Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

20: 1-2 1 : 34 GENESIS
the Spirit,” etc. This is a capsule description of the never-
ending warfare of the carnally minded against the spirit-
ually minded (Rom. 8:j-9). The Bible will never s@eak
clearly to those who will not accept it md treat it as a
whole. Just how old was Ishmael by this time? Correlat-
ing 16:16 with 21:5, we conclude that he was about fifteen
years old. It is rather difficult to think that on this occa-
sion a fifteen-year-old would have been doing much “play-
ing” with a two- or three-year-old.
V. lo-Sarah demands that both the bondwoman and
her son should be cast out; this would seem to indicate
that Sarah held Hagar responsible for Ishmael’s mocking
attitude toward Isaac. V. 11-Abraham was grieved, not
so much apparently about the prospect of losing the bond-
woman as about the lack of proper care and protection for
the son if they were to be “cast out,” for, after all, Ishmael
was his son. Abraham’s language in 17:18 seems to indicate
that he had hoped that Ishmael might be recognized as
the promised heir; however, this plea and God’s answer
in v. 19 indicate clearly that this was not ‘the Divine will.
This should teach us that man’s responses and ways of
doing things (righteousness) cannot be substituted f w
God’s ‘way of doing things. In the present instance (v.
11) “Abraham’s displeasure may well have been a reflec-
tion of the fact that customary law of his day forbade the
expulsion of a slave wife and her children” (HSB, 35).
Vv. 12-1 3 : God intervenes to reassure the patriarch, telling
him to hearken to his wife’s demand because she is justified
in making it. God’s reason for sanctioning the demand is
that according to His Eternal Purpose (Eph. 1:3-14, 2:11-
21 ; 3 : 1-12) the true descendants (seed) of Abraham should
be found in the line of Isaac. “Since, then, Ishmael poten-
tially is a foreign element among the offspring of Abraham,
he must be removgd. That being God’s reason for Ishmael’s
and Hagar’s disXiAa1, why should it not also have been
Sarah’s?’’ (EG, 603). “V. 12. Isaac, as thine heir, shall
410