Today I read Genesis 16 where Abraham marries Sarah's handmaid, Hagar and she bears him a son. As the story goes, Hagar lords it over Sarah that she is pregnant and Sarah is not so Sarah censures her and Hagar runs away. An angel appears and has her come back and tells her the future of her son. I don't know about you, but if someone told me that information about MY future child, I'd be very depressed. The angel tells Hagar that her son, Ishmael will be a wild man and that his, meaning Ishmael's, hand will be against everyman and that every man's hand will be against him. This prophecy has been fulfilled and just as the angel said, it is because of the sons, or posterity, of Ishmael's choosing that every hand is against them.
You know this chapter really got me thinking. For the most part, because there are some exceptions, the world is an ok place. If you are nice to those around you, mostly, people are nice to you. Yes, there are those people who are just mean and jerks and like to hurt people but I think for the most part, most people just react to how others treat them first. This is probably not the best of attitudes, but it is certainly better than some attitudes out there. But it is just interesting to me that most of the terrorist groups out there today that you hear about on the news, are descendants of Ishmael. And just like the angel told Hagar, it is of their own choosing. The governments of the world did not pick on these men and women, rather they are reacting to the unreasoning hatred that these people have towards those who do not believe as they do. I am not here to bash on anyone or their religious beliefs, but I do find it nice when prophecy is proven true.
Despite Jesus fulfilling the law, most of the people in this world still very much follow the old eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth law. If someone treats them poorly, they will treat them poorly. I am a supervisor of customer service representative and I sometimes have the hardest time getting them to remain professional when someone is not professional, polite or even nice, to them. I have to remind them that no matter what someone says or does to them, they have to remain polite and professional at all times. It is not always easy but if everyone followed that model, the world would be such a better place. I long for that day, if I'm still on the earth, when the millennium will come and such a place will actually exist. Until tomorrow.
Good analysis. I've thought that the posterity of Laman and Lemuel with their hatred of the Nephites was much like the Arabs and their hatred of the Jews--It all goes back to the Patriarchal lineage thing. The firstborn is supposed to get the birthright, but HF doesn't follow that precisely. The birthright/covenant goes to whomever he wants it to go to! Satan keeps people stirred up in hatred for perceived wrongs. Sad.
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