So he forbare, etc. This was a case of bloodthirsty cruelty versus greed. Ishmael would have killed these men but for his greed of the wealth they had. It is satisfactory to think he never gained possession of it. Nevertheless, his greed made him guilty of one sin less. This story suggests that -

I. GOD HAS MANY WAYS OF HINDERING SIN. There is:

1. The best way of all. By granting a true repentance and his Holy Spirit, creating the clean heart and renewing the right spirit.

2. But there are other ways. By keeping the opportunity and the will apart. How much of our freedom from sin do we owe to this blessed providential severance! By fear of present evil consequences of our sin.

3. And sometimes, as here, by one sin getting in the way of another. Thus pride holds back not a few; not love of God, gratitude to Christ, love of holiness, but pride. And coveteousness checks the sinner in many sins he would be guilty of but for this. Anger, breaking up the alliances of transgressors; as when, in the days of Jehoshaphat, the Ammonites who were coming against him fell out one with the other (2 Chronicles 20:22). The old saying is, "When thieves fall Out, honest men come by their rights." Sensual self-indulgence. The vilest Romans emperors were those who least persecuted the Church - Tiberius, Commodus, etc. They were too absorbed in their own indulgences to trouble about the Christians.

II. BUT THESE OTHER WAYS LEAVE MEN AS GREAT SINNERS AS BEFORE. The question is not as to your freedom from transgression so much, but - What kept you free? Only the first and best way is accepted of God.

III. NEVERTHELESS, LET US BE THANKFUL THAT SIN IS SELF-DESTRUCTIVE IN ITS VERY NATURE. It is a blessed anarchy, for it protects many who would otherwise suffer.

IV. BUT FOR OURSELVES LET US SEEK THAT SIN MAY BE DESTROYED BY CHRIST. - C.

1. If ever there was such a one, this Ishmael was of whom these verses tell. His atrocities remind us of the Indian Mutiny, its leader, and the well at Cawnpore (cf. ver. 9). Treachery, ingratitude, murder, massacre, greed, cowardice, — all are gathered in this detestable character (cf. Mr. Grove's article "Ishmael," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible)

2. And such men are permitted to be. So clearly seen is this, that every drama has its villain; they are recognised as having definite place and function in this poor life of ours.

3. Can we explain this permission? Wherefore are such men created and preserved? It is s part of the great question of moral evil, for the full solution of which we must wait. But the existence of such men as this Ishmael is but one out of the many terrible facts in God's providence, such as plague, famine, earthquake, &c.In regard to such men, we can see some purposes that they subserve.

1. They make evident the hideous capacities of evil which are in our nature, and the need, therefore, for God's restraining grace.

2. They are warnings to increased watchfulness on the part of those in whom the tendencies to like evil exist.

3. They are God's scourges for men's sin (cf. Attila, the Scourge of God).

4. They weld together the people they oppress in one common league against them, and thus out of scattered tribes a nation is formed.

5. They clear out much that is evil (cf. French Revolution; Napoleon). But, sometimes as here, we cannot see what good they do; and then we can only wait.

(W. Clarkson, B. A.)