Unfortunately, when evangelical Christians view the hostility between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, many fatalistically shrug their shoulders and say, “The situation is hopeless. The Bible says that the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac will always hate each other.”
The Bible does not support this despairing and fatalistic perspective regarding the hostility between Arabs and Jews. Those who take this fatalistic view might be inadvertently supporting the continuation of Middle East conflict.
It is true that there is a genuine sense in which we can compare the hostility of modern Israel and the Arab/Muslim world as a “conflict between Isaac and Ishmael.” However, the basis of this hostility of Arabs and Jews towards each other isn’t genetic, but religious. Passages that are misunderstood to imply physical/genetic basis for their hostility are Genesis 16:12 and Genesis 25:18.
“He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Genesis 16:12 NIV).
“His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt, as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers” (Genesis 25:18).
But there are serious problems involved with identifying today’s Arabic-speaking people as “descendants of Ishmael,” or today’s Jews with “all their brothers.”
First, there is considerable confusion regarding the meaning of the term “Arab.” Arabs are generally considered to be people who speak Arabic as their native tongue. But the vast majority of Arabic-speaking people today speak Arabic as the result of the Islamic conquests of the seventh century. This vast group of Arabs comes from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Consequently, the ancient hostility that existed between the physical descendants of Ishmael and Isaac (approximately 1900 BC) has been diluted by centuries of intermarriage, exile, migration, and conquest.
Obviously, only a tiny portion of Arabs are physically descended from Ishmael. There is no physical basis for referring to the conflict between modern Israel and the modern Arab/Muslim world as a conflict between Isaac and Ishmael. However, while there is no physical basis for viewing it as a conflict between Isaac and Ishmael, there is a symbolic basis.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews tend to describe their modern opponents in biblical terms. They refer to them as “Amalek,” and they have referred to other enemies/competitors in other places with the same term.
Arabic-speaking Muslims, for their part, often claim to be the spiritual sons of Abraham through Ishmael by way of Mohammed. The Quran differs from the Bible in its description of the relationship of Abraham to Ishmael, claiming that the Hebrew Bible was corrupted to conceal the fact that Moses and key patriarchs were actually Muslims.1 This view of themselves as the genuine spiritual descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and Mohammed reinforces other passages in the Quran that are hostile toward Jews, thus nurturing the stereotypes.
Most likely, had the Quran never been written by Mohammed and the Islamic conquest never occurred, this stereotype of a struggle between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac would never have developed to the degree it has.
However, this symbolism of hostility between Arabs and Jews is based on the misapplication or denial of scriptural authority. Fundamentalist Israelis who view modern-day adversaries as “Ishmael” or “Amalek” are applying the names of another age to people who are opposing them because of political conflicts rather than the mere fact that they are Jews. Similarly, Muslims that view themselves as the spiritual descendants of Ishmael are basing it on the Quran rather than the Bible.
From a Christian perspective, in a spiritual sense Ishmael (the Muslims) and Isaac (the Jews) are carrying on a conflict with each other in the same destructive spirit of competition, jealously, and hostility as did Ishmael and Isaac in the Bible. Ironically, although both groups claim to be the rightful heirs of Abraham on religious grounds, they both have rejected the true Seed of Abraham. In fact, Paul makes it clear that Jews who reject Jesus Christ are spiritually the sons of Hagar.
“Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: ‘Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.’ Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son’ ” (Galatians 4:21-30).
Israel had always believed that her ultimate blessing would appear in the person of Messiah, and yet she rejected Him.
“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in His grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator” (Galatians 3:16-19).
From a biblical perspective, therefore, the hatred of Muslims and Jews for each other is not based on some kind of inevitable “genetic curse” that forever brings them in conflict, but because of their mutual rejection of the true “Seed of Abraham” in deference to their own flawed religious claims.
The fighting between “Isaac” and “Ishmael” is not inevitable, but will cease when Muslims and Jews understand who Jesus Christ is, and accept His authority.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29).
The entire episode of the sacrifice is regarded as a trial that Ibrahim had to face from God. It is celebrated by Muslims on the day of Eid ul-Adha. (from Wikipedia) Back To Article
