Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

THE NATION OF ISHMAEL, Part 2

This entry was posted on 03-04-2010 and is filed under STUDIES IN GENESIS.

More from my book The Biblical Roots of Islam (5th printing, 2009). Isaac had two sons: Jacob (later called Israel) and Esau. Although Esau (like Ishmael) was the first-born son, God's plan was for Jacob to receive the promise made to Abraham and Isaac. Esau was filled with bitterness and hatred. He became a strong ally of Ishmael, an alliance that was made stronger when he married Mahalath, Ishmael's daughter (Gen. 28:9). Esau also married two Hittite women (Gen. 26:34). Jim Gerrish notes: "Like Ishmael, Esau moved into the desert in the area of Mt. Seir, or Edom, to the east of the Dead Sea. There he became the progenitor of multitudes of other Arab peoples. These Arabs were joined by the children of Lot, Abraham's nephew, in making up many of the inhabitants of today's Jordan, as well as other parts of the Arab world (Gen. 19:37,38). The bitter rivalry between all these desert peoples and Israel is recorded throughout the Old Testament. Time and time again they came in fury and bitter hatred to destroy Israel. Bible history is replete with the attacks of the Edomites, Ammonites, Ishmaelites, Moabites, and hordes of other Arabs against the seed of Issac and Jacob" (Islam, the Religion of the Other Brother).

Moab and Ammon, of course, were the sons of Lot, Abraham's nephew, the products of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38). The descendants of the six sons of Abraham by Keturah [his second wife, Gen. 25:6] moved east and became nomadic tribes living in what is today called Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and other North African nations. The stage is now set for the Arab-Israeli conflict.