Genesis 21: 1-21
Here's the part of the story that shows Ishmael's personality.
(1) Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised.
(2) So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.
(3) Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
(4) Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
(5) Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
(6) Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me."
(7) And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
This is Ishmael's family: Abraham his father, and Sarah his step-mother, and Sarah's slave, Hagar, his mother. Now he gets a little brother. This changes the family dynamic.
(8) The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Ishmael is not the only child any more, he has a baby brother who is getting all the attention. And Ishmael's not a tiny tot any more, he was 14 when Isaac was born, so he's probably 15 or older by now.
(9) Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.
He has probably resented and been jealous of this new baby, having been deprived by him of the attention he had from his father, Abraham. This hurt comes out now in his teasing and mocking of Isaac at the big party held for him. And Sarah noticed this.
(10) Therefore she said to Abraham, "Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac."
Now Sarah has come to the end of her rope with this slave girl, and demands that Abraham throw her out, along with her son. She is adamant that her legitimate son will be Abraham's heir, not this son of her slave.
(11) The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.
Abraham loved Ishmael, he'd raised his son since he was born, and didn't want to break up this family unit.
(12) But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.
God had to tell him that Sarah was right, to do what she said, not only for domestic peace, but also because God wanted Abraham's descendants to go through Isaac, rather than Ishmael.
(13) "And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant."
God knew how much Abraham loved Ishmael, so for his sake He would make Ishmael's descendants into a great people and nations.
(14) So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.
When Hagar had run away, God told her to go back and submit to Sarah, because she was Sarah's property and didn't have the right to decide to run away. Now, because Sarah had decided to get rid of her, now Abraham will obey God and send her and her son away.
(15) When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.
(16) Then she went an sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, "Do not let me see the boy die." And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.
But she's just wandering around aimlessly, acting like a victim who can't do anything for herself. She's feeling so sorry for herself, she will just sit there and starve to death!
(17) God heard the lad crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from Heaven and said to her, "What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.
Then God called to her again, and asks her, "What is the matter with you, Hagar?" God didn't make her helpless, He just put her where He wanted her to be to have this son. Now he will continue to show her His path for her, because he heard Ishmael crying, too. He doesn't want him to give up, either!
(18) "Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him."
God has already promised Abraham that He would make a great nation of him, and now He's repeating that promise to Hagar, so he needs to perk up and take care of himself, and she is the one to teach him how.
(19) Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.
God showed her that she was capable and able to take care of herself and her son, and she didn't need to depend on being someone else's property any more. She was free.
(20) God was with the lad, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
(21) He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
God was with Ishmael to guide him, and his mother did her job to finish raising him, and procuring for him a wife when the time came from her own people in Egypt.
When they were thrown out, and given their freedom, she went south. She was in the wilderness of Beersheba, then went through the wilderness of Zin, to the wilderness of Paran, which was just outside Egypt itself. I think that she didn't take him into Egypt because she had been a slave, and wouldn't be treated well among the society there, so she just made herself a home in the wilderness. Where Ishmael grew up.
He learned how to make himself a bow and arrows, and taught himself how to use it to survive in the wilderness.
Then he married the Egyptian girl who agreed to be his wife, and he had twelve sons, who grew up to also have families, and became twelve tribes of people.
When he left Abraham's family, he knew his father, and he also knew that he'd been rejected, so this left lasting emotional scars that passed on to his sons and grandsons and down the line, all the way to today's Arab peoples who resent that God gave Canaan, Palestine, to the Israelites, the Jews of today, now Israelis.
These Arabs are still persecuting Isaac, just as their progenitor taught them. Through all the generations that have been born through the thousands of years of time, both of these branches of Abraham have been growing more numerous and the one is still attacking the other, trying to obliterate them from the Earth in their fury.
There is one more chapter in this story of Ishmael, which can give us some hope.
O my Father, You are so wise and creative and imaginative. You have already written the whole story of Mankind, from before the beginning to after the end, and You have given it to us in Your written Word.
We can read about how this story progressed, how personal decisions worked out affecting multiple generations, and learn how the little choices we make each day can grow and either bless or curse many other people down the line.
My Father, help me, and help all of Your children, to open our eyes to see the wells of provision You have given to us, and to bless others in the blessings You bless us with. Please, Father, grow us up in Christ, give us boldness in using the voice You have given each of us to testify as witnesses of all the wonderful goodness You have done for each of us, to spread Your Gospel of the Kingdom, and how we are to be born into it, to every living person in the world.
O Father, send us all out as Your messengers and missionaries, into every nation and every people, to deliver them from the hatred and the immoralities and the destructive attitudes that pull people down into misery and sorrow! Help us to share with them how they can be saved from the power of sin and receive Your goodness and Salvation and Redemption, being born into Your own family!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord, the Lord God Almighty, our Redeemer and Messiah, sovereign King of the World and all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
