The Birth of Isaac
Three visitors come to Abraham's tent at Mamre in the heat of the day and are given the full hospitality of the desert. One of them says that Sarah will have a son within the year. Sarah, listening at the tent door and past childbearing age, laughs — and then denies laughing, and is not allowed to get away with it.
The child is born and named Isaac, which means he laughs. The joke is turned round: Sarah says God has brought her laughter, and everyone who hears will laugh with her.
The joy is not clean. At the weaning feast Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, and Abraham does it, distressed, on the assurance that Ishmael too will become a nation. The account gives Hagar her own encounter with God in the wilderness of Beersheba.
Where in scripture
[1] Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. [2] He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, [3] and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant. [4] Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. [5] I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant.” They said, “Very well, do as you have said.” [6] Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.” …
Genesis 18:1–15 — opening verses
[1] Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. [2] Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. [3] Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. [4] Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. [5] Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him. [6] Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” [7] She said, “Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” [8] The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. …
Genesis 21:1–21 — opening verses
[21] Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law? [22] For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman. [23] However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. [24] These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. [25] For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children. [26] But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all. …
Galatians 4:21–31 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
