God had promised Abraham
that He would make of him a great nation like the sand of the seashore for
number.
Now
Abraham and Sarah were old and had no children, but Abraham believed God.
But when
Abraham was a hundred years old God gave Sarah a son. And they called his name Isaac.
And Abraham made a great feast.
One day
Sarah saw Ishmael the son of Hagar mocking Isaac. So she asked Abraham to send
away this servant and her son.
Abraham
was sorry for Ishmael. But God told him
He would take care of the lad. So Abraham rose up early in the morning, and
took bread and a bottle of water and gave it to Hagar and the child, and sent
her away.
And she
went away and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
And the
water was spent in the bottle, and she laid Ishmael under one of the shrubs;
for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. But God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went
and gave the lad a drink.
And
Ishmael grew, and he lived in the wilderness, and he became an archer.
Gen.
21, 20