Beyond Isaac and Ishmael - Genesis 21:8-21

Bible Study Lesson for October 28

In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul uses the story of Ishmael and Isaac as an illustration of the relationship of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. The two eldest sons of Abraham have a peculiar place in Paul’s imagination. Without getting too deep in his argument, Abraham represents the bearer of the promise, and Ishmael (born of the slave woman Hagar) represents the child under the law (the Sinai covenant, Judaism) and Isaac (born of Abraham’s wife, Sarah) represents the child of the promise (the New Covenant, Christianity). Paul’s use of Ishmael as representative of Judaism is interesting because Isaac was the actual ancestor of the Jews. Paul’s argument is complex, but his creativity in using Genesis 16 and 21 to explain the relationship of the Law to the freedom we have in Christ is fascinating. It speaks clearly to a problem that the Galatian church had to face. The Galatian Christians were tempted to find assurance of salvation through following the Law of the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul encourages them to live free in the promise of Christ.

The story of Isaac and Ishmael has a life outside of our Bible. It is central to the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. According to all three traditions, Ishmael is the ancestor of the people who would become Arabs. Arabs are people descended from a number of tribes native to the Arabian peninsula. As a race, Arabic people long predate the birth of Islam and still to this day Arabs can be any religion, including Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or anything else. Keeping that in mind, the story we have here is not a story about Islam and Judaism. We have a story instead about Father Abraham and his two sons.

As you will remember, in Genesis 16, Sarai’s plan to produce the heir God had promised was to force Hagar to sleep with Abram. Ishmael was the child Hagar became pregnant with. But this plan didn’t work to Sarai’s satisfaction, and she came to resent Hagar and her unborn child. Under Sarai’s abusive mistreatment, Hagar ran away, until God’s angel told her to return, promising her that her child would become a great nation.

In Genesis 21, the birth of Isaac creates a new threat to Hagar and her son Ishmael. As the son of Sarah, Isaac represents the miraculous providential plan of God. Ishmael, on the other hand,  represents human effort at achieving God’s plans for ourselves. The question I think this story asks us today is: What happens when we realize that God has a bigger and better plan for us than what we have achieved on our own? The story provides some surprising answers.

I don’t think you can read Genesis 21 and think that Abraham and Sarah come off as heroes. This part of their story, along with Genesis 16, is Abraham and Sarah at their worst. It is unclear what Ishmael did to anger Sarah. In Hebrew, the verb used shares the same root as Isaac’s name, which has to do with laughter. So some scholars think that Ishmael was picking on Isaac, and others think he was merely playing with the child. At any rate, Sarah perceives Ishmael to be a threat to Isaac’s inheritance. But the only reason Ishmael exists is because of Sarai’s plan to produce an heir apart from the promise of God. Abraham’s only real action here is to be distressed at Sarah’s anger. It is clear that the problem is not going away, but he doesn’t want to cast out his son.

The hero of this story is God. Although the family mess is Abraham’s mess, God steps in to assure Abraham that God will not abandon Ishmael and Hagar. We might expect with other gods that they would write off Ishmael as a loss. After all, Ishmael wasn’t part of God’s plan. But God cares for the child even though he is not the child of the promise. Sarah is altogether willing to abandon the child to disaster. Abraham is unwilling to exile the boy, but is also unwilling to stand up to Sarah. God intervenes to secure the future of Ishmael and Hagar.

Returning to the discussion of salvation and Galatians 4, one of the aspects of salvation that we too often over look is the Christian life. By “Christian life,” I mean the way our salvation shows up in our day to day experience. I think that we often fall into the trap of thinking that our life earns or merits salvation in some way. We try to live the perfect life God wants for us, and we try to do it by our own power. It is easy to try to bring the kingdom to life by our own abilities. It is tempting to try to create our own assurance of salvation.

When we try to exert our will to make good things happen, we run the risk of creating Ishmael instead of waiting for Isaac. But here’s the good news about our projects and our activities, even when we make mistakes along the way: God will make room for them and they will have a legacy. Walter Brueggemann points out that the amazing thing about God in this passage is that God doesn’t ignore or resent Ishmael, even though he is born outside the plan. Instead, God provides a future for Ishmael, even when Sarah and Abraham won’t.

This week marks the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his “Ninety-Five Theses” to the door of the Wittenberg Church, marking the beginning of a conflict that led to the splintering of the Western Church into countless denominations. Martin Luther had a robust belief in the capacity of humans to do evil, which might have resulted in a fear to do anything meaningful in the world because everything that we do is touched by sin. Luther struggled with his ability to do good, because he had too often seen people trying to do good wind up doing so much evil. Finally, Luther found a way past “analysis paralysis” when he reached an important insight. If all human activity, even attempts to do good, are painted by sin, Luther said, “Sin boldly, but trust the grace of God more boldly still.” Do we trust God to take our attempts and our activities, and to transform them into the Kingdom? I believe this is the only way to move beyond guilt and regret over the mistakes we’ve made.