Ishmael.

ISHMAEL.

Genesis 21:8-21.

The history of Ishmael and Isaac is the history of the struggle between flesh and spirit, between the carnal seed and the spiritual seed, between the world's way and God's way.

In the first place, Abraham had faith. The LORD pointed him towards the stars, and told him ‘so shall your seed be.’ Abraham believed in the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness (cf. Genesis 15:5-6). In other words, Abraham began in faith (cf. Galatians 3:6-9).

Then faith failed, and Sarah and Abraham let the flesh take over. After all, they argued, Sarah was barren. According to the custom of the world around them, Sarah gave her handmaid to Abraham to bear seed in her name (cf. Genesis 16:1-3).

Almost immediately Sarah regretted her rashness, and strife broke out within the family (cf. Genesis 16:4-6). Hagar gave birth to a wild man (cf. Genesis 16:11-12), and God's promise was put on hold for another thirteen years (cf. Genesis 16:16; Genesis 17:1).

When we look only at the physical and stop operating in the Spirit then we are bringing trouble upon ourselves. Having begun in the Spirit, are we going to be as foolish as Abraham and Sarah then were, by trying to continue in the flesh (cf. Galatians 3:3)?

After thirteen years, the LORD again appeared to Abraham. As if to say, enough is enough: your way has only brought strife, now let us try My way. Sarah was old and barren when I told you that you were going to have a son, and now she is ancient. Yet just so you know this is the voice of God and not some dream of your own, it is by Sarah that you are going to have the promised seed (cf. Genesis 17:15-16). Laugh if you like, but miracle births do happen!

Ishmael grew up to despise his half-brother (GENESIS 21:9), and so began the historical and on-going contention between the sons of Hagar, and the seed of Sarah, between the Arabians and Israel. What exactly was going on between the boys is not clear, but the “mocking” may have been the kind of teasing which makes a fool of a person because of their name. The name Isaac, after all, means, “laughter.”

Sarah “said unto Abraham, ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son’” (GENESIS 21:10). This sounds harsh, but today’s reading gives us a look at how God is merciful, even when men are not. Abraham was understandably upset at the demand (GENESIS 21:11), but God reassured him that Sarah was right, “for in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (GENESIS 21:12).

God’s mercy is seen first of all in the promise that “also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed” (GENESIS 21:13). In the meantime, the mother and child were cast out into the wilderness with sparse supplies which soon ran out, putting the boy’s life in danger (GENESIS 21:14-15). Hagar “lifted up her voice and wept” (GENESIS 21:16), and “God heard the voice of the lad” (GENESIS 21:17).

The second indication of God’s mercy is seen in the promise that He gave to Hagar (GENESIS 21:18), and the practical reality of pointing her towards a well for their immediate needs (GENESIS 21:19).

So “God was with the lad: and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer” (GENESIS 21:20). And “his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt” (GENESIS 21:21). Thus, by the mercy of God, the future was secured for this branch of Abraham’s family, and Abraham became the father of two nations.

Yet there is another way in which the promised seed of Abraham is fulfilled. It is fulfilled in one who was ‘despised and rejected of men, (cf. Isaiah 53:3), in a physical descendant of Isaac called Jesus, who we call the Christ (cf. Galatians 3:16).

And Abraham's spiritual seed is continued in another despised race: in all who are found in Christ Jesus, resting in His finished work alone for their salvation (cf. Galatians 3:29).