17 ISAAC VS. ISHMAEL

Isaac was born with great expectation and is a symbol of the Messiah Who also was to be revealed in fulfillment of God’s promise after many years of anticipation by godly persons. “. . . the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him” (1b & 2). Isaac was born according to the promise as God acts as He has said. The Lord visited Sarah in mercy, as He had said. No word of God shall fall to the ground; for He is faithful that has promised, and God’s faithfulness is the stay and support of His people’s faith. Isaac was born “at the very time God had promised him” (2b). God is always punctual to His time; though His promised mercies come not at the time we set, they will certainly come at the time He sets, and that is the best time.

A sentence of death was, seemingly, passed upon the second causes (Abraham and Sarah, God being the Primary cause): both Abraham and Sarah were old, and both as good as dead; and then the Word of God entered. Believers, by virtue of God’s promises, are enabled to do what is above the power of human nature because God “has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

Abraham named him, as God commanded him. “Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him” (3). God directed him to a name for a memorial, Isaac, laughter; and Abraham, whose responsibility it was, gave him that name, though he might have given him some other more dignified or eloquent name. The luxuries of human invention and creativity should always yield to the sovereignty and plainness of Gods plan. Yet there was good reason for the rather common name. When Abraham had received the promise of him he laughed for joy. It is good to remember how welcome the dawning of the promise was, and with what exultation we embraced it. Also, when Sarah received the promise she laughed with distrust and disbelief. We ought to remember our earlier sinful distrusts of God’s power and promise with sorrow and shame. Isaac was laughed at by Ishmael. God’s favorites are often the world’s laughing-stocks. The promise of which he was not only the son, but the heir of everything entailed in the promise, was to be the joy of all the saints in all ages, and what (good news) would fill millions of believers’s mouths with laughter.

Abraham circumcised him, “When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him” (4). The covenant was established with Isaac, the seal of the covenant was administered to him. It was a bloody ceremony, and he was a beloved darling, yet it must be neither omitted nor delayed. God had kept time in performing the promise, and therefore Abraham must keep time in obeying the precept.

After years of barrenness and sorrow, now it came time for Sarah to rejoice. It filled her with joy “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me’” (6). Mary the mother of Jesus also rejoiced. “And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46&47). God encourages the joy of His own in His work and service; and, God should be recognized as its primary Author whatever (or whoever) is the secondary causes of our joy, (unless it be the laughter of the fool). When mercies have been delayed for a long time they are more welcome when they come. Furthermore, it adds to the joy of any celebration to have our friends rejoice with us in it. This happened for Naomi too. We can testify through our joy and encourage others to rejoice with us in our instances of God’s power and goodness, and they too can be encouraged themselves to trust in Him. “May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word” (Psalm 119:74)

It filled Sarah with wonder that she should, not only bear a child, but be so strong and hearty at her age as to nurse the baby. Notice how she expressed her wonder: Who would have said it? The thing was so highly improbable, so near to impossible, that if any one but God had said it we could not have believed it. God’s favors to his covenant-people surpasses both their own and others’ thoughts and expectations. Who could imagine that God should do so much for those that deserve so little? For those that deserve so ill? Who would have said that God should send His Son to die for us, His Spirit to sanctify us, His angels to attend us? Who would have said that such great sins should be pardoned, such lowly services accepted, and such worthless worms taken into covenant and communion with the great and holy God? “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Each surprise we receive from God can be a surprise in itself, but we should not be surprised that we are being surprised. If God does “immeasurably more” than we can ask or imagine, then that we receive surprises ought to be considered normal.

The healthy normal child grew and was weaned. This can remind us that Christian babies ought to soon no longer need milk, but become ready for the meat of the Word. “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature,  who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:13&14). They had no great feast when Isaac was born nor when he was circumcised, but as a practical matter when he was weaned. It was a public testimony of God’s goodness, but it became an issue with Ishmael.

Ishmael himself, by mocking Isaac his little brother apparently on the very day that Abraham made the feast, created a problem. It was a time of joy that Isaac was safely weaned, which could have been three or up to five years of age. Sarah herself saw the abuse: “But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking” (9). Perhaps it was because Ishmael, who was fourteen years older, did this that caused Paul to write about it centuries later. “At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now” (Galatians 14:29). We are in Isaac’s place now and may be mocked by the Ishmaels of the world, but, never mind, we will be cared for.

The Septuagint says that the two brothers played together and in play Ishmael mocked Isaac. Ishmael was fourteen years older than Isaac; and, when children are together, the elder should be careful and tender toward the younger: but this incident gives evidence of a very base and sordid character flaw in Ishmael for Ishmael to be playing with Isaac in an abusive mocking way. Isaac would have been no match for him. Yet God takes notice of what children say and do in their play, and will reckon with them if they say or do amiss, though their parents do not.

Mocking is a great sin, and very provoking to God. There is a rooted and remaining enmity in the seed of the serpent (children of the devil) against the seed of the woman (children of God). The children of promise must expect to be mocked. This is persecution which those that live godly lives must expect. My mother taught me “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” but I have grown to believe that words can and do hurt. If they hurt we can tell it to Jesus.

“. . . and she (Sarah) said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac’” (10). This seems to be spoken in some heat, yet it is quoted as if it had been spoken by a spirit of prophecy; and it is the sentence passed on all hypocrites and carnal people, though they have a place and a name in the visible church. All that are born after the flesh and not born again, that rest in the law and reject the gospel promise, shall certainly be cast out. There are many who are familiarly conversant with the children of God in this world, and yet shall not share with them in the inheritance of sons. Ishmael might be Isaac’s play-fellow and school-fellow, yet not his fellow-heir. Galatians 4:30 says, “But what does Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.’” What Abraham did in sending Hagar and her mocking child, Ishmael, away seems to have been the right pattern. Church leaders even today may need from time to time to send away errant and disturbing non-believers who only make for problems, doctrinal or otherwise, in God’s Church.

Abraham’s first reaction, however, was to be grieved by Ishmael’s behavior and Sarah’s response to it. Verse eleven says, “The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.” It grieved him that Ishmael had given such a provocation. Nevertheless, God intervened in Sarah’s behalf, “But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring” (12&13).

Abraham was greatly agitated about this matter, reluctant to displease Sarah, and yet hesitant to expel Ishmael. In this difficulty God tells him what His will is, and then he is satisfied. A good man desires no more in doubtful cases than to know his duty, and what God would have him do; and, when he is clear in this, he is, or should be, at peace within himself. To make Abraham so, God sets this matter before him in a true light, and shows him, that casting Ishmael out was necessary to establish Isaac in the rights and privileges of the covenant: “it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned” (13).

Both Christ and the church must descend from Abraham through the loins of Isaac; this is the significance of the promise going to Isaac, not Ishmael; to the son of promise, not the son who was the fruit of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar’s own human efforts. Paul helps us see the importance of this distinction, in Romans 9:7, “Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’” Not all who come from Abraham’s loins are heirs of Abraham’s covenant. Isaac, the promised son, must be the father of the promised descendants; as though to say, “Away with Ishmael, send him far enough, lest he corrupt the manners or attempt to invade the rights of Isaac.” It will be Isaac’s security to have his rival banished. The covenant descendants of Abraham must be a peculiar people, a people by themselves, from the very first, distinguished, not mingled with those that were out of covenant; for this reason Ishmael must be separated.

Abraham was called alone, and so must Isaac be. “. . . look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many” (Isaiah 51:2). It is possible that Sarah little thought of this, but God took what she said about putting Ishmael out, and turned it into an oracle, as also happened as recorded in John 11:51 of the high priest whose words God used “He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation. (John 11:51). God’s family is inclusive in a sense (all may come) and exclusive in another sense (there is a prescribed way to come).

Abraham’s obedience to the divine command in this matter was speedy. “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” (14). Abraham was usually in the habit of obeying promptly. He will do so again later when God told him to sacrifice Isaac. That time, we will see Abraham also acted “Early the next morning” (Genesis 22:3). Here, this time, we may suppose it was immediately after he had, in the night’s visions, received orders to do this. Abraham was submissive; this instruction was contrary to his judgment, at least to his own inclination, to do it; yet as soon as he perceives that it is the mind of God he makes no objections, but silently does as he is told, as one trained up to an implicit obedience. In sending them away without any attendants, on foot, and lightly provided for, it is probable that he observed the directions he had received. If Hagar and Ishmael had conducted themselves well in Abraham’s family, they might have continued there; but they threw themselves out by their own pride and insolence; they excluded themselves. By abusing our privileges we forfeit them. Those that know not when they are well off, in such a desirable place as Abraham’s family, deserve to be dismissed, and to be made to know the worth of their previously enjoyed mercies by experiencing the absence of them.

God had earlier described the kind of person Ishmael would be, “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 all his brothers” (Genesis 16:12). Those that forsake the comforts of the covenant and communion with God, and choose their portion in this earth, take up with a bottle of water, poor and meager provision, and with that soon used up they wander endlessly in pursuit of satisfaction, and, at length and finally, sit down without it. Those that are born after the flesh take up with the wilderness of this world, while the children of the promise aim at the heavenly Canaan, and cannot be at rest till they are there.

So our study of the Patriarchs leaves Ishmael just as it earlier left Lot. These two persons represent people who by their own choices leave themselves out of the story of those whom God uses. In this series of lessons for Christian leaders from the lives of the patriarchs we will not learn much worth duplicating from the stories of Lot, Ishmael, Esau, Reuben and Judah, but will learn many good things to follow from those of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

1. God keeps promises, 2. We exclude ourselves (as Ishmael did) if we don’t do things God’s way.