GENESIS CHAPTER 21
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Verse 1, What he did was cause Sarah to conceive (vs 2) and he
  had spoken of this in a promise to Abraham before.
    Ge 17:16  And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of
      her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother] of
      nations; kings of people shall be of her.
        {she...: Heb. she shall become nations}
    Ge 17:19  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son
      indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will
      establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant,
      [and] with his seed after him.
    Ge 17:21  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which
      Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next
      year.
  The promise that was made to Abraham in chapter 17 was when
  Abraham was 99 years old (Ge 17:1), and now in this chapter
  Abraham is 100 years old.

  The Lord visited her, yet in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 11 we are
  told the Sarah received strength to conceive through faith.
    Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength
      to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was
      past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
  Yet compare Gen 18:10 where Sarah laughed at first when she
  heard this promise. Back in chapter 15 the Lord had promised
  that Abraham's seed would come from his own loins (15:4) and
  Sarah had schemed to fulfill this promise by offering Hagar,
  her handmaid, to bare him a child. But this plan proved to be
  folly and caused nothing but trouble.

Verse 2, Abraham was 100 years old (vs 5) and Sarah was 90 years
  old (17:17).
  Notice that she conceived at the set time that the Lord had
  told Abraham. The Lord's promise was not run aground by a lack
  of faith in Sarah or Abraham.
  Compare: Gen 17:21; 18:14

  Sarah's womb was dead (Ro 4:19)! So, this birth was from dead
  ground. The Lord must give it life.
  We were dead in our sins, but God "quickened us together with
  Christ." See: Eph 2:1-10
  Isaac's birth was by the "operation of God." (Col 2:12)
  The new birth is of the Spirit of God (Jo 3:6-8) and faith the
  evidence of it. (See 1Jo 5:1; Php 1:29; Ac 11:18; Ac 13:48)

  Just as the birth of Isaac was miraculous so too the birth of
  Christ.

  Isaac was "chosen" to be the child of promise before he was ever
  born, or done any good or evil, "that the purpose of God
  according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
  that calleth." (Ro 9:11)

Verse 3, Abraham calls his son's name Isaac, which was commanded
  by the Lord in 17:19.
  Isaac = "he laughs"
  Abraham and Sarah had first laughed from lack of faith.
    Gen 17:17  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and
      said in his heart, Shall [a child] be born unto him that is
      an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years
      old, bear?
    Gen 18:12  Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying,
      After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being
      old also?
  Now that the promise has been fulfilled it is a laughter of
  joy (see vs 6).

Verse 4, Isaac circumcised according to the command given him in
  Gen 17:10-12.

Verse 5, Abraham was 100 years old, just as God had promised that
  he would be (see 17:21) and at the set time.

Verse 6, All that hear her laugh would laugh WITH her and not at
  her. Their laughter would be the same as her laughter.

Verse 7, They are laughing with joy over the fact that God had
  fulfilled His promise in causing two old people to have a
  child. Who ever heard of such a thing!

Verse 8, Weaned from his mother's milk and was now on stronger
  food. He had passed the difficulties of infancy and was a
  healthy young child, upon which occasion Abraham made a great
  feast.

Verse 9, Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar, mocked at Isaac. After
  all, he was the first born son of Abraham and the inheritance
  belonged to him, so he thought; so why is everybody getting so
  excited over this Isaac! (look at next verse)
  Sarah knew that God's promise was through Isaac, so she says in
  the next verse to cast Hagar and Ishmael out.

Verse 10, Sarah tells Abraham to cast out the bondwoman and her
  son (Hagar and Ishmael), for he will not be heir with her son.

Verse 11, It grieved Abraham, because Ishmael was his natural
  son.

Verse 12, God commands Abraham to do as Sarah had suggested,
  because the promise was through Isaac and not Ishmael.
  Here is where the Muslims differ. They say that the promise was
  through Ishmael, even though Abraham did cast out Hagar and
  Ishmael.
  There is a great lesson here as this was for an allegory:
    READ: Gal 4:21-31
    Those that trust in their own works MOCK at those who believe
    in free grace.
    They say, "Well, if I believed that, I would just go and sin
    all I wanted to!"

Verse 13, The Lord will make Ishmael a great nation for Abraham's
  sake, as he had promised in 17:20.

Verse 14, It was in the night that the Lord had spoken to him,
  and now early in the morning he does what the Lord had
  commanded him to do.
  Abraham loved Ishmael as we see in the previous verses, so it
  was an act of faith that propelled Abraham to do as the Lord
  had commanded. He did not argue with the Lord, but did as He
  commanded him to do.

  He gave her only bread and a bottle of water. Perhaps this was
  all that she could carry; notice: "putting [it] on her shoulder,
  and the child." (not that the child was put on her shoulders,
  being that he was about 14 years old [17:25].)
  Perhaps this is more fitting with being "cast out," as the Lord
  had told him to do with them.
    cast out = garash {gaw-rash'}
    1) to drive out, expel, cast out, drive away, divorce, put
      away, thrust away, trouble, cast up
       1c) (Piel) to drive out, drive away

Verse 15, After the water bottle was spent the child must have
  become too weak to walk as so she cast him under one of the
  shrubs so as to shield him from the heat of the sun.

Verse 16, Not wanted to watch her son die she went a bow shot's
  distance from him and sat down and wept.

Verse 17, The child was not unconscious but was probably moaning,
  which Hagar could not witness. This the Lord heard and had
  mercy on them.
  God had not changed his mind because he had heard the moans of
  the lad, but had already promised that he would make a great
  nation of him. He never had intentions of letting the child die
  in the wilderness.

Verse 18, Which he had already promise to Abraham (vs 13).

Verse 19, God opened Hagar's eyes to the presence of the well of
  water that was already there. She had been blinded to the
  presence of the well.
  So too, with Christ, many know about him, but they are blinded
  to the Gospel.
    2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
      lost: 4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the
      minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the
      glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
      shine unto them.

Verses 20-21, God blesses Ishmael as he had promised Abraham and
  Ishmael's mother gets him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
  Paran = "place of caverns"
    1) wilderness area bounded on the north by Palestine, on the
      west by the wilderness of Etham, on the south by the desert
      of Sinai, and on the east by the valley of Arabah; the
      exodus was through this area and probably all 18 stops were
      in this area.

Verse 22, "And it came to pass at that time" -- not at the time
  that Ishmael had grown up and taken a wife, but at the time
  that Isaac was born and Ishmael and his mother were expelled.
  Abimelech, the king of Gerar, mentioned in the preceding
  chapter, who had given Abraham sheep, oxen, menservants and
  womanservants (20:14) and had told Abraham that he could live
  in the land where he pleased; and after observation knew that
  the LORD was with Abraham in all that Abraham did.

Verse 23, Gill says that perhaps Abimelech had heard of the
  promise God had made to Abraham concerning the land of Canaan,
  and was desirous that Abraham make a covenant (see vs. 27) or
  take an oath ("swear") before God with him concerning himself
  and his son and his grandson. Abimelech reminds Abraham of the
  kindness that he has shown toward him.

Verse 24, Abraham, knowing that it would be 400 years before his
  seed possessed the land (15:13), could make such a covenant
  concerning Abimelech, and his son and his grandson, told
  Abimelech that he would make such an oath or covenant.

Verse 25, Before Abraham makes the covenant, Abraham brings up a
  matter concerning a well of water, which Abimelech's servants
  had by force taken away. It was a well that was dug by Abraham
  (see vs. 30).

Verse 26, Abimelech had never heard of such a matter until this
  very moment, and besides that Abraham had never mentioned it to
  him before this time.

Verse 27, Abraham gave Abimelech sheep and oxen just as Abimelech
  had given to him when he (Abraham) came into Abimelech's land.
  They both made a covenant before God Almighty (see vs. 23).

Verse 28, "And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by
  themselves." Not of the sheep that he had given to Abimelech,
  but separate from those.

Verse 29, Abimelech knew that the other sheep and oxen were for a
  present him and to ratify the covenant, but these 7 he did not
  understand what they were for.
  Seven = Completeness - Spiritual - Perfection

Verse 30, Abraham explains that the are a witness or testimony
  that he (Abraham) had dug the well that he spoke of.
  Abimelech's acceptance of them would signify that he believed
  the statement to be true.

Verses 31-32, Here the covenant is made between them therefore
  the place is called Beersheba: that is, The well of the oath.
    Beer-sheba = "well of the sevenfold oath"
  Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host, returned
  home, which is the land of the Philistines.

Verse 33, Abraham then planted a grove or tree (marginal notes)
  (tamarisk tree according to Lexicon).
  What the purpose of this tree or grove was for is uncertain.
  Perhaps for shade in a dry place, or perhaps it had a religious
  significance since we read in the same verse that Abraham
  called on the name of the LORD and that very spot. He perhaps
  even builded an altar there with it.
  This practice of planting a grove of tree may have come from
  heathen practices, which we see forbidden later under the law of
  Moses.
    De 16:21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near
      unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make
      thee.  22  Neither shalt thou set thee up [any] image;
      which the LORD thy God hateth.

  LORD = Jehovah = "the existing One"

Verse 34, Sojourn means to dwell as a stranger in a land that is
  not yours. Notice the words: "in the Philistines' land."
  The Jewish writers say that he dwelt here some 26 years.