A few more insights about the jealousy and resentment between Ishmael and Isaac…

Those who know Scripture KNOW that the war between the Jews and Muslims (which has actually echoed down through the ages) began with the jealousy and resentment between Ishmael and Isaac …AND man's failure (in this case, Abraham’s wife, Sarah’s) to trust in YHWH (Yahweh)!

Take a look at how things unfolded:

In Genesis 15 we see our first Patriarch Abraham complaining to YHWH that he had no heirs to pass an inheritance on to. (Please read Genesis 15:1-5)  Some time passed and in Genesis 16 we see Abraham and his wife Sarah panicking about not having an heir yet, and so they decided (at the urging of Sarah) to take matters into their own hands and have Abraham sleep with his wife's pagan/Egyptian servant Hagar. The result of that union was a son they named Ishmael.

Now, take note of this:

In Genesis 16:13-16 the Angel of the YHWH told Hagar (who resented the fact she had conceived) that her son Ishmael would live and end up being "...a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers."

(Who does that sound like in today’s world? Sounds like the behavior of the terrorists deeply rooted in that so-called “Religion of Peace” who like to start wars and behead anyone they considers “infidels”…)

Ishmael - the son of the Egyptian slave woman - is the father of the Arab nations, most of whom today are Muslim!

When Abraham (then still known as Avram before God changed His Name) was 99 years old, YHWH appeared and made a covenant with him, promising to make Avraham the father of many nations - which meant at some point he would have another heir and that that other heir, and NOT Ishmael, would be the one with whom YHWH would make his next covenant. (Read Genesis 17, verses 1- 8 and 15-25.)

In Genesis 17:1- 8 we see YHWH making a covenant with Avram: "I am establishing my covenant between me and you, along with your descendants after you, generation after generation, as an everlasting covenant, to be God for you and for your descendants after you. 8 I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now foreigners, all the land of Kena'an, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God."

(While reading the verses above, please NOTE that Isaac was born AFTER the covenant of circumcision...which was never, ever negated. ALL men who belong to ADONAI, Jew and Gentile, must be circumcised!)

Conflict between the two sons of Abraham began from the very start. Genesis 21:9 says the conflict began just after Isaac was weaned: "Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking."

Galatians 4 tells us that Ishmael had been "born according to the flesh" while Isaac had been "born according to the promise". Isaac replaced Ishmael as the favored son and heir. This, of course, made Ishmael jealous and bitter. As a result, he mocked and disdained his half-brother. Eventually the situation became so intolerable that Abraham's wife Sarah demanded that Ishmael and his Egyptian concubine mother, Hagar, be expelled permanently from Abraham's family.

But YHWH loved Hagar and her son, and had mercy upon them. He promised Hagar that her son would beget twelve princes who would become a great nation. Ishmael then went to live in the wilderness region of Hejaz in what became known as the Arabian Peninsula. He indeed had twelve patriarchal sons who became associated with the peoples known as Midianites, Edomites, Egyptians and Assyrians. The Bible and Islamic tradition both agree that Ishmael became the leader of all the great desert peoples of the Middle East.

This jealousy and resentment between Sarah and Hagar and their sons Isaac and Ishmael created an unparalleled hate which has set off wars and atrocities for four thousand years. It was the title deed to the land of Israel, which God promised to Abraham's lineage, that has been the source of the friction between the Jews and the Arabs right up to the present day.

Muslims believe the Jews changed and distorted the Bible in order to establish themselves as the heirs of Abraham's Covenant blessings. However, they fail to explain how the “New Testament” (which I prefer to refer to as “Renewed Covenant”) clearly teaches that the Covenant was made with Isaac and his descendants.

According to Islamic tradition, Abraham had eight sons rather than two who were reared in Mecca, not Hebron. They insist it was Ishmael, not Isaac, whom Abraham was about to sacrifice on Mount Moriah when an angel stopped him. According to the Koran, the Abrahamic covenant, with its promises - including the title deed to the land of Israel - was passed down to the Arabs through Ishmael, rather than to the Jews through Isaac.

If one believes that the Old and the Renewed Covenant were written under the inspiration of the Spirit of YHWH, then there is no question that Israel is the Promised Land of the Jews. God's words to Abraham in Genesis are some 2,500 years older than the creation of Islam (whose "prophet" Mohammed was a murdering, thieving pedophile who "married" a seven year old child - but that's another story).

The bottom line is, YHWH fulfilled His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael. And He is about to use the consequential warfare between the two brothers in order to bring about His "end time" scenario....