Abraham's Death and His Descendants

Story: Abraham’s death and his descendants

Passages: Genesis 25:1-18

Characters: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael

Summary: Abraham took another wife and had a bunch of children through her. Abraham died at the age of 170. He was buried with Sarah by Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael’s descendants are listed.

Notes: Abraham took another wife and had a bunch of children. However, he knew that God’s promise was through Isaac and he left everything to Isaac. I find it interesting that Isaac and Ishmael both buried Abraham. Ishmael had been out of the picture for years. Obviously his relationship with Abraham was much stronger than his relationship with Sarah. He put aside his differences with Isaac and returned to bury his father. I wonder if Ishmael moved back in the vicinity of Abraham after Sarah died. I also find it interesting that after Abraham died, God blessed Isaac. God didn’t allow any doubts that His promise to Abraham would be through Isaac. Abraham knew that the promise would be through Isaac and he sent his other sons away into other lands before he died. This meant that there would not be sibling rivalry over who would own the land. It also continued to solidify the belief that the promise would be fulfilled through Isaac and not a different son. Ishmael had 12 sons. This fulfilled the promise in Genesis 17 that 12 princes would come from Ishmael. We read here about Ishmael’s death. The final verse of this passage is translated a few different ways in different translations. It can mean he lived in strife with his kinsmen, or it can mean he died among his kinsmen. I prefer the former. The Hebrew word used here implies conflict and violence. If the word was supposed to just mean that he died, the normal word for death would have been used. Instead a word was used which communicated that Ishmael was seen as inferior by his kinsmen. Once again, we see the story of a character who is not in the line of Jesus end quickly so we can get back to the main character, Isaac in this case.

Questions: Did Ishmael and Isaac get along at this point? How did Ishmael make it in time to bury Abraham? Why did Abraham feel the need to marry another woman? What family did she come from?

Lessons: There are honestly not too many lessons here.