{"id":15853,"date":"2021-05-24T22:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T05:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_20_1-18-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-05-23T15:37:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T22:37:04","slug":"genesis_21_1-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_21_1-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Weakness into Strength + God is Forever Faithful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 21:1-16\u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 21:1-16.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 21:1-2 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0did for Sarah what he had promised.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0Just as God promised, Sarah becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son at the very time God promised.\u00a0\u00a0God is faithful to His Word. He does what He says when He says He will do it.\u00a0\u00a0You can trust God and His timing completely.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Genesis 21:3-7 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-7:\u00a0\u00a0Previously Sarah laughed in unbelief that God could possibly give her a son in her old age (Genesis 18:10-15).\u00a0\u00a0Now Sarah laughs for joy because God did the impossible in her life (v6).\u00a0\u00a0Pursuant to God\u2019s command in Genesis 17:19, Abraham and Sarah even name their baby Isaac, which means \u201che laughs\u201d (v3).\u00a0\u00a0God can take our most faithless moments \u2013 the times when we were at our weakest and acted without faith \u2013 and turn them into stories of God\u2019s strength and power in our lives.<\/p>\n

Genesis 21:8-10 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 8-10:\u00a0\u00a0On one hand Sarah is overjoyed by the birth of her own son.\u00a0\u00a0On the other hand, she is distraught and upset that she feels mocked by Ishmael the son of Sarah\u2019s maidservant.\u00a0\u00a0Sarah has such a dislike for Hagar and Ishmael that there is no record of Sarah ever even saying their names; instead she refers to them as \u201cthat slave woman and her son\u201d (v10).\u00a0\u00a0Sarah demands that Abraham send them away so that Ishmael would not take any part of Isaac\u2019s inheritance.\u00a0\u00a0Sarah\u2019s behaviour toward Hagar, Ishmael and Abraham is symptomatic of the kind of complications that can arise when a man is married to, and has children with, more than one woman.<\/p>\n

Genesis 21:11-16 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 11-16:\u00a0\u00a0What a heartbreaking and difficult time for Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael as these verses describe their forced separation.\u00a0\u00a0This would be the last time Ishmael would ever see his father Abraham.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps like Ishmael you grew up without a father, or perhaps like Hagar you\u2019ve had to learn to live without a husband and without a father for your children.\u00a0\u00a0You need to know that\u00a0though fathers and husbands may leave, you have a Heavenly Father who will never leave you, and you have a husband \u2013 Jesus Christ \u2013 who will always be faithful to you.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0When you feel like all hope is gone, God will be there to raise your hope from the dead.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that You specialize in taking our shame and failure and turning them into stories of Your glory.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that though others may leave me, You will never leave me.\u00a0\u00a0You are forever faithful.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 21:1-16.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 21:1-2 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Now the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0did for Sarah what he had promised.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0Just as God promised, Sarah becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son at the very time God promised.\u00a0\u00a0God is faithful to His Word. He does what He says when He says He will do it.\u00a0\u00a0You can trust God and His timing completely.<\/p>\n

Genesis 21:3-7 (NIV)
\n3\u00a0\u00a0Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.
\n5\u00a0\u00a0Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
\n6\u00a0\u00a0Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
\n7\u00a0\u00a0And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15854,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15853\/revisions\/15854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}