Abraham Loved Ishmael

The example of Abraham’s two sons—Isaac and Ishmael—gives us a unique chance to explore the effects of culture on people. Abraham was promised by God that his descendants would be as numerous as the sands of the sea and the stars of heaven. Yet his wife Sarah could not have children. Today, if modern surgical methods are not possible, many in a similar situation hire a surrogate mother. This is exactly what Abraham did. Genesis 16 tells us:

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her  husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

It was even Sarah’s idea! Abraham and Sarah thought that they could work it out without God. They may have even reasoned that this was what God wanted! So at Sarah’s urging, Abraham had sexual relations with Sarah’s slave—Hagar. Before we point the finger at Abraham and Sarah, we need to understand that what they did was the accepted marriage practice of the time. A History of the Jewish People By Abraham Malama page 39 tells us this: “Nuzi marriage contracts make it mandatory that a barren woman present her handmaiden to her husband for the purpose of child bearing.” This practice of surrogate motherhood was probably written in the marriage contract that Abraham and Sarah signed. They were pagans living in Mesopotamia when God spoke to Abraham and told him to go to Palestine. The duty of the upper class wife of the time was to provide her husband with a slave girl to bear children if she could not. Their culture told them that this was right. This is why Sarah approached Abraham, it was her duty.

Even though the culture of Abraham and Sarah encouraged this sin, it was not what God had in mind.  Abraham had to send Ishmael away when he became a teenager. This could not have been easy for him. Ishmael was his pride and joy for years before Isaac was born. But there could not be two first born sons. One had to go. How Abraham must have cried as he watched his son march into the distance. Maybe Ishmael turned to wave one final goodbye before he was out of eyesight. How would you feel as your son waved goodbye—forever?

While our culture minimizes sexual sin, it is a serious matter. Everyone needs to remember Ishmael before they commit a sexual sin. Sin is not done in a vacuum. Sin has consequences. Sin is wrong because it hurts. The Israelis and the Arabs are still paying today for Abraham’s sin—3800 years later! Are you willing to raise any children that may result from this sin? Even if you take precautions, birth control does not always work. How are you going to tell her parents, or if you are married, how are you going to tell your wife? Or worse, will you have to tell your spouse that they need to be tested for some terrible venereal disease? Don’t be confused by our TV culture that tells us wrong is right. Abraham was led astray by the example of his culture. Don’t make the same mistake he did. Babylon the Great uses our culture to remake us in its image. We need to leave behind this portion of our culture because sin has consequences—remember Ishmael.