- Ishmael, The First Heir
a. Abraham and his wife Sarah were bar-
ren. In fact, Sarah was beyond normal
child-bearing years. So, when God
made the promise of additional
descendants, the couple laughed.
b. Abraham’s wife Sarah suggests that
he can perhaps father a son with the
Egyptian slave-girl, Hagar which
indeed he does. This leads to the
birth of Ishmael when Abraham is 86
years old.
c. Sarah insists that Hagar and Ishmael
be driven out of camp to wander in
the desert. “God was with the child,”
the account concludes, “and he grew
up and lived in the wilderness of
Pharan” (Gen. 21:20-21).
d. God formed another new covenant
with Ishmael: Ishmael and his
descendants would form a second
great nation: they were the Arabs.
e. But, this is not the end of Ishmael’s
story. Islamic tradition has it that
Abraham began a search to find Hagar
and his lost son. When he found them,
he and his son erected the Ka’ba (“the
Holy House”) in Mecca.
ABOUT THE KA’BA
The small building known as
the Ka’ba has had a tremen-
dous impact on history and reli-
gious tradition. The Ka’ba is the
building set down in the middle
of Mecca, toward which
Muslims face five times a day,
everyday, in prayer, since the
time of Prophet Muhammad
over 1,400 years ago.
The height of the Ka’ba is 39
feet, 6 inches and total size
comes to 627 square feet. The
inside room is 42.64 x 29.
feet and the walls are 3.28 feet
thick. The ceiling and roof are
two levels made out of wood.
They were later reconstructed
with teak which is capped with
stainless steel. The walls are all
made of stone. According to
Muslims, this small building has
been constructed and recon-
structed by Abraham, Ishmael
and Muhammad.LECTURE ONE