of the promise” rather than the “children of the slave woman.” He’s referring to the church, and the identifying character of someone part of the church is their faith in the Son. It can only be by faith in the Son and cannot be by their own keeping of the law. It cannot be by their own success in righteousness. This is the highlight of faith over law keeping and good works. If you keep one part, you must keep all. There is not partial credit. There is not grades of salvation. There is all or nothing.

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

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The identifying character of someone part of the church is their faith in the Son. It can only be by faith in the Son and cannot be by their own keeping of the law. It cannot be by their own success in righteousness. This is the highlight of faith over law keeping and good works. If you keep one part, you must keep all. There is not partial credit. There is not grades of salvation. There is all or nothing.
find Paul applying this picture to identify the nation through whom the blessings of the promise will flow. They will flow through the “children of the promise” rather than the “children of the slave woman.” He’s referring to the church, and the identifying character of someone part of the church is their faith in the Son. It can only be by faith in the Son and cannot be by their own keeping of the law. It cannot be by their own success in righteousness. This is the highlight of faith over law keeping and good works. If you keep one part, you must keep all. There is not partial credit. There is not grades of salvation. There is all or nothing.
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