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Page 8
Now Sarah had a maid named Hagar, an Egyptian woman, who ran away from
her mistress, and saw an angel by a well, and afterward came back to
Sarah. She, too, had a child and his name was Ishmael. So now there were
two boys in Abraham's tent, the older boy, Ishmael, the son of Hagar,
and the younger boy, Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah.
Ishmael did not like the little Isaac, and did not treat him kindly.
This made his mother Sarah very angry, and she said to her husband:
"I do not wish to have this boy Ishmael growing up with my son Isaac.
Send away Hagar and her boy, for they are a trouble to me."
And Abraham felt very sorry to have trouble come between Sarah and
Hagar, and between Isaac and Ishmael; for Abraham was a kind and good
man, and he was friendly to them all.
But the Lord said to Abraham, "Do not be troubled about Ishmael and his
mother. Do as Sarah has asked you to do, and send them away. It is best
that Isaac should be left alone in your tent, for he is to receive
everything that is yours. I the Lord will take care of Ishmael, and will
make a great people of his descendants, those who shall come from him."
So the next morning Abraham sent Hagar and her boy away, expecting them
to go back to the land of Egypt, from which Hagar had come. He gave them
some food for the journey, and a bottle of water to drink by the way.
The bottles in that country are not like ours, made of glass. They are
made from the skin of a goat. One of these skin-bottles Abraham filled
with water and gave to Hagar.
And Hagar went away from Abraham's tent, leading her little boy. But in
some way she lost the road, and wandered over the desert, not knowing
where she was, until all the water in the bottle was used up; and her
poor boy in the hot sun and the burning sand had nothing to drink. She
thought that he would die of his terrible thirst; and she laid him down
under a little bush; and then she went away, for she said to herself:
[Illustration: _In some way she lost the road_]
"I cannot bear to look at my poor boy suffering and dying for want of
water."
And just at that moment, while Hagar was crying, and her boy was
moaning with thirst, she heard a voice saying to her:
"Hagar, what is your trouble? Do not be afraid. God has heard your cry
and the cry of your child. God will take care of you both, and will make
of your boy a great nation of people."
It was the voice of an angel from heaven; and then Hagar looked, and
there, close at hand, was a spring of water in the desert. How glad
Hagar was as she filled the bottle with water and took it to her
suffering boy under the bush!
[Illustration: _Learned to shoot with the bow and arrow_]
After this Hagar did not go down to Egypt. She found a place where she
lived and brought up her son in the wilderness, far from other people.
And Ishmael grew up in the desert and learned to shoot with the bow and
arrow. He became a wild man, and his children after him grew up to be
wild men also. They were the Arabians of the desert, who even to this
day have never been ruled by any other people, but wander through the
desert, and live as they please. So Ishmael came to be the father of
many people, and his descendants, the wild Arabians of the desert, are
living unto this day in that land.
THE STORY OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC
You remember that in those times of which we are telling, when men
worshipped God, they built an altar of earth or of stone, and laid an
offering upon it as a gift to God. The offering was generally a sheep,
or a goat, or a young ox--some animal that was used for food. Such an
offering was called "a sacrifice."
But the people who worshipped idols often did what seems to us strange
and very terrible. They thought that it would please their gods if they
would offer as a sacrifice the most precious living things that were
their own; and they would take their own little children and kill them
upon their altars as offerings to the gods of wood and stone, that were
no real gods, but only images.
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