Not the same Abraham, ... Ishmael, ... Isaac, ... Jesus

The Sons of Abraham

(1 Chronicles 1:28-33, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 2, 2017)

[28] The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.

Abraham

Last week we recounted the biblical story from Adam to Abraham. Today we move forward one generation to Isaac and Ishmael and then consider the descendants of Abraham and Hagar the Egyptian as well as the descendants that Abraham had through a concubine, Keturah.

Starting with Abraham, we are reminded that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all consider themselves in some way descendants of Abraham. Those who are more secular, regardless of their historic connection with one of these three important faith positions, are interested in Abraham only because of the battles between the other groups who take their faith more seriously. This “question mark” position of so many (holding to no particular story with any answers to life's important questions, and fearful of any exclamation points) would just like the dangerous disagreements between Jews, Christians, and Muslims to go away. All seek peace, but our understandings of how it can be achieved are radically different from one another.

The “question mark” view on life is therefore interested in the three Abrahamic faiths, but not in Abraham as a real man who lived 4000 years ago. That real man is both unlikely and irrelevant to the “question marks.” Skipping over the followers of Judaism and Islam for a moment, we as Christians are told that we are connected to Abraham because of our faith in Christ who is at the center of all of the promises of God. As Paul writes in Galatians 4:7, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” And Jesus Himself said in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.” When He was challenged about what He could possibly know about this ancient figure Abraham who lived 2000 years before Him, Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)

God had promised that blessing would come to all the people groups of the world through the offspring of Abraham. The New Testament insists that Jesus is that one offspring of Abraham through whom we have heavenly life. While many Jews and Gentiles agreed with this Christian position, some did not. You cannot honestly commend the New Testament view of Abraham as true unless you believe that Jesus is the I-AM, Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth who has come in the flesh and who deserves all of the glory that belongs to God. This New Testament view of Abraham is utterly inconsistent with any view of Jesus that rejects His divinity. Therefore any Judaism that rejects the Trinity or any Islam that is true to the Koran at all presents a completely different view of Abraham. Only in a healthy Christianity can you affirm these important words of Jesus. “Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad,” and then “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:56-58)

Isaac and Ishmael

With that very foundational disagreement between the question marks, Jesus-rejecting Jews, Muslims, and historic Christians, we should not be surprised to find that we have serious disagreements concerning other matters of history. With the limited time that we have this morning, we need to give our special attention to Isaac and Ishmael.

The most important story in the life of Isaac has to do with his very real “near-death” experience at the hands of his father, Abraham, according to God's command. This horrifying episode can only be resolved in the Christian gospel account of the death of the Son of God on the cross. God, who was always against pagan child sacrifice, asked Abraham to do the unthinkable as a test of faith. Isaac did not ultimately have to die by Abraham's hand. The Lord tested Abraham's faith and then stopped the patriarch from taking the life of his long-awaited son. A substitute was provided for Isaac—a ram in the thicket who gave his blood so that Isaac could live. But when Jesus died for our sins, there was no substitute for Him. He was our atoning sacrifice. He is the only satisfying fulfillment of this ancient story of faith. Jesus was both the willing Isaac and the ram who died. Not only that, the resurrected Jesus was the new Isaac that Abraham received back alive. As we are taught in Hebrews 11:19, Abraham “considered that God was able even to raise (Isaac) from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”

What about Ishmael? (Note Genesis 16:12) The Christian view of Ishmael and his half brother Isaac is presented by Paul in Galatians 4:21-31. Ishmael was the child of the slave, Hagar, and not of the free woman, Sarah. The Lord had great plans for the descendants of Ishmael (Genesis 17:20), but the line of promise would go through Isaac and the Jews (Genesis 17:21).

Islam switches all this around claiming against all ancient biblical manuscripts that Ishmael was the one whom Abraham almost killed and not Isaac, and that Ishmael's line was the favored one which led to the prophet Mohammad. What makes this different view of Ishmael problematic is that the Quran has many glowing statements about the words of the Old and New Testaments but does not have even the very basics from those books reflected correctly, like Isaac and Ishmael.

The Quran was a 7^th century AD book. We can have no doubt that the Bible translations that we have today are based on a firm manuscript tradition that dates centuries earlier than the Quran. There is simply no evidence for the changing of a detail as significant as the question of who exactly was Ishmael. Ishmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar. His birth was not an evidence of faith, but of unbelief. He was not the child of covenant blessings that would lead to the Messiah, though God had plans for his descendants as He had for all the people groups of the earth. At the center of those plans was the coming of the I-AM who would be from the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribe of Judah, and the descendants of David.

Of all the descendants of Abraham and Hagar or of Abraham and his concubine Keturah, almost nothing is known for the last 2000 years. That is a long time to be missing. But we cannot say that of the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. The Jews are the best known people group on the face of the earth. From this most unexpected line has come the most famous Man of all history, and the only human being to have a heavenly heritage as well as an earthly life.

Jesus of Nazareth is Lord. He has entered into this world of lies as the eternal truth of Almighty God come in person. He demands the obedience of all the nations and has provided the only way for us to defeat death and to live forever. The Jesus of Islam is a Messiah without a cross. Based on Matthew 16:23, that theological lie must forever be connected with the name “Satan.” Islam and Christianity offer radically different views of the past, the present, and the future. They cannot both be right. The resurrection of Jesus is our most treasured fact of history. It gives us assurance that the Bible's view of life and death is worthy of our faith.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 8 – O Jehovah, Our Master!

Gospel Reading—Matthew 6:19-21 – [19] Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, [20] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.