“Ishmael was Man’s attempt to fulfill God’s promise in the Flesh.”
Well put.
Yes, and if one thinks about how Islam likely came about, it’s from the flesh, too. Mohammed denied Jesus, which would have to mean he was proud, believing he was righteous in himself, could work for salvation, and didn’t need a Savior. And after rejecting the Lord, the idea of salvation being “of the Jews,” from “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” was possibly repugnant to him as a son (if he was, not 100% sure) of Ishmael. He would be going after the flesh, then, holding family of the flesh to be the way rather than family by God’s Spirit, and believed Satan’s lies which formed the Quran, and, deceived, he took “the revelations” to be divine. Yet the lie of Islam is disguised as truth, so like Christianity Islam is to be spread beyond Ishmael’s children.