“Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham.” So begins the children’s song that my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson loves to sing.
As these words are being written, many of the sons of Abraham in the Middle East are busy killing each other. Daughters, too. When a teen-age Palestinian girl recently committed suicide as a Muslim “martyr,” and murdered a teen-age Jewish girl with the same bomb-blast, President George Bush was prompted to observe sadly, “The future itself is dying.”
It’s been a long time since the days of Ishmael, considered to be the progenitor of today’s Arabic people, and Isaac, from whom Jewish people are descended. Both were Abraham’s sons, and at least in that sense of the word they laid the groundwork for today’s Mid-east turmoil.
The Bible has some harsh words for Ishmael. Even before his birth, an angel told his mother he would be a wild donkey of a man, at odds with everyone and living in hostility toward all his brothers” (Genesis 16:12). Subsequent history seems to have confirmed the angel’s words.
These days we’re talking more about Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat than about their respective ancestors who did their quarreling several thousand years ago. But interestingly enough, it’s not necessary to be either Jewish or Arabic to be a child of Abraham. Even those of us without a drop of Abrahamic blood in our veins claim him as father. Here’s a far too brief account of how we came to be Abraham’s children.
Before the birth of either Ishmael or Isaac, God promised Abraham a son, and offspring as numerous as the stars. “Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
Abraham believed. God credited righteousness. It’s just that straightforward. And the Apostle Paul used this to explain the righteous relationship Christians have with God because of our faith in Jesus Christ. “[Abraham] is the father of all who believe. . . . He is the father of us all” (See Romans 4, or better yet, all of Romans chapters 3-5.)
The children’s song is deeply and richly true: “Father Abraham had many sons / Many sons had father Abraham, / And I am one of them, / and so are you, / So let’s just praise the Lord.”