God's Will for Ishmael

Oh that Ishmael might live before thee! Genesis 17-18

No study on the nations can be complete without a discussion of Ishmael and his descendants. The following words from God to his mother Hagar describe the condition of this man “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” However the prophecy made to his father is equally true, “I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.” Three of those rulers have names that are messages to the descendants of Ishmael Mishma, Dumah, and Massa, they mean, hear, keep silence, and bear. Matthew Henry draws a parallel with the names in the scripture found in James 1:19 “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”

Wild donkeys are not considered swift to hear. On website describes wild donkeys as “Swift and sure-footed in their rough, rocky habitat, they have been clocked at 50 kmph or 30 mph. Mature males defend large territories around 23 square kilometers in size, … Due to the size of these ranges, the dominant male cannot exclude other males. Rather, intruders are tolerated - recognized and treated as subordinates.

The devil has used the wild donkey type of characteristics and placed them in religious cloth the religion of Islam. Islam is a new religion on the world scene and was not associated with the children of Ishmael until Mohammed received his deceptive visions in 610 AD. Why do I call it a deceptive vision? Consider the Quran chapter 4:157 “That they said in boast, "We killed Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no certain knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not.” Compare this passage to 1 John 4:3. “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”
This donkey like characteristic now clothed and in religious garments and motivated by a spirit of antichrist creates scriptures like the following, “Sahih Muslim (1:33) The Messenger of Allah said: "I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah..." The last part is the Shahada, or profession of faith in Islam” This was never God’s will for the people of Ishmael.

God certainly wanted them to be a strong people. This strength of characteristic was captured by in the script from Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence when speaking Prince Feisal says, 'The desert is an ocean in which no oar is dipped' and on this ocean the Bedu go where they please and strike where they please. This is the way the Bedu have always fought. You're famed throughout the world for fighting in this way and this is the way you should fight now!” This strategy was sufficient to lead to the modern establishment of the modern state of Arabia when “Lawrence and some Arab chiefs with a few hundred of their tribesmen. Together they kill or capture some 1200 Turks at a cost of only two of their own lives.”

Why would God do this if he did not want to prosper the children of Ishmael? That prosperity can also not be dissociated with Christianity. If God’s desire is bless Ishmael do we believe he would send this people group to hell by the millions? Don’t believe the lies God is blessing Ishmael. “The Internet site aljazeera.net published an interview with Ahmad Al Qataani an important Islamic cleric said: “In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity." Consider this quote about the reduction of Islam in Africa, the home of the Ishmael in the last 100 hundred years.

“Islam used to represent, …, Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. …, in the non Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century. On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329,882,000. Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.” That is just Catholics, “since the era of decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s. According to recent figures from the World Christian Database, pentecostals now represent 12%, or about 107 million, of Africa's population of nearly 890 million people.”

Let God be true even if every man lies. When God says he is going to bless. He means he is going to bless. When Abraham calls out to God, let Ishmael live before thee, was he praying that he would live before him in a false religion? Of course not, remember the words of the scriptures. Revelations 7:9-10 “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:” “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Yes, Ishmael too. Praise Be To The Lord Jesus Christ!!!


http://www.ultimateungulate.com/perissodactyla/equus_asinus.html
http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/muhammad.html
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=326845
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/013-forced-conversion.htm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/quotes
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=58&HistoryID=aa06>rack=pthc#ixzz1T8CLOAJM

http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina31103.htm
http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina31103.htm
http://pewforum.org/Christian/Evangelical-Protestant-Churches/Overview-Pentecostalism-in-Africa.aspx