NAMING THE WILD MAN
by Jason Overman
The words in Genesis 16:10 sound familiar: "I will multiply
your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted
for multitude." This promise is not spoken to Abraham or Isaac or
Jacob, but to Hagar, who has learned that she is to have a son
called ... Ishmael.
This Ishmael is also the son of Abraham. We find the
patriarch begging God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!"
(17:18). It is not to be. Sarah's only child, that miracle of
covenant promise, is to be Isaac. But God has a destiny for
Ishmael also: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have
blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him
exceedingly" (v. 20).
The destiny of Ishmael, however, is more complicated than
this. There is also a disposition that will come to define this
child born of Abraham and Sarah's doubt: He would be a wild
man, in conflict with every man (16:12).
Four thousand years later, we stand in awe at this passage.
God has indeed kept His promise. The blessed-but-wild Ishmael
seems as real now as ever. This promise to Hagar turns out to
be a prophetic word of cosmic proportions.
In post-9/11 America, Christians are worried about Islam.
Now the news of a mosque in the shadow of the former World Trade
Center only makes matters worse. The question for the church is,
how do we respond as Christians?
Ishmael and Islam
A Christian response begins with God's Word, which brings us
back to our story of Hagar and a blessed, wild Ishmael. What is
Ishmael's relationship to Islam?
Muhammad writes: "Abraham and Ishmael built the House and
dedicated it, saying: 'Accept this from us, Lord'" (Qur'an
2:127).
This line offers a critical insight about Islam: It reaches
back to Abraham through Ishmael. Muhammad latched on to Ishmael's
story from the start. Local tradition had it that Ishmael had
settled in Mecca, so here Muhammad found a direct link not only
to the sacred past of Jews and Christians but also to a destiny
for the Arabs.
The text also reaches back to the "Lord." Islam means
"surrender," and it is noteworthy that Muhammad did not think he
had found something new when he preached submission to al-Lah,
"the God." Rather, he thought he had rediscovered something his
fellow Arabs had lost: the one God of Abraham.
Ishmael the blessed
In some mysterious way the story of Islam, like that of
Judaism, is bound up in our own as children of Abraham. The evi
dence is throughout the Qur'an: Who but a foolish man would
renounce the faith of Abraham? (2:130).
After them [the prophets] We sent forth Jesus son of Mary,
confirming the Torah already revealed, and gave him the Gospel,
in which there is guidance and light ... (5:46). The Qur'an can
be hostile toward Jews and Christians, but it presupposes a
kinship: "Be courteous when you argue with the People of the
Book.... Say: 'We believe in that which has been revealed to us
and which was revealed to you. Our God and your God is one'"
(29:46).
These affirmations of God and Scripture echo the blessing of
Ishmael and give pause to our anxious thoughts, for it asks us to
admit, hard as it may be, that Islam is blessed for Abraham's
sake. The father of Isaac, we recall, is also the father of
Ishmael.
Ishmael the wild
There is more to this story, of course. Ishmael is not just
blessed; he is also wild. It is interesting that the strictest
branch of Islamic law today hails from Saudi Arabia, the very
place where Muhammad wrote and warred, the same Arabia in which
Ishmael first wandered.
That Ishmael's hand is "against every man" is read in the
pages of the Qur'an. The sheer volume of references to "the
fight" illustrates that it is a central motif. Devoid as the
Qur'an is of narrative context, a plain reading of it strikes
many within Islam and without as counsel to perpetual conflict.
Here is but one example:
Fight for the sake of God those that fight against you, but do
not attack them first. God does not love the aggressors. Slay
them wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from
which they drove you.... Fight against them until idolatry is no
more and God's religion reigns supreme (2:191-193).
In teaching and example, Muhammad called his followers to
fight, and fight they did. Within a hundred years of his initial
revelations in AD 610, the Muslim empire stretched from Spain to
the gates of India. The hand of the wild man was raised indeed.
Discerning Ishmael Discernment is required at this point. Islam
is a diverse faith; simplistic generalizations are not helpful.
Two considerations, one historical and one modern, can safeguard
us against caricature. Muhammad was both prophet and politician;
to distinguish religious from political goals was unimaginable.
Thus the Qur'an reads a lot like Joshua in the Old Testament,
where religious, political, and legal concerns are all rolled in
together. As with many great leaders of history, Muhammad found
war and God side by side.
To argue that "the fight" is central to the Qur'an is not to
imply that all Muslims today are violent. Most have done with
their "texts of terror" as we Jews and Christians have done with
ours: placed them in a historical context and spiritualized the
language of warfare. Religious tolerance and the practice of most
modern Muslims are not in conflict.
With these cautions noted, we must still admit that jihad
("struggle") is a word we are all too familiar with. It seems an
appropriate term in light of God's prophecy to Hagar. The Islamic
empire of the Middle Ages has faded into history, but the idea of
jihad has found new life as Islamic fundamentalism regards the
idea as the central motif of the Qur'an.
Ishmael's hand is raised still.
Jesus and Ishmael
To a remarkable degree, the founders of our two faiths
embody the character of their progenitors. Christ, like
sacrificed Isaac, gives Himself away on the cross, while
Muhammad, like wild Ishmael, sets out on the fight of his life.
Samuele Bacchiocchi examines this contrast and what it means for
disciples of each faith:
Muslims who use violence, warfare, and terrorism to advance
the cause of Allah, can legitimately claim to be following
the example and teachings of their prophet, Muhammad. He was
both a religious and political leader who fought until he
subdued the people of Mecca and the Christian and Jewish com
munities living in Saudi Arabia. He taught: "Know that
Paradise is under the shades of swords" (4:73).
But Christians who have resorted to violence to advance
God's Kingdom, cannot appeal to the teachings or example of
Christ. They have betrayed His teachings. Christ chose to be
crucified rather than to slay His enemies with the sheer
power [of] His spoken word. He taught His followers to
establish the Kingdom of God, not through physical
confrontation, but through the peaceful proclamation of the
saving grace of God (Violence in The Loran and The Bible -
Endtime Issue No.85
[www.biblicalperspectives.com/endtimeissues/eti_85.html])
These insights do more than draw attention to a radical
difference between faiths. They confront us with the reality that
though our faith is defined by our Lord's sacrificial act of love
for enemies, we ourselves have not always faithfully modeled this
story, though we are called to. We have been wild men, too!
Paul and Ishmael Blessed-but-wild Ishmael is not just a person or
people but a basic spiritual condition to which we are all
inclined. This is seen at both ends of the Bible.
Take the story of Joseph. At the "hands" of Ishmaelite
traders, Joseph is brought to Egypt and sold to Potiphar (Genesis
39:1). But we immediately recall that it was the "hands" of his
own brothers that sold him (37:1836). So who is the wild man now?
All of Abraham's children are implicated.
The last biblical reference to Ishmael is in Galatians. Here
Apostle Paul surprises us by identifying those who trust in
circumcision and the old covenant as Ishmael, while those who
trust in Christ and the new covenant are Isaac. "He who was of
the bondwoman was born according to the flesh" (4:23), and so
corresponds to bondage. But Paul continues, "Now we, brethren, as
Isaac was, are children of promise" (v.28, emphasis added), which
corresponds to freedom. And just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so
it is still that "he who was born according to the flesh then
persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit" (v.29).
In this allegory, those identified with Ishmael are not his
physical descendants but Christians who trust in the "flesh."
Likewise, those identified with Isaac are not his physical seed
but those Christians who 6k not to themselves but to the Spirit's
miraculous work.
Taking righteousness into his own hands, Ishmael persecutes;
oppression is the result. These tendencies may be true of Islam,
but they are not unique to it. Was not Paul such a man prior to
his encounter with Christ en route to Damascus (Galatians 1:13)?
Ishmael is not just them; he can also be the face in the mirror.
A Christian response
Given these observations - that Ishmael is blessed and wild,
that Ishmael is both man and type, that Ishmael is both them and
us - how should the church respond to Islam?
A Christian response must begin with respect and humility.
Respect because, by an amazing act of providence, we find that we
have much in common with Islam; humility because we recognize it
is God who directs history, not us. We too have been driven by
the "flesh," but God declares the end from the beginning.
A Christian response to Islam must be truthful. Instead of
our destiny, Ishmael is our decision. As Abraham wrestled between
flesh and faith, so we all must choose. The truth is that we are
all Ishmael, but Christ has overcome the wild man at the cross.
All "wild" branches are now grafted into God's story by His
grace, through faith.
A Christian response to Islam must be courageous. It must be
said that only the cross of Christ demonstrates the "submission"
that Islam so desires. The bold truth is that raised hands are
not a sign of submission to God; physical jihad is bondage to the
flesh. Paul proves there is hope: "He who formerly persecuted ...
now preaches the faith ... " (Galatians 1:23).
A Christian witness Ultimately the Christian response is
Christian witness: to love our neighbor as ourselves and to
embody the mercy of God in concrete ways - even in the face of
persecution.
In Psalm 83, Ishmael is among the enemies of God arrayed
against Israel: "For they have consulted together with one
consent; they form a confederacy against You; the tents of Edom
and the Ishmaelites ... " (vv.5-8). This is history.
Into this historical peril Jesus has called His church
(Matthew 28:18). We need not fear; we have seen the end of our
witness. Isaiah declares, "The Gentiles shall come to your light
... they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD" (60:3,6). John
sees a "great multitude ... of all nations, tribes, peoples, and
tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb ..."
(Revelation 7:9).
Blessed Ishmael, wild no longer, will be among them.
......
Thanks to my friend and study partner William Bogle for his
contributions to this article.
Jason Overman serves the CoG7 in Jasper, AR, with his wife
Stephanie and their children, Tabitha and Isaac.
From The Bible Advocate - Nov./Dec. 2010 - a publication of the
Church of God, 7th Day, Denver, CO. USA.
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