Keep reading, chapter 21:
17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. I will make him a great nation.
It might seem politically correct for you to judge the actions of one nation born out of the seed of Abraham, but you are not in a position to play God. The Muslims didn't come into existence until the 5th or 6th century after Christ. The children of Abraham through Ishmael are indeed a great nation, and was part of his plan.
The lord sent his angel to help and support Hagar. This is not the things of man.
Also, in Chapter 16, the angel of the Lord tells Hagar to return to Sarai and Abraham after Sarai chases her off, and the angel tells her she is with child, and will bear a son and call him Ishmael.
Pretty amazing happenings from angels and God to the adulterer mistress and seed of an adulterer!!!
Further, in Chapter 17 of Genises, the Lord Himself promises Abraham that Ishmael would begat 12 prices, and would become a great nation.
Gen. 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
The promises to Abraham was that the whole earth would be blessed with his posterity, not just the chosen people through Issac. The fact that multiple wives were a factor in making this happen does not diminish my respect for the prophets of old. I'm truly sorry that it does to you.
The fact cannot be ignored that the nations of the earth were peopled through Abraham, Issac and Jacob, as well as Ishmael and Abraham's other seed, all using multiple wives to make it happen.
Now, I really must go. Perhaps another time!
Thanks for your post.
It has nothing to do with the fact that Abraham sinned with Hagar. Technically speaking however, the Ten Commandments had not been issued at the time.
What does that have to do with the fornicating, lust and power driven, Joseph Smith.
On another topic, one ex-LDS poster on another board discussing this very issue, had this to say:
“I’d like to throw in a comment on “discovering the history.” It’s not that there’s bad history. As was pointed out, every religion has bad history. What hurts and is demeaning is to discover that your religion, the people you trusted to “do the thinking for you” have lied to you. It is deeply personal and, frankly, feels terrible. You feel violated in the same way you would if you were molested. These people took advantage of your confidence and used you— used your time, your money, your power to bolster themselves. It is quite obvious the church has no integrity, no commitment to the principles that Jesus Christ taught. There is no humility, no confession of wrongdoing, EVER. Only speaking for myself, I felt I had to choose between a life of deception for the Church or a life of integrity. I chose the latter and praise God every day that I was lead out of Mormonism by freely reading the Bible. Pretend you are a sandal-wearing Jew, I thought, and that you didn’t know why Jesus was so popular. What does this guy have to say? I started with Matthew and by the end of Mark I realized that Jesus certainly wasn’t describing Mormonism. In fact, Mormonism is close to the Old Testament religion Jesus was doing away with. Mormonism “restores” the old spirit-crushing, unloving and cruel Old Testament Judaism that Jesus despised. “
http://www.topix.com/religion/latter-day-saints/2007/09/why-they-leave/