True History - Veritas Card #10 - Hagar and Ishmael

Hagar and Ishmael - Genesis 16, 21

Remember the promise God made to Abram, whose name was changed to 'Abraham'? God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. He would also be the father to one particular nation. God had made this promise to Abraham when he was an old man. Abraham trusted and believed God. He knew God would keep His promise to him. But since Abraham was an old man, and Sarai, whose name was now 'Sarah', was an old woman, they would not be able to have children. They might not have ever seen God do a miracle before, but He was about to do a big miracle for them.
   In the meantime, there were obviously times of doubting what God was saying, or maybe, perhaps they just didn't understand how God would work this out. Instead of waiting on God, and doing what He was telling them to do, they decided that God must be going to work out this problem in a simple way. Sarah decided to give her handmaid, Hagar, to be his wife for a short time. Maybe Hagar would get pregnant and have a child that would be able to have more children when he grew up and that would be where all these nations would come from. Well, Abraham did live like he was married to Hagar for a little while, and she did get pregnant and had a baby boy. His name was Ishmael.
   Sarah was not happy though. She dealt harshly with Hagar. Hagar ran away and was very sad, when an angel of the Lord came to her and told her to go back to Abraham and Sarah's house. God would protect her and she would have descendants.
   Some time later, when Sarah was ninety years old, she gave birth to a little boy also. His name was Isaac, which means laughter. A couple of years later, there was a celebration because Isaac was being weaned. At this celebration, Hagar was making fun of Sarah and Isaac, and Sarah made her leave. Hagar and Ishmael lived in the wilderness of Beersheba.
   Hagar was sure they were going to die in the wilderness. She cried out and prayed to God, and God heard her prayer. He promised to take care of them. Ishmael would become a great nation also. The modern day Arabs probably came from Ishmael.