Child of Rebellion and Child of Promise

Genesis 16, 21

After Abram and Sarai were both old, God appeared to Abram and promised to give him a son.  "Through your son," God told him, "I will bless the whole world.  I will give your descendents all of this land of Canaan, where you live now as a stranger.  In recognition of that, I am changing your name.  Your descendents will be held captive in a strange land, but after four generations they will return again, and U will give this land to them."

Abram told Sarai about God's promise, but she did not believer it.  She was already very old, like Abram, and well past the age of bearing children.  After they had lived in Canaan for many years, Sarai went to Abram, and said, "It is not right that you should die without heirs, and leave all you have to strangers.  God has forgotten his promise to you.  I give you permission to sleep with my Egyptian maid, Hagar, and her child will be as mine."

So Abram did as his wife suggested, and Hagar became pregnant.  After that, she flaunted her good fortune in the eyes of Sarai, her mistress, and Sarai complained to Abram.  "I gave this woman to you, out of the goodness of my heart, and look how she treats me.  What are you going to do about it?"

"Do what you think is right," Abram said, so Sarai had Hagar beaten for her insolence.  Hagar then ran away, but God found her in the wilderness.

"I will make your son a great multitude," he said, "but for now you must go back to your mistress, and submit to her."

Hagar agreed to what God told her, and returned to the tents of her master and mistress.  In due course, she gave birth to a son, and Abram called the boy Ishmael, or "God has heard".  After that, God appeared once more to Abram.  "What I have promised, I will do.  From this time forward, your name will no longer be Abram, or "Holy Father", but Abraham, or "Father of a Great Multitude", for that is what you will be.  And your wife will no longer be Sarai, but Sarah, or "Princess", for she will be the mother of great nations.  As a sign of my agreement with you, all males in your camp must be circumcised.  Those born from this point on must be circumcised at eight days of age."

Abraham, as he was now called, still could not accept the idea that Sarah could, and would, bear a child.  "Yes, Lord," he said, "do bless Ishmael, my son, as you said."

"The promise will be given through Sarah's son, Isaac," he said, "but, all right, I will bless Ishmael as well."

Later, when the Lord appeared to Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, he repeated his promise.  "Within one year, Sarah will bear a child."

Sarah, who was in her tent, laughed to herself, but the Lord heard her.  "Why does Sarah laugh?" he asked.  She denied it, but as a result, the child's name was called Isaac, or "Laughter".  He was born just as God said, and both Sarah and Abraham were overjoyed.  As both Ishmael and Isaac grew, however, Ishmael began teasing and taunting his younger half brother.  Once more, Sarah was enraged at her maid and her offspring.  Again, she went to Abraham.

"Send the woman and her son away", she insisted.  "He will not take any of what rightfully belongs to my son."

The idea troubled Abraham, but that night the Lord appeared to him, and assured him that what Sarah had suggested was the right thing to do.  "The promise I have given you is for Isaac," he said.  "Don't worry about Ishmael; I will take care of him and bless him, as I said."

So Abraham gave Hagar some food and water, and sent her away into the wilderness.  She and the child almost died there, but just as she was at the point of giving up and dying, God spoke to her.

"I have heard the child's cries," he said, "and he will not die."  God's angel showed her a spring nearby, and she and the boy quenched their thirst.  He grew up to be a skilled archer, at home in the wilderness.  He took a wife from his mother's homeland of Egypt, and had many sons.