One God, Many Faiths: Abraham's Call to Peace

Genesis presents Ishmael as hugely important, especially in a world where people of differing faiths come into ever closer relationship with each other. The story places Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, Isaac, and Ishmael at the root of a family history that reaches into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Sarah’s jealousy and fear over inheritance leads to Hagar and Ishmael being sent into the desert, but God hears the cries and responds. The desert does not become the place where Ishmael disappears. The desert becomes the place where God opens Hagar’s eyes to a well and promises that Ishmael also will become a great nation.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob stands at the center of the argument. Jews, Christians, and Muslims may relate to God differently, and Christians confess God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but there is still only one God. The Christian view is held as profoundly true and deeply personal because the risen Christ and the Holy Spirit allow a person to know God as near, loving, guiding, healing, and befriending. The Trinity allows God to be both transcendent and imminent, the creator beyond creation and the living Christ walking beside the faithful.

The doctrine of one God also stretches the mind toward the great religions of the world. Hinduism, with its many gods, appears vastly different, yet Hindu mystics speak of all gods emanating from one creator god, Brahma. The difference remains real, but the question presses hard: is that so entirely unlike Christian language about one God in three persons? Christian theology still confesses the Trinity, but some voices lean heavily toward the oneness of God, even speaking of being “tri Unitarian.”

The Shema gives the deepest anchor: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.” Jesus takes that commandment as central and joins it to love of neighbor from Leviticus. The great religions, at their best, bear a central commandment of love: love God, love all God’s people, love creation.

The call to peace becomes urgent because every religion has its perversions. Extremist violence must not be allowed to define Islam. The tears of a Muslim student who heard her people named as lovers of peace, and the courage of Salaam visiting a Hindu temple because her people were fighting Hindus, show what holy curiosity can do. The family of the one true God is wider than fear admits, and the God of all people is a God of peace and love.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God hears desert cries. Genesis makes the wilderness a place of divine attention, not divine absence. Hagar’s despair does not get the last word, because God hears Ishmael and opens her eyes to water already present in the desert. The promise to Ishmael shows that God’s mercy is not limited by human jealousy, family conflict, or fearful attempts to control inheritance. [43:59]
• 2. One God, differently known. The claim that Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God does not flatten real differences. The Christian confession of Father, Son, and Spirit remains distinct, yet it does not create a second or third deity. The God Jesus worshiped was the God of Israel, and Christian faith deepens that relationship through Christ rather than replacing the one God of Abraham. [46:15]
• 3. The Trinity holds nearness and transcendence. The doctrine of the Trinity refuses the forced choice between a God beyond creation and a God active within creation. The creator can be above and beyond all things, while the Spirit of the living Christ can walk beside, guide, heal, and befriend. Christian intimacy with God rests not in reducing mystery, but in receiving the God who is both ultimate and close. [48:17]
• 4. Love remains the central commandment. The Shema names the Lord as one and commands wholehearted love for God. Jesus receives that commandment and joins it to love of neighbor, making love not a soft addition but the center of faithful obedience. The test of religion is not merely correct naming of God, but whether love of God becomes love for God’s people and creation. [52:40]
• 5. Peace grows through holy curiosity. Salaam’s visit to a Hindu temple shows that peace can begin when fear gives way to learning. Her desire to understand the faith of those her people were fighting did more than argue for peace, it practiced peace. Such curiosity does not deny conviction, but it refuses to let inherited conflict have the final word.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [38:31] - Opening Prayer
• [39:27] - Ishmael and Abrahamic Faiths
• [40:00] - Hagar, Sarah, and Isaac
• [43:42] - God Hears Hagar’s Cry
• [45:08] - One God of Jews, Christians, and Muslims
• [47:04] - God Beyond and God Near
• [49:21] - Hinduism and the One Creator
• [50:44] - Trinity and the One God
• [51:57] - The Shema and Love of God
• [53:22] - Religion’s Perversions and Islam’s Peace
• [56:11] - Salaam Visits a Hindu Temple
• [57:33] - Prayer for Peace in the World
• [58:48] - Closing Prayer

Bible Reading

Genesis 21:8-21
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. [43:42]

Observation questions

1. In Genesis 21, what seem to be Sarah’s main concerns about Hagar and Ishmael, and how does Abraham react to her demand?
2. What does God specifically do for Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness, and what promise is repeated there? [43:59]
3. What repeated words or ideas in this passage stand out around hearing, seeing, and fear?
4. Which faiths are described as tracing their roots back to Abraham, and how is Ishmael connected to that family story? [41:25]

Interpretation questions

1. The wilderness becomes the place where God hears and provides for Hagar and Ishmael. What does that suggest about where God meets people when they have been pushed out, forgotten, or treated unfairly? [43:57]
2. If God promises blessing to Isaac and also promises to make Ishmael a great nation, what does that reveal about God’s mercy being larger than human rivalry and fear?
3. Christians confess Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet there is still only one God. How does that help explain the claim that people may know or relate to God differently without there being many gods? [48:17]
4. Jesus joins the Shema to the command to love one’s neighbor. How does that connect right belief about God with the everyday way a person treats other people? [52:48]

Application questions

1. Hagar’s story shows that God hears cries in the desert. Where does life feel dry, lonely, or pushed to the margins right now, and what would it look like to ask God to open the eyes to the “well” already nearby? [44:02]
2. There is only one God, and love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor. Is there any person or group that has become harder to love because of fear, anger, or what has been heard about them? What might love require in that situation? [53:22]
3. Every religion has its perversions, and extremists should not be allowed to define whole peoples. Where is there a temptation to make quick judgments about others, and what could help replace that habit with fairness and truth? [53:31]
4. Holy curiosity can be a form of peacemaking. When was the last time there was an honest effort to learn about someone very different without giving up Christian conviction? What was difficult about that, and what was good about it? [56:41]
5. The Trinity means God is both beyond us and near to us. Which side of that truth is easier to forget: that God is holy and greater than all things, or that Christ walks beside his people? How might prayer change if both were held together? [48:26]
6. The central commandment is to love God with heart, soul, and strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. What is one very practical way to live that out this week at home, at work, or in the community? [53:00]
7. Peace often begins in small acts, not only large public ones. What is one step that could be taken this week to become a quieter maker of peace in a tense relationship or divided conversation? [57:24]