Genesis 21

n this chapter, Genesis 21, God's promise to Abraham finally "comes of age". Is that a coincidence? Yes, of course it is! But it makes a handy mnemonic. When Sarah gives birth to Isaac, Abraham can finally see the concrete returns on what until now has been a relatively uneventful nomadic existence (aside from disasters like losing his wife or his nephew to powerful kings he has the misfortune to come across). I mean, yes, he has had mystical experiences with God, but until now, Abraham must have been completely mystified how God could possibly fulfill his promise. Women older than my grandma do not give birth to children. They don't now. They didn't then.

But I am convinced that this is the turning point in Abraham's story. After this point, Abraham is going to be capable of more, and God is going to require more. He is the father of monotheistic religion, in some ways the father of modern Western Civilization. Muslims would even claim him as the father of their religion (since Muslims are actually Christian heretics, but that's a subject for another time).

Sarah is a prefigurement of Mary in this chapter. Sarah's name means "royal woman". The scripture as inspired then reads "God visited the royal woman as he had promised." But God did not explicitly promise to visit Sarah, the historical wife of Abraham. He promised she would conceive a child. So we can see here a prefigurement of the Visitation of Mary by the angel Gabriel recounted in the Gospel of Luke, and also of her cousin Elizabeth who miraculously gave birth to St. John the Baptist after her husband was similarly visited.

Mary herself is aware that she and her miraculous child are the ultimate fulfillment of the Covenant with Abraham, God's promise that the royal woman would miraculously give birth, that Abraham's descendants would outnumber the dust, and that through him all nations would be blessed. Mary makes this understanding manifest in the way she concludes her famous song in the presence of Elizabeth: "For behold, from now on all generations shall call me blessed...He has helped his servant Israel, as he promised to our forefathers: to Abraham and his seed."