I don't GET THIS: Genesis 17:17-27

I've been struggling (in general, and with this last part of the chapter, specifically) all week. Not because conceiving a child at 90 is such a stretch - it is, of course, but probably no more or less so than speaking the universe into existence - but because of the whole Isaac v. Ishmael issue.

I get that the point is not one son versus another, so much as it is My Way versus God's way. To me, though, I struggle not to read the whole thing as: some people are chosen, some are not. And I guess I should struggle: I'm not seeing a lot of reason to read this passage differently, other than, "I don't like that."

Looking at 17:20-21, I get that Ishmael gets a blessing, too. I see that. But which is the point here -- the generations that follow them, or the covenant with God? In the first half of the chapter, I really feel like a key point is that what really matters is God's covenant, His establishing Himself as Abraham's God. Why doesn't Ishmael get that, too? Isn't that more important than being the father of these nations? Without it, isn't his blessing a consolation prize at best, and totally meaningless at worst?

Having said that, I can kind of see how my perspective here is 1. skewed by my feelings that a kind of racism has leaked into the Christian view of Arab versus Jew and 2. totally limited by the fact that I can only see parts of this story God is telling, here. I mean, if Christ came for the non-Jews, for those who were not chosen, then seeing the Arabs as singled out as not bound to God by a covenant is wrong. In reality, they are just as bound as my Gentile ass -- which is to say, not at all.

I guess that the purpose and meaning of Christ really hinges on this distinction: one group has a covenant and one doesn't. Someone needs to, so that we can see this aspect of God -- the God who commits Himself wholly to a specific chi;d. Ishmael WON'T work, not because he is less than Isaac, but because God has chosen just this thing for Isaac. That level of devotion is a part of God.

So Christ didn't come to ameliorate these people who were not as good as the Jews, then: He came to point at what God has given them, that significance, that attention, and to say: God is that. Not just for them, but for you. In a way, for you He is more than that, because He never made a covenant with you -- but here You are, loved and made perfect in Him. And that may be the source of all those stories about the last-minute vineyard workers, the first being last, and vice versa. Not that Ishmael is left out, but that God has something else -- not the covenant -- for him. For him, God has the Gospel.