GENESIS - CHAPTER 16
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2000 James Melough
16:1.
“Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children, and she had an handmaid,
an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.”
From Ga 4:22-31 we learn
that these two women represent principles: Sarai, grace; and Hagar, law.
Abram, representative of the principle of faith, joined to Sarai, symbolizes
the believer, for a believer is one in whom faith and grace are joined together.
The statement therefore that “Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children”
is the symbolic announcement of a condition that mars many a Christian life: there is
no spiritual fruit.
In declaring that she had
“an handmaid ... whose name was Hagar,” God is telling us that the law, which
Hagar represents, must always be the handmaid of grace.
The law is the servant that leads the sinner to Christ to receive, as a free
gift bestowed by grace, the salvation that could never be obtained by law-keeping.
Believers are assured, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Ro
6:14). This, however, is not license to
live lawlessly. Concerning the law, it
is written, “the law is holy ... and just and good” (Ro 7:12), and it is only as
our conduct reflects that holiness that we fulfill the divine command, “Be ye holy
in all manner of conversation (living)” (1 Pe 1:15).
Love must govern our living, “for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the
law.... Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Ro 13:8-10).
The obedience that fulfills the law, in conduct governed by love for God and
man, is rendered, however, not to get life, but because the believer already
has life. The obedience, yielded out of
love for God, and expressed in love for man, fulfills the law, Ga 5:14.
The obedient life is the fullest expression of gratitude to God.
As Hagar was the servant of Sarai, so must law be the servant of grace.
The law will always be the expression of God’s standard of holiness,
measuring the conduct of saint and sinner alike, showing the sinner his need of a
Savior; and the saint, the truth that no man except Christ could ever meet that
perfect standard.
Abram and Sarai’s attempt
to produce fruit (the promised seed) through Hagar, is the OT demonstration of the
mistake made by the many believers who attempt to produce Christlike righteousness by
a cold legalistic adherence to a moral code. This
was the mistake of the Pharisees; and the Lord warned the disciples, “Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).
Love alone must be the motive for every thought, word or deed.
Paul emphasizes this in 1 Co 13:1-3, “Though I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body
to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.”
It is to be noted, however, that love is not to be confused with
sentimentality, which is not love, but emotion divorced from intelligence.
Too often sentimentality accepts what love must refuse and rebuke.
It is to be noted that Hagar
was “an Egyptian,” but Egypt represents the world of business and pleasure living
in independence of God; and as the country of her origin, it reminds us that
attempted law-keeping is the world’s only way of righteousness.
It knows nothing of being made righteousness through faith in Christ, and
apart from effort on man’s part.
In the meaning of her name, ensnaring:
the sojourner, we learn another lesson: the attempt to be made righteous through
law-keeping may seem to be the right way during our brief sojourn here on earth, but
when that sojourn is ended, law-keeping will be found to have been simply Satan’s
way of ensnaring multitudes on the road to eternal ruin.
16:2.
“And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from
bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by
her. And Abram hearkened unto the voice
of Sarai.”
In declaring that the Lord
had restrained here from bearing, Sarai spoke truth; but since a literal barren state
in His earthly people represents spiritual barrenness among believers today, we
should inquire the reason, for barrenness is not God’s will.
There are at least two reasons, and they are related to each other.
First, God’s time had not yet come; and second, Abram and Sarai had not yet
learned to trust God completely. This
very expedient to which they resorted advertised that they still retained a measure
of confidence in their own natural ability to accomplish God’s purposes.
This combination of impatience and self-reliance is always productive of evil,
not good.
The comments of C.H.
MacIntosh in his Notes on the Book of Genesis are worth repeating.
He says:
”These words bespeak the
usual impatience of unbelief.... Abram should have ... waited patiently on the
Lord.... the poor heart naturally prefers anything to the attitude of waiting. It will turn to any expedient ... rather than keep that posture.
It is one thing to believe a promise ... quite another to wait quietly for the
accomplishment thereof.... Abram exhibits faith in chapter 15, and yet fails in
patience in chapter 16. Hence the force
and beauty of the apostle’s words in Heb 6, ‘followers of them who through faith
and patience inherit the promises.’ God
makes a promise; faith believes it; hope anticipates it; patience waits
quietly for it.”
He continues:
“...nature really had
failed her (Sarai). But then it was
nature in one shape, and therefore she wished to try nature in another.
She had not learned to look away from nature in every shape.... nature in
Hagar was no better than nature in Sarai.... Hagar was not God’s instrument for the
accomplishment of His promise to Abram.”
In regard to God’s
instruments, Mr. MacIntosh has given some wise advice:
“It is not that we should
despise God’s instrumentality.... to do so would be recklessness and not faith.
Faith values the instrument, not because of itself, but because of Him Who
uses it. Unbelief looks only at the
instrument.... there is a vast difference between God’s using the creature to
minister to me, and my using it to shut Him out.
The difference is not sufficiently attended to.
God used the ravens to minister to Elijah, but Elijah did not use them to
exclude God. If the heart be really
trusting in God, it will not trouble itself about His means.”
In regard to Sarai’s
giving Hagar to be Abram’s wife, this was a common Babylonian custom, and the
children born of such a marriage were considered to be the children of the mistress.
Worldly expedient, however, never serves God’s purposes.
Inasmuch as Babylon represents false religion, the warning here is against
attempting to accomplish God’s purposes by use of methods employed by the world’s
religious systems.
As in chapter 15, the giving
of the land to Abram’s seed was to be deferred for four hundred years, because the
iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full, so here the giving of the promised seed
must be deferred until Abram and Sarai had learned that all must be of God, and the
flesh was to have no part in it. The
lesson must be learned that God is the God of resurrection Who fulfills all His
promises in resurrection. The seed would
be given only when Abram’s body, as well as Sarai’s, was “as good as dead”
(Heb 11:12). All must be of God, the God
of resurrection, Who brings life out of death.
They, however, are not alone
in their failure to wait God’s time. Haven’t
we many times, impatient of waiting, unbelieving of His ability, resorted to human
expedient? And must we not confess that
every such effort has been attended by the same unhappy results as those that
followed Sarai’s scheme?
In Hagar’s being an
Egyptian, and the marriage custom’s being Babylonian, we may have perhaps a picture
of the world (which Egypt and Babylon represent) combining to lead the believer away
from complete trust in God. We would do
well to take to heart the warning God gives us in the record of the evil results that
came from one act, not of direct independence, but rather of lack of faith to trust
Him fully. It brought discord into
Abram’s home; it brought him heartbreak when eventually he had to send Hagar and
Ishmael away; and it produced a people who are the bitter foes of Abram’s
descendants to this day. Who can begin
to imagine the far-reaching or long-lasting results that may follow one faithless
act!
With her eyes off God,
Sarai’s horizon was limited. Forgetting
that He Who promised was He Who is omnipotent, she was reduced to thinking that He
was limited to a fertile woman as the only means of fulfilling His promise.
The one Who had promised was the same One Who had made the universe out of
nothing. What anxious care we would save
ourselves if we remembered this, and simply waited for Him to act in His Own good and
perfect time.
”And Abram hearkened to
the voice of Sarai.” He who had heard
from the mouth of God such great and gracious promises, now obeys the voice of a mere
mortal as to how those promises were to be fulfilled.
Can this be the man who in chapter 15 had asked, “Whereby shall I know that
I shall inherit it?” and who, in response to that question, had been granted the
experience recorded in verses 9-21 of that same chapter?
Yes, it is the same man, but with his eyes off God.
As always in such a condition, the power of God is lost sight of behind the
seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Man
with his eye off God becomes so blind as to think that what seems impossible to God
is possible to man. Man, looking at self
instead of at God is capable of unbelievable folly.
Abram listened to Sarai and received unwise counsel, when he should have
listened to God Who would have given counsel that would have kept him from folly and
its attendant sorrow. These things have
been recorded that we might not repeat his folly.
(A word regarding the godly
wives of Scripture seems needful here. As
already noted, they represent the expression of the believer’s new spiritual
life, but not that life itself, and this is important, for it explains the flaws
recorded of most of them. The new life
itself is perfect: the expression of it all too often very imperfect).
16:3.
“And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had
dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his
wife.”
Ten is the number of divine
government, and ten years under that government should have taught Abram the folly of
acting without God’s command, but his failure simply demonstrates what another has
very aptly stated, “The best of men are at best only men.”
It is significant that
Hagar’s nationality is mentioned twice: she was an Egyptian, and Egypt represents
the world of business and pleasure living in independence of God, just as Babylon
represents the world of religion living in the same independence.
The expedient of which Hagar was an essential part, was conceived by earthly
wisdom, of which it is written, “This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is
earthly, sensual, devilish” (Jas 3:15). The
world’s wisdom has no part in spiritual matters.
16:4.
“And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.”
This is the symbolic
presentation of a common evil. To employ
the things of the world - its wisdom or its methods - to accomplish spiritual
objectives is a great mistake, producing evil of farther extent and longer duration
than anyone can imagine. The strife
between Arab and Jew that continues to this day, is the direct result of this
ill-conceived plan to produce the promised son through Hagar rather than Sarai.
The seeming success of such
worldly expedient dazzles only the unspiritual and the untaught.
The spiritual man sees it for what it is: that which causes grace to be
despised and man exalted. It gives man
all the credit for seeming accomplishment, and robs God of glory.
The promised blessing was to
be through the seed who would spring from the union of Abram and Sarai (faith and
grace), and it is the same in the spiritual realm.
It is the union of faith and grace that first brings the seed (Christ) into
the sinner’s life; and it is the same union that produces Christ in the life of the
saint.
The counterpart of Abram’s
attempt to produce the promised seed through Hagar is the believer’s attempt to
produce Christ in his life by adherence to a moral code, but without genuine love for
God. This was the mistake of the
Galatians to whom Paul wrote, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you” (Ga 4:19). God
wants to see Christ being produced in us, but that is accomplished only when love for
Him impels our obedience. Legalistic
obedience, without love, produces, not Christ, but an Ishmael or a Pharisee.
The “seed” must come through Sarai (grace), not through Hagar (the law). Hagar must remain handmaid to Sarai, not wife to Abram, for the
law cannot give life. It can bring the sinner to Christ, but it cannot put Christ in
the sinner, nor can it reproduce Christ in the believer.
16:5.
“And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into
thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the
Lord judge between me and thee.”
This verse has been taken,
wrongly, to imply that Sarai was attempting to blame Abram for her wrong suggestion,
but careful reading reveals that this is not the case.
“My wrong” has no reference to her suggestion, but rather to the wrong
which she was then enduring at the hand of Hagar.
She was being treated now as only the equal, if not even the inferior, of the
former maid; and it was against this wrong that she appealed to Abram.
As noted already, her being relegated to an inferior place is the symbolic
annunciation of what happens when the believer allows law-keeping to take the place
of grace. Since Abram represents both
the principle of faith, and also the believer, it is he who must put matters right.
The spiritual lesson isn’t difficult to read.
It is the responsibility of the believer to maintain the dignity of grace by
ensuring that law-keeping is not permitted to usurp the place in his life that
belongs exclusively to grace.
16:6.
“But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it
pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt
hardly with her she fled from her face.”
Abram’s leaving Hagar in
Sarai’s hand is the symbolic disclosure of the truth that faith must place
law-keeping in subjection to grace if there is to be peace in the believer’s life.
”... dealt hardly with
her,” is literally, “afflicted her.” God’s
command to Hagar in verse nine, “Return to thy mistress, and submit....” would
seem to indicate that Sarai’s hard treatment was the result of Hagar’s refusal to
submit to being again a handmaid. Nothing
but trouble results from refusal to take the place assigned by God.
“... she (Hagar) fled from her (Sarai’s) face,” but it was only to face
death in the wilderness. Law has no
place except as the servant of grace.
16:7.
“And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the
wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.”
It is clear from this verse
that in Sarai and Hagar we have more than the representation of the principles of
grace and law respectively. They are
representative also of the nation of Israel: Sarai portraying the godly remnant
wedded to faith; and Hagar, the rest of the nation living in bondage to law.
Hagar, then, fled from Sarai,
is a picture of Israel today fled from grace. The
fountain of water is a type of the Word, as the wilderness is of the world.
This is where Israel is today. They
cling to the letter of the Word, though away from grace, their darkened minds unable
to understand it; and they are in the wilderness of the world, fugitives from the
household of faith, stubbornly refusing to submit to grace.
But the fountain was, “in
the way to Shur.” Shur means beheld:
rampart (as a point of observation). Stubborn
rebel though she is, Israel is still the object of God’s care. His eye never ceases to behold her. Like the father of the prodigal, He watches from the rampart of
heaven, waiting only for that repentant cry that will make her again the recipient of
His blessing.
Israel, however, is God’s
mirror to man. In her present condition
we see portrayed the condition of every unbeliever.
He too is a rebel, wandering in the wilderness of the world, refusing to
submit to grace, but nonetheless the object of God’s love and care.
As in the other OT
references to “the angel of the Lord,” commentators are generally agreed that
this angel is the Lord Jesus Christ, His presence in the wilderness, ministering to
Hagar’s need, being but the adumbration of His ministry to men today.
16:8.
“And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt
thou go? And she said, I flee from the
face of my mistress Sarai.”
This verse is a beautiful
symbolic miniature of the Gospel. It
begins with God’s declaration of Hagar’s identity and state.
God knew her, as He knows every man. He
knew also her state, as He does that of every man.
She may have tried to take the place of Abram’s wife, but she was only
Sarai’s maid. Her attempt to assume
the place of the wife of Abram (faith) is a picture of the man who attempts to be
saved through law-keeping. Everything
may have seemed to validate her claim, but one essential was lacking: the life within
her was that of Ishmael, not Isaac. The
child she would bear was not the promised seed.
Unless the life within the professing convert is the life of Christ, that man
will never enter heaven.
Whether it be the recovery
of a backslidden saint, the salvation of a sinner, or the recovery and conversion of
Israel, the steps are the same: we must be brought to an end of ourselves, and made
to hear God’s voice addressing us personally.
(In regard to the future conversion of Israel, just as it was the privation of
the wilderness that brought Hagar to repentant submission, so will it be the
Tribulation judgments that will bring Israel to similar repentance). As
Hagar heard God declare her state, so must every sinner bow to the divine indictment,
“All have sinned.... there is none righteous.”
And an answer must be given
to His question, “Whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?”
Those who, as backslidden saints, would be restored to a proper relationship
with God; or, as sinners, would be brought into that relationship for the first time,
must confess, “I am a fugitive from grace.”
And the question, “Whither
wilt thou go?” must also be answered: the backslidden saint confessing that
continued departure from grace must bring him into the place of chastisement and
eternal loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ; the sinner confessing that his
continued rebellion will bring him at last into the eternal torment of the lake of
fire.
16:9.
“And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit
thyself under her hands.”
God’s way is always the
same. He who would be blessed must abandon the impossible task of trying
to keep the law. Only submission to
grace secures blessing. Hagar’s only
rightful place in Abram’s household was as handmaid to Sarai (grace); and even
then, only until the coming of the promised seed, Isaac, type of Christ, (see Ge 21).
16:10.
“And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed
exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.”
The promised multiplication
of her posterity points figuratively to the extension of her own life, for children
are the perpetuation of the life of the parent.
It must be recognized, however, that while primarily she represents the
principle of law, here in the present context of her being saved from death at the
well, and her being sent back to Abram’s household, she is a type of the sinner
being saved through the obedience of faith. The extension of her life, implied in the promised uncountable
progeny, is the symbolic announcement of the fact that the believer, whom, in the
present context she represents, possesses everlasting life.
This spiritual application,
however, doesn’t alter the fact that the promise has also had a literal fulfilent,
for Ishmael became the father of the Arabs; and none but God can number the multitude
of them who have walked the earth from that day to the present, and who will yet walk
the earth until human history closes.
16:11.
“And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and
shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy
affliction.”
While certainly we may, by
application, view Hagar as a type of the individual sinner, it must be remembered
that primarily she represents the principle of law, just as Sarai represents
primarily the principle of grace (Ga 4:22-27). She
is therefore, a type of the nation of Israel attempting to be justified by
law-keeping, while Sarai represents the godly remnant within the professing, but
faithless nation. Ishmael, then, with
all the multiplied progeny to come through him, represents not only those who
constitute that unbelieving part of the nation of Israel, but unbelieving man in
general. Isaac, on the other hand,
represents not only the individual believers who constitute the remnant within the
apostate nation, but also the individual believers of this present age of grace.
The name, Ishmael, meaning God
will hear, conveys the implied assurance that God will hear the cry of any
individual in the apostate nation who, in the midst of affliction, will turn to Him.
Israel, however, consisting of the apostate mass as well as the godly remnant,
is God’s mirror to humanity. His
gracious response to the cry of the repentant Jew is the same as to the cry of the
repentant Gentile, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”
(Ac 2:21).
16:12.
“And he will be a wild man; and his hand will be against every man, and
every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his
brethren.”
The first clause is
literally, “He will be as a wild ass among men,” confirmation that he represents
the unbeliever, for several Scriptures assure us that the ass is a type of the
natural man, e.g., “For vain (hollow, empty) man would be wise, though man be born
like a wild ass’s colt” (Job 11:12); “And every firstling of an ass thou shalt
redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck:
and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem” (Ex 13:13).
We should note also that it
is the firstborn of ass and man that is to be redeemed, for, as noted in earlier
studies, the firstborn is also a type of the natural man, of the flesh in opposition
to the Spirit. And as noted also in
earlier studies, the wild ass represents the natural man indulging the lusts of the
flesh without restraint, while the ass bridled portrays the natural man with the
lusts of the flesh under some measure of moral restraint.
The one, however, is as much in need of a new birth as is the other.
Wild or domesticated, an ass is still an ass.
Moral or dissolute, every man without Christ is a sinner, not a saint.
The foretold enmity between
Ishmael and other men simply declares the character of the natural man, for Paul
writes concerning the believer’s former state, “We ourselves also were... foolish
... living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Tit 3:3).
“... he shall dwell in the
presence of all his brethren,” is literally “he shall live to the east, and on
the borders of all his brethren or kinsmen.” Since
the east is used consistently in Scripture to indicate sin and distance from God,
this is further confirmation that as Ishmael was, so would his literal descendants
be. To this day this is the condition of
the Arabs. They are estranged from God,
and the bitter antagonists of Christianity and of the Jews, occupying a place among
the nations which cannot be better described than as being “on the borders.”
The symbolic picture,
however, is applicable also to the unbelieving Jew.
He too is estranged from God, the bitter foe of Christianity, and his place
among the nations is “borderland,” his religion and intense nationalism setting
him apart.
And the third typological
picture is no less accurate, for the unbeliever, of whom Ishmael is a type, is
estranged from God, the foe of faith, his dwelling place being only “on the
borders” of the family of faith, for in spite of all his religious forms, he does
not belong to the household of faith.
16:13.
“And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me:
for she said, Have I also here looked after Him that seeth me?”
What was true of Hagar is
true of all men: nothing is hidden from the eye of God.
The realization that she had
been in the presence of the God Who saw and knew all about her, caused her to
exclaim, “Have I also here looked after Him that seeth me?” literally, “Have I
indeed seen God and yet still live?” Well
might she ask the question. How indeed
can any man live, since all have sinned against that God, Who is “of purer eyes
than to look upon evil” (Hab 1:13)? She
lived only because she obeyed His command to return and submit to Sarai.
Refusal to return left no alternative but to face death in the Wilderness of
Shur. The spiritual lesson is clear: a
meeting with God leaves man with only two choices: submit to grace and live, or
refuse to submit, and die.
It shouldn’t be forgotten
that the God Who saw Hagar, and Who sees all men, and Who has full knowledge of their
sin that causes them to flee from His grace, looks upon them in pity, desiring only
that they should obey Him and live by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
16:14.
“Wherefore the well was called Beer-la-hai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh
and Bered.”
Beer-la-hai-roi means the
well of him that liveth and seeth me. It
represents the Word of God, for it is the true “well” of the living God Who sees
me as He sees all men. It is at the
“well” of the Word that men learn, not only of their hopeless state, but also of
God’s love that has provided a remedy through the death and resurrection of His
Son.
It’s being between Kadesh
and Bered is significant. Kadesh means apartness
(set apart for a purpose). Its meaning
being closely allied with the meaning of sanctuary (a holy place) or (the
dwelling of a god) certainly justifies our regarding it as a type of heaven, the holy
place (set apart) where God dwells.
Bered, on the other hand,
means hail, and in Scripture hail is almost invariably associated with the
outpouring of divine wrath and judgment.
Beer-la-hai-roi’s being
between Kadesh and Bered tells us that spiritually the Word is the “well” of the
water of life located here in the “wilderness” of the world between “Kadesh”
(heaven) and “Bered” (hell). Having
met God in the Word, man must obey and live, or disobey and die.
There are only two eternal destinations: “Kadesh” (heaven), or “Bered”
(hell).
16:15.
“And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar
bare, Ishmael.”
This son born to Abram and
Hagar is not the promised seed, for faith and law, represented by Abram and Hagar,
cannot produce life. Life is represented
by Isaac. It comes only from the union
of Abram and Sarai, faith and grace. The
true seed is to be called Isaac he shall laugh (Ge 17:19); but this child born
of the will of the flesh, can only be called Ishmael God will hear.
Faith and law can bring forth nothing but the cry of despair, but the moment
that cry is uttered God bestows His gift of life through grace, and despair is
replaced with laughter. “Ishmael”
must give place to “Isaac.”
16:16.
“And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to
Abram.”
This attempt of nature to
fulfill God’s word was fourteen years before God’s time, for when Isaac was born
Abram was a hundred years old (Ge 21:5). The
factors of fourteen are two (number of testimony or witness), and seven (number of
perfection). Those fourteen years became
the perfect testimony to man’s folly and God’s wisdom.
There is nothing more
difficult for the believer than to wait patiently for God’s time, but there is
nothing that contributes more to peace and contentment than to obey His command,
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10).
Abram’s age (four score
and six years) at the time of Ishmael’s birth, is also instructive.
The number is clearly divided into four, twenty, and six.
Four is the number of testing; six, of man; and twenty factorizes as 2 x 10,
or 4 x 5. Two is the number of witness;
ten, of divine government; and five, of responsibility, so that the lesson of his age
is that under the testing (four) directed or permitted by divine government (ten),
man is responsible (five) to act at the direction of the Holy Spirit, or in the
energy of the flesh, his response witnessing (two) to the wisdom of the former, or
the folly of the latter. Ishmael was the
evidence that man acting in the energy of the flesh can never accomplish the purposes
of God.
He
is a wise man who learns early the perfection of God’s time, and the wisdom of
waiting for it.
[Genesis
17]
