[America always]

I know, but that was as a result of Hagaar’s attitude and a perceived threat to Isaac, not the fact that Ishmael was a “bastard”. My point was that to call Ishmael a “bastard” is to imply that his birth was illegitimate and to impune the moral character of Abraham, which is wrong.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Ishmael's birth was illegitimate. God promised Abraham and Sarah a son and instead of waiting for His timing, they depended on their own human "wisdom" and took it upon themselves to "help" God with His promise. It was never God's will or instructions that Abraham have sex with the Egyptian maid and produce a child with this woman. Because they did not trust God and wait for Him, they made a terrible mistake that has adversely affected millions of human beings down through the millennia.

Sarah and Abraham acted against the promise and will of God and took things into their own hands and created a situation that resulted in circumstances that we are still suffering from to this day.

We all have moral lapses, and Abraham and Sarah were no different. They acted in willful disobedience to God, and we are all having to deal with the results of that act of disobedience 4000 years after it was carried out.

[Biggirl]

What Abraham did, by fathering Ishmael, is an important lesson in TRUSTING God and HIS PROMISES and NOT depending your own strength.

[Biggirl]

But did Abraham not sin by fathering Ishmael and not “trusting” in God’s promise both him and Sarah? It is the lesson of “waiting” on the Lord.

[Biggirl]

Please read post number 17, the poster is correct about Ishmael.

[Biggirl]

It does not impune Abraham’s charactor, because in time Ishmael became a “wild man” as the scripture has said. Thse are facts, it is a confirmation about the nature of his birth.