After a couple chapters of build-up, various people's laughter (in joy or in derision) at God's plan, and various and sundry reassurances on God's part that this child is special, Isaac (he laughs) has arrived. God did for Sarah just as he said...just as He did for Mary just as He said. Both these children were led up to and pointed to by history. Sarah is amazed at God's faithfulness to a promise, just as we all ought to be. He does what He says he will do. She breastfeeds him personally, and cares for him as a special boy.
When Isaac is weaned, it is clear that Ishmael (now roughly 16-18) does not agree with the assessment that Isaac is the Promised Child. He does...well, something...with his little half-brother that angers Sarah greatly. What this is seems kind of unclear. He was not, obviously, just "playing" with Isaac as my NAB so mildly puts it. Some folks read the Hebrew to indicate that he was trying to molest Isaac, or was picking on him, or was playing very roughly and violently with him. No matter what, he was not treating his little brother with respect and affection, but was making some kind of move as his enemy or rival. Sarah's defense of Isaac stemmed from her newfound understanding of the legacy due to her son, God's intentions for him, and not from the jealousy and pettiness that got Hagar and Ishmael thrown out before. Justice is on Sarah's side this time, and God makes this clear. He will treat any son of Abraham with fairness and justice, but Sarah is right to assert her son's primacy here.
God does indeed keep his promises yet again. Ishmael and Hagar are preserved in difficult circumstances in the desert, and he does go on to found a great nation of people. Like many self-reliant sinners in the Bible, he becomes a hunter, an archer. Instead of taking stewardship over creation, he takes dominance. He does not lead with a crook or coax out of the ground with water, he uses cunning and violence to feed himself and dominate his world. Not all who are born of righteous families and grow up with this as an advantage end up righteous themselves.
Speaking of meriting righteousness and not inheriting it, the king Abimelech whom we met before is now back, looking to make a covenant with Abraham in much the same way Abraham met one with God. He is respectful, making conciliatory gestures, despite the fact that he came with a military commander in case things with Abraham didn't go well. The grace and magnanimity Abraham has learned from God now shines through him and he agrees to make a covenant (with the number seven all over it) with Abimelech. The place itself is called Beersheba, Well of the Seven/Well of the Oath.
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