Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 21:1 - 21:8

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 21:1 - 21:8


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Isaac Born, Circumcised, and Weaned

v. 1. And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. The Lord visited Sarah by doing to her as He had promised, by granting her what she had desired for so many years, a child of her own. Children are a gift of the goodness of God.

v. 2. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
God's promise was literally fulfilled, for at just the time that He had named at His last visit the son of promise was born, a stranger in truth, for Abraham was still sojourning in the land of the Philistines. The birth of Isaac was an act of faith on the part of Sarah, who with all her human infirmities was a true child of the Lord, Heb_11:11.

v. 3. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
The emphasis is again upon the fact that this was the son of promise, that he was the son of Abraham, not by a servant, but by Sarah, his wife. He complied with God's command in giving his son the name Isaac (he that laughs), Gen_17:19. As the joyous laughter of Abraham had been caused by the great contrast between the idea and the reality, so the birth was a miracle of God's mercy, whence the son should always be an object of joyful and grateful contemplation.

v. 4. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. Gen_17:11-12.

v. 5. And Abraham was an hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him.

v. 6. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.

v. 7. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck? For I have born him a son in his old age.
It was an occasion of great rejoicing; for Sarah, with reference to the name which the Lord had selected for the child, cried out: "Laughter God has prepared for me; all that hear it will rejoice with me," full of astonishment at the miraculously given child. Who would ever have thought or dared to express the idea that she should yet have a child of her own to cuddle and to nurse?

v. 8. And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
So Abraham shared the grateful joy of his wife, making the occasion of his son's weaning a great festival, with the customary feast. This happened when Isaac was about three years old. This story reminds us of the greater miracle of the birth of Jesus, who also, but in a far more wonderful manner, was born contrary to the course of nature. Isaac, too, is a type of the believers of all time. For just as he was born by virtue of the divine promise, so we are spiritual children of the promise, Rom_9:8; Gal_4:28; 1Pe_1:23.