The Journey
Abraham had no idea where God wanted to take him, but he trusted God. He took his wife Sarah, his father, Terah and a nephew named Lot and they set out on the journey following the command given by God.
When Abraham was 75 years old, they arrived in Canaan, the land to which God wanted them to go.
Right there, God promised Abraham that all the land before him would be given to his children. However, Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children. So, they had the question of how they could conceive a son so that the promise would be fulfilled.
Finally, the son Ishmael arrives
Abraham and Sarah had been married for many years. Moreover, they had left the good house where they lived in Ur to live in tents. However, Sarah had no complaints, she trusted in God’s promise.
Sarah was eager to have a son and proposed to Abraham to have a son with her slave Hagar, who would be considered as if he were hers. As time went by, a son was conceived by Abraham to Hagar, who was named Ishmael.
The pregnancy of Sarah
Long after Abraham reached the age of 99 and Sarah reached the age of 89, they were visited by three people. Abraham proceeded to invite them to rest in the shade of a tree and to stay and eat.
These three visitors were angels, who told Abraham that the following year they would have a son.
Likewise, Sarah, who was listening in the inner part of the tent, when she heard this, began to laugh internally, wondering how she could have a son at the age she was.
However, despite her doubts, the following year, Sara did have a baby. Just as had been promised by the three angels who had visited them the previous year. So, God’s promise to them was fulfilled.
And the name given by Abraham was Isaac, which has the meaning of laughter.
The expulsion
As the years went by, when Isaac was five years old, Sarah noticed that Ishmael was making fun of her brother Isaac.
She spoke to Abraham and asked him to expel both Hagar and Ishmael. However, it is said that God told him to do what Sarah was asking.
He would take care of Ishmael and his promises would be fulfilled through Isaac.
Hagar, Ishmael’s mother
This woman, named Hagar or Hagar, turned out to be a slave, who was of Egyptian origin and became Abraham’s concubine and later bore him a son, whose name was Ishmael. According to the Bible, Hagar was expelled together with Ishmael.
Supposedly, she mistreated Sarah, who was Abraham’s wife.
Hagar was the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh, who preferred that his daughter be Abraham’s slave before she had to stay in Egypt. Given the wonders that were performed in that kingdom, by divine grace.
With the legitimacy of Hagar, as Abraham’s wife, the people who were Arabs, called Hagarenes, considered her as his legitimate wife. Likewise, they consider themselves to be his descendants, through Ishmael himself.
Sinaitic Covenant
For St. Paul, everything related to this biblical history is in charge of making the representation, regarding the Sinaitic covenant, being the same as the most ancient testament and is related to Judaism.
The Marriage of Ishmael
Ishmael married Aisha, a Moabitess, whose name was Adishad or Ashiyah. She was an Egyptian woman. He had four sons and a daughter. Ishmael became more skilled in the use of the bow and earned the position of master of all the archers.
After a while, Abraham went to visit Ishmael, based on a promise he had made to his wife Sarah. He stopped at his son’s tent and did not get off his camel.
Ishmael was not inside the tent. So Aisha would not attend to Abraham, plus they beat her sons and she proceeded to curse her husband, which Abraham heard.
Abraham asked her to tell Ishmael when he returned, that an old man had come to ask him to change the tent peg. This message was understood by Ishmael and he proceeded to go away from his wife.
Subsequently, he remarried a woman named Fatimah, three years later, Abraham returned to visit his son and was received very kindly. So Abraham asked the woman to tell Ishmael that the match had been good…
