Day 22 – Abraham & Hagar/Ishmael

• I read somewhere that it takes 21 days for something to become a habit. Well, we’re on day 22 now, and I hope you’re into a good regular routine with your readings. It’s far too early, of course, to be counting down the days until the 31st December, but Sarah seems to be counting the days in today’s passage. At the start of Genesis 16, what’s she concerned about?
• Let’s take stock of where we’re at. Yesterday, we read about the Abrahamic covenant, where God made an unbreakable promise to give Abraham multiple blessings. One of them was that he was going to father a nation which one day would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. But… Abraham is about 85 years old, and has no children. His wife isn’t much younger. That seems like an impossible promise for God to keep, doesn’t it?
• What was the suggestion that Sarah gave to her husband Abraham in verse 2 regarding her servant Hagar? Did Abraham agree? What happened?
• Did the new baby, whom God later (v11) calls Ishmael, solve problems or create them? Verse 4 onwards will help.
• Where did Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, run? What did the angel tell her to do and what promise did the angel give her?
• Around 16 years after Ishmael was born, our reading jumps forward to chapter 21 to find out what happens to him (as well as giving us a few future plot spoilers)! As our second reading in Genesis 21:8 opens, Isaac, the actual true son and heir of Sarah and Abraham, has just been born. We’ll read about Isaac properly later on in our reading plan, but for now it’s enough to know that Isaac is the baby that God had plans for, not Ishmael. The teenager Ishmael is still around though, and his presence (and the presence of his mother Hagar) is difficult. What does Abraham do?
• When Hagar and Ishmael are sent away, things seem bleak for the lonely mother and her son. How does God take care of them? What does this tell you about God’s love?
• Today’s New Testament passage refers to Isaac and Ishmael as representing two different covenants (promises from God). Can you see the differences?

Think about what a cake looks like when it’s half cooked. If you took it out of the oven after 10 minutes when it needs 20 minutes to cook properly, what will it be like? What happens when you try and rush things? Sarah knew God’s promise that He would bless to her family but how did she try to move things along in her timing? Was this a good idea?

Sending away Hagar and Ishmael may seem cruel from our perspective, but the Bible records both Abraham’s concern for his first son, and God’s command for what should happen to Ishmael. Abraham expressed compassion for his son, but he also demonstrated obedience when God required something different from what he personally desired. Abraham trusted that God would keep His promise to save Ishmael and make him the father of a large nation.

We won’t think about Ishmael again in this reading plan, but God’s promise that he would father a nation did, of course, come true. Ishmael was saved from a slow death in the wilderness, and went on to be a great leader, and it’s believed he founded many of the Arab nations (which are largely, although not exclusively, Muslim). There has been, ever since, a lot of tension between Jewish and Arab people, displayed most acutely in the conflict in the Middle East which has been going on for a very long time! This little story may well be the catalyst for all the struggles which we still see.