|
The
Truth About Islam
Abraham actually
had 2 Sons
Abram was
sent from the land of UR (Modern Day Iraq) by the Lord to an unknown
country. The Lord God promised Abraham that he would become the
father of many nations. Without a child, however, Abraham had no
chance of being a father to anyone! God promised Abram, not only a
child but many nations!
T here
is almost unanimous agreement that these are the facts and that it was the
one true and living God that made a covenant with Abram. It is also agreed
that Abram was to become the Father of many nations and that being a
"father" meant that it was Abram's seed (or
through his own bloodline)
by which God would accomplish this deed.
Now
that would normally not be a problem, however, for Abram: HE HAD NO SEED
(Abram was about 85 years old by now).
There is no doubt that Sarai, Abram's wife,
knew of the promises of God to Abram. She knew that in the seed of Abram
that God was going to raise up nations.
THAT
is where Sarai got in trouble.
It is just like us in our human nature to
try to "help" God get his purpose and his promise achieved. Sarai decided
that since God didn't move
WHEN SHE THOUGHT HE SHOULD HAVE, IN HER
TIME, and IN HER MANNER,
(Hmmm....does this sound familiar to any of you?),
then she would just take it upon herself to ensure that Abram had seed to
be raised.
HERE COMES TROUBLE !
The
belief concerning a household servant, such as Sarai's handmaid Hagar, was
that all children born to them, if any, would become the "property" of the
household. Sarai decided to give Abram her servant Hagar by which to
have a child.
What this meant to Sarai was that if Abram did by chance have a
child with Hagar, (1) it would still be ABRAM'S SEED and (2) the child would be
THEIR
property.
Now, here the real trouble
begins. Sarai decided that since she was now old and she had borne no
children to Abram, then surely she was simply incapable of having
children. (See
Genesis 16:2
and read Sarai's own words
"Behold now,
the LORD hath restrained me from bearing:...".
We must understand that until this point, Abram had not been with another
woman and Sarai was his only wife. This is significant since God had
promised to bless Abram's seed, there was just one way to make that
happen.
THROUGH HIS MARRIAGE TO SARAI. In other words ABRAM HAD TO
PHYSICALLY FATHER A CHILD!
We
see that Sarai, in her own mind and by her own words decided that what God
had promised to do in her marriage was just not possible. She took it upon
herself to "help God" by offering Hagar to Abraham as a wife. Now,
Abram
was just a guilty of unbelief as Sarai. He COULD have rejected the idea
and the notion that God intended to use a bondwoman, a slave, to raise his
seed. After all, Abram was accustomed to hearing the voice of God and
familiar with the intervention of God on his behalf in many places prior
to this. Instead, Abram too gave in to his wife and took ("went in" to)
Hagar.
Now,
when Hagar conceived, it caused, predictably, a great contention and
strife between Sarai and Hagar since each one of them despised the other.
Sarai despised Hagar because she had conceived; Hagar despised Sarai
because she had not conceived.
Notice
Genesis 16:15:
"And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be
upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she
had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and
thee."
My wrong be upon thee, she says. In other words, she was blaming Abram for
this problem now. It is amusing to see this since the nature of man is to
ALWAYS blame someone else.
This, however is a reversal of another incident
we read of in
Genesis 3:12.
As soon as God questioned Adam, the reply was
"The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she......"
Well, you get the picture. Adam originally blamed Eve for something
that was just as equally his fault. Now we see Sarai enraged because she
initiated something for which she would now have to pay consequences.
Still,
though, Abram was no different and "passed the buck" telling Sarai
(in
my paraphrase)
'Hey, she's YOUR maid, do whatever you want'! What an open door. We
subsequently read that Sarai dealt very harshly with Hagar until Hagar
just couldn't take it anymore and decided to run away.
THIS IS WHERE THE DIVISION BEGINS
Reading in the
subsequent verses of
Genesis 16, we see that while Hagar was fleeing from Sarai, the angel of the Lord found her. Read his words to her
in Genesis 16:11-13.
As
God had promised Abram, he was going to make him the Father of many
nations. It is in these passages that we begin to see the "NATURE" (or the
dominant personality traits) of Hagar's soon to be born son. This
son was to be called ISHMAEL or "God shall hear".
Lets continue to the next page and read more
concerning this son,
ISHMAEL.
Α Ω
|
