Dls Commentary

Introduction

#TODO

Genesis 1 - In the beginning…

Gen-01

…

Genesis 16 - Hagar and Ishmael

Gen-16

Hagar

• Hagar is Egyptian, and she is “a stranger who serves you”
• Stranger who was blessed in exile
• the Angel of the LORD instructs submission to affliction

Ishmael

• a wild Donkey
• the promise of freedom! a throwing off of slavery
• set free from the burden of Isaac
• the promise that “God is with him”

Ishmaelites in Scripture

• Ishmaelites become a nomadic tribe, settling on the margins, like a buffer between Israel and the nations
• Similarities between the Ishmaelites and Midianites (see: Moses and The Midianites)

Joseph and the Ishmaelites

• It’s the Ishmaelites who “rescue” Joseph and carry him to Egypt!
• Keeping Ishmael would steal renewal, and would have prevented Ishmael from rescuing Joseph

Genesis

v25

They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

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v26

Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

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v27

Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him.

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Other References

• Judges 8:24
• Psalm 83:6

A Flood Narrative

• A Flood Narrative because…
• Abraham is unable to “fix” Sarai’s cycles
• the promise arrives when she stops having her period (time has fixed her cycle)