I am not endeavouring to comment on the whole Bible or even all the key events of salvation history of which the call of Abraham is certainly one. Rather my purpose is to highlight aspects which indicate God’s broader providence, i.e. His kindly intentions towards the vast majority of people including many who were neither a part of His covenant with Abraham during the Old Testament period nor incorporated within the Church in the New (cf. Jn6:44). Such would include the major proportion of people from the Asian continent within the last two millennia, symbolized within this particular narrative by Abraham’s firstborn son Ishmael.

He had been circumcised by Abraham and (nota bene) blessed by God (Gen17:20) yet was excluded from the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. Nevertheless, God would remain with Him (Gen21:20) and he would go on to be the father of a great nation. How such broader benign providence is to be deduced from Scripture as a whole is the mission of “The Little Book of Providence”:

  

Free PDF of The Little Book of Providence HERE

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