Story of Ishmael and Isaac relationship and conflict

Abraham's child, Isaac, was born when his mother Sarah was 90 years old.

How could she have given birth at such the advanced age?

And the story of the struggle for the heir over Abraham's child is horrific.

For your information, there is also an article summarizing the life of Abraham.

If you would like to know more, please take a look at this page.

Introduction of the characters

Name	Person Description
Abraham	The first prophet of mankind whose faith in God is stronger than others. Basically, he consults God for everything when he is in doubt.
Sarah	Abraham's wife. When she gets angry, she is very sanctioning. She gives birth to Isaac at the age of 90.
Isaac	Abraham and Sarah's only son. He becomes Abraham's successor according to a divine decree.
Hagar	Sarah's female slave. She gives birth to Ishmael by becoming Abraham's concubine.
Ishmael	Born to Hagar and Abraham. There are some incidents before and after his birth.
Keturah	Marries Abraham after Sarah's death. She gives birth to six children.

Avraham is not blessed with children

Abraham and Sarah were not blessed with children for many years.

When Sarah was 75 years old, she gave up childbearing and encouraged Abraham to take Hagar, his female slave, as a concubine.

At that time, there was a custom in this region that a barren wife could give a female slave to her husband, and a child born to her side could be her own child.

Hagar conceives Ishmael

Hagar succeeded in conceiving Abraham's child as Sarah had hoped.

At the time, Abraham was probably 85 years old.

He became a father at 85.

It is amazing, isn't it?

By the time the child comes of age, he is already over 100 years old.

It was good that Hagar became pregnant, but there was one thing that Sarah miscalculated.

That is that Hagar's pregnancy made her look down on Sarah, her rightful wife.

A woman who cannot bear a child, especially a son, is considered a failure, even if she is the rightful wife.

But Sarah is not the kind of woman to cry alone here.

I'm not kidding!

I don't know if she said that or not, but anyway, she consulted with her husband, Abraham...or rather, she complained frankly.

And then Abraham said,

I will not interfere, so do as you please.

A husband who does not make any move himself, even though his wife is in trouble.

Then I'll do as I please!

And she bullied Hagar back.

She's so strong.... Too strong, Sara.

I don't know exactly what kind of revenge Sarah took, but she bullied Hagar so thoroughly that Hagar run away due to Sarah's abuse.

Hagar must have been driven into a corner by running away while pregnant.

An angel appeared to Hagar while she was on the run from Sarah.

He promised that Hagar would have many offspring and told her to return to Sarah.

Perhaps this prophecy was effective, Hagar returned to Sarah and safely gave birth to a boy named Ishmael.

Sarah becomes pregnant with Isaac

Well, Ishmael, the heir, was born safely to Hagar, and we will think that this would bring peace, but it didn't work out that way.

When Ishmael was 13 years old, God appeared to Abraham and promised:

Abraham would have many descendants.
That they would be given the land of Canaan.
That his son Isaac, who would be born to Sarah, would inherit the land.

Even though Abraham believed in God more than anything else, he was already over 90 years old at that time, and Sarah was also over 80 years old.

So Abraham prayed to God for the fulfillment of the promise about Ishmael, who had already been born.

The promise about Isaac will be fulfilled.

But God still reminded him that it would be so.

True to God's word, Sarah miraculously conceived Isaac when she was 90 years old, and the meaning of the name Isaac is "he laughs".

I never thought I would have a child.

It is said that this name was derived from Sarah's act of laughing in her heart.

Drive out Hagar and Ishmael

The birth of Isaac, the son of Sarah's rightful wife, brought to light the obstacle in Sarah's way.

It was Hagar and Ishmael, the concubines.

In the past and present, there has been a lot of bloodshed in the battle for the heir, and it is well depicted here as well.

The story seems to have started when Sarah saw Ishmael teasing Isaac.

Sarah then made a request to Abraham.

Hey, you. I want you to expel Hagar and Ishmael from our clan.

Even Abraham was surprised at this.

Abraham, troubled, consulted with God about this.

And there, to his surprise, God told him that

Grant Sarah's wish.

After receiving such the message, Abraham gave Hagar food and banished her.

This left Hagar and Ishmael wandering in the desert.

When they ran out of water and finally had no choice but to die, an angel appeared and saved them with his blessing.

Sarah dies at the age of 127

Sarah, who had done everything in her power to make Isaac her heir, reached the end of her life.

Sarah died at the age of 127, but Abraham lived to be 175.

So Abraham lived about 50 years after Sarah died.

This is where a woman named Keturah comes into play.

Keturah is the so-called third wife of Abraham.

She gave birth to six children.

The names of each of them are as follows:

Zimran
Jokshan
Medan
Midian
Ishbak
Shua

At first, Abraham was so worried about not being able to have children, but now he is the father of eight.

But the wonderful thing about Keturah, his third wife, is that she did not fight for his heirs.

Many people think of the after wife as a woman who is blinded by her inheritance, but Keturah was a woman who was always there for Isaac.

Abraham had a huge inheritance, but he gave gifts to children other than Isaac as part of his life and sent them to the east.

Abraham's 175-year life ended with Isaac inheriting all the remaining property.

Incidentally, Isaac was once almost killed by his father, Abraham.

If you would like to know more about the story of "Binding of Isaac," in which he was almost killed by his father Abraham,

Please read this article.

In addition to this story, I also have articles that summarize various stories from the Old Testament.

If you'd like to read more, please click here!