The Almighty Most High God and His Word: Part 2

Copyright © 2014 Angela Marshall.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-5738-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5739-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5884-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014918851

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/05/2014

Contents

Chapter Seven Ishmael, The Son Of Abraham

Chapter Eight The History Of Israel And Judah (Jews)

Chapter Nine The Church Of God

Chapter Ten Prophecies Of The Last Days

Chapter Eleven Expectations

Chapter Twelve The Old And The New Jerusalem

Chapter Thirteen Answers And Insights

Chapter Fourteen The Gospel

Chapter Fifteen Who Is Receiving Your Praise?

THE ALMIGHTY MOST HIGH GOD AND HIS WORD

Part 2

The Almighty Most High God and His Word consists of fifteen chapters and over six hundred pages; therefore it seemed necessary to divide the book into Part 1 and Part 2 merely for your convenience. We hope that you will be able to access Part 1 for your enlightenment if you so desire. Here is a preview of Part 1 chapters one to six.

Chapter 1– An Overview of the Bible

This chapter seeks to give the reader an overview of the Bible, the Living Word of God. It is hoped that you will be truly informed as to the composition of this ‘Great Book’.

Chapter 2–Highlights of the Bible

This chapter highlights some of the contents of the books of the Bible in order to heighten your awareness of the Word of God.

Chapter 3–The Almighty Most High God

This chapter seeks to give some measure of understanding of the Almighty Most High God, His person, His character, His plans and purposes as recorded in the Word of God.

Chapter 4–The Life of Jesus (Yeshua)

This chapter highlights the life of Jesus (Yeshua) before His human birth, His human life, and after His human life, as recorded in the Word of God.

Chapter 5–Angels and Devils

The world in which we live is not only the abode of human beings, but also of other active beings called angels who move about in it. There are some who live to serve God and others who serve the devil, who is a fallen angel. We will examine both of them.

Chapter 6–The Story of Man

This chapter gives the story of man, from his creation to his final destiny–life with God or life with the devil–as recorded in the Word of God.

Continue reading from Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

ISHMAEL, THE SON OF ABRAHAM

This chapter tells the story of Ishmael the son of Abraham. (You will observe that the history of Israel and the history of Ishmael have the same beginning.) This history was written by Moses, the Prince and Prophet who wrote the Book of Genesis between 1446 and 1406 B.C, nearly six hundred years after the facts. Some of the information on this specific topic is taken verbatim from other topics. This is done deliberately to accommodate the very selective reader.

Who Was Ishmael?

Ishmael was the first son of Abraham, by the Egyptian surrogate mother, Hagar. She was given to Abraham as a female servant by the Pharaoh of Egypt, who had taken Abraham’s wife into his house; [Abraham said that Sarah was his sister (Genesis12:15-19)]. She then became Sarah’s maid. Here is Ishmael’s story from the pages of the Word of God.

The Call of Abram

Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 12:1-3).

It is very likely that God called Abram when he was about sixty years old, (after the death of Noah) to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to the land of Canaan. He left there with his father and nephew, reached Haran and dwelt there. When he was seventy-five years old he departed from Haran with his nephew, his barren wife, Sarai, and the possessions which they had gathered, and came into the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:4-6).

God Knew Abraham

Look at what God said about Abraham:

For I know him, that he would command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him (Genesis 18:19 KJV).

And he believed in the Lord… (Genesis 15:6).

…Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws (Genesis 26:5).

How did Abraham know so much about God? Abraham was about sixty years old when Noah died three hundred and fifty years after the flood; therefore he would have learnt the way of God from righteous Noah. Wherever Abraham went he built altars to God and worshipped.

Abram Was Promised Seed

Now Abram’s wife was barren, yet God promised him that in him (his seed) all the families of the earth would be blessed. And Abraham said:

‘Lord, God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? …You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir.’…the Word of the Lord came to him saying ‘This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.’ Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:2-6).

God’s Covenant with Abram

The Lord made a covenant with Abram and clearly showed him all the land that he would inherit, and said:

…To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt, to the great river, the River Euphrates–the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites (Genesis 15:18-21).

Abram knew exactly what God had given him; there was no doubt in his mind, because it was by covenant.

Hagar Is Given To Abram

After ten years of living in the land of Canaan, Abram was yet childless; his wife was old and barren. Sarai had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar, so she said to Abram:

‘…See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai…took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband to be his wife…. So he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes (Genesis 16:2-4).

The young Hagar looked down on her old barren mistress, because from the natural standpoint it was impossible for Sarai to have children.

Hagar Is Banished

Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me. So Abram said to Sarai, ‘Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.’ And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence (Genesis 16:5-6).

Hagar is reassured by God who sees her situation:

Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.’

The Angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand… I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude… Behold you are with child, and you shall have a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.

He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren’ (Genesis 16:7-12).

Hagar Bears Abram’s Son, Ishmael

So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son… Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael… (Genesis 16:15-16).

Now, Abram was quite satisfied that he had the child God promised: a child from his own bowels. Abram consented to the marital arrangement by taking Hagar as his second wife. It was the custom of the time that when a wife was unable to have children, she could turn to a surrogate mother to carry and bring forth a child on her behalf. Hagar would be the birth mother, but the child immediately became the child of Sarai and Abram; she had no claims to it; this made Ishmael the rightful and only heir to Abram’s possessions by law.

God Had His Plan

Surrogacy was man’s custom, not God’s idea nor His ideal. God does not operate man’s customs to carry out His fixed purposes and plans. When God called Abram there was a specific thought on His mind; that was:

In your Seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 22:18).

God was looking the future, when a son of Abraham would come forth and cause all nations of the earth to be blessed. Therefore you can conclude that the nations were living a life of curse. God has a set time and a set way to bring about His purposes, which may seem like foolishness to man (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Chapter 4 ‘The Life of Jesus (Yeshua)’, Chapter 6 ‘The Story of Man’, and Chapter 8 ‘The History of Israel and Judah (Jews)’ give details of the curse and the Seed to bring the blessing. However, we will highlight a few points as found in Genesis chapters 1-3:

• The Almighty Most High God created Adam and gave him instructions in the way of life and the way of death.

• The man through his wife chose to disobey God, and obey the serpent–Satan the devil (the deceiver, liar, thief, murderer and destroyer)–therefore he became detached from God, the giver of life and became attached to Satan; the source of death.

• He then started the human family based on the qualities of the devil–hatred, confusion, envy, jealousy, war and strife; which brought fear, sickness, disease, sorrow and death–He chose the life of the curse rather than the life of blessing. (Do you see these conditions all around you and in you?)

In addressing the serpent God said:

… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15).

This is what God was referring to when he spoke to Abram. Through Abraham and down through his descendants a Seed would come forth, that would destroy the power of the devil over man. This is the man Yeshua (Jesus)–the Messiah, God, the Word made flesh (John 1:1, 14)–who in God’s time came to earth and paid the death penalty for man’s sin, which came from Adam’s disobedience.

God Visits Abram at Ninety-Nine

When Abram was ninety-nine God appeared to him and talked with him:

As for Me, behold My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants …all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession… (Genesis 17:4-8).

Then God said something absolutely amazing to Abraham:

‘…As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her… she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.’

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’

And Abraham said to God ‘Oh, that Ishmael might live before you!’ Then God said: ‘NO, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him’ (Genesis 17:15-19).

Circumcision Instituted

At this time God also said to Abraham:

This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you, and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised… (Genesis 17:10-12).

So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house…every male among the men…and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised… and Ishmael, his son was thirteen years old… (Genesis 17: 23-25).

Ishmael Is Specially Blessed

All the time that God was talking to Abraham about Sarah’s son, he was continually thinking of his son and heir Ishmael, who was brought into covenant with God by circumcision: therefore God said to him:

And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year (Genesis 17:20-21).

What an abundant blessing God pronounced upon Ishmael, just as great as Israel’s blessing, except for the responsibility of bringing forth the SEED that would bless all nations, in God’s due time. The specific land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants pertained to the son of promise, Isaac, to whom Sarah would give birth.

Isaac Is Born and There Is Conflict

And the Lord visited Sarah as He said…for Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son… and he called his name Isaac (Genesis 21:1-3).

This is now the son, through whom Abraham’s descendants would carry forward the blessing, and bring forth the Seed, the son from ‘his own bowels’ which referred to Sarah’s bowels. God always speaks from His original design and not from man’s ideas. The man and woman become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Abraham learnt this the hard way.

When Isaac was weaned Abraham made a great feast for him:

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. Therefore she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.’

And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. But God said to Abraham ‘Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. Yet I also will make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed’ (Genesis 21:8-13).

What great conflict has come to Abraham’s life! After holding a much longed-for son in his bosom for thirteen years, he must now give him up. Despite having Isaac from his beloved wife, he is still bonded to Ishmael. Sarah had long since rejected Hagar as her maidservant and Ishmael as her legal son. Therefore she wanted them both out of her sight and out of her life. She was accepting no more disrespect.

Ishmael and His Mother Are Cast Out

Abraham is forced to cast out Hagar and his son:

So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs.

Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, ‘Let me not see the death of the boy’…and she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the Angel of the Lord called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, ‘What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand; for I will make him a great nation.’

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink (Genesis 21:14-19).

Notice that the casting out of Ishmael and his mother was confirmed in the New Testament part of the Bible. Moses wrote his story between 1446 and 1406 B.C in the book of Genesis. Paul, the apostle, confirmed this story in A.D 49 in the