24. How did Abraham become father to Ishmael, and then how to Isaac?

²⁴ In the year 1932 B.C.E., at the suggestion of his barren, aged wife Sarah, Abraham had a son by means of her Egyptian slave girl Hagar and called his name Ishmael. (Genesis 16:1-16) Thirteen years thereafter, in 1919 B.C.E., Jehovah told Abraham that Ishmael was not to serve as the true “seed,” but a son by his true wife Sarah would be the chosen “seed.” It would be a son by a free woman. And so, in the succeeding year, Isaac was born when Sarah was ninety years of age. “And Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac his son was born to him.” On the eighth day of life Isaac was circumcised, just as his father Abraham had been just the year previous.—Genesis 21:1-5.

25. What does the account show as to whether Jehovah made a nation including all the natural sons of Abraham?

²⁵ It is interesting to note that God did not now make a nation out of his two sons, Ishmael the firstborn and Isaac, a two-tribe nation. No, but five years later, at the urgent request of his wife Sarah, Abraham dismissed Hagar and her son Ishmael from his household, to fend for themselves, to go wherever they wanted to go. (Genesis 21:8-21) Neither afterward, after the death of Sarah in 1881 B.C.E., did God make a nation out of Isaac and the other sons that Abraham had by means of a concubine, Keturah, a seven-tribe nation. “Later on Abraham gave everything he had to Isaac, but to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had Abraham gave gifts. Then he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he was still alive, eastward, to the land of the East.”—Genesis 25:1-6.

26. For what admirable demonstration of faith did Abraham receive a special blessing in the land of Moriah, and what did it state?

²⁶ A very admirable demonstration of faith on the part of Abraham led to a great blessing for this “friend” of Jehovah. It came after a penetrating test of Abraham’s faith and obedience toward the Most High God. The blessing of divine approval was pronounced at a mountaintop in the land of Moriah, thought by many to be the location where King Solomon built the magnificent temple of Jehovah centuries afterward. (2 Chronicles 3:1) There, at the place designated by Jehovah, and on the wood spread out over a newly made stone altar, lay the form of a growing boy. It was Isaac. Beside the altar stood his father Abraham with a slaughtering knife in his hand. He was just about to carry out God’s command to kill Isaac sacrificially and offer him up as a burnt offering to the God who had given him the boy miraculously. Then:

“Jehovah’s angel began calling to him out of the heavens and saying: ‘Abraham, Abraham! . . . Do not put out your hand against the boy and do not do anything at all to him, for now I do know that you are God-fearing in that you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.’ . . . And Jehovah’s angel proceeded to call to Abraham the second time out of the heavens and to say: ‘By myself I do swear,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘that by reason of the fact that you have done this thing and you have not withheld your son, your only one, I shall surely bless you and I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore; and your seed will take possession of the gate of his enemies. And by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves due to the fact that you have listened to my voice.’”—Genesis 22:1-18.

27. What did this divine statement show as to the choosing of the “seed” and as to the procuring of the blessing through it?

²⁷ This meant that the promised “seed” by means of whom all the nations would procure a blessing would come through Isaac’s line of descent. Thereby Jehovah God showed that he was doing the choosing of the line of descent, and that all the half brothers of Isaac would have no part in furnishing that “seed.” Nevertheless, the nations that descended from Isaac’s half brothers could procure for themselves a blessing by means of that “seed.” All nations of today, that is, people of all nationalities of today, can likewise procure a blessing through Abraham’s “seed.”

1. What question arose as to the offspring of the man to whom God renewed his covenant promise?

JEHOVAH GOD chose to renew to Isaac the covenant promise made to his father Abraham. (Genesis 26:1-5, 23, 24) Although married at forty years of age, Isaac had to become sixty years old before he had children—twins. Would Jehovah, who answered Isaac’s prayer for children, make a choosing with regard to those twin boys?

2. How did Jehovah reveal which one of the twins he would choose?

² Jehovah indicated his choosing during Rebekah’s pregnancy after she had prayed and asked him about her condition: “Jehovah proceeded to say to her: ‘Two nations are in your belly, and two national groups will be separated from your inward parts; and the one national group will be stronger than the other national group, and the older will serve the younger.’” Esau proved to be the firstborn, and Jacob the second twin. (Genesis 25:20-23) Jehovah thus indicated that he would not make one nation out of these twin sons of Isaac, a two-tribe nation. Rather, there should be two national groups, with the national group from the older twin being weaker and serving the national group of the younger twin. This reversed the natural right of the firstborn son to the preeminence. Thus Jehovah revealed whom he would choose.