by CktiM L.
as an indication of what He will yet do in and for Israel. Take for instance, the events in the life of the patriarch Jacob as related to the land o f Ca naan. He was settled in the land; through the anger of Esau he had to flee the land to Mesopotamia; he returned to the land. This is a pattern o f his descendants, Israel, who lived in the land for cen turies, have been exiled these many centuries from the land, and will yet be restored to their own land. After this manner Isaac and Ishmael form a pat tern too. THE PARENTAGE OF ISHMAEL AND ISAAC Because Ishmael and Isaac had the same fa ther, it is not to be inferred that all was similarity between them. From a consideration of Genesis 13:1, 2 with 16:1 we note that Abraham brought two things with him from Egypt: (1) wealth and (2) an Egyptian handmaid, Hagar. What trouble, strife, separation, and conflict were caused by the wealth from Egypt is clearly shown in chapters 13 to 15. Chapters 16 and following reveal what discord was introduced through the bringing o f Hagar into the home life of Abraham and Sarah. Ishmael, child of Hagar, came ultimately from Egypt, which is a type of the world and all that is opposed to God. See Revelation 11:8. Egypt stands as the great oppressor of the people of God, just as the world would enslave God’s own in every age. Moreover, Ishmael was from the flesh (Gal. 4:23, 29). When Abraham and Sarah would not abide God’s time for the promised child, then the man of faith hearkened to the fleshly arrange ments of his wife in order to have a child by his handmaid. And from this union have come those who have been the inveterate enemies o f the gos pel of Christ through the centuries, namely, the seed of Ishmael. Esau also represents in the Scrip tures the flesh and its desires. When we turn to Genesis 36:3 for the list o f the wives of Esau, we are not at all surprised to find that one of them is “ Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister o f Ne- baioth.” The flesh is joined to the flesh; flesh ever gravitates to its own level, the flesh. Finally, when we seek the origins of Ishmael we must recall that he is from unbelief also. Despite the clear promises of God Abraham prayed earnestly, “Oh that Ish mael might live before thee!” This was unmitigat- 21
N G alatians 4:21-31 (A .S .V .) we read: Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the hand- maid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is bom after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is bom . through promise. Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is; for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband. Now we, breth- ren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was bom after the flesh persecuted him that was bom after the Spirit, so also it is now. Howbeit what saith the scripture ? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, and form the pattern and mold for prophetic ■ events. Such an example is to be found in the exo- H dus of the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage. In the eleventh chapter of his prophecy Isaiah is foretelling the manner in which in a coming day God will regather His scattered and dispersed peo ple from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the islands of the sea. Then he notes that God will utterly dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea (as He dried up the Red Sea H of old), so that the returning remnant could march j over dryshod. And there will be a highway for the mt restored exiles from Assyria “ like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out o f the land o f Egypt.“ See Isaiah 11:11-16; also Jeremiah ■ 23:1-8. What God has done in the past is held out JULY, 1968 Vj J g~. n 5*. I t but of the freewoman. INTRODUCTION It is a settled and assured Biblical principle, ■ well known to students of the Scriptures, that cer- EL tain past events project themselves into the future r
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