June 25, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Abraham's Other Son"
Scripture: Genesis 21:8-21
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 86, Romans 6:1b-11, and Matthew 10:24-39.)
Genesis 21:8-21
Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
8The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. 10So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac." 11The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. 12But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. 13As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring." 14So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 16Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him." 19Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. 21He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
If you were here last Sunday, you may recall that the sermon title was "Abraham Gets a Son", and Isaac was born, in spite of the fact that both Abraham and Sarah were very old. In fact, when they were first told that they would have their own biological child, they LAUGHED at the idea, and the name ISAAC means "I laughed" or "he laughed". Today's sermon title is "Abraham's Other Son", and that's the one he fathered through Hagar, the Egyptian slave girl, at the urging of his wife Sarah! His name is Ishmael.
Just in case you didn't pick it up when we read the Scripture lesson for today, this is a SAD STORY. Ishmael was born FIRST, and yet he and Hagar get cast out. Sarah may seem to be a little and jealous person in wanting the two non-Hebrews to be cast out (okay, Ishmael was half-Hebrew, since his father was Abraham), but it turns out that Sarah's wish is also God's Will! The storyteller doesn't tell us much, but a case could be made that HE was sad, TOO! Abraham HAD to be sad, sending his first-born son into the wilderness because God told him to listen to Sarah!
Sidebar from the preacher: are you SURE you want to stay in this faith? It isn't always a bowl of cherries. Sometimes God's Will is not what we want to do! But if you remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, you'll recall that HE did not want to go forward with God's plan. But in the end, Jesus said, "Not my will be done, but THY will be done." Can we be as strong as Jesus? Good question!
Back to today's lesson......God isn't TOTALLY mean. I mean, Look, he DID provide a way for Hagar and Ishmael to survive. And God did say that he would make a great nation of him. So that's the good news: God did not totally abandon Hagar and Ishmael, but he did sort of push them toward the back of the bus, right?, at least, in our estimation or the storyteller's estimation? Again, this is a sad story from our human point of view. But let's remember something I said last week: in Isaiah, God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." So, we -like Abraham - have to keep the faith if we're going to be followers of Jesus. And it isn't always the easiest thing, keeping the faith.
Last week I mentioned that the media guy Dennis Prager has a commentary on Genesis, and I quoted from it. Here is some of what he has to say about today's Scripture passage. Ishmael and Isaac were playing, we are told. "The word 'playing' (mitzachek in Hebrew) is another play on Isaac's name. Literally, it means 'make to laugh'. But it also may mean 'mocking'..... At this point, Ishmael was about sixteen years old, and Isaac was about two..... The brothers are thus fourteen years apart. Since a child is usually weaned at about two, this would make Ishmael about sixteen. The older brother was probably just trying to amuse his little brother. But for whatever reason....this scene disturbed Sarah."
After the sermon last Sunday, one of our members pointed out that Sarah didn't want Ishmael to get any of Isaac's inheritance. That was a good point, and Dennis Prager agrees with our church member! Says he, "There is no reason to believe Ishmael had done anything wrong. But now that Isaac has survived past the critical age of weaning, Sarah realized he will have competition for his inheritance, and she sought to eliminate it. She succeeded....."
Earlier I said that it was a sad thing for Abraham to have to send Ishmael away. Prager says that the English translation doesn't do justice to what Abraham felt. The English says Abraham was "distressed" or what he was called on to do was "very distressing". What the Hebrew says is this: "the thing was very bad in his eyes." In Prager's words, "Sarah's demand must have stunned Abraham. Ishmael was, after all, also his son - a son whom he loved and, furthermore, who was conceived at Sarah's behest. But she long since regretted her scheme and now wanted both Ishmael and his mother gone. That Sarah did not even deign to refer to Ishmael or his mother by their names must have further upset Abraham. There are many things that can produce tension between a husband and wife. The raising of children is one of the biggest - particularly when one of them is a stepchild."
What more is there to say? Abraham had to have been broken-hearted when he sent Hagar and Ishmael away. He did not send them away empty-handed - he DID give them a little bit of food and water. If you wonder why he didn't give them more, perhaps he thought God would provide, because God told Abraham that he would make of Ishmael a great nation. Also, Dennis Prager suggests, he did not want his wife Sarah to complain that her husband had given Ishmael and his mother TOO much! And then Prager says, "Wives have great influence over their husbands – even a husband who communicates directly with God."
Next week we will hear how an angel saves Isaac's life. In today's Scripture reading, an angel saves Ishmael's life! How interesting that angels save the lives of both brothers, or half-brothers. And here is another observation from Dennis Prager: "God promised Ishmael will be a great nation, but He does not promise him territory; Abraham's seed was promised both nationhood and territory. Ironically, Ishmael's descendants ended up with far more territory than Isaac's." Do you get that? The Hebrews are descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Arabs are thought to be descended from Ishmael! And who has more land, the Hebrews or the Arabs? Right! The Arabs!
The story of Ishmael comes to an end with his mother Hagar, an Egyptian, getting him an Egyptian wife.
Before I close, I want to point out a rather disturbing fact, and it's disturbing because it seems unsolvable - or is it insoluble? In the whole Israeli-Arab conflict, The Hebrew Bible says that the "official" line ordained by God goes from Abraham through ISAAC and then Jacob. I am told that the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims, has the "official" line going from Abraham through ISHMAEL, not Isaac! The insoluble problem is, what do we do if MY holy book says one thing, and YOUR holy book says another? True, the Hebrew Bible was written first, way before the Quran. But even "our" holy book says Ishmael was born FIRST, not Isaac! What to do? What to do?
I think the answer is, We have to get along, and not insist I'M RIGHT and YOU'RE WRONG! We have some deep, ancient conflicts here, and how do we live in peace, even if I think I'm right and you're wrong? We both have our respective "religious" authorities, MY Bible and YOUR Quran. How do we find our way forward? God loves both the seed of Isaac and the seed of Ishmael. How do their descendants get along? Any ideas? Amen.
Pastor Skip
