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. Showing how such broader benign providence is to be deduced from Scripture as a whole is my mission and that of “The Little Book of Providence”:

  The LITTLE BOOK OF PROVIDENCE: a seven-part synopsis of the bible: Download a free PDF of e-book suitable for desktop computers HERE [updated September 2023] or a Large-print version for mobiles HERE [565 pages]