Giving Birth to an Ishmael
PPT 1 Title
This is a message about how God responds to the messes in life that are self inflicted.
PT 2 Text
Ge 3:17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it' Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
Ge 3:18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field;
I am going to weave two main thoughts together for this week and the next message in this series, that center on the idea that you, or someone you love or are related to, has done something (usually sinned) that has caused painful consequences in your/their life. What was done we will call, “giving birth to an Ishmael,” and the consequences we will call, “a thorn in your side.” This is a multi part message and in the next part we will deal more with the thorns aspect of things. Hang on good news ahead if that describes you!
The bible teaches from beginning to end a principle called sowing and reaping. Reaping are the natural consequences and outgrowth of all our sowing in life. I don’t believe Gen 3:17, and 18 is strictly speaking about Adam and Eve’s sowing what they have reaped. What happens there is much more serious. Sowing and reaping are natural consequences. What happened in Genesis is God directly adding new elements to what was going on. It is as if He put His finger on the scale of your life and pushed down harder on what would have happened by itself. He is piling on and adding to what they would have reaped. Much suffering in life comes directly from our stupidity, but there are times where God will add thorns and that is not sowing and reaping that is punishment, there is a difference. Don’t be nervous this really will be an encouraging message. Let’s talk about giving birth to an Ishmael.
Ishmael was a son of Abraham through a servant of his wife Sarah's. It was an attempt on the part of Abraham to fulfill God's promise for a child for them, by their own ability. They were trying to speed God up. They were trying to give God a little help, they were trying to do what God said He Himself would do. I am not sure if this should be called flagrant sin or a stupid mistake, either way the result came out the same. It would have almost immediate consequences of family trouble and heartache, and it was a mistake that would cost the Jewish people difficulty for millennia! So they did something they shouldn’t have done and it has caused them and the Jewish nation a lot of pain and trouble ever since. That is what Ishmaels do, they cause you to reap what you have sown.
Our text in Genesis says because Adam and Eve sinned the ground would produce thorns, which means we are talking about a situation that causes less productivity from the soil of your life, and increased hardship and pain from working in that soil. So when we say someone has given birth to an Ishmael we are saying that they did something that is causing them a loss of fruitfulness and a lot of trouble and pain. Now let me give you a special insight, we get worked up about the trouble and pain, God gets worked up about the loss of fruitfulness. Thorns choke the word, thorns choke the ground. What should we really be concerned about? Our loss of fruitfulness!
Here is an interesting scripture portion from the book of Genesis, it hints that Joseph does something stupid and then it winds up crisscrossing with Abraham and Sarah having giving birth to an Ishmael:
PPT 3 text
Ge 37:5 Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
I think Joseph may have come across as bragging to his brothers when he told them of the dreams God gave him. As a consequence his brothers sold him as a slave, here is the tie in with Abraham and Sarah, I want you to notice who he was sold to:
PPT 4 Text
Ge 37:23 So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; Ge 37:28 Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt.
He was sold to the Midianites and The Ishmaelites!
That means it was a mixed group of Arab traders, but note that the Ishmaelites were the ones who bought the grandchild of Abraham and Sarah and turned him into a slave. Consequences.
So here we have the mistake his grandfather Abraham had made and the mistakes he had made with his brothers meeting together in the children of Ishmael. Joseph in part became a slave as a consequence of his own actions, and in consequence of his grandparent’s actions. Painful consequences that spanned generations. That is the ground of your life producing thorns that cut you as you move through the fields of your life. That is the messes of life we make for ourselves and everybody even Joseph and Abraham have them. The good news we will get to is how God responds and deals with those messes.
I first heard the phrase, “I have given birth to an Ishmael, was when I was at my first pastorate many years ago. I was visiting a pastor friend who got an emergency call from a female parishioner of his. I went with him to visit her at her place of work, and she was beside herself with grief. Apparently she had been struggling with being single, and in a moment of fleshly indulgence she had fallen into sexual sin. She was now struggling with all the consequences of that action. The man wanted to continue the relationship, she didn’t. She felt she had become alienated from God, that she had degraded herself, that she was living in guilt and shame she just couldn’t seem to shake it. She literally moaned out, “I have given birth to an Ishmael.” Believing the consequences of her actions would haunt her for some time. And they often do.
She had given birth to painful consequences. She was being lashed by thorns and briers of conscience, humiliation and the realization she had caused it all herself.
I have a few more important scriptures that show the connection between giving birth to an Ishmael and how it caused hurt and pain to Joseph. Here they are:
PPT 5 Text
Ge 49:23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
This is Jacob prophesying over the life and Joseph and he says archers have sorely grieved him (literally the masters of the bow). When did that happen, did you ever read that in the life of Joseph? Here is the connection:
PPT 6 text
Ge 21:20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
This text is about Ishmael, notice he became an archer and not only that his descendants after him were known in scripture as masters of the bow!
PPT 7 text
Isa 21:17 And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it.
Children of Kedar are direct descendants of Ishmaels son Kedemeh (Gen 25:15). So then in all likelihood what Jacob said in Gen 49 relates directly to the harm brought to Joseph by the descendants of Ishmael!
Most of us can relate that we have done things that have caused us pain. One of the most famous prayers in the bible is directed at this very issue and I think the reason the man prayed this prayer was because he had experienced what he was praying against. Here is that prayer:
PPT 8 Text
1Ch 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
Keep me from evil that it won’t grieve me – don’t let me give birth to an Ishmael!
Now that I have stated the problem that we sometimes in life give birth to an Ishmael/ painful consequences, let’s look at:
4 Positive things that can come from giving birth to an Ishmael that are born out of God’s response to our messes. The good news is God has no intention of leaving you in your mess!
PPT 9 - 4 positive things
A Platform for Positioning
A Platform for Perception
A Platform for Protection
A Platform for Promotion
When I talk about an Ishmael in your life being a platform, I mean that God can take sinful and stupid things we have done and use them as a launchpad for good. In these messages we will look at these 4 platforms for being a launchpad from an Ishmael into something good. This week we will only be able to look at the 1st of the four points.
1. Platform for Positioning
The point of the message from here on is that God can take our messes and use them for good. This reworking of life is not an afterthought by God, Romans 8 teaches that He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son, and that He causes all things to work together for our good. All things even means the stupid and sinful things God can turn to our advantage and for the purposes of His kingdom.
Ishmaels’ that you have given birth to will be used by God to play a role in moving you into your destiny.
Before the world began God knew Ishmael was coming, and so He came up with a plan to use even Ishmael for the fulfillment of His purposes and to get Joseph into alignment with His purposes.
Most of you already know the story, because as it unfolds we learn it wasn't simply the sins of Abraham and Joseph that caused the Ishmaelites to sell him as a slave. God used it and was weaving a plan. Later in his life Joseph would explain it to his brothers who sold him as a slave this way:
PPT 10 text
Ge 50:20 "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
An Ishmael situation can have a role to play in moving you into your destiny, if you repent and turn it over to God.
I have a small clip from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, where the hero is struggling with why a very evil character wasn’t killed and why he was allowed to live. LOTR was written by JRR Tolkien, a Christian author, and though he is dealing primarily with story telling, woven into this story is a theological question that many have grappled with, why does God keep the devil around? It is answered in part by this clip, and it also answers how God will take messes that the Ishmaels bring and use them for His glory.
PPT 11 Clip from Lord of the rings return of the king
Let me quote again some of the lines from that clip for emphasis…
It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance.
Pity? It is pity that stayed Bilbo's hand.
Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life.
Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment.
Even the very wise cannot see all ends.
My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over.
The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.
There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.
The presence of the Ishmaelites may rule the fate of many. There are forces at work in this world besides the will of the Ishmaelites.
Then finally predestination is this clip:
Bilbo was meant to find the Ring.
In which case, you also were meant to have it.
And that is an encouraging thought.
There are other forces at work in this world besides negative consequences. The grace of God uses Ishmael as a platform to position you where He wants you.
I am almost done just a little more. Ishmael may be used as a platform to position us but we must also understand that…
Positioning is sometimes very painful
PPT 12 text
Ps 105:18 They have afflicted with fetters his feet, Iron hath entered his soul,
This verse is handled differently by different translations. Some say he was put in an iron collar, others iron entered his soul. I am going to use the translation that says iron entered his soul because I think it is wonderfully poetic and can easily fit and agree with the text and circumstances of the passage we are looking at.
So the phrase can be understood two ways. It could mean Joseph’s heart may have been strengthened with iron like faith, and it certainly was, as demonstrated by his life. Or it can refer to his heart having been wounded by iron, poetically entering and cutting his heart.
I want to tie in these two thoughts together right now, iron entering his soul and being positioned by Ishmael
.
If iron is going to enter your soul it better be an exact and precise “wounding.”
There is no wiggle room for error when iron is going to enter a man’s soul or heart, or the results will be catastrophic. If a doctor is going to operate on one of your heart valves he better be extremely precise, or you will die.
God cannot simply let Ishmael thrash about, He has to use him with pinpoint accuracy or death will result. If God lets iron into your soul you can be very sure He knows how deep, how hard, how long, and every little bit of complications it will bring.
I like what one preacher from Texas said about God, He can hit straight licks from crooked sticks. That means he can take any mess, any curveball we throw at him and still hit a home run with it. (Bring a crooked stick and illustrate)
The reason He can do that is a doctrine called predestination. Predestination means because God knows the future. He sat down ahead of time and arranged things to work out the way He wanted them to. The intelligence necessary to accomplish this far exceeds any computer system ever built or will be built. 2018 Summit computer 200 petaflops per second. 200 with 15 zeros. In one second what it would take us 6 billion years to do. Weather forecasting employs super computers. It is child’s play compared to predestination. That the intellect of God has predestined your life ought to give you great comfort.
He understands that If one piece moves, this will cause a chain of cascading events. He is smart enough to process it all. Predestination doesn’t mean God always gets what He wants, it means He has planned ahead to push everything in the direction He wants, and He makes allowance for freewill.
We are always giving him the crooked stick of our lives, and before we were born He had already planned a way to hit a very straight ball with that stick. Let me show you predestination in the life of Joseph as detailed is Psalm 105:
PPT 13-14 text
Ps 105:11 Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance,"
Ps 105:12 When they were only a few men in number, Very few, and strangers in it.
Ps 105:13 And they wandered about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people.
Ps 105:14 He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes:
Ps 105:15 "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm
Ps 105:16 And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread.
Ps 105:17 He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
There is predestination clearly detailed in verses 16, 17 do you see it? He called for a famine. When? Before the world began, that is when He planned to push things in the direction He wanted. The proof is verse 17 – He sent a man before them Joseph. When the famine came to the promised land, God had already enacted a plan that included using the Ishmaelites to bring Joseph to Egypt and sell him as a slave. Ishmael was born about 165 years before Joseph, enough time to have descendants that would become slave traders/archers. This is careful planning and orchestrating of events, and yet without forcing them. God gently pushes. As we follow Joseph in Egypt many other life events would push him to one day meeting Pharaoh and being promoted from jail to the number 2 man in Egypt where he was able to provide food to keep his family from starving. He also was used as the instrument to get the Jews to live in Egypt for hundreds of years which was part of other aspects of God’s predestination plan.
Do you have an Ishmael you have given birth to? Good news God can hit a mighty straight ball from the crooked stick of your life.
How can I apply this message to my life?
I can ask God to turn my mess into a platform for:
A Platform for Positioning
A Platform for Perception
A Platform for Protection
A Platform for Promotion
Close: Repent of what you did to give birth to Ishmael, and the fruit you never had because of that. Ask God to use Ishmael as a blessing in your life. Give God the crooked stick of your life and watch what He can do with it!
