If you would, turn to Genesis chapter 25. We're going to look at a little bit about the death of Abraham this morning. We're not going to go through the whole chapter this morning. It's really broken up into three different segments, but two in particular. One, the death of Abraham, and then we'll look at the descendants of Ishmael. And then next time, we'll look at Isaac and his family. Last time we finished the study of the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah. And it's the example that we see there of Christ and His church. In chapter 25 we see the death of Abraham. uh... but not just the death of abraham will also see the beginnings of many different nations that will be the seed of abraham but not the seed of promise or at least the first half of the chapter it's not the seed of promise it doesn't we don't see the seed of promise until uh... chapter nineteen i mean uh... verse nineteen in chapter twenty-five this first Generations, but his first. Sons of Abraham and we often I don't know if it's because they're not as glorious or or what, but we often forget about. That Abraham married again after Sarah died. And had many sons by this other wife. And if you remember, and God does call her his wife here now. If you we won't go there this morning, but if you jump over to first Chronicles in chapter 1 and where God recounts this tell the telling of this story You see that this woman? Katera Is mentioned as a concubine and not a wife well some of the Scholars out there seem to think that's because that Her and Hagar were Even though they were his wives, they weren't in the same category as Sarah, I guess would be a way to put it. But, and of course, Hagar was a servant of Sarah, Sarah's handmaid. Katerra, we don't really know much about her. Doesn't say where she come from. So there's this assumption that she was another handmaid. Not of Sarah, but of, in Abraham's household. Obviously someone he thought well enough of to marry, for whatever reason. Now remember, he was 137 years old when Sarah died. By this time, Some say that he's around 140, partly because after Sarah's death, it was three years before Isaac married Rebecca. So that's where they get that number, the 140. But this Katero woman barrened him sons. It starts with verse 1. And again, Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keterah. And she bore him Simran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Median, and Ishbek, and Shuhah. And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan, and the sons of Dedan were Asherim, and Ledeshim, and Lemimim, and the sons of Median, Ephah and Epher, and Hanok and Abadiah and Eldah. All these were the children of Keterah. Now, some of these names look familiar because as it was with when we saw And we'll see with the names of Ishmael. Many of these would go on to have cities or nations named after them. People, tribes, whatever you want to call them, were named after these men because these were the fathers of those people. And if you remember here, these are the seed of Abraham. not the promised seed out of Isaac and Jacob. But they are Abraham's children. And so we see around the world today many different types of people, different countries and nations around the world, different tribes of people who claim the name of Abraham and they have a right to. But what they don't have a right to is the promised land. Their forefathers did not inherit what Isaac inherited. Isaac was the only one. And we'll see that here in a moment. Abraham gives Isaac everything. He gives gifts to these other sons, but he doesn't give them everything. And that's what the Lord commanded Abraham to do. We often wonder why there's so much turmoil in the Middle East and why even the different tribes in the many different countries are continuously at war with each other. You ever noticed that in the Arabic or the, not just the Arabic, but the Islam in general, because the Islam is not just Arabic. They're in many of the African countries. They're in many of the other, some of the Far Eastern countries in India and some of the island nations over there. So they're not just Arabic, even though that's where they got their start. But those people are always fighting each other. There's different sects of them. You'll hear it talked about on the news, especially if you remember back in the different wars that the U.S. has been in over there, you hear them talk about the different religious sects that are within Islam, specifically in Iran and Iraq, there's different sects. Those people are constantly fighting each other. Why? Because every one of them claims to be the promised seed of Abraham, even though they're not. You can't convince them that they're not the seed of promise that was promised to Abraham. Some trace their roots back to Ishmael, which those are the ones who claim the biggest claim, because he was the eldest son of Abraham. But he was still not the promised. These other sons that we see here in chapter 25, in the beginning of chapter 25, also the sons of Abraham, were not the promised seed that God would give the promised land to. Now, I think here in chapter 25, we can see the beginnings of these struggles and these wars and these battles that have been fought and are still being fought today because of these children, these children of Abraham. Verse 5, And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. There's the start of this conflict right there. Because Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. And the rest, whether it happened right away, it doesn't tell us. But at some point in time, they all become jealous of Isaac. And the descendants of Isaac. And remember, even after Isaac, you had you had splits in his family, so remember Esau was not the promised one. It was Jacob. And even Jacob, remember Jacob, God would change his name at a point in time to Israel. So we know for sure that Jacob is the true line. But Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. We see that before the death of Abraham, and after he has given Isaac everything, he gave everything he had, we see Abraham gives gifts to these other children and sent them to the east country, it says. He says, but unto the sons of the concubines, and see here, he mentions the sons of the concubines, concubines being plural. Who is he talking about? Well, I believe he's talking about Hagar and Keturah. There's no other, in the scripture, there's no other women mentioned that Abraham had children with, but those two women and Sarah. So he's referring to these two women who were servants in his home that he wound up marrying at some point. And this is what Abraham had. Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac, his son, while he yet lived eastward under the east country. And if you see where they were living at the time, remember they were in Mamre, close to Hebron. That's where they had been living since Sarah had passed, and for a little while before. So this east country would be the Saudi Arabian, or the Arabian Peninsula. And some of these signs here that are mentioned would occupy not just Saudi Arabia itself, but all the, what we see as the little nations around, Saudi Arabia around the coast of that country. Now, remember back in verses 2 and verse 4, we see this man Median mentioned. And in particular in verse 4, we see the sons of Median mentioned. And Median would be the beginning of the Medianites. If you remember the Medianites, Later in Genesis, you remember that Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a priest of the Medianites. He was a shepherd. He had flocks. Moses, if you remember after Moses killed the Egyptian, he ran and basically put himself in self-exile in the land of the Medianites. Median, I should have brought the map up this morning. I didn't think about it. on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula. And so it was a far piece from Egypt, but it wasn't like he went all the way across the peninsula to get there. But he, Moses put himself in self-exile there. He met the daughter of Jethro. married her while he was there. And if you remember, it seemed as though Jethro was a godly man. Remember, it calls him a priest. And we think, well, wait a minute, he wasn't of Israel. No, he wasn't, was he? He wasn't of the line of Isaac, but he was of the line of Keturah, Abraham's other wife. How could he be a priest? Well, wouldn't you think that Some of these, at least some of these sons of Abraham believed in God. It's possible Abraham would have taught it to them, would have taught the things of God to them. It's very possible that for at least several generations afterwards they would have still carried on the worship of God if they believed in Him. And it appears Jethro did. Remember, we think about priests and we automatically think of the priest of Israel, but remember Melchizedek? He wasn't of the line of Israel, was he? And he was a priest. But remember, like I said, the Medianites were not part of the nation of Israel. They were not of the right lineage. And then, it's just like we see people today who are saved, but not part of the Bride of Christ. You know, there's people, you know, everybody wants to be in the Bride of Christ, don't they, once they're saved. They think there's this false teaching out there that once you're saved, you're automatically in the Bride. That's not what the Bible teaches. There's the family of God. and the bride's called out of the family. Same way here, you get the family of Abraham. The nation of Israel was called out of the family of Abraham through a particular line, just the way that the church is today. So there's another example of the bride of Christ in the story of Abraham. Now back in the scripture, Verse 7, and these are the days of the years of Abraham's life, which he lived. 100, 3 score, and 15 years. 175 years. That's 100 years longer than Brother Compton. That's a long time. You're not even halfway there yet. But seriously, I don't know. I didn't do much digging on this, but I don't remember anyone else after Abraham living that long. He lived 175 years. We'll see in a little bit, we'll see where Ishmael lived to be 137 years. And that's still a long time, but Abraham lived 175 years. And remember, after 140, he's still having kids. He's married and still having kids. And that tells us, I believe, that This is another place that tells us, I believe, that it had to be the hand of God that caused Sarah to have Isaac. Because obviously there's nothing physically wrong with Abraham if he's able to have that many more sons. But it says, Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. I can remember hearing old men when I was growing up that were in their 70s and 80s even talking about all the different changes that they had seen in their lifetime. And I'm sure some of y'all here have seen a lot of changes. I remember one of my great uncles talking about how he was born in 1920. And he said, I can't imagine there being that many changes in the next 70 or 80 years 70 years, I think, at the time when he was telling me that. He said, I can't imagine there being this many changes in the next 70 years. Well, can you imagine how many changes were in the life of Abraham from 175 years? We think, well, For some reason, and I think it's because of secular teaching, but we have this picture in our minds that at some point back in time, these guys were nothing but a bunch of ignorant cavemen. But you look at Abraham, there were cities, there was kings that he fought against, kings that he fought with, kings that, they had whole societies set up Maybe not with the technology that we have today, but similar to what we have today. They had governments. These men were wealthy back then for their day. They were able to travel. Remember Abraham? God told him to wander around the land of Canaan and just see what I've got for your heir, for Isaac. And he did that. And he knew where the borders were. God had obviously told him, so he knew where to go and where not to go. These weren't just ignorant men. These were very intelligent people. Like I said, they may not have had the technologies that we have today, but they were still very intelligent people. And someone like Abraham, he says, And remember, the writer of Genesis was inspired by God himself to write this. He said, Abraham, he said, he died in a good old age, an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people. In other words, he, God thought a lot of Abraham. And we see that throughout his whole life. God thought a lot of Abraham. He showed a lot of grace and mercy on him when he was doing some pretty stupid stuff. And then we saw where God used Abraham to begin his beloved nation of Israel. He didn't have to do that. Some of the things that Abraham did in his life So if it had been up to some of us, we would have just struck him dead and moved on and got somebody else. But that's not what God planned, and that wasn't what He wanted. He loved Abraham, very much so. So much so that in His Word in several places we've seen where Abraham and Isaac are compared to God and His Son. That's pretty significant there. Pretty shows us that God did think a lot of Abraham. So Abraham dies, and his sons Isaac and Ishmael, and I think this is the last time we'll see Isaac and Ishmael together. They come together and bury Abraham in the cave where Sarah is buried. If you remember all this, I'm not going to try to go through all this and pronounce all these words, but And remember, he bought the cave in that field and had Sarah buried there to begin with. It would be a kind of like what we would call a mausoleum today. I don't know how fancy it was, but it would be a place where Isaac and Rebecca would be eventually buried. And I believe, if I remember right, I think Jacob is buried there. Today, if you look it up on the internet, it's a shrine. The Jews and the Muslims both lay claim to it. They've had fights over it. I think right now it's in the hands of the Jews, but they do allow the Muslims to come in for their part of their worship. It's a whole mess, and it's not even something that it should be. They use it as a place of worship. Both sides do. Israel and Islam both. It's not a place of worship. It may be a place of remembrance, but not a place of worship. The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth, there was Abraham buried and Sarah his wife. And it came to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac dwelt by the well of Laheroy. This is the same place where he was living when Rebekah came. So that's where Isaac would dwell for a time. And notice God blessed his son Isaac. Nothing said about God blessing the other sons, is there? He doesn't necessarily treat them badly in any way, at least not yet. But Isaac, remember, is the promised son. He's the one that the nation of Israel will come out of. And he is the favored son, not just by Abraham, but by God also. And so God blesses him. Now, in verses 12 through 18, we see the descendants of Ishmael. Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, barren to Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names according to their generations. and I'm not going to try to pronounce all these names, but he starts with the firstborn of Ishmael and names them. And it says, these are the sons, in verse 16, these are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their towns and by their castles, 12 princes according to their nations. Now you notice something about Ishmael. He's got 12 sons. Who else had 12 sons? is Jacob. So you have already, you have two opposites here. You have Ishmael with 12 sons and then you have Jacob. Jacob, who will later be called Israel, has 12 sons. It's almost as if, you know, we know Satan will try to mirror what God creates, what God plans, what he does. Well, and this is me thinking out loud here, but I wonder if that's what the beginning, this is the beginning of. This is Satan mirroring what God has set up. Now you've got 12 sons of Ishmael. The evil son, if you will. Remember Ishmael being the oldest of Abraham's children. Ishmael didn't take it very well and him and his mother neither one took it very well and Abraham chose Isaac over him for the heir. It says that these are the years and the life of Ishmael. 137 years and he gave up the ghost and died and was gathered unto his people. And they dwelt from Hevelah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as they'll go us toward Assyria. And he died in the presence of all his brethren." And so they occupied quite a bit of property there. He says, unassured, that which is before Egypt, so from Egypt, and he says, as thou goest towards Assyria. Assyria was in the north, if you remember, of Israel. So basically the whole coastline there of the promised land, Ishmael had claimed to, which he had no right to. and which eventually, some of his descendants would become the Philistines, the ones who later, after Israel occupies the land, or most of the land, it was the Philistines that gave him the most trouble in the beginning for sure, all the way through David's time. So we see in these first eighteen verses we see a lot of things here that set the scene for what's going to happen through the rest of time we see the family of abraham is going to uh... in in that part of the world not only in that part of the world there eventually as a especially after islam comes along there formal religion comes along many many many generations later uh... you're going to see All these come together to a point in time, and they're still fighting amongst each other, but at the same time, if you're not part of Islam, you know, you're dogs, you know, and they don't like the Jews, they don't like the Gentiles either. And when I talk about the Gentiles, I'm talking about those of the European races. They don't like any of them people. And their goal is to overthrow the world, take over the whole world. That's their whole goal. Israel has never had that goal. Israel has never And even in the Old Testament, you never see where Israel had any ambition to rule the world. All they wanted was the Promised Land and to be left alone. On the other hand, the sons of Keterah and the descendants of Ishmael, they've always wanted to control the whole world. These same people would become the Babylonians, the syrians the needs in the persians all over all can't do one another somewhere down the line they're all family and they would all give israel problems throughout their whole history in the old testament and it doesn't stop there it keeps going you don't see much of them in the new testament because you have rome who's a gentile nation who his has basically thrown them out of that part of the world for a time. But they come back. And they're back now. So next time, we're going to get into the study of Isaac and Rebecca and their family with Jacob and Esau. And we'll finish the chapter with that. And so that's all we have for this morning.