Genesis 21:8-21 // Getting Rid of Ishmael

Much like a long trip to a foreign place, we have a journey of faith. It’s a journey that the Lord invites us into so that we can experience the faithfulness of God. He is always faithful to His promises, and He wants us to see that.

This is exactly what happened to one of the most famous Old Testament characters: Abraham.

God’s Promises to Abraham

Our main passage is Genesis 21:8-21. But to get some background, we’ll need to start in chapter 12. Here, God calls Abraham to go from his country and his family, and then He says this in verses 2-3:

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This event was when God activated His divine plan of salvation for the world. Those promises aren’t just for Abraham – they’re for all who have faith in Jesus Christ. And through faith in Christ, all God’s promises from Genesis to Revelation are promises for us.

God rarely gives His people a promise and then instantly fulfills it. Almost always, He seems to have His own timetable about when and how these promises will be fulfilled. This happened with Abraham, and it happens with us. God invites us into a journey of faith so that we can see how faithful He is.

Sometimes God’s promises take a long time before they’re fulfilled. But He always comes through and proves faithful. This is how it was for Abraham.

Abraham & Sarah Try to Make God’s Promises Come True

About 10 years after God’s wonderful promises to Abraham, he was still wandering in Canaan. There wasn’t much evidence that God was going to fulfill His promises. It didn’t look like the land was going to belong to Abraham’s descendants. He didn’t even have a child to be a descendant.

Understandably, Abraham was beginning to doubt that God’s promises would come true. But God tells him in Genesis 15:4 that “your very own son shall be your heir.”

This is where the story takes a turn for the worse.

Abraham and Sarah decided to kick-start God’s promises on their own terms and by their own means. In Genesis 16, Abraham takes Sarah’s servant Hagar and has a child through her, perhaps thinking this is what God had in mind. This, of course, was a mistake. They were trying to bring God’s promises into reality through their own schemes. And Ishmael was the product of that.

But Ishmael was not God’s way. Even though Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah turned 90 and they still had no other child, God had a plan. Even though Abraham basically said in Genesis 17:18, “Look God, we already have Ishmael. Why don’t you just use him?” God says in the next verse:

“No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. …”

Sure enough, Sarah miraculously did give birth to a son named Isaac. After about 25 years, God started to make His promises a reality. He didn’t give up on Abraham for producing an Ishmael, but He proved Himself faithful.

Giving Birth to Our Own “Ishmaels”

If you haven’t already, you will be tempted to give birth to your own “Ishmael.” Ishmael represents any way that we have tried to bring about God’s promises by our own methods.

Maybe you’ve grown impatient or tired of waiting for God to act. Maybe you haven’t seen any progress, and so you’ve tried to take matters into your own hands. You may have bought into the saying “God helps those who help themselves.” And so maybe you think you just need to get the ball rolling in order for God to start working.

Sometimes we just don’t trust God enough, and so we try to take His good promises in our own way. So along comes an Ishmael. It might be a car, a house, a painful memory or a broken relationship that represents you trying to do things your own way. These “Ishmaels” are not God’s way, but they are now part of your life.

So the question is, what are we supposed to do with these “Ishmaels”?

For Abraham’s Ishmael, conflict arose between him and the covenant child Isaac (Genesis 21:8-11). He wasn’t sure what to do with Ishmael, but God told him to send the boy away (vv. 12-14). Ishmael and Isaac could not coexist.

What do we do with our “Ishmaels”?

We have to send the Ishmaels in our life away. They cannot coexist with God’s promises for our life. Trusting God and living in His faithfulness means letting go of our Ishmaels. You might be clinging sinfully to your Ishmael for security. But you have to lay it aside, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

How do you know if you have an Ishmael in your life? If it takes your eyes off Jesus Christ, if it was done with your eyes on something else. Let go of your Ishmael and hold onto your Isaac. Living in the truth of God’s promises means letting go of your Ishmael.