Years later, when Abraham prepared “a big feast on the day of Isaac’s being weaned” at the age of about 5 years, Sarah noticed Hagar’s son Ishmael, now about 19 years old, “poking fun.” This was no innocent child’s play. As implied by the next verse in the account, it may have involved a taunting of Isaac over heirship. Here Ishmael was making early manifestation of the antagonistic traits that Jehovah’s angel foretold would be shown by him. (Ge 16:12)

But just as Isaac was persecuted by Ishmael, so also the children of the “Jerusalem above,” who have been set free by the Son, experienced persecution at the hands of the children of enslaved Jerusalem.