Ishmael was Abraham’s son by a concubine; Isaac was his son by his wife Sarah. KEY POINT: God’s covenant was made with Abraham and extended through Isaac, not Ishmael.
**********
I am glad that someone said this.
God promiced Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son. They begin to get old and they feared thier chances of having a child was passing. Instead of having faith in Gods promice, they decided to take matters in thier own hands. Sarah brought thier ‘handmaiden’ for Abraham to be with, so she could bare them a son. She had Abrahams son and they named him Ishmael. Then Sarah got pregnant even though she was old. Sarah and Abraham decided to cast Ishmeal and his Mother out. His Mother was arab. God gave all the promices to Issac, not Ishmael. Issac is Jewish. Ishmael is arab. Issac is the true son that God promiced to Abraham and Sarah.
To this day this is why the arabs are jealous of the Jews.Its the reason for the everlasting hatred they have for the Jews. They both claim Abraham as thier Father. Even though Ishmael is from Abraham, God gave all the promices to Issac not Ishmael.
Bingo. I think you're exactly right. It's also worth noting that some people jump a generation ahead to Jacob and Esau. They claim Esau to be the "father" of all Arabs and Jacob the "father" of all Jews; they then claim that Jacob's title to the inheritance given him by his father is invalid due to two events: First, Jacob pulled his now infamous trick of putting animal fur on his arms to make his blind old father Isaac believe that he was his hairy brother Esau, and thus received the inheritance (including the land given to Israel by God) that was rightfully Esau's. The second event is the barter in which a hungry Esau traded his inheritance to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of soup.
IMHO, the key thing to remember about all of this is that despite these events, God reaffirmed that the Abrahamic covenant was extended through Isaac and Jacob, and this reaffirmation came AFTER the above events. This settled the issue with utter finality. Yes, Jacob behaved dishonestly, but God did not strip the inheritance from him; the land belongs to Israel, period. One could also make the case that this is a beautiful parallel to the larger picture of grace: We sin, but He loves us and guarantees our salvation through his Son anyway.
MM
“God gave all the promises to Issac, not Ishmael.”
This may be a tie in with the nut’s warped view of the “spoiled rich kids, etc.”. Just like Ishamel, being the eldest son by custom (regardless if by a maid servant) SHOULD have had all the benefits and entitlements of being the first born. Instead it was Issac that got the Mercedes, the gold chains, etc. (God’s promise trumped the customs!)
This leads me to think of the prodigal son. The oldest son who stayed on the farm doesn’t get noticed, but the younger son who went out and partied and other “debauchery” is the one who is welcomed and shown affection.