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<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>The half brothers are Ishmael
(by Abram and an<FONT size=4> Egyptian slave Hagar) and Isaac (by
Abraham and Sarah) born 13 years apart. </FONT></FONT><FONT
face=Candara color=#000080 size=4><FONT size=4>As with all of Scripture, this
bit of history is fascinating to me. I would love to have a window into
time past and watch as this story unfolds. I learned these Bible
stories hour after hour throughout my entire childhood (birth to
teens) and still love to read them and remember the awesome God of the Old
Testament. I regret that my children were not told these stories as a part
of church attendance. And I failed in reading them to all
three. My conscience has been pricked and I WILL read and discuss these
stories with my six-year-old daughter.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Here is the story, and although it
appears long, it is worth the read:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Genesis 16 </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne
him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she
said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my
maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." <BR>Abram agreed to
what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai
his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be
his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. <BR>When she knew
she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to
Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in
your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD
judge between you and me." </DIV>
<DIV>"Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you
think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. </DIV>
<DIV>The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the
spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, servant of
Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" <BR>"I'm running
away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.</DIV>
<DIV>Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit
to her." The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they
will be too numerous to count." </DIV>
<DIV>The angel of the LORD also said to her:
<BR> "You are now with child
<BR> and you will have a son.
<BR> You shall name him
Ishmael, <BR> for the LORD has heard of
your misery.</DIV>
<DIV> He will be a wild donkey of a man;
<BR> his hand will be against everyone
<BR> and everyone's hand against him,
<BR> and he will live in hostility
<BR> toward all his brothers." </DIV>
<DIV>She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees
me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." That is why the
well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and
Bered.</DIV>
<DIV>So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she
had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him
Ishmael.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Genesis 17</DIV>
<DIV>When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I
am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my
covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." </DIV>
<DIV>Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my
covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will
you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a
father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations
of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an
everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the
generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after
you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as
an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be
their God." </DIV>
<DIV>Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and
your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant
with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every
male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and
it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations
to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised,
including those born in your household or bought with money from a
foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household
or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh
is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been
circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my
covenant."</DIV>
<DIV>God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to
call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely
give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of
nations; kings of peoples will come from her." </DIV>
<DIV>Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born
to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of
ninety?" And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your
blessing!" </DIV>
<DIV>Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will
call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting
covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard
you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase
his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a
great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will
bear to you by this time next year." </DIV>
<DIV>When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Genesis 18</DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>The LORD appeared to Abraham near
the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the
heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When
he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low
to the ground. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>He said, "If I have found favor in
your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be
brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let
me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now
that you have come to your servant."
<BR> "Very well," they answered, "do as you
say." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>So Abraham hurried into the tent to
Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and
bake some bread." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Then he ran to the herd and
selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare
it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been
prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a
tree. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>"Where is your wife Sarah?" they
asked him. <BR> "There, in the tent," he
said. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Then the LORD said, "I will
surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a
son." <BR>Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was
behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years,
and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as
she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have
this pleasure?" </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why
did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am
old?' Is anything too hard for the LORD ? I will return to you at the
appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Sarah was afraid, so she lied and
said, "I did not laugh." <BR> But he said,
"Yes, you did laugh."</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Genesis 21</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the
LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a
son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised
him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When
his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded
him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to
him.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this
will laugh with me." And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that
Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." </DIV>
<DIV>The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held
a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne
to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave
woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the
inheritance with my son Isaac." </DIV>
<DIV>The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his
son. But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your
maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the
maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring." </DIV>
<DIV>Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave
them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy.
She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba. </DIV>
<DIV>When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the
bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for
she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And as she sat there nearby,
she began to sob. </DIV>
<DIV>God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven
and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the
boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for
I will make him into a great nation." </DIV>
<DIV>Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and
filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. </DIV>
<DIV>God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an
archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife
for him from Egypt.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>