Saved by Grace - Class Notes

Genesis 21 Read Genesis 21:1-7

1.) How patient are we as a culture in America? What are some examples of our cultural impatience?

Fast food
Credit cards
High risk mortgage How we buy cars – other countries order new cars and expect to pick them up 6-8 weeks later. We expect to walk off the lot with the car we want once we have made the decision to buy.

Ecclesiastes 7:8
Lamentations 3:26
Luke 21:19
Romans 12:12
Hebrews 10:36
James 5:7

2.) God’s promise to Abraham required a great deal of patience. Why do God’s promises often require patience?

Romans 5:3-4 (ESV) 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

James 1:2-4 (ESV) 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1 Peter 2:20 (ESV) 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

2 Peter 1:5-7 (ESV) 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

Read Genesis 21:8-21

4.) Was sending Hagar and Ishmael out of the camp and into the desert the right thing to do?

5.) Why did God allow this to happen? Ishmael and Isaac would never be able to live together. Ishmael was the son of Abraham own flesh and works. Isaac was the son of promise.

Read Galatians 4:28-31

6.) In what ways are we children of the promise, similar to Isaac?

1 Corinthians 15:46 (ESV) 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Galatians 5:17 (ESV) 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Read Genesis 21:8 again.

8.) Isaac was the son of promise. Like all newborns there came a time when he had to be weaned. In Jewish custom there is also the bar mitzvah when a boy moves from childhood to an adult. Many of us are well passed our newborn and even childhood state in our Christian life. Have we weaned ourselves or moved on from childish ways? What does this look like in a Christian walk?

9.) A mature Christian does not live by the flesh but neither does he or she bind themselves to a bunch of legalistic rules. How is this done?

Galatians 5:16 (ESV) 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

10.) Why did Abimelech come to make a truce with Abraham? He could tell that God was with Abraham. He probably had concerns because Abraham’s earlier deceit had almost cost him his life.

11.) How did Abraham respond? Abraham swore to deal honestly with Abimelech. He also brought up the issue of Abimelech’s servants seizing Abraham’s well. He gave Abimelech seven lambs as a “receipt” of proof that the well was his. In sharp contrast to how Abraham acted years earlier with Abimelech, he was not being upfront and not afraid of retaliation from the king.