oneGOD wrote: The nation of Ishmael is to be a great nation ==> therefore a righteous ==> Muslim nation.
Peace out
This is what you think. You're reading into scripture and taking out whatever you think can support your claims. I'm not saying you are wrong, but the possiblility of you being right is the same as you being wrong based on the fact you have no proof but the
Bible (may I add) saying that Ishmael's nation would be a great nation. It does not say that nation is a Muslim nation.
"As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceeding numerous; he shall be the father of 12 princes, and I will make him a great nation. "BUT (notice it says "BUT")
my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year" (Genesis 17:20-21).
God does not break His promises.
Also, "great nation" does not mean it is God's nation and it does not mean it is a righteous nation. As Believer said, it means great in number.
Also, if you want to say the descendants of Ishmael are Muslims (which is a possibility), let us see whatelse the Bible says on Ishmael:
Let us look again at that verse about Ishmael's characteristics: "He will be a wild donkey of a man . . ." (Gen. 16:12). "A wild donkey of a man." What does it mean? God, in His withering rebuke to Job, spoke of the wild donkey:
Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied his ropes? I gave him the wasteland as his home, and the salt flats as his habitat. He laughs at the commotion in the town; he does not hear a driver's shout. He ranges the hills for his pasture and searches for any green thing [Job 39:5-8].
Ishmael was to be strong, wild and free; and we might add, he also would be difficult, holding his brothers in contempt, despising town life, loving his freedom to the point of not being able to get along with his own kin or anyone else. As one commentary puts it: "The Ishmaelites live in an incessant state of feud . . . with one another or with their neighbours" and in the same passage quoted above, "Ishmael would maintain an independent standing before [in the presence of] all the descendants of Abraham" (Keil and Delitzsch, Reprint, 1954, 1:220). In the light of these characteristics, Muhammad was a true descendant of Ishmael. While trying desperately to tie into the genealogical tree of Biblical prophets, he fiercely maintained his independence as an "Arab prophet" with an "Arabic Quran" (Q. 12:1; 20:113; 46:12).
http://injil.org/Books/FamOfAbraham.html