On many levels, this is a study that offers very little excitement and/or personal application. The purpose, however, is to trace the path of Ishmael's descendants until the Scriptures have nothing left to say. My hope is that you'll find the study easy to follow.

Historians and Bible students alike have, at times, pondered one or more of the following questions: Who were the descendants of Ishmael? Where did they go after they fled Abraham with a small flask of water? How is it that Ishmael ever became connected to Islam? These are the primary questions in play as we get started.

To begin, we must immediately address a somewhat provocative detail. According to Scripture, a great nation was promised to one of Abraham's sons. And this through twelve sons. Unfortunately, while most of us immediately jump to the twelve tribes of the Nation of Israel, this is not the "great nation" I'm referring.

Genesis 16 and 17 can be summed up like this: The Lord told Abraham that his descendants would be as the stars. Yet, the man had no children and his wife was quite "up there" in age. In order to achieve what he believed God had in mind, Abraham took it upon himself to bring Hagar, his handmaiden, into his chambers, get her pregnant, and hopefully usher in the fulfillment of God's intention. The offspring of that union was a boy named Ishmael. After Abraham does this, God makes clear that His hand cannot be forced and that this union of Abraham/Hagar was not His intention. On the contrary, the Lord God would bless Sarah in her old age so that she could conceive a boy named Isaac. From there, the story goes that Isaac was the beloved child of God; Ishmael was the forgotten child of a slave woman. Isaac would eventually father Jacob. Jacob would eventually have his name changed to Israel. And Israel would eventually have twelve sons and thereby twelve tribes to begin a great nation.

What makes this peculiar is that while Isaac is the child whose storyline is followed throughout the rest of the Old Testament (via 39 books devoted to the story of Israel), the Lord God does not treat Ishmael as a wicked stepchild. In fact, the Lord makes him a great promise:

"And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation." Genesis 17:20

In fact, by reading Genesis 17:20, we learn that Ishmael was promised twelve sons before Jacob was even on the scene (a man who went on to have the most famous "twelve sons"). Alas, we are now in a position to ask some obvious questions: Who were these twelve sons? Where did they go? Does Scripture allow us to trace their paths and lineage?

---

Next

---