What set Israel's children apart from Abraham's/Isaac's?
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:38 pm
Alright, first off, FYI: I'm a pretty resourceful guy, and the only questions that tend to roll around in my head long enough for me to want to extrovertedly inquire are admittedly theoretical; i.e., where the Bible doesn't consider the what-ifs like I wish it did; or curiosities, the likes of which are never clearly explained—where we're left only to speculate.
That being said... It strikes me as peculiar that God covenanted with all of Jacob's children, but wasn't willing to do so in previous generations. Israel's significance extended to ALL his offspring; i.e., the families of Israel's children formed a single, cohesive nation under God. Why wasn't this so in previous generations?
Despite their initial enmity, if Ishmael & Isaac, or Jacob & Esau had had it in them to fully reconcile and unify as Jacob's children did...do you suppose God's earthly people may have—rather than the Israel we've come to know—instead been named after Abraham/Isaac, and been comprised of the entirety of their offspring?
Abraham desperately wanted Ishmael to be an heir alongside Isaac, but Sarah was against it (and God took her side). And prior to this—a year before Isaac's birth—God gave Abraham assurances that Ishmael would be blessed and become a great nation, but that it would be with Isaac alone He would establish His covenant with. Then God left off speaking, and never explained His reasoning...
And then there's the whole issue of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob...and Isaac was tricked into conferring the greater blessing onto Jacob. The Biblical narrative never really, itself, appraises the true efficacy/portent of these events in the ultimate will of God—it just states that they occurred.
Also—this is highly conjectural—but I kind of suspect there may have always remained a residual enmity/bitter rivalry between Ishmael & Isaac and Jacob & Esau, and that may have had an influence on why God felt like choosing a single line in each of their generations.
Or maybe, with few exceptions, Ishmaelites & Edomites just weren't generally cut out to be God's covenant people, and were thus excluded. I mean, God even nearly wiped out Israel and started all over with Moses after the golden calf incident. And if God had thus made a new Abraham out of Moses, who knows what would have become of his children, or what their nation would have been called.
That being said... It strikes me as peculiar that God covenanted with all of Jacob's children, but wasn't willing to do so in previous generations. Israel's significance extended to ALL his offspring; i.e., the families of Israel's children formed a single, cohesive nation under God. Why wasn't this so in previous generations?
Despite their initial enmity, if Ishmael & Isaac, or Jacob & Esau had had it in them to fully reconcile and unify as Jacob's children did...do you suppose God's earthly people may have—rather than the Israel we've come to know—instead been named after Abraham/Isaac, and been comprised of the entirety of their offspring?
Abraham desperately wanted Ishmael to be an heir alongside Isaac, but Sarah was against it (and God took her side). And prior to this—a year before Isaac's birth—God gave Abraham assurances that Ishmael would be blessed and become a great nation, but that it would be with Isaac alone He would establish His covenant with. Then God left off speaking, and never explained His reasoning...
And then there's the whole issue of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob...and Isaac was tricked into conferring the greater blessing onto Jacob. The Biblical narrative never really, itself, appraises the true efficacy/portent of these events in the ultimate will of God—it just states that they occurred.
Also—this is highly conjectural—but I kind of suspect there may have always remained a residual enmity/bitter rivalry between Ishmael & Isaac and Jacob & Esau, and that may have had an influence on why God felt like choosing a single line in each of their generations.
Or maybe, with few exceptions, Ishmaelites & Edomites just weren't generally cut out to be God's covenant people, and were thus excluded. I mean, God even nearly wiped out Israel and started all over with Moses after the golden calf incident. And if God had thus made a new Abraham out of Moses, who knows what would have become of his children, or what their nation would have been called.