What were Avraham and Sarah really arguing about? Is sending Yishmael and his mother to the desert the ethical thing to do? What does this chapter reveal vis-à-vis Yishmael’s status as the child of Avraham?
Teenager Yishmael and Yitzhak, a toddler just weaned, are living in the same household. Sarah perceives Yishmael as a threat. She wants to send Yishmael and his mother away so that he will not inherit along with Yitzhak. From Sarah’s point of view, Yishmael’s status is that of the handmaiden’s son.
But Sarah’s idea is troubling to Avraham, who sees Yishmael as his young son who is still a child. Avraham relates emotionally to Yishmael in a similar way to the way Hagar looks at Yishmael: They both see the maturing adolescent Yishmael as a young child.
The Torah returns to describing Yishmael as a child from the moment Avraham sends him away until the angel comes to Hagar. Hagar is described as leaving “the child” under a bush so that she wouldn’t have to watch “the child” die.
In His revelation to Avraham, God agrees with Sarah in her argument. He refers to Yishmael as the “handmaiden’s son” and not as the inheriting son of Avraham. God consoles Avraham by telling him that this adolescent will grow to become a nation.
In a similar vein, the angel speaking to Hagar refers to Yishmael as an adolescent. Her “eyes are opened” and she gives her son water to drink, now that he has “transformed” into an adolescent.