After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.”(Genesis 15:1-4)
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.(Genesis 16:1-4, 15)
Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. (Genesis 21:1-3)
But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”(Genesis 21:9-13)
Abraham was 75 years old when God called him, about 80 when God promised him a son, 86 when Ishmael was born (Gen. 16:16) and 100 at the time of Isaac’s birth. (Gen. 21:5) This made Ishmael 14 years older than Isaac, and about 16 or 17 when Isaac was weaned. When he made fun of Isaac, Sarah demanded that Abraham get rid of him.
That snapshot seems to set the tone for our understanding of Ishmael. God had told Hagar that her son would be a “wild ass” of a man with his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him. (Gen. 16:12) He was bigger, stronger, and older than his helpless baby brother, and yet he thought it sport to mock him.
We can imagine that the jealousy between Sarah and Hagar had its effect on Ishmael and served to frame his view of Isaac from the beginning. And it doesn’t take too much of a stretch to believe that Ishmael was told repeatedly that Isaac was God’s choice to become Abraham’s heir although Ishmael was the first born and, at least in his opinion, the rightful heir. When Ishmael and Hagar were sent away to fend for themselves the sense of abandonment likely made it difficult for Ishmael to trust anyone for a long time. I can almost hear him thinking that his life was a mistake, and wishing he had never been born. No wonder he didn’t get along with anyone.
This feeling of being an unworthy outcast matured into a resentment so strong that it permeated Ishmael’s very soul and from that day to this the descendants of Ishmael have stood against the descendants of Isaac. His anger had given the devil a foothold that grew into a stronghold so powerful that it has lasted through all the generations since. All this happened because Abraham and Sarah grew impatient with God and tried to fulfill His promise on their own.
Blessings,
No comments:
Post a Comment