After Sarah’s death Abraham had other children as well and we learn how his estate was divided up between his heirs. We also learn how Yiskhak (Isaac) deals with his status as a wealthy patriarch in a hostile land and how his two sons start fighting over Yiskhak’s estate before they are born and continue fighting over it when they are adults. The fight appears to end with Esau “despising” his birthright. But does this really end the dispute?
We learn about the Near Eastern customs of how to find a wife for a prominent family. From Abraham’s request to Rivka’s acceptance, Isaac is not a part of this story until the very end when Isaac greets Rivka as acknowledges her as the wife God has chosen for him.
In Ex. 3:14, God tells Moshe to identify Him to the elders of Israel as, in Hebrew, “‘Ehyeh ‘Asher ‘Ehyeh.” It’s translated various ways, such as “I Am Who I Am” and “I Will Be Who I Will Be.” Richard Agee explores the teaching of The Name.
The events around Sarah’s death are not mentioned simply as a marker of time. She was a prominent person in her own right. Her Biblical biography is the only one of a woman that mentions her age at the time of her death as well as the elaborate negotiations surrounding the location of her final repose. The negotiations for her burial place have implications into the present day.
Abraham is put to another test — the most difficult test of all. Will Abraham give up the “son of the promise” the only son of his beloved Sarah? This event profoundly affects both Abraham and Isaac for the rest of their lives.
In part three of a study on Genesis 21, we read about the confrontation between the ruler Abimelech and Abraham. Meanwhile, Ishmael grows up and becomes a problem in Abraham’s household, so Abraham sends him and his mother away.
Genesis 21 has close parallels with apostle Paul’s illustration in Galatians 3-4 on the “son of the promise” from the “free woman” and the “son of the flesh” from the slave woman.