I’m sure these two boys never thought people would be using them as an object lesson 4000 years later. But we do!
Normally two eyes are better than one, but in Abraham’s household they spell “I” trouble, and by that we mean I-saac and Ish-mael. Two boys claim Abraham’s line. Normally the older son would be the heir, but God had something to say about that! When the Angel of the Lord spoke to Ishmael’s mother, he described the future of the boy she was expecting: “He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (Gen 16:12). Another warlike leader in this region was not what God was looking for to head up His new nation. Almost immediately we see hints of the friction that still exists between the Arabs and Jews, the people groups from Ishmael and Isaac. Sarah right away observed Ishmael scoffing his little half-brother. Interestingly, the word “scoffing” is the root of the word Isaac, or laughter! He wasn’t laughing with him, but at him! Sarah said to her husband, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son” (v 11). When we come to Galatians 4 in the New Testament, we see an allegory that uses these two boys and their mothers to teach a vital lesson. “Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic” (vv 22-24). Ishmael came by human effort, and, like those who try to earn God’s salvation, they do not qualify. But Isaac, the son of promise, received God’s blessing simply based on His word. So it is today. You can’t become an heir of God’s blessings by a combination of works and grace either. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8, KJV).