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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Abraham had taken another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Ashurites, the Letushites and the Leummites. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanok, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.
Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.
This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Sarah’s slave, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham.
These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps.
Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people. His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them.
Genesis 25:1-18
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Abraham lived an amazing life. I don’t think there’s anyone who can dispute that.
Like a lot of conversion stories in the Bible, he started as a man who was not necessarily living for the Lord at first. Maybe this allows us to relate to him so well.
Growing up under the guidance of a pagan father, Terah, and living in Ur of the Chaldeans with his two brothers, Nahor and Haran, we don’t get a sense that there is anything particularly extraordinary about Abram, as he was known then. The scriptures tell us that Haran died before Nahor and Abram married with Nahor taking his deceased brother’s daughter, Milkah to be his bride. Abram married a woman named Sarai who we learn early on was “childless because she was not able to conceive” (Genesis 11:27-30).
After this, Terah “took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan” but they only made it as far as Harran, deciding to settle there. Abram and Nahor’s father would die there at the age of 205 (Genesis 11:31-32).
All this set the stage for God’s calling of Abram, a calling that carried the following promise:
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3
And with that, Abram did exactly what God asked him to do, all at the age of 75. In turn, God did all that He promised He would do because we know He never breaks a promise.
And so as we come to the opening 18 verses of chapter 25, a whopping thirteen full chapters since we started looking at Abraham, we come to his passing and learn a little more about the diversity of his descendants and the allocation of his inheritance. Look again at those words here:
Abraham had taken another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Ashurites, the Letushites and the Leummites. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanok, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.
Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.
This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Sarah’s slave, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham.
These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps.
Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people. His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them.
Here, we learn that Abraham took “another wife” after Sarah’s death, marrying a woman named Keturah. We don’t know much about her except for some confusion whether she was his wife or concubine, the latter being a woman who was either a slave or single with no men responsible for watching over her. The disparity arises because although Keturah is called Abraham’s wife here, she is referred to as his concubine in 1 Chronicles 1:32.
Regardless of her status, the scriptures do tell us she bore six children two of which led to the creation of the Ashurite and Midianite nations, both of which ended up being enemies of the Israelite people. Ultimately, the offspring of Keturah ended up becoming Arab tribes who lives east of Israel.
Remember Ishmael, the son that Abram had with Sarai’s Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, all because neither Abram or Sarai truly believed that God would make the way for the two of them to have a child?
Here, we find out what happened with him and his offspring, especially given that God had made this promise to Hagar before Ishmael was born:
The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” Genesis 16:10-12
At the location this message was delivered, we read this:
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. Genesis 16:13-14
Why go into this?
Because in a touch of real irony, we read in our scripture passage where Isaac ended up living near this well, Beer Lahai Roi, after his father Abraham’s death. We read where God blessed him there, just as he did Hagar.
As for Ishmael’s descendants, the scriptures tell us that he went onto have twelve sons and those sons were the progenitors and rulers of twelve tribes. We read where they all “settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur”, all Arab clans who went onto live “in hostility toward all the tribes related to them” which included the twelve tribes of Israel.
Well, we read about Abraham’s death in this passage, as he passed away “at a good old age” of “a hundred and seventy-five years”. The scriptures tell us that Isaac and Ishmael were both involved in his burial which took place in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre where Sarah had been laid to rest. You’ll remember that Abraham had purchased this from “Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite” (Genesis 23).
As for Abraham’s inheritance, we learn that he “left everything he owned to Isaac” but still provided “gifts to the sons of his concubines” before sending “them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east”.
Yes, Abraham lived a very fascinating life as he indeed did become the father of the Israelite nation. Having ensured his son Isaac had a wife (Rebekah), we could die in peace knowing that his lineage would carry on and in tomorrow’s message, we’ll see how that happened in the way of Isaac and Rebekah’s two sons, Jacob and Esau.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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