An Atheistic Bible Study Of Genesis Chapter Twenty One – The Birth Of Isaac

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God has been promising Abraham and Sarah a son since Chapter fifteen. He finally makes good on that promise now Sarah is in her 90’s. Abraham names the boy Isaac as ordered by God, and circumcises the boy eight days after he is born. Sarah finds Isaac a great joy in her life (his name means laughter). When Isaac reaches weaning age, Abraham throws a party to celebrate, but Ishmael, Abraham’s son to Hagar, gets jealous and mocks Isaac. This offends Sarah who begs Abraham to kick Hagar and Ishmael out into the desert wilderness. Abraham is reluctant to do this but God assures him again that Hagar will go on to found a great nation, so Abraham gives in to Sarah and God’s wishes. He sends the pair out with just a single small water bottle between them. Lost in the desert, Hagar expects she and her son to die of thirst. Ishmael cries so loud that God turns up to see what’s wrong and creates a well-spring to provide the boy and mother with water. Over the years Ishmael becomes a great archer and hunter. His mother enter him into an arranged marriage to an Egyptian woman (un-named) while Ishmael lives in Paran. In a quite independent story arc in the same chapter, Abimilech, the king Abraham tricked into buying Sarah as a harem slave and took cattle from in compensation in the previous chapter, now returns. Abilmech has seen Abraham’s community grow to outnumber his own population in Gerar, and he fears Abraham might start a war that the Gerarians could not win. Abraham points out that Abilmech’s slaves have seized control of one of Abraham’s well-springs. In the interest of peace and denying knowledge of his siege, Abilmech orders the well to be returned to Abraham’s control. Abraham offers Abilmech seven lambs as a sign of his intention to honour a peace treaty with Abilmech. Abraham digs a new well at the site of the treaty signing and calls it Beersheba. The chapter ends by saying that Abraham resided in this land for a long time and for the first time the Bible refers to the region as the land of the Philistines (who will play an important role in future Bible stories, especially in The New Testament. While the second half of the story deals with a peace treaty between two rival tribal leaders and has no real reference to God, the first half sees god colluding in casting a woman and child into the blazing desert, totally underprepared and under-provisioned for their journey. That God saves them later is hardly honourable given that he and Abraham endangered them in the first place. God certainly likes providing well springs in these early chapters. Arthur Chappell