Who was Ishmael in the Bible?
Ishmael was Abraham's first son, born not to Sarah but to her Egyptian servant Hagar — a child produced by human arrangement while the promised son was still only a promise. His story raises the questions the New Testament later presses hard: who counts as Abraham's true heir, and what happens to what the flesh produces?
Birth and Name
The account begins with a runaway servant and an angel who sends her home with a promise and a name for her unborn child.
Morrish Bible DictionarySon of Abraham and Hagar the bondmaid of Sarah. Before he was born, when Hagar ran away because of the harshness of her mistress, the angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her to return to her mistress. Her offspring would be too many to number, and she was to call her son's name Ishmael, which means "El shall hear."
Character Foretold
Before his birth God described what kind of man he would be, and one writer traces that description back to the mismatched union that produced him.
L. M. GrantHe tells her that she is to name the child "Ishmael," meaning "God will hear" (v. 11). However, the character of the boy would match the fact that he was born from a union of opposite parents, the father a free man but the mother a slave. Ishmael would be, in figure, "a wild donkey of a man," self-willed and rebellious (v. 12). He would be quarrelsome, his hand against all other men, and of course they would therefore be against him.
Commentators note that this prediction has proved unusually durable compared with the histories of other nations.
William KellyThe meaning of Genesis 16:12 is as plain as it is striking, and as applicable today as for thousands of years past. This is not true of any other notable people. Compare the Egyptians, the Assyrians, or the Israelites: what different changes have they not each and all experienced?
Abraham's Prayer for Him
Abraham loved this son and asked God to let the blessing rest on him. He was even given the outward sign of the covenant. It did not change him.
F. B. HoleAbraham's heart yearned over Ishmael. His cry was, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!" And not only that, but Ishmael was circumcised, and so the mark of the covenant was outwardly put upon him (Gen. 17:18, 25). All was useless, however… A wild, unmanageable and quarrelsome fellow he remained — a fitting picture of the flesh.
Cast Out
The turning point came at the celebration for the weaning of Isaac, the son God had promised. Ishmael mocked, and Sarah demanded he be sent away. Abraham found it painful, but writers see a settled principle behind it.
C. H. MackintoshIt was most painful work to Abraham to be forced to send his son away. "The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son;" but it made no difference, he had to be put out, for the son of a slave woman could never inherit promises made only to the spiritual seed. If Ishmael had been kept, it would have been an open acceptance of the claims of the flesh.
What He Stands For
Paul takes up this family in his letter to the Galatians, and reads the two mothers and two sons as two principles.
Scripture QuarterlyIt is important to understand that the law applies to man in the flesh, and produces a condition of bondage. Ishmael is a picture of the natural man, "born after the flesh," who for a time lived in the house of Abraham, until Isaac, the true heir, was born… It was not an improved Ishmael that was to hold God's promises, but Isaac, the new man, child of Sarah and child of faith.
God's Kindness to Him
Being set outside the line of promise did not put Ishmael outside God's care. In the desert, when the water ran out and Hagar left the boy under a bush to die, God acted.
L. M. GrantBut the God who ordered her expulsion is the God of grace. He heard the voice of the boy (v. 17), then spoke directly to Hagar, "What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is."
The Rest of His Life
His later years are told briefly, and they end with a scene worth noticing.
Morrish Bible DictionaryGod was with the boy, for he was Abraham's offspring. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer… His mother chose a woman of Egypt to be his wife. His twelve sons are recorded… Ishmael was present at the burial of his father and lived 137 years.
One writer sees more than family duty in that funeral: "it is especially pleasing to find Ishmael with Isaac burying his father (Gen. 25:9). Surely we may see that God was working in his heart" (George C. Willis).
Summary
- Born of impatience. Ishmael came from Abraham and Hagar, a son arranged by human effort while God's promised son was still only promised.
- Named for hearing. His name means God hears — and God heard Hagar's affliction before his birth and the boy's cry in the desert afterwards.
- Unchanged by religion. Circumcised, prayed over, blessed with twelve princes and a great nation — yet he stayed exactly the wild, quarrelsome man God said he would be.
- Not the heir. Kindness could not make him heir; the son of the slave woman could not share the inheritance with Isaac, and the mocking at Isaac's feast forced the separation.
- A picture, not a villain. Writers read him as the natural man born after the flesh — proof that the flesh is never improved into an heir; a new birth is needed instead.