Hagar was the Egyptian maid Sarai gave to her husband Abram to by her, obtain children (Genesis 16:2-3).
Hint: Contrary to what Paul writes in Galatians 4:22, whether born of a slave woman or a free woman, by Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be either blessed or cursed (Genesis 12:3).
When Hagar conceived, she became arrogant toward her mistress. After undergoing a beating, she ran away (vv 4-6); but the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, and commanded her to submissively return to Sarai. Before she did however, grasp what the Lord told her:
Hagar could not believe that she remained alive, after seeing and speaking with the Lord (v 13).
Tip: In Galatians 4:22-26, Paul gives an allegory in which he compares those who desire to be under law to Hagar the slave woman, alluding to that Sarah the free woman, is the mother of those who are above it. The truth of the matter is that the Lord did not make His covenant with the free woman who was above the law, but rather with the slave woman who was under it.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born (vv 15-16). When he was ninety-nine, the Lord God established an everlasting covenant with him, promising not only to be the God of his descendants, but also to give them the land of Canaan after him, provided the males in his household, whether Hebrews or foreign slaves, keep the sign of the covenant in their flesh, forever (Genesis 17:6-14).
Now, though Ishmael was Abraham's first descendant, he was not to inherit the land of Canaan. Not because he was the son of the slave woman, mind you, but because the faithful God who keeps His promises, vowed that Abraham's son from Sarah would be his heir, long before Ishmael was born (Genesis 15:4).
As for Ishmael, Almighty God promised to:
Meditate: Knowing ahead of time that Ishmael was not to be his heir (v 21), why did Abraham circumcise him anyway? (v 26).
Ishmael was fourteen when Isaac was born. But approximately three years later, when Sarah saw him teasing Isaac at his weaning party, she asked Abraham to get rid of him and his mother, which broke his heart (Genesis 21:1-11).
Nevertheless, early the next morning, and at the command of God, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away with food and a canteen of water (vv 12-14). But, as they were wandering aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba, the water was gone. Not wanting to watch her son die, Hagar left him beneath a bush, and went off to sit about a hundred yards against him (vv 15-16).
God heard Ishmael weeping, so He called to Hagar from heaven, and asked her to hold him with her hand, for He will make him a great nation. Later, He opened her eyes to see a well of water (vv 17-19).
Think: According to Revelation 12:15-17, whom will the Lord be protecting in the wilderness; the children of the slave woman who are under law, or those of the free woman who is above it? When are you going to wake up from your Pauline dream, to face the nightmare that awaits you?
The Lord was with Ishmael who took a wife from the land of Egypt, and lived in the wilderness of Paran (vv 20-21). He went back to the land of Canaan to bury his father Abraham (Genesis 25:9), and died an expert of the bow, at the age of 137 (v 17).
Fact: As promised by Almighty God, Ishmael did indeed father twelve sons: Nabaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah (Genesis 25:13-15; 1 Chronicles 1:28-31).
Ishmael's descendants dwelt to the east of Egypt (Genesis 25:18). They were the spice traders who bought Joseph for twenty shekels of silver (Genesis 37:25, 28), then sold him to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard (Genesis 39:1).
Nabaioth, Ishmael's older son is mentioned in Isaiah 60:7 as a tribe whose rams shall minister to Israel in acceptance, when at the end time, the Lord shall glorify His glorious house. Kedar is one of the desert cities who shall sing praises to the Lord. Its princes were herd dealers (Isaiah 42:11; Ezekiel 27:21). Adbeel and Massa are mentioned in Assyrian sources as tribes that lived during the time of Tiglath-Pileser. A famous oasis and caravan center in northeastern Arabia was named after Tema. Dumah's name is identical with Adumatu, an oasis and fortress located in the Syrian desert. Mibsam and Mishmah settled at the southern borders of the Israeli tribe of Simeon. Jeture, Naphish, and Kadema are the Hagrites with whom Israel was at war (1 Chronicles 5:19). As for Hadad, the eighth son of Ishmael, all what is known of him is that in the Hebrew Bible, his name is Hadar.
Ishmael's descendants were active in King David's palace. While Jether the Ishmaelite was his brother-in-law (1 Chronicles 2:17), Obil the Ishmaelite was in charge of his camels (1 Chronicles 27:30).
The Midians, Amalekites, Edomites, Moabites, and Hagrites, desert tribes who associat themselves with Ishmael (Judges 8:24; Psalms 83:6-7), harassed Israel for many years during the times of the Judges.
Today, the Moslems who consider themselves descendants of Ishmael, are collaborating to fight against their brothers the Israelites. But while the Arabs will be fighting to redeem the land they hold belongs to their ancestor, the Palestinians who claim to have inhabited the land of Israrel long before Abraham, shall turn against them to restore it to themselves.
As the Lord told Hagar in Genesis 16:12, Ishmael was, and still is, a wild ass of a man.