There can be a soap opera quality to some of the Bible stories. The sibling rivalry of Isaac and Ishmael has played out again and again in history. Sarah said, “No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac!” A child having “daddy issues” is a perennial in human relations. Abraham was greatly distressed at Ishmael being disinherited but he went along with it. This little family drama has had historical ramifications as well. The Arabic peoples claim Ishmael as their progenitor and the tension between them and the children of the promise embodied in Isaac, the Jewish people, still exists four thousand years later. Today might be the right day to heal some breach in our own families.
JUNE302021
By Church Staff
