Why would Ishmael be called a wild donkey of a man (Genesis 16:12)?

Though Hagar was not to be the mother of God's promised child to Abram, yet the Lord is interested in her and concerned about her and her expected child. He tells her that she is to name the child “Ishmael,” meaning “God will hear” (v. 11). However, the character of the boy would be consistent with the fact of his being born from a union of contrary parents, the father a free man but the mother a slave. Ishmael would be figuratively “a wild donkey of a man,” self-willed and rebellious (v. 12). He would be contentious, his hand against all other men, and of course they would therefore be against him. This has been one of the characteristics of the Arabs from that time, and their animosity will culminate in the violent attack of the king of the north against Israel in the tribulation period (Dan. 11:40). But it will be God's sovereign way of teaching Israel a lesson they sorely need (Isa. 10:5-6). Consider also verse 12 of the same chapter. Abram learned by experience, and all this history teaches us that a wrong union leads to trouble and sorrow.

Added to this is the interesting statement, “he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” This is an intended contrast to his father Abram who made a practice of dwelling in the presence of God. Genesis 25:18 also tells us that Ishmael “died in the presence of all his brethren.” Legality always places more importance upon the people and the opinions of the people than it does upon God and His word. Even in death a legal minded man does not abandon his desire for men's approval in order to make God the supreme object of his heart.

The name of the son, Ishmael, was to commemorate the fact that God heard the affliction of Hagar. It had reference to her rather than to him. He was to be a "wild man," the word really means a "wild-ass." In the light of Galatians 4, this is significant, since "he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh." Now Romans 8:7 tells us that the mind of the flesh "is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Man after the flesh has lawlessness stamped upon him, and he is aptly typified by a wild ass.

Here too we see in figure what accounts for the state of the world today. Man in the flesh is not only lawless in regard to God but antagonistic in regard to his fellows. The one characteristic springs out of the other. There could be no peace where Ishmael was. And to make matters worse there was to be no shutting him out or getting rid of him; for the decree was, "he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." Hagar typified the covenant of the law, given at Sinai. Now that did not abolish the man after the flesh. It only laid restraint upon him, "which genders to bondage." The restraint was immediately broken and the "wild ass" character more fully revealed.

At the 'great feast' when Isaac, the child born after the Spirit, was weaned, Ishmael mocked, and Sarah besought Abraham to cast out both mother and son. This was grievous to Abraham, but God, having approved the suggestion, he rose early in the morning, and providing them with some bread and a bottle of water he sent them away. The water was soon consumed, and Hagar in despair placed Ishmael under a shrub, and departed so as not to see him die. The angel of God called to her, showed her a well, and the child was saved. God was with the lad, for he was the seed of Abraham; he dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. At first he was located in the wilderness of Beer-sheba and afterwards at Paran, a region between Canaan and mount Sinai. His mother chose a woman of Egypt for his wife. His twelve sons are recorded, and their 'towns ' and 'castles,' or encampments, according to their nations, are spoken of. Ishmael was present at the burial of his father and lived 137 years. Gen. 16:11-16; Gen. 17:18-26; Gen. 25:9-17; Gen. 28:9; Gen. 36:3; 1 Chr. 1:28-31.

The Bedouin Arabs are doubtless the descendants of Ishmael. They are wild men in the sense of their love of freedom, dwelling in tents, and riding over the desert, spear in hand. They truly are 'against every man,' robbing every one when they can do so with safety to themselves. The Bedouins will not admit their descent from Ishmael; they refer his descendants to the Most (or mixed) Arabians, because Ishmael's mother was an Egyptian. The Bedouins claim to have descended from Joktan, son of Eber. Gen. 10:25.

Abraham's heart yearned over Ishmael. His cry was, "Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!" And not only so, but Ishmael was circumcised, and thus outwardly was the mark of the Covenant put upon him (Gen. 17:18, 25). All was, however, unavailing. It had been said of Ishmael, "He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." A wild, intractable and quarrelsome fellow he remained — fit type of the flesh, for as James says, "From whence come wars and lightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" (James 4:1). Ishmael's term of probation ended, however, when he proved himself to be not only wild, but a despiser and a mocker in regard to the promised seed, Isaac, who was a type of Christ. Then came that word which is so illuminatingly commented on in the New Testament, "Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac" (Gen. 21:10; Gal. 4:21-31).

But in chapter 16 it is not merely looking at one's own heart; Abram listens to Sarai, and condescends to follow her advice, and we hear nothing of his faith upon this occasion. It was not faith to listen to Sarai; and the result of their expedient was not satisfactory. Ishmael was born, and the very first description of him, "He shall be a wild-ass man," his hand against every one, and every one's hand against him; a trouble rather than a help. It is not that God has not had mercy on the Arabs — indeed, Ishmael's descendants receive a blessing in chapter 17; but it must be confessed that they have been very troublesome since Ishmael disturbed Abram's household, up to the present day. You might as well try to tame the wildest animal, as to induce the Bedawee to live peaceably.

Subsequent statements in the Book of Genesis give particulars of other families of the Shemitic stock who entered the Arabian Peninsula. All that is intended here is to fill up the general view of its denizens, in order to complete the picture, in this measure anticipating what follows our chapter. As sons of Cush were the first to settle within it, chiefly on the Persian Gulf and the S.W. coast skirted by the Red Sea, before Joktan and his sons possessed themselves so largely of its borders and interior, we may notice first Ishmael and his sons as a most characteristic class of the dwellers in Arabia. No prediction of the kind has been more signally fulfilled than Gen. 16:12: "He will be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell before the face of all his brethren."

In vain has the sceptical Gibbon (Decline and Fall, chaps. 46 and 50) strained his ingenuity to get rid of their standing independence, felt alike by strangers and by natives. There it is to this day, as it has been through all history. Of whom else can it be pretended similarly? The overruling power of God, as always, has guarded His word. Ishmael, though in no way the line of covenant any more than Esau, has lived before Him. Other peoples, and conspicuously in their neighbourhood, have dwindled and disappeared, I do not say they are extinguished. Ishmael He made fruitful and a great nation. In this world as it is, no sane person denies checks or exceptions during the course of ages, when God was ignored or misrepresented. But even the infidel historian had to acknowledge that these exceptions were "temporary or local." "The body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies: the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia. The present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke and fruitless to attack."

"And these [are] Ishmael's generations, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's bondwoman, bore to Abraham. And these [are] the names of Ishmael's sons by their names according to their generations: Ishmael's firstborn, Nebaioth, and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam and Mishma and Dumah and Massa, Hadar and Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These [are] Ishmael's sons, and these their names in their villages and in their encampments, twelve princes according to their peoples. And these [are] the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty and seven years; and he expired and died, and was gathered to his people. And they dwelt from Havilah to Shur which [is] before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria. He settled (or, died, lit. fell) before all his brethren" (vv. 12-18), or, it may be, "to the east of all his brethren."

Flesh has its privileges speedily. Already was the beginning of what Jehovah's angel prepared Hagar to expect, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude." Jehovah hearkened to her affliction, and could not forget Abraham. Ishmael was to be a wild-ass man, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him and he should dwell before or in face of all his brethren (Gen. 16:10-12). This too, as we may easily find out, has been precisely fulfilled from the beginning till now. But yet more minutely as a proximate fact, the pledge of all to follow, in Genesis 17 had God said, "For Ishmael I have heard thee: behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will very greatly multiply him. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation" (v. 20). So it was now. They are enumerated in their order, as later (Gen. 28:9) we read of Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, Nebaioth's sister, whom Esau took to wife, besides those of Canaan.

Scripture clearly shows us the government of God providentially, and outside His covenant, in the same books which reveal the dealings of His electing grace. Nor is it the Jews only who are prone to overlook it. Unbelief rises up against God in this as in all else. Yet His Word abides worthy of all trust to whatever it applies. No more graphic a sketch was ever drawn than is given of Ishmael's posterity in the words cited. "Who hath sent out the wild-ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the onager? whose house I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling-place. He scorneth the tumult of the city, neither heareth he the shoutings of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth for every green thing" (Job 39:5-8). Such exactly are the Bedouins. No sober Christian supposes a perpetual miracle as to Ishmael, but that what God said of that race is as sure as what He said of Israel, no less than of Babylon, Medo-Persia, the Greek power, or the Roman.

No sceptical ingenuity then avails to shake the certainty that Ishmael's singular lot stands revealed from early days. The 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 differing changes have they not each and all experienced? How little if at all has the Bedouin altered? Cushites have settled here or there in Arabia, or passed across the Arabic gulf to the opposite coast of Africa. Joktanites in varied lines may still abide, especially in the South and the West; but their characteristics are by no means akin. The stamp of Ishmael is unmistakable in the North and East, as well as elsewhere; and the wild-ass marks him indelibly now as of old. Exceptions there may have been in the long tract of ages that have elapsed, but mostly affecting the nomad Arabs, in Yemen far more than where they pitched their tents, but also as to Mecca and Medina; as well as for awhile in the North. But these seizures are allowed to have been temporary and local. "The body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies; the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia; the present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people, which it is dangerous to provoke and fruitless to attack."

In the Word of God the ass is not only represented as unclean; it is also the very synonym for self-will. Read Jehovah's account of him in his expostulation with His servant in Job 39:5-8. And what is sin? It is correctly defined in the Revised Version of 1 John 3:4: "sin is lawlessness." In other words, sin is doing our own will to the neglect of the will of God. Who can plead exemption here? Who amongst us does not love to have his own way at whatever cost? The life of the natural man is described in Eph. 2:3 as "fulfilling the will of the flesh and of the mind." In Ps. 12:4 haughty, insubject men are represented as saying: "Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?" Job 11:12 is very pointed when it says: "Vain man would be wise, though man be born a wild ass's colt." Gen. 16:12, correctly rendered, says of Ishmael, "He will be a wild ass of a man."

However, the dry land is by no means sufficient to sustain man. The need of fresh water is of great importance, both to meet man's thirst and to enable the land to bear fruit to relieve his hunger. Marvelously, these fresh waters abound in the mountains and in the valleys (v. 10), and not only for the good of mankind, but also for the beasts, — even the wild donkeys that symbolize man in his natural state of independence and self-will (v. 11). The birds of the heavens are noted for the sweetness of their songs, for they picture those redeemed for a heavenly inheritance, who may well sing for joy (v. 12).

The wild donkey is a totally different type of creature, found mainly in the plains or wilderness. Man just does not control the habits of this animal that is 'free as the breeze." Though living in "the barren land," he is somehow sustained by God in finding food. He avoids the tumult of the city and is not like the tame donkey that must obey the direction of a driver.