(Gen. 21 should be read aloud by the UN,
to understand why the situation in the
Middle East is happening.)
In 21:8
"And the child grew, and was weaned:
and Abraham made a great feast the
[same] day that Isaac was weaned."
This probably was the original cause of
discord in the Middle East. Isaac got
a humongous party when he was 13.
Ishmael got circumcised.
Is God playing favorites, or is it
Abraham's slavish devotion to Sarah,
his beautiful wife?
We know that Abraham adored Ishmael.
Poor Hagar. She gets a bad rap, but,
she is also blessed, by the same
Angel of the LORD, who graced Abraham
and Sarah. I think she is a sympathetic
figure, full of grace, even with the
spotlight being on Sarah's miraculous
birth of Isaac, at age 90. Abraham was
100 when Isaac was born. (They had our
antediluvian genes, so, they were no
longer of the original race of Genesis,
who lived up to 1000 years. It's
exciting that the first resurrection
is to be in a body that lasts 1000
years. The ALPHA and OMEGA Man, First
and Last Adam - The firstborn of
brethren, Jesus Christ.)
When the LORD proclaimed that Sarah
would bear this miracle child, Abraham
argued with God to let Ishmael be the
heir to the seed of Messiah.He also
loved Sarah, and may have worried about
the stress of childbirth being too
strenuous for her.
As his firstborn, Ishmael was legally
first in line for his inheritance, but,
as we'll see repeated in Genesis, the
chosen one "supplants" the firstborn's
place, like Jacob, who supplanted his
brother Esau twice, once at birth, and
then when Isaac gave Jacob the blessing
that God gave to his father, and his father
gave to him.It is theater of God.
This is usually important symbolically,
to substantiate the "First shall be Last,
and Last shall be First," anthem that
is repeated, multiple times in the 4000
years of the Prophets.
Abraham asked God to bless his firstborn,
Ishmael, and often God responds favorably
to our prayer requests. But,in Ishmael's
case, God said no, not because Ishmael
was not beloved, but, his plan involved
Isaac, a child born to Abraham and his
wife, Sarah, from Shem. It was to be a
sign back then,(It would be today, too!)
It suited God's Plan.
There's man's plan, and then there's God's.
****"Menschen trawcht und Gutt Lawcht,"
is a saying my dad uses, "Man works, and God
laughs."
God is not man that He must explain
why. One day we will know, and we
will understand many things we're
not able to, in our state of existence.
Until then, our burden is to try to
understand the best we can, and mostly,
trust the LORD.
Sarah must have felt forsaken, and it
wasn't because she was despised by God,
being punished, or unworthy,but, it
suited God to show His hand through
this miracle, and He was true to His
Word, as He always is.
When Isaac was born, Sarah, who had
been depressed and repressed, because
she was barren, was now laughing out loud,
and deliriously joyful. Hagar, Abraham's
2nd wife, was despised by Sarah. You can't
blame a first wife for resenting her husband
impregnating a woman much less than half her
age.
Abraham and Sarai went into Egypt, and
admitted their prejudice against Egyptians.
Abraham told Abimilech in Chapter 20 that
he feared the Egyptians would kill him to
get to his 65 year old wife.
Hagar had to feel their feelings of superiority,
and admitted prejudice. It had to be hard on Sarah
when Hagar upstaged her with Ishmael's birth.
Sarah must have agonized about Abraham's joy at
his birth, and his love for the boy.
Sarah's joy and laughter, at Isaac's miraculous
birth, didn't neutralize her resentment and hatred
for Hagar of Egypt, and that translated to the
way she treated her handmaiden, now her sister/wife,
as Mormons would call her.
Is it ironic that these original conflicts
are perfect allegories for the end generations?
Is this is the reason for the enmity between Jews,
Christians, and Muslims? The Jews are mad, because
they don't believe Jesus was a good Messiah. It
is 2000 years of hell on earth for Jews...where is he?
They're getting ready to kill us again!
Not even the miracle of Israel being sown, from the
nations, out of the ashes of the holocaust, persuades
most Jews that God had a Plan. I know some pious
Jews, but, they go through the motions of piety,
washing sets of dishes, superstitious, seeped in
customs that aren't originally from God, but,
from Babylon. There are 10 commandments,
not the hundreds that they have attached
vis a vis Babylon. 70 years in Babylon changed
the laws of Y@hovah, forever, until the Judaism
today is mostly secular humanism, except for
some pretty cool groups like Lubevitchers.
They're usually on fire for God, but, are
still not sure about Jesus. They're scholarly,
and still mystical about our God, and His
Story. There are other individuals like this.
I salute them. They may give the final
witness.
The Jewish consciousness, in the 20th Century,
took a position that God was far off. He has become
a non-participant, in the tragic and weary Jewish
collective mind.
Secular humanism rules Israel. That's why he will
let their enemies, from the nations, ruin it one last
time. But, as we've learned, Zion is his tender plant,
Jesus Christ established her in the nations. He will
sanctify himself there. It is immutable.
For Jews, it marks the 5th Millenia of being hunted
like beasts, for sport, for hatred and revenge, being
blamed for everything. Everything.
Who is the Jew for the past 5000 years, ? The Jew is the
scapegoat. It's heavy, when you embrace the ceremony
for the "scapegoat," in the mystical ritual Laws of the
Levitical Priesthood. The goat is sent out into the wilderness
of the world. A figure to come, no doubt, like so many other
ritual's ultimate meanings, layer upon layer of meanings,
through the centuries, through the ages.
Ironically, it was Ishmael and Hagar, who were sent out
into the wilderness. Were they to die for the sins of their
people? No, the Angel of the Lord, who told her to submit
to Sarah's treachery, for the boy's sake, now met her with
water from a well, a symbol of salvation. What does that
mean?
The Angel of the LORD will not appear to the profane,
so, Hagar was accepted in his sight. She was blessed,
as He promised Abraham who beseeched the LORD
for her sake, and for Ishmael, who he loved.
The 20th Century Jewish consensus, in part, was
to embrace humanism, something that was even worse
than idolatry of the former kind. In many secular Jewish
circles, doubt gave way to the belief that God was dead.
Nonetheless, Zion was born, like the miracle of Isaac
being gestated in the womb of a 90 year old body.
Ezekiel 38, and Revelation 21 reveal, all of the original
nations in Genesis are in play at the climax of history.
We know what God intended for Sarah's miraculous birth,
because Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, and Mary's
pregnancy were signs , too. Elizabeth was too old, and Mary
was a maid, who knew no man, and that was the birth of
Messiah.
God the Creator, programmed our DNA, set the scales for
the Universe we live in, and yet, we glory in ourselves,
we who are dust, and fall to pieces, our souls going back
to Him whether we praise, ignore, or curse his name.
We will all stand before him, and he well may ask, "What
did you do for your brother, and What did you do for your
fellow human? What did you do with the blood of Jesus Christ?"
Jesus Christ doesn't want one hair of a Muslim child's head
to be harmed, any more than the head of a Jewish or Christian
child. Yet, all the above are dying every day, based on the
original conflicts. The innocent suffer for our sins, even
the sins of our ancestors. But, whether we live to 100, we
shall all die, all the same.
In Christ, there will be people of all cultures and nations,
as he said. I look forward to the years of peace and joy,
in His Kingdom, when we shall all love our brothers, and fellow
man.
What did God have in mind for Abraham's beloved son, Ishmael?
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