Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How could one good man have created such havoc as is in the world today?
Abraham is claimed by Jews, Muslims, and devout Christians, as their "father" (and all are monotheists). The one true God called Abraham when the world was almost totally given to idolatry; even his father Terah was entangled in idolatry. Abraham was the one witness that God had on earth. God promised him that through his descendants the Messiah should come and be "the Savior of the world" (Gen. 12:2, 3; John 4:42).
And since God respects holy marriage (the love of one man for one woman), it was His plan that Sarah his wife should be the mother of Abraham's "seed." But she was not able to bear a child. She was human, and she grew bitter, blaming God for her infertility (Gen. 16:2). Her dis-belief of God's promises became a lethal unbelief. She persuaded her husband to take a second wife, her slave-girl Hagar, who bore him a son, Ishmael (the name means "God hears").
God wanted Abraham and Sarah to believe His glorious New Covenant promises (12:2, 3), and "in Isaac your seed shall be called" (21:12). He had nothing to do with this Old Covenant scheme of Sarah's; but He had solemnly promised to bless Abraham's "seed," so this had to include blessing Ishmael: "I ... will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. ... I will make him a great nation" (17:20). "I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed" (21:13).
Hence: Islam today.
But God has never wanted the two progenies to fight. When Esau (who had despised and sold his "birthright" and resented Jacob) wanted to annihilate Jacob, God evidently told him to desist and to make friends. The reconciliation described in Genesis 33 is what God today wants the Israelis and the Muslims to make, between them. As God lives, it is possible. But it requires the gospel to be understood!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 18, 2006.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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