Abraham's Family

Birth of Isaac

God promised Abraham that He would bless Abraham with a descendant and would make him a great nation.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,

“Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; [a]Your reward shall be very great.”

2 Abram said, “O Lord [b]God, what will You give me, since I [c]am childless, and the [d]heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “[e]Since You have given no [f]offspring to me, [g]one born in my house is my heir.” 4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own [h]body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your [i]descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Gen. 15:1-6

The only problem was that Sarai, his wife, was barren and past child bearing years. Sarai lacked faith in God and decided to fix “God’s problem”. She gave her Egyptian maid to Abraham as his wife. She conceived a child and Sarai became very jealous. She then blamed Abraham of causing the misery she was experiencing. She mistreated her maid Hagar and caused her to flee. God told Hagar to return to Sarai and submit herself to her authority. God promised Hagar that her son would be a great nation, but that he would be a wild donkey of a man and that all other nations would be against him.

Fast forward 13 years and you see the promise of God coming true. Sarai was 90 and Abraham was 100 and they had Isaac born to them. Isaac means laughter. Sarai said all people would laugh at her because she bore a son at the age of 90. This is cause for joyous laughter because God did something that only He could do.

One would think that this would be a great situation but it wasn’t. We read that Ishmael mocked Isaac. This was a reflection on his character. A teenager making fun of a baby. This infuriated Sarai and she banished Hagar and Ishmael from the family.

This was very difficult for Abraham because Ishmael was still his son. He loved his son and did not want to cast them out of the family. Sarai had no regard for the father - son relationship Abraham and Ishmael had. She just wanted them out of the family so their would be no question who would receive the inheritance. The first born is suppose to.

What we find next is compelling. God tells Abraham to listen to his wife and put Hagar and Ishmael out of the family. Morally we would think that this is not right until you understand the why. Ishmael and Isaac represent a juxtaposition. The Juxtaposition is Ishmael represents the flesh and Isaac represents the spirit.

Ishmael was conceived in the flesh out of a lack of faith in God. Isaac was conceived on the basis of faith in the promise of God. The flesh and the spirit cannot coexist.

For what the Law could not do, [b]weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of [c]sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Rom. 8:3-8

In order for the spirit to grow, the flesh has to be done away with. You cannot allow the flesh to hang around and continue to grow in the spirit. Because Isaac was the child of promise, the child of the flesh had to leave.

This is true in our own lives. If we are going to grow in Christ we must do way with the flesh that is in our lives. We cannot let it hang around. It is too tempting to go back to. We must eradicate it from our lives.

Abraham Sends Ishmael Away.

Abraham gives Hagar and Ishmael a little bit of provision and sends them away. When the provision runs out Hagar calls out to God. God answers her by promising to take care of Ismael because he is a descendant of Abraham.

God took care of Hagar and Ishmael because they were descendants of Abraham. God knew the plight of Ishmael but took care of him and even fulfilled his promise to make him a great nation.

The nation that Ishmael started are the Arabs which are Muslim. It is believed by the Muslims that Ishmael is the father of Mohammad. Mohammad is the Muslim high priest.

We also see that he ventured away from the nation of Israel and married into the nation of Egypt. This is where Hagar was from.

Today we still see the affects of a dysfunctional family. Jews and Muslims continue to war against one another to this very day.