Why Is This Information Included?

Genesis 25: 12-18

Why is this information included?

12 Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham. 13 And these were the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These were the sons of Ishmael and these were their names, by their towns and their settlements, twelve princes according to their nations. 17 These were the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years; and he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. 18 (They dwelt from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria.) He died in the presence of all his brethren.

Let me ask you a question and I want you to thoroughly consider it before coming up with an answer. Do you find any of the books of the bible or for that matter separate portions of the bible like they aren’t really important?

Come on now, tell the truth and shame the devil. I know in the past that I did. However, I have learned that what our Precious Holy Spirit has put into the Bible is all good.

Now I am sure all of you understand that Ishmael was not in the line of importance as far a tracing the lineage of the Messiah. So, why did our Holy Spirit put in as a permanent record Ishmael’s genealogy?

Well, centuries before the appearance of Islam in the now terror-ridden Middle-East, the Bible had given us a glimpse of what awaited the people of that area, and in particular, for the Jews (and by the same token, the Christians). Most Muslims will claim despite the fact that in the history books, [Islam did not make its first appearance until Mohammed founded the religion 24 generations after Ishmael life, in 622 AD] , that Islam in fact was the religion of the prophets past, going back all the way to the creation of the world. There are passages in the Quran which declare that, Abraham the Patriarch of Judaism and Christianity was not a Jew, nor a Christian; but that he was a Muslim. The references to people being Muslims, before Mohammed first established the religion, are presented with frequency in the Quran.

Our Holy God knows the beginning from the end. He foresaw the confusion the Islamic religion would try to contend.

Muslims, as well as Christians and Jews, will agree that Islam’s expansion, at the hand of Mohammed, was foretold in the book of Genesis. The specific story is found in chapter 16, “"Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, ‘I cannot watch the boy die.’ And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob. God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.' Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt."

The angel, furthermore, gives Hagar a good reason for returning. He tells her of the huge role that her returning to Abraham would play, in bringing about a great prophecy. The angel says to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count. He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone's hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers. (Gen 16:7-12)

And this is the prophetic word, which perhaps was never fully understood by the ancient Israelites, nor by the Christians. That is, until Islam first stuck its head out, six centuries after the fulfillment of another part of the great prophecy - the birth of Christianity, which was a blessing to all the nations; prophesied of in the same book of Genesis.