Now get this one here. Every day you look in the papers, one of the things that you can't help but notice, are the troubles going on in the Middle East. You'll notice that the primary area of the troubles is around the Arab nations, the descendants of Ishmael; and when you look at those problems, what you need to be aware of is, those problems would never have occurred, if Abraham hadn't done this foolish thing. In fact the earth would have been free of all of that current conflict around there, if he hadn't done this. The dilemma, generationally, of his mistake, was enormous. We're still experiencing the consequences of it today. Notice what it says of Ishmael, he said: he'll be a wild man, he'll be like a wild ass you can't reason with. Dave was sharing some of the stuff over there in Pakistan, he said they use the term 'donkey brain', because people get so stubborn, and fixed, and set, you can't shift them out of it; and this is exactly what the Bible said. He said the generations that will come out of Ishmael, they will be like a donkey brain, you can't reason or talk to them. They're just stubborn and they're set; and notice this, he said: they will be all against one another. They'll be in conflict, one with another. How's this all happen? Now you've got to consider this, that Abraham had got a promise from God: I am going to give you children, I'm going to create out of your seed, all the nations will be blessed. He got that in Genesis 12. Now what you've got to realise is, ten years have passed, and God didn't speak to him and tell him too many things, so when God said to him: I'm going to bless you, I'll make your name great; and out of your seed, all the nations will be blessed. He didn't tell him about a great famine, that was coming in the land that He sent him to.
He sent him out into the land of Canaan. He didn't tell him there was going to be a famine there, or what to do in the famine. He didn't tell him that: yes, I'm going to give you children, but there's going to be some delay in this process. So after ten years in the land of Canaan, going through a famine, going back to Egypt, coming back out of Egypt up there; there he is, he still hasn't got a child. Now he's thinking: I need to help God out; and his wife, who's lost her faith in God can actually work in her, to give her children, thinks: well the only way it's going to work out, can't be me this promise is for, it must be just Abraham. So in her reasoning, she's trying to reason out the prophesy. She's trying to work out how God is going to make it happen. So she's thinking: well I'm not having any children, and he's going to have the children; it must be through someone else, so she starts to get into the reasoning process, how God will work it out, and comes up with the grand idea: won't you have sexual relations with my maid? Of course, this is where Ishmael came from.
So what can happen is, when there's a delay, and God isn't working out what we are looking for Him to do, it's very easy for us to think: how we can help God out, to make this come about. We try and reason it, and work it out. When we do that, we have an Ishmael. Ishmael's are horrible - they're painful, and they cause a lot of conflict. How many have had an Ishmael in your life? You've tried to help God out over something? One or two. The reality is, we've all tried to help God out with something or other; and when we did it, what came out of it, was not good at all. We have a better idea that God's; so people have prayed for a partner, prayed for someone for life, and rather than actually build their character, and walk with God, and build great relationships, they kind of hurry the process up a little bit, get someone that God never intended them to have - then it's a mess. You'd be better single, than with someone God never intended you to be with. Come on, think about that. A lot of people - all the counsellors say: yes, that's true. [Laughs]