Ishmael

²⁰ By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future Hebrews 11:20(NIV)

So Isaac is still waiting for that great nation God promised to his father.  He has two sons, not exactly a great nation.  Although it doesn’t appear so yet, there will two nations from Abraham.   Now Abraham trusted God completely, his wife on the other hand didn’t always have as much faith.  She actually is recorded to have laughed at the suggestion she would deliver Isaac in Genesis 21.  So she hatches a plan of her own – always dangerous to take God’s plan in to your own hands.  She decides to have Hagar, her maidservant, conceive a child with her husband.

Ok, ladies, are you seeing a problem here?  I know I am.  You would have to half crazy to actually suggest your husband sleep with another woman and not expect some sort of issue to arise.  I know it’s a different time and this was an accepted practice.  But one thing is still the same no matter the time period: women are jealous creatures who don’t like to share men.  God made us that way.  He didn’t intend for us to have more that one spouse or sexual partner.

So anyway Abraham agrees to this idea, and Hagar becomes pregnant with a son.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived Genesis 16:1-4

Can you guess what happened next? What this what God or Sarai had in mind?  Of course not, look what happens in verses 4&5.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me. Genesis 16:4-5(NIV)

Could we see this coming? Ok, maybe that’s not fair; hindsight is 20/20.  Maybe Sarah thought she was being a good wife by stepping aside and letting another woman give him what she couldn’t.     There is also one person we are forgetting.  Hagar.  It doesn’t appear that she gets much of a say in what happens here.  She is just forced to sleep with an 85 year old man until and then bear him a son that according to the law at the time won’t even be considered hers.  Now that doesn’t seem right at all.  Hagar starts to despise Sarah.  Do you really blame her?  What does Abraham say when Sarah brings this to his attention?

⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Genesis 16:6 (NIV)

What a stand-up guy. Sensing the sarcasm there?  If you read the whole account of Abraham’s life in Genesis, you’ll notice he isn’t very assertive and very much avoids conflict at all cost.  This trait gets in him in trouble quite a bit.  So this mess is now in Sarah’s hands, and this is what she does.

Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. Genesis 16:6b(NIV)

Amplified translation says And when Sarai dealt severely with her, humbling and afflicting her. So basically Sarah made Hagar’s life miserable and she fled from her.  Again; Do you really blame her?  But God also takes care of Hagar.

⁷ The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. Genesis 16:7-9

So God sends an angel to Hagar and tells her to go back to Sarah and be her servant again.  Ok that part doesn’t sound so cool, but then he makes her the same promise he made Abraham.  That’s pretty awesome.  However, there is more to this promise.

¹¹ The angel of the LORD also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,^[a]
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward^[b] all his brothers. Genesis 16: 11&12

I’m not so sure about this promise.  He is basically saying her son will be at odds with people all his life.  This sounds like a punishment.  Well, it kinda is – not for Hagar so much as for Abraham.   See, Abraham didn’t trust God as much as he should have and took matters into his own hands.  Actually Sarah did, but Abraham knew better and should have said something, hmm…Does this sound familiar?  When you know something isn’t right, you should open your mouth and say so, or you could be held accountable. But back to the story.

¹³ She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen^[c] the One who sees me.” ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi^[d]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael. Genesis 16:13-16(NIV)

So Hagar blessed God and returned to Sarah and gave birth to Ishmael.  God kept his promise to Hagar and Ishmael became the father of the Palestinian nation. A nation who is a problem for the Jewish people to this day.  You’ll find the rest of the story of Ishmael in Genesis 21.

 

 

 

 

 

Abraham and Isaac

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[c] 19} Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death Hebrews 11:17-19(NIV)

We all know the story of how God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  Now as a parent myself I have a hard time with this story.  It is one thing to ask for my life, but to ask me to give up the lives of my children!  I don’t think I could do that and I’m more than a little bothered that it’s even an option.  However, there is more to this story just this little blurb in Hebrews.

¹ Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you. Genesis 22:1-2.

Two things I notice about this passage; first, When God calls Abraham, Abraham responds right away. Just something to note.  The second things is that God knows how much Abraham love Isaac: He says is right there in verse 2 “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac”. God knows exactly what He is asking Abraham to do there.  He knows long Abraham waited for Isaac, around 25 years at least.  If you talk to most expectant couples, they can’t even wait the whole nine months, especially if there were fertility issues.  Again I find this a hard story, so I can only imagine how hard this was for Abraham.

Something I should mention is that this story is what Bible scholars call a “type“.  Very basically it’s a foreshadow or copy of another story.  Most types are to show some aspect of Christ or God.  This one shows the crucifixion.  So even as I’m saying this would be hard for me, and must have awful for Abraham, neither one of us actually had to sacrifice a child.  God did.  So with this story he is helping everyone see the magnitude of what he did.  I have to admit I didn’t fully understand this story or the crucifixion until I had children of my own.

Now the part that I find most amazing.

³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together Genesis 22:3-6 (NIV)

Abraham got up and went.  That’s it, no argument, not complaint, not even a delay!  God said kill you son, and the next morning Abraham got up and went out to do exactly what God asked of him.  Again I don’t think I could do it.  How could Abraham?  Well the answer is in Hebrews. Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death Hebrew 11:19.  That also takes faith.  I don’t think I would even think that far ahead.  Of course God can bring somebody back from the dead, but my first response would be to argue or barter, or….something.  Not Abraham.  He just trusted God.

Look at the last part of verse 19.and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. What does that mean?  We know Isaac didn’t die, that God intervened.  I could mean that Abraham trusted God and followed God so completely that from the moment God said to sacrifice Isaac Abraham just assumed he would die and acted as such, but I don’t think so.  remember that type thing I was talking about earlier.  Keep that in mind as we watch what happens next.

Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together Genesis 22:7-8

Ok, Isaac isn’t stupid.  The scholars place his age at this point between 6-16.  He’s been to sacrifices with his father before.  He’s getting a bit concerned here.  Abraham just says God will provide.   We know he does, because we read the story, but Abraham just has to go on faith.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Genesis 22:9-10.

What I want to mention is that this is the last time Isaac is mentioned for a while.  He’s still there, but he is not mentioned.  That’s important and I’ll get back to why a little further down.

 

 

¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram^[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring^[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,^[c] because you have obeyed me.”

¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba Genesis 22:11-19.

And now comes the resolution we were all hoping for.  God provides a ram  and Abraham doesn’t have to kill the son he has waited for so long.  Now, did you catch all the similarities to the cross?  Abraham sacrificed his son (not literally), just as God sacrificed Jesus.  He rose again, technically Isaac never died, but he was dead to his father for a short time.  What about the fact that Isaac isn’t mentioned by name anymore?  The important part is when he is mentioned again.  Isaac is not mentioned again until he gets married in chapter 24, several years after chapter 22.  Ok, so why is that significant?  Because that is the last picture we get of Christ in this story.  After he was sacrificed he didn’t come back again until he was ready to receive his bride.  Just like Christ.  Don’t believer me?  Check it out for yourself.

Abraham

Next we come to the father of the Jewish people, Abraham.  Abraham’s life can in no way be completely summed up in one short blog post, but I’m going to hit the things highlighted in  Hebrews 11.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she^[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore Hebrews 11:8-12(NIV)

Look at that first verse again. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Now, have you ever been the car with someone and they haven’t told you where you were going?  Imagine that; only the driver is gone, and instead or for an evening or day, it’s for your WHOLE LIFE?  Nerve racking, isn’t it? Abraham was told to just go  somewhere ‘this-way-ish.’  No specific instructions, just a vague promise and he went.  That’s gutsy, if I do say so myself.  Moving is a big deal even when you know where you are going and why you are going there.  Abraham basically just trusted God in the fact that He knew what He was doing.  That’s something I have trouble with myself, but isn’t that in the definition of faith already listed in verse 6?  Let’s take a closer look at exactly what happened to Abraham.

¹ The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.^[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”^[b]

⁴ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there Genesis 12:1-5 (NIV)

First, don’t get confused here, Abraham and Abram are the same guy, God changed his name, his wife’s as well.  Each letter in the Hebrew language not only has a phonetic sound but a conceptual meaning.  When God changed Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah He inserted a H or the Hebrew letter Heh.  The sound is just a breath and the meaning is breath or Spirit.  So God breathed his spirit into Abraham and Sarah.  Kinda cool.

Second, did you notice that he was 75 at the time?  Can you imagine picking up your life and starting over at 75!  I know right now many people are having to do this at 40+, that’s hard enough, but at 75 you’re supposed to pretty much be done with this sort of thing.  Maybe that’s why God used him?  He didn’t question. He didn’t argue. His wife may have, but he didn’t.  Instead he packed up everything and moved from the city where he’d grown up along with his family and their servants.  He went from living in a house in city to living in a tent in essentially the middle or nowhere at an age most of us are already retired.  Wow, that’s not easy.

Not only did Abraham believe that God’s blessing lied in this strange land( as He said they would), but he believed God’s second promise that his wife would bear him a child. Now Sarah was about 50 at this point, Isaac didn’t come along for another 25 years. I don’t know about you, but I hope to done raising children in my 70’s.  He not only believed this promise, he continued to believe for 25 years!  I think my faith would at a minimum be tested on this one.  Even the writer of Hebrews said , and he as good as dead. Now if read the whole story in Genesis 15-21, you will see that Sarah didn’t have near the mount of faith that Abraham did and the consequences that followed her lack of faith.

This story has a somewhat sad ending; you see, Abraham didn’t get to see Gods promises fulfilled.  Neither did his son, OR his grandson.  I think there is a lesson there as well.  Faith is very much believing without seeing.  The hardest part is that sometimes I don’t get to see the end result of things, but does that mean the promise is any less true?  According to this it’s not, and I just need to believe anyway.

More information on the covenant of Abraham.