Read with Me
Genesis 25:12-18 (HCSB)
These are the family records of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave, bore to Abraham. These are the names of Ishmael’s sons; their names according to the family records are: Nebaioth, Ishmael’s firstborn, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are Ishmael’s sons, and these are their names by their villages and encampments: 12 leaders of their clans. This is the length of Ishmael’s life: 137 years. He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people. And they settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt as you go toward Asshur. He lived in opposition to all his brothers.
Listen with Me
Moses only tracks the descendants of Ishmael by name to the first generation – his twelve sons who became twelve Arab princes. The areas they settled in are in the Sinai Peninsula, in the eastern regions of the territory belonging to Egypt.
Ishmael didn’t live nearly as long as either his father Abraham, who lived to be 175 (Genesis 25:7) or his brother Isaac, who lived to be 180 (Genesis 35:28). A large part of this was the harsh conditions in which he lived, not only the desert environment, but living in conflict with those who lived around him. Even though Ishmael and Isaac had come together to bury Abraham when he died (Genesis 25:9), Moses’ words here in verse 18 have the sense that Ishmael and his descendants lived in conflict with or opposition to his relatives, a fulfillment of Genesis 16:11-12.
Pray with Me
Father, in a sense, you have to feel a bit sorry for Ishmael. He really experienced a lot of negative stuff in his life, not only because of his own decisions, but because of the poor choices made by his parents, trying to fulfill Your promise in their own strength instead of waiting for You to act. How often are we tempted to do the same. We have received so many wonderful promises from Your mouth, but we grow impatient with the wait that always seems to come with them. So, we step in, trying to make Your promises happen through our own machinations. In the process, what we end up creating is far less than what You promised, a sickly shadow of the real blessing You had planned to give us, and it tends to come with a series of unintended negative consequences. Help me, Lord, to never run ahead of You in fulfilling Your promises, but to simply rest in them until Your perfect timing comes. Amen.
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