Call Me Ishmael

Call me Ishmael. Herman Melville opens his classic Moby Dick with these haunting words, classified as one of the most memorable opening sentences in the literary world.

Reading Chapter 2 of The Story we read about Ishmael. God promised Abraham that he would become the father of a great nation, children more numerous than the stars in the sky. A problem arose, however, at least in the minds of Abraham and Sarah. After waiting for 15 years this incredibly unbelievable promise still hasn’t occurred. At 85 and 75, the promise was becoming not only unbelievable, but more and more improbable. God was obviously busy, or had forgotten the promise. Sarah calls Abraham with this brilliant idea, “Hey, let’s give God a hand and get this ball moving. Abraham, sleep with my servant girl, Hagar.” I can imagine Abraham just shrugged his shoulders and with a big grin said, “Well, if you think its best…OK.” 

How’d that work out for them? Hagar gave birth to Ishmael and immediately the boy was an outcast. Sarah was jealous (go figure) and sent momma and baby out to the desert with a canteen. God, hearing Hagar’s sobbing, sends them back to Abraham where they remained until the birth of Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac. Once again the ugly head of jealousy raises and once again Hagar and Ishmael are in the desert this time never to return.

God promised Abraham that his offspring would be a great nation. Although Ishmael was not part of the plan, he was part of the promise. God told Hagar that Ishmael’s descendants would also be more numerous to count but Ishmael was going to have a serious character flaw; he and his descendants would be against everyone and everyone would be against them, even family. In other words, Ishmael would not play well with others. (Genesis 16)

Fast forward the calendar 4000 years. Over the past week we have watched, read or heard about the protests throughout the Middle East aimed toward the west, primarily the USA. With all this happening, be mindful of one very important historical fact; Ishmael does not play well with others…not even his own brothers.

There is a very important lesson to be learned from the story of Ishmael. In God’s Upper Story, His plan is well laid out and if we are obedient and stick with the plan, things will go swimmingly. But, when we decide that maybe God is going too slow, or has forgotten or needs our assistance, things begin to go south. The course deviation may be ever so slight, and possibly unnoticeable, but over time, that small, insignificant deviation from God’s plan, unless corrected, gets further and further off course.

All of us get off course.  All of us deviate from God’s plan, but here’s the good news. All of us can very easily get back on course; it just takes recognition of where we strayed and commitment to get back on the path.

While watching the news and you hear about Middle East uprisings, Arab Spring or Iran with a nuke, remember that one, seemingly small and understandable miscalculation, over a long period of time is responsible for all of the mayhem. 

Call me Ishmael. Oh, and one more thing, I don’t like ANYONE!