God’s promises are fulfilled even when we think he has somehow rejected us.
Way back in chapter 16, Abraham, with the help of Sarah decided to hurry up the process of God fulfilling his promise. After all his promise had been delivered several years ago and nothing was going on. Surely God has given us a brain right so that we can think clearly and act in accordance with our own wisdom, right? So Sarah gave her maid Hagar to Abraham and thus Ishmael was born. Instantly however it was clear that this was not God’s original plan for Abraham. God hadn’t promised Ishmael, he had promised Isaac, who was still yet to come.
Eventually Isaac was born and Ishmael persecuted the poor little boy and when Sarah objected, God eventually instructed Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away; Which Abraham did. For a time it seemed perhaps as though God’s love would only pass on through the chosen Isaac and would completely pass them by. God had however, promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. And throughout scripture it becomes clear that God’s grace is of course not limited by blood line any more than by fortune or circumstance.
Way back in Chapter 17 Abraham had pleaded with God that God would establish his promise through Ishmael; and there God did two things. First he denied Abraham’s request. Second, however, he promised that he would bless Ishmael even as his plans went elsewhere.
"And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. “But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.” " (Genesis 17:18-21, NASB95)1
Therefore while this passage certainly reveals to us a very brief overview of Ishmael’s family line, so much more does it reveal to us the faithfulness of God. God does not let a single promise fall to the ground. For there, God had said,
“I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.” (Genesis 17:20, NASB95)2 and here in these few verses we read of the literal real-time fulfillment of the promise.
Don’t lose sight of the significance of the specific faithfulness displayed by God here. For not only the promise to bless, but also in the prophecy of what sort of Man Ishmael would become do we see God’s faithfulness. Look at the summary statement in Genesis 25:18, “He settled in defiance of all his relatives.” This very thing had been prophesied in Genesis 16:12, “he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” (NIV).
On a translation note, there are a few different ways of rendering that phrase, and they range between stating that he settled east of his brothers to the idea that he had trouble with him. Given the context it makes the most sense to understand it as settling in hostility or defiance since the idea of the text is literally “to throw one’s self, [or] to settle down, [it carries with it a] subordinate idea of keeping by force the place you have taken...(Keil, Carl Friedrich, and Franz Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament., Vol. 1, Page 12-170. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.)
Again one of the lessons inherent in this little turn away from the “Main” story line is that *** God’s faithfulness will be fulfilled to the final detail. *** He’ll not leave any promise untouched and unfulfilled.
Additional to this is the promise to us as parents who would dare to live faithful lives to God. In the Bible God has promised to bless the offspring of those who love him, one such promise is located in Deuteronomy 7:9
“Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments...”
Commentator Matthew Henry states, “Many that are strangers to the covenants of promise are yet blessed with outward prosperity for the sake of their godly ancestors.”(Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume, Ge 25:11. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991.)
I would argue that this is the prosperity that has blessed us so completely in America. Despite revisionist Historians who would try to lead us to believe the contrary our founding fathers – though not all saints – many were indeed believers in Christ and as Godly men dedicated this land to service to God.
For instance our first president prayed this prayer of Salvation at the age of 20... (http://www.restoringamerica.org/documents/prayer_for_salvation.html)
“Almighty God, and most merciful Father . . . since Thou are a God of pure eyes, and wilt be sanctified in all who draw near unto Thee, who dost not regard the sacrifice of fools, nor hear sinners who tread in Thy courts, pardon, I beseech Thee, my sins; remove them from Thy presence, as far as the east is from the west, and accept me for the merits of Thy Son, Jesus Christ; that when I come into Thy temple and compass Thine altar, my prayer may come before Thee as incense; and as Thou wouldst hear me calling upon Thee in my prayers and give me grace to hear Thee calling on me in Thy Word, that it may be wisdom, righteousness, reconciliation, and peace to the saving of my soul in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then in his letter sent to all the state governors at the close of the revolutionary war he concluded with this prayer... (http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/washington/earnestprayer.html)
“I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
Those things however which were true of Ishmael are also true of this nation. Though we are not God’s chosen people, we do as a nation share in much blessing and much of that I believe is due to our countries initial foundation upon Jesus Christ. However, even as Ishmael was granted the grace to receive a blessing because of his father’s inheritance and has since squandered it till he has become God’s enemy in this present day – so also we risk in this day the same fate.
Abraham is indeed the father of many nations, and Ishmael his son is the father of the Arab nations; which today are largely sold as servants of Satan serving the false god Allah and the Koran and being trapped in the midst of a great lie. Our nation is threatening to go in a similar direction. We are already firmly entrenched not only as a country but we ourselves in a constant lust for more things. “Greed” we are firmly told by the Apostle in Colossians 3:5 “amounts to idolatry.”
But I believe that there is still a chance for this Nation because if God so diligently fulfilled the promises to Abraham concerning His Son he will also diligently fulfill the promises which can be accounted as if to us. “I will bless those who bless you...” God told Abraham in chapter 12:3.
As Americans it is well suited for us to actively encourage our Government to continue to bless Israel. As Christians we ourselves will do well to As in Psalm 122:6 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem...”
But above all these things we are much more to be driven towards our knees and our shoes. First towards our knees because we must begin pleading earnestly for God to revive this wicked nation. Second to our shoes as we ourselves get up off of our fear and actually do the business of making people subject to the obedience that comes by faith.
