More On Ishmael

"As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation."-Genesis 17:20

I have read that Ishmael is the father of Islam in the same way that Jacob is the father of Judaism. What I never saw in my previous readings of Genesis is that Ishmael fathered his own 12 sons just as Jacob did!  I'm not a biblical scholar, but that seems pretty significant to me.  I have found a couple of web sites that talk about this and if you are interested in reading more about the tribes of Ishmael you can check it out here. It talks about what happened to the different tribes and that they have mostly disappeared from history, but it really doesn't speak to any biblical significance.  It is discussed more as an aside to the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

12 is a significant number in the bible.  It is considered a perfect number and symbolizes God's power and authority.  It is also a symbol of completeness and can signify a perfect government foundation. As far as the history of Islam goes, though, there is not quite the same connect of the 12 tribes of Ishmael to Islam as there is of the 12 tribes of Israel to Judaism.  Many of the tribes of Ishmael splintered off or married into other nations and tribes.  There is just not as pure of a line to follow. This helps me to understand God's desire to keep Israel pure and all the laws and commandments dealing with mixing and marrying into other nationalities and religions.  The line of Israel needed to be kept somewhat pure until the birth of Jesus.  Some claim that Mohammed was a descendant of Ishmael, but I found no source showing a direct lineage as our bible gives for Jesus. 

Maybe one day I will dig deeper into this because I just think there must be more to it if God indeed blessed Ishmael and made him a great nation with 12 tribes.  But it looks like a pretty deep study that I'm not quite ready for.

God of All,

I believe that the bible only scratches the surface of what an amazing God you are. You cannot be contained to one collection of books.  Bless us in our pursuit of knowing you more deeply.  Amen.