As promised, God visited Sarah and she became pregnant with Abraham’s child. A son was born when God said it would. Abraham and Sarah named the child Isaac meaning laughter, because they had both laughed when they were told they were going to have a child at age 100. 

Sarah did not appreciate the fact that the teenaged Ishmael laughed at Isaac. She told Abraham to get rid of the servant Hagar and her child. Abraham was distressed because he cared for Ishmael and prayed to God. God reminded Abraham that he had already promised to make Ishmael a great nation as well. Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness with bread and water, but they soon ran out. 

Hagar left Ishmael under bush while she wandered further away, so she would not have to see him die. God spoke to Hagar and said that he had seen them, as he did before. He told Hagar to go and take her son’s hand. When she did, she saw water coming from the ground. Ishmael grew up in Paran, meaning edge of the wilderness. It was possibly the area of the Sinai Peninsula. Genesis says God was with the boy while he grew up. When Ishmael was older, Hagar acquired a wife for him from Egypt.

Meanwhile, King Abimelech came by with his army Commander and asked Abraham to make a treaty with him. He wanted Abraham to acknowledge that he had treated him fairly. Abraham agreed, but then brought up an issue about Abimelech’s servants, taking one of their wells. The King acted like it was new information to him.

Abraham gave him a flock of sheep, but then kept seven back as a witness to the fact that Abraham had dug the well. They both swore oath to deal fairly with each other and their descendants. They named of the place Beersheba meaning Well of the Oath. Abraham planted a Tamarisk tree, a slow growing evergreen as a sign of the Everlasting God.