Category: Scripture

The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tend during the hottest part of the ay. He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground.

“My Lord, ” he said, “if it pleases you, stop here for a while. Rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your fee. And since you’ve honored your servant with this visit, let me prepare some food to refresh you before you continue on your journey.”

“All right,” they said. “Do as you have said.”

So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, “Hurry! Get three large measures of your best flour, knead it into dough, and bake some bread.” Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to his servant, who quickly prepared it. When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk and roasted the meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on them in the shade of the trees.

“Where is Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked.

“She is inside the tent,” Abraham replied.

Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year ,and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”

Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such a pleasure-especially when my master-my husband-is so old?”

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

“Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.” (vv. 1-15, NLT)

Then God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, you wife, her name will no longer e Sarai. For now on her name will be Sarah. And i will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”

THen Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” So Abram said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!”

But God replied, “No-Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you.You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm My covenant with him and his descendants as well as an everlasting covenant. As for Ismael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked. I will make him extremely fruitful and multiple his descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.” When God had finished speaking, He left Abraham. (vv. 15-22, NLT)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai-‘God Almighty’. Serve Me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”

At this Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, “This is My covenant with you: I wll make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing you name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful. You descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!”

“I will confirm My covenant with you and you descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be you God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner and your descendants, and I will be their God.” (vv. 1-8, NLT)

The angel of the Lord found Hagar besides a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running way from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.

“The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”

And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against his relatives”

Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?? So that well as name Beer-lahlai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Ismael was born. (vv 7-15, NLT)

After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River-the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadominites, Hittites, Perizzeites, Rephaitses Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” (vv. 17-20, NLT)

Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you our of Ur to he Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”

The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So Abram presented all these t him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle, and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.

As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that our descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripey old age.) After four generations, you descendants will return here to this land, for the sins fo the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.” (vv. 9-16, NLT)

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you/ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”

Then the lord said to him, “No, your servant will. not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. Tha’s how many descendants you will have!”

And Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. (vv. 1-6, NLT)

After Abram returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

And Melchizedek, the King of Salem and a priest of God Most High, brought Abram some bread and wine. Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God Most High,
who has defeated your enemies for you. “

Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.

The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give back my people who were captured. But you may keep for yourself all the goods you have recovered.”

Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I solemnly swear to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal throng from what belongs to you. Otherwise you might say, ‘I am the one who made Abram rich.’ I will accept only what my young warriors have already eaten, and I request that you give a fare share of the goods to my allies, -Aner, Eschol, and Mamre.” (vv. 17-24, NLT

As it happened, the valley of the Dead Sea was filled with tar pits. As the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into the tar pits, while the rest escaped into the mountains. The victorious invaders then plundered Sodom and Gomorrah and head for home, taking with them all the spoils of war and the food supplies. They also captured Lot-Abram’s nephew who lived in Sodom-and carried off everything he owned.

But one of Lot’s men escaped and reported everything to Abram the Hebrew, who was living near the oak grove belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his relatives, Eshcol and Aner, were Abram’s allies.

When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he. mobilized the 318 trained men who had been born into his household. Then he pursued Kedorlaomer’s army until he caught up with them at Dan. There he divided his men and attacked during the night. Kedorlaomer’s army fled, but Abram chased them as fas a Hobah, north of Damascus. Abram recovered all the goods that had ben taken, and he brought back his nephew Lot with his processions and all the women and other captives. (vv. 10-16, NLT)

Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord ore the beautiful land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle Abram. So Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plain. But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord.

After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction-north, south, east and west. I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”

So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. There he build another altar to the Lord. (vv. 10-18, NLT)