By Marcia Hornok

What could Ishmael–Abraham’s son by Sarah’s servant Hagar–and Abraham’s great-grandson, Joseph, possibly have in common? Since the Holy Spirit’s verbal inspiration is intentional, even small details are purposeful and, in this case, can show similarities between Ishmael and Joseph.

AGE SEVENTEEN

God wants us to know Joseph’s age when he was exiled from his family, and most notably from his beloved father Jacob. Genesis 37:2 says he was seventeen.¹ Why would that be important? It may be to show God’s benevolence in giving Jacob and Joseph two seventeen-year periods together–one before Joseph’s disappearance and another at the end of Jacob’s life (Gen 47:28).

However, the age of seventeen is reminiscent of another youth who was exiled from his family and his beloved father, Abraham. Ishmael was fourteen when Isaac was born (Gen 16:16 with 21:5). If Sarah weaned Isaac when he was around three, then Ishmael was seventeen when he was sent away from Canaan. He ended up under a bush in the wilderness, where there was no water (Gen 21:8-15).

Joseph, likewise, found himself in the wilderness in a pit “with no water in it” (Gen 37:22-24). The details of being in the wilderness and the absence of water tie together the two teens and their plights.

IN THE WILDERNESS

Despite religious art depicting Hagar as the one crying out to God while Ishmael languished under a bush, Gen 21:17 twice states that God “heard the voice of the lad,” whose name means “God hears.” God provided him with a well, a career, and a wife in his new home in the Wilderness of Paran (Gen 21:20-21).

Like Ishmael, Joseph cried out in anguish from the pit into which his half-brothers had thrown him (Gen 42:21), but unlike Ishmael, Joseph’s pleas were not immediately answered and resolved. The next thing he knew, he was on his way to Egypt with a caravan of Ishmaelites, also called Midianites (descendants of Abraham through Keturah). According to Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “those two nationalities were often connected together…they were allies.”² Genesis 39:1 affirms that Potiphar bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites, “who had taken him down there.”

GOD’S PRESENCE

Fourteen times in Genesis, we see the phrase “God was with” His people. Significantly, Ishmael was the first to receive this assertion: “So God was with the lad” (Gen 21:20). Two verses later, we read that Abimelech and Phichol spoke it to Abraham: “God is with you in all that you do” (Gen 21:22). God said it to Isaac in 26:3 and 24, and Abimelech and his associates said it to Isaac in 26:28. Jacob heard or affirmed it in 28:15, 20 and 31:5, 42.

Therefore, when Genesis 39 states four times that “the Lord was with” Joseph, it should not surprise us that he grasped this reality. The heritage of his fathers, which was also the heritage of his distant cousin Ishmael, became his touchpoint. We surmise that he handled his adversities by recalling God’s presence and providence. This has always been the practice of those who are walking by faith in the Lord.

RETURN TO CANAAN

Both Ishmael and Joseph were forced to establish new lives for themselves after exile from Canaan, and both returned to their homeland on at least one occasion. Ishmael met his half-brother Isaac at Hebron in order to bury Abraham (Gen 25:9).

Joseph, likewise, returned to Hebron to bury Jacob in the cave where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah were laid to rest (Gen 49:29-31; 50:13). Both Ishmael and Joseph returned to Canaan when their fathers died.

IN THE CARAVAN

Scripture gives no details about Joseph’s trip with the Ishmaelites. Did they become friendly during the few weeks of travel? They probably spoke the same language and, at some point, realized that Abraham was their common ancestor. Perhaps they talked about Ishmael, whom Joseph’s dad may have met at least once.

This speculation comes from ages given in Genesis. Isaac was sixty when Jacob was born (Gen 25:26) and seventy-five when he and Ishmael buried their dad. It would be likely that Jacob, aged fifteen, was also present, and that he met Ishmael, his half-cousin-once-removed. If Jacob had related this meeting to Joseph, it would have established his kinship with Ishmael.

That is conjecture, I admit. Nevertheless, the narrative mentions the Ishmaelites at least three times in chapter 37 and again in 39:1. Similarities between Joseph and Ishmael cannot be missed.

PARALLELS

(1) Paternal favoritism generated family conflict. Ishmael mistreated his favored half-brother Isaac and suffered by being sent away, while Joseph, the favored son, bore the mistreatment of his half-brothers, who sent him away.

(2) Both were estranged from their birth families at around the age of seventeen and gained close association with Egypt from then on.

(3) Both had a keen awareness of God’s favor. Ishmael’s mother received promises³ about him directly from the Angel of the Lord (Gen 16:11-12). He would be free, not enslaved like his mother. He would hold his own against enemies. He would live “before the face⁴ of his brethren,” rather than being exiled from his homeland as Hagar was. God had blessed Ishmael before he was born (Gen 16:10), and although his life had taken an about-face, he had thrived and had fathered twelve tribes, just as God had said.

Joseph’s life also met an abrupt detour, but God had provided a signpost to anchor him. Two dreams designated him the ruler of his family. As such, he would save the family from death by starvation.

(4) Both had a specific inheritance, though not the Covenant promise. Ishmael inherited his share of Abraham’s wealth (Gen 25:6). Joseph received the land Jacob had purchased in Shechem (Gen 33:9; Josh 24:32).

IMPLICATIONS

All descendants of Abraham have significance. You may still prefer to think of Ishmael as a scoundrel and his mother as Abraham’s greatest lapse of faith, but God’s plan obviously included concubines. Four of the twelve tribes of Israel originated that way.

I wonder about Joseph’s time in the caravan. No doubt he felt used and abused, as well as rejected by his family members and sold⁵ for a slave’s price. He experienced the seeming death of his dreams, the likelihood that he would never again see his beloved father or brother Benjamin, and the loss of his prized possession—his cloak and whatever privileges it bestowed.

In the face of such abrupt losses and undeserved suffering, it may have comforted Joseph to remember that Ishmael had endured a similar fate, but that “God was with the lad.” When Ishmael cried out to God, God heard. Joseph also experienced God’s response. When standing before Pharaoh, Joseph repeatedly acknowledged God’s hand (Gen 41:16, 25, 28, 32). Twenty-two years after his brothers betrayed and exiled him, Joseph told them that God had sent him to Egypt. He even had to say it three times (Gen 45:5, 7, 8)! God was with him in Potiphar’s house, in prison, and in the palace.

We believers—spiritual descendants of Abraham—can live with the same confidence that Ishmael and Joseph had. God hears us when we cry out to Him, and He is with us all the time. No matter our circumstances, the second-best promise in Scripture (after having eternal life that can never be lost) is that God will never leave us, nor forsake us.

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Marcia is Ken’s grateful wife, serving with him in Utah where he pastored for 39 years and they raised six children. Now they enjoy 13 grandkids. Her latest work is a guilt-free Bible study of Proverbs 31.

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¹ Although not well-defined as the age when Joseph was sold, all scholars assume this.

² Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Book of Genesis (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2009), 536.

³ Some see these promises as warnings, but they gave Hagar the motivation to return to the source of her conflict and submit to it. The Angel’s words are not the proof nor even a prediction of the present-day Middle East conflict. See GIF magazine, Sept/Oct 2017: “Hagar Does Not Deserve Her Bad Rap.”

⁴ Translations vary, but compare this wording in 16:8, 16:12, and 25:18. Tony Maalouf said it designated a geographical location. See Arabs in the Shadow of Israel (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2003), pp. 73-74.

⁵ As an aside, he could identify with his late mother Rachel, who had felt sold and used by her dad, Laban (Genesis 31:14-15).