Ishmael

Gen 16:12 "He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."

So God needs a little help, right? I mean, if He made a promise He probably won't keep that promise unless He gets a little assistance. That apparently is what Abram and Sarah thought. At the age of 86 Abram with Sarah developed this plan. If God was going to give Abram a son, it probably was not going to be through Sarah who was incapable of having kids. God could not possibly change that. So, Sarah came up with a scheme. "Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife…so he went in to Hagar and she conceived."v3,4 Sure. This was it. This is what God planned. We are just going to help Him along. Dumb.

But I do that too. I get anxious. I get nervous. I get impatient. I don't think that God is going to move so I move for Him. I push what I think should be His agenda. I (and I can say "we" also because I have seen this in others) politic. I work the crowd. I lobby for what I think God should do. Dumb. When will we ever realize that God does not need us. He really doesn't. He wants to use us. He wants to work through us, but He doesn't need us. He can accomplish what he wants all by Himself. Yet we jump ahead. We refuse to be still and know that He is God. This is what Sarah and Abram did and the result was a guy by the name of Ishmael.

Now the name: "Ishmael" is interesting. It means: "God hears." Hagar was going through some tough stuff after she got pregnant. Sarah did not treat her well and God saw that. He heard her cry for help and He came to her with a promise. This was the promise: "Your boy Ishmael is going to be a wild man. He is going to oppose every man and every man is going to oppose him." Now think about this. Ishmael's dad is Abram the father of Isaac and then Jacob (Israel). His mother is Hagar…an Egyptian. Ishmael was a cross of Jewish blood and Arab blood. Ishmael had twelve sons who were princes in their nations. (Gen 25:12-18) These sons inhabited areas like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Tradition alleges that Mohammed was a descendant of Ishmael.

Now think about God's promise to Hagar: "He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him" and you can see the truth of God's word. It is on the front page of today's paper.

See what happens when we try to play God. It isn't pretty.