[Music] what do we know about Ishmael according to the Bible Ishmael was Abraham's first son born when Abraham was 86 years old and living near Hebron in Genesis 15 God promises Abraham during an apparition that he will have a son and become the father of many nations at that time Abraham had no children his wife Sarah was unable to conceive as they questioned how this promise would be fulfilled welcome dear friends to another captivating Journey Through the pages of the Bible on our Channel Bible stories today we delve into the Intriguing Narrative of Ishmael the
Forgotten son of Abraham this biblical tale is a tapestry of human struggles Divine promises and the enduring grace of God if you find inspiration in the timeless stories of Faith Heritage and Redemption you're in for a treat before we unravel the depths of ishmael's story make sure to subscribe to our Channel Bible stories to stay connected with the profound wisdom and teachings of the scriptures don't forget to hit the notification Bell so you never miss a compelling episode now let's embark on this enlightening journey together in Genesis 16:3 Sarah who was still called Sarai suggests
to Abraham who was still called Abram to have a child with her Egyptian maidservant Hagar whom she gives to him as a wife then Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan Genesis 16:3 this seems to be a common custom of the time since Jacob's wives also resorted to it the wife as a servant to her husband but all children born from this Union are considered hers which could be an early form of
surrogacy in Antiquity it was common for a barren woman to offer her husband a servant who would bear children in herstead it was the wife not the servant who raised the children if this solution may have seemed judicious to Abraham and Sarah it created more problems than it solved Hagar did indeed have a child with Abraham when Hagar learned she was pregnant she began to despise Sarah and Sarah sought help from Abraham Genesis 1645 States so when she saw that she had conceived her mistress became despised in her eyes then sari said to Abram my
wrong be upon you I gave my maid into your Embrace and when she saw that she had conceived I became despised In Her Eyes the lord judge between you and me Genesis 16:45 Abraham allowed Sarah to act as she wished Sarah then mistreated hagga who fled from her Sarah being Baron had obtained a son from hagga and ishmail was legally Sarah's child however this does not explain how Sarah treated Hagar a few years later God established a covenant with Abraham requiring circumcision of all male members of his household God commanded Abraham to circumcise his son
Ishmael as well as all other males in his household including slaves born in his household and those acquired from foreigners Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised and Ishmael was 13 the birth of Isaac the legitimate son of Sarah and Abraham exacerbated the already strained relational tensions between Sarah and Hagar indeed these had been begun long before ishmael's birth as mentioned previously it was in the desert that the angel of the Lord met Hagar and ordered her to return to Abraham it was also there that the angel of the Lord told her the
son she was carrying was to be named Ishmael what does Ishmael mean it means God has heard indeed the Lord heard Hagar's distress Genesis 16:1 however the Discord between Sarah and Hagar reached its peak at Isaac's weaning deeply upset Sarah asked Abraham to send away Hagar and her son Abraham considered Ishmael the son God had promised him indeed even when God revealed that Sarah would bear a son Abraham questioned the need for this birth since Ishmael could be his Heir in Genesis 17:18 Abraham says to God oh that Ishmael might live before you even after
Isaac's birth Abraham continued to treat Ishmael kindly saddened by Sarah's desire to disown him Sarah for her part saw ishmail as a threat to Isaac's place in the family and wanted to get rid of him Genesis 21 1-34 this request to expel the maidservant and her son seemed to contravene all Norms of ancient law the children of maid servants could be demoted but not dismissed without valid cause the fact that Abraham resisted Ed such treatment only acting on God's command suggests the action undertaken was not in accordance with the standards of the time one may
wonder about Sarah's reaction was it because of an act committed by Ishmael that threatened Isaac or was it simply his existence that posed a threat Genesis 219 tells us Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had borne to Abraham scoffing does this mean Ishmael was mocking in Isaac or merely playing with him does the word scoffing in this context mean mocking deriding or simply rejoicing in the situation Sarah perceives Ishmael as a rival to Isaac not because of Any act he may have committed but because of his very existence the author of
Genesis recounts the story of Ishmael mainly to establish a contrast between Isaac and Ishmael not as individuals but as representations of God's work the idea is that when God kept his promises to Abraham he was not constrained by natural and ordinary laws in other words by the flesh although God's preference for Isaac as the son of the wife conforms to custom the rejection of Hagar and Ishmael made the contrast more striking Hagar was sent away with her son Into the Wilderness Genesis 21: 10 to 1410 therefore she said to Abraham cast out this Bond woman
and her son for the son of this Bond woman shall not be Heir with my son namely with Isaac 11 and the matter was very displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son 12 but God said to Abraham do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your Bond woman whatever Sarah has said to you listen to her voice for in ISAC your seed Shall be Called 13 yet I will also make a nation of the son of the Bond woman because he is your seed 14 so Abraham
Rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and putting it on her shoulder he gave it and the boy to Hagar and sent her away then she departed and wandered in the wilderness of berseba they were about to die of thirst when God heard the boy and divided him with water however God still had plans for Ishmael he assured hagga that Ishmael as Abraham's son would become a great nation Genesis 21-1 17-18 the Fulfillment of this prophecy is reported in Genesis 25-2 turn to 18 ishma had 12 sons who became
powerful leaders and eventually a nation here is how it happened Hagar who herself was of Egyptian origin chose an Egyptian wife for her son and Ishmael settled in the wilderness of pan Genesis 21:21 18 they dwelt from havah as far as Shure which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria Genesis 25:18 he had 12 sons and one daughter the Bible lists ishmael's sons in Genesis 2513 13 and these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names according to their Generations the firstborn of Ishmael Nebo then Kadar Adel mibsam 14 mishma
Duma Masa 15 Hadar TMA jur nafish and Keda surprisingly he is credited with 12 sons just as Jacob had 12 sons this compares to the 12 sons of nahor and the 12 sons of Esau later ishmael's daughter married Esau Isaac's son as indicated in Genesis 289 and Genesis 36.3 the region of havila where ishmael's descendants lived was in the north part of the Arabian Peninsula shur was a desert region between BBA in the neev desert and Egypt Isaiah 67 mentions the descendants of Nebo and Kadar as sheep breeders ishmael's descendants were called Arabs which basically
means Nomads from the beginning ishmael's descendants were a Waring people as they lived in hostility toward all their brothers thus was fulfilled God's prediction that ishmail would 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 to2 later other people settled in the Arabian Peninsula including descendants of Abraham's sons by coutura 1 Chronicles 1:3 3233 and some descendants of Esau namely the amalekites Genesis 36-12 even though Isaac alone remained Abraham's Heir Ishmael and Abraham's other Sons
by concubines were also blessed by him as Genesis 25 indicates this means that Hagar's Sons as well as curas received material goods from the patriarch once grown the Bible reports no conflicts between Ishmael and Isaac they are both described as burying Abraham at MAA in Genesis 259 most of these names are mentioned in other passages of the Bible as influential tribal families of that time ishmael's descendants Abraham's son are generally identified as ishmaelites in the bi they were organized into 12 tribes living in moveable camps in the southern desert Genesis 25 ish died at the
age of 137 Genesis 25:17 the bib does not specify where he was buried but Muslim tradition places his tomb at the Caba in Mecca in the New Testament Ishmael is mentioned specifically by the Apostle Paul the Apostle used the figure of the slave woman's son in his allegory contrasting the legalistic religious persecutors with those born according to the spirit and enjoying freedom in Christ Galatians 4:21 Ishmael became a relatively common name so other characters are mentioned in the bible as Ishmael there was for example a descendant of Saul and Jonathan named Ishmael as well as
a high official under josaphat's Reign and the son of a priest at the time of Ezra Ezra 10:22 but among all the individuals mentioned the most well-known was the son of neth IA a member of the Royal House of David Jeremiah [Music] 41115 during the period of Babylonian oppression against the Jews this Ishmael killed Galia the governor of Judah appointed by Nebuchadnezzar in conclusion of our analysis of Ishmael Abraham's son we can highlight several important points Ishmael was not the son of God's promise to Abraham but God still protected him it was the Lord himself
who chose the name Ishmael and destined him for greatness even though he was outside the Covenant Ishmael was privileged to have a numerous Offspring comparable to Isaac's and his lineage was structured into 12 tribal Clans God also characterized Ishmael highlighting the nomadic lifestyle of his descendants and the resistance they would encounter from the children of the Covenant over time ishmael's descendants associated with the midianites who were were also descendants of Abraham through coutura this merging of intricately intertwined peopies in his stories led to an assimilation between ishes and midianites in several biblical passages today Arabs
claim their genealogy from Abraham mainly through Ishmael a popular Theory widely spread among Muslims and some Christians claims that Muslim Arabs are direct descendants of Ishmael indeed Muhammad was one of the main proponents of this idea declaring himself a descendant of Ishmael according to the Quran it is very likely that there is some truth to this Theory according to missionary and author Kenneth Fleming what we know for certain seems to corroborate the hypothesis that the ishmaelites constitute at least a significant part of the Arab genetic ancestry ancient texts clearly establish a link between the northern
Arabs and the descendants of is however it is unlikely that all the inhabitants of Arabia are descendants of Ishmael because curra's descendants and Esau's children also populated the Arabian Peninsula while some Modern Arabs May Trace their Origins to Ishmael not all Arabs are descendants of Ishmael contrary to Muslim claims the Bible teaches us that God made Ishmael into a great nation his descendants can share in Abraham Blessings by putting their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation ishmael's story Abraham's son transcends a simple individual biography it reveals an important part of God's work and the unfolding
of his grace in the history of Salvation Ishmael symbolizes natural birth resulting from the fertile Union between Abraham and Hagar while Isaac represents Supernatural birth where God manifested his great power by allowing a 90-year-old barren woman to conceive a child the Apostle Paul uses the biblical story of Hagar and Sarah to illustrate a fundamental spiritual truth related to our Salvation in Galatians 4 Hagar symbolizes the old Covenant rooted in human actions and the law according to the Bible Sarah embodies the New Covenant which is based on Divine Grace through the Redemptive work accomplished by God
for Humanity in Paul's analogy Believers in Christ are like the child born of Sara we are free born of the spirit Galatians 4:29 to 31 but as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit even so it is now nevertheless what does the scripture say cast out the Bond woman and her son for the son of the bondwoman shall not be Heir with the son of the free woman so then brethren we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free therefore we who are
believers Born Again begotten from above spiritually transformed renewed and dedicated to his will are not children of a slave woman that of natural birth but those of a free woman that of Supernatural birth as we conclude this captivating exploration of ishmael's story we're reminded of the rich tapestry of Human Experience woven into the fabric of the Bible our Channel Bible stories is dedicated to Bringing these narratives to life offering insights that resonate across time and cultures if you've been moved or inspired by ishmael's Journey we invite you to subscribe to our Channel like this video
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