It would be hard to imagine an offense more painful than that which Ishmael experienced at the age of 16. Suddenly, without warning, he was awakened early in the morning by his father, walked a distance outside of camp and abandoned to the wilderness with only a goatskin of water. One day he was the firstborn son of a tribal chief and, the next, he was the disinherited and penniless child of a single mom fighting to stay alive. Miraculously, he and his mother did survive and even prospered by moving to a remote area where he could hunt for a living (Ge 21:9-21), but it's impossible to conceive that he was not deeply wounded by his father's brutal abandonment. Yet, there are clues given here in chapter 25 that a reconciliation took place between father and son before Abraham died. The most startling evidence is the sight of Isaac and Ishmael working side by side to bury their father (v 9). This simply could not have happened if Ishmael were still a bitter outcast.

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