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Doctrinally we must repudiate the Ishmaels of our failures, but practically we may
have to shoulder our burdens and responsibilities to them. Thus the apostle did not
instruct a believing husband to put away his wife who may have still remained a pagan.
This would have brought the name of the Lord into disgrace. Abraham remembers his
responsibility regarding Ishmael. Rightly or wrongly, Abraham was his father, and he
pleads for Ishmael before the Lord. The Lord replied:--
"Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I
will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after
him. 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. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall
bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And He left off talking with him, and God
went up from Abraham" (Gen. 17: 19-22).
Ishmael should be blessed, but the covenant was in Isaac. Both Ishmael and Isaac
were circumcised, yet one was of the flesh, while the other was of promise. Isaac was
circumcised on the eighth day--the day of resurrection, whereas Ishmael was
circumcised in his thirteenth year, the number of rebellion.
Thus Abraham was instructed, when he set out upon his walk before God, that to be
perfect involved the putting off of the body of the flesh. Ishmael cannot inherit the
promises of the covenant. All must be of God and not of the flesh. Thus did Abraham
learn his first lesson when he was ninety years old and nine. Thus did he laugh the laugh
of faith when he believed that a child should be born to one a hundred years old.
The scriptures in setting forth the truth of perfection allow no room in connection with
it the flesh.