Abraham the Separated Dad

A couple of weeks ago I heard a message on the Patriarch Abraham in our church.

There was a point made in the introduction of the message that utterly intrigued me. It touched on an episode of Abraham’s life that I had never given much thought to.

It concerned the incident in Genesis 21 when Abraham’s servant Hagar and her son Ishmael are sent away. Abraham of course fathered Ishmael at the insistence of his then barren wife Sarah to try and fast forward God’s promise of a son. Local customs allowed female servants to be treated in this way.

Whenever we try and hurry along God’s eternal plans, it always ends in heart ache and disappointment.

Ishmael had to leave because Abraham’s other son Isaac had come to age and
his continuing presence along with that of his mother Hagar was causing
great conflict in Abraham’s home.

We are told that Abraham grieved greatly because his separation from Ishmael, even though God had promised to protect Ishmael and to make of him a great nation. Abraham obviously had a close relationship with Ishmael as well as with Isaac.

Imagine that: the Patriarch Abraham, a separated dad!

It’s not just the dad’s (or mum’s) that end up in a lawyer’s office needing advice about their rights to see their kids after a difficult separation that carry such emotional burdens. There have always been deep burdens associated with God’s first ordained institution.

My point is simply this: the Bible does contains enough truth, even through the stories of its great characters, to comfort us thousands of years later. They had the same problems as we do because they had the same heart as we have.

So we can approach the Scripture to find consolation and understanding as we work through the complex labyrinth of human relationships.

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4

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