Let
us look next at Abraham. What was the
cause of Abraham’s grief with Ishmael?
Alas, Abraham, the father of the faithful, failed in faith. As so often in our failures, there was quite
a long story connected with it. The
Lord had commanded Abram to go to the land of Canaan, and we know he came and
dwelt there with his tent and his altar.
But famine came, as so often it is allowed to come to those who walk the
path of faith, and Abraham went down into Egypt (Genesis 12:10) instead of
trusting in the Lord in the land to which He had brought him.
It
was in the land of Egypt he was treated well for Sarah his wife’s sake, (a
shameful affair), and for her sake “he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses and
menservants, and maidservants and she asses, and camels.” (Genesis 12:16). Was Hagar the Egyptian (Genesis 16:3) who
afterwards wrought such sorrow and mischief in his household, and became the
mother of Ishmael,-was she one of those “maidservants” given to Abraham for
Sarah’s sake in Egypt? It would seem
very probable that such was the case.
But
it took another step along the same pathway, of lack of faith before Hagar
became the mother of Ishmael, and he the ancestor of the Arabs who have been
such a scourge to God’s people from that day to this. And, remember, it was Sarah, not Abraham, who took the lead in
the whole sad affair of Hagar, not alone in giving her to her own husband, but
in treating her harshly so that she ran away, and finally it was Sarah who made
the angry demand approved by God. But
all through this matter Sarah seems to have been out of her place, and this
seems to make the grace of God shine out all the more brightly in giving to
Sarah the special commendation, already referred to, in 1 Peter 3:5-6.
But who am I to be pointing out the failure of such men and women as Abraham and Sarah? And yet, these things were written for our admonition; may the Lord help us to be admonished by them.