Todays Sunday School lesson, from Genesis 21:13 - 21 and 26:2 - 13, tells of how God provided for two brothers, the sons of Abraham, in very different ways. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, was the son through whom the covenant with Abraham would continue. In Genesis 26, after Abrahams death, a famine sweeps the land, and Isaac is considering moving to Egypt to survive. God instructs him to stay in Palestine. Isaac obeys, prospers and becomes wealthy, even while living in an area controlled by a Philistine king Abimelech. Ishmael, the other son, and his mother Hagar, were cast out at the insistence of Sarah, into a terrible desert at the southern borders of Palestine. As their food and water runs out, Hagar despairs. However, God provides a well of water, and they live; when Ishmael grows up, his mother finds him an Egyptian wife. The only other time we meet Ishmael in the Bible is when he comes to help Isaac bury his father Abraham in Genesis 25:9. However, thats not the end of the story. Ishmael has twelve sons (Genesis 25:12 - 18), whose descendants form the tribes of the Ishmaelites, the Arabs who lived in the areas south of Israel. Muslims claim their spiritual descent from Ishmael, and part of the pilgrimage to Mecca involves traveling back and forth between two hills, re-enacting Hagars search for water, then finally drinking from a spring, symbolizing Gods provision for Hagar and Ishmael. Gods love and mercy is not limited to one family or one nation, but extends to the whole earth.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 12:57:09 +0000
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