We can't forget Ishmael, who was named and blessed by God and also would become a great nation, as we today well know. After Ishmael was born, the child Abraham hoped would bear the promise but came to represent humanity's efforts to help God along where God seems to fail, along came Isaac, the child Abraham and Sarah had despaired of ever seeing; Isaac, who was born to them long after they should have been great-grandparents, had they only had children earlier in life.
18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
Genesis 17:18-20 (New King James Version)
Isaac is a transliteration of the word Yitzhak in Hebrew, meaning "he laughs." Abraham and Sarah may have laughed in disbelief when they heard the Angel say Sarah would have a son in her old age, but when she became pregnant, they must have been full of happy laughter, and the day he was born, they probably sat together, holding him, laughing in joy for a long, long time.
In the verse above, Yitzhak gained a new meaning, "child of the covenant."
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