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Genesis 20

Abraham and Sarah at Gerar

    ^4-5Abimelech said to the Lord, "Don't kill me! I haven't slept with Sarah. Didn't they say they were brother and sister? I am completely innocent."

    ⁶God spoke to Abimelech in another dream and said:

   I know you are innocent. That's why I kept you from sleeping with Sarah and doing anything wrong. ⁷Her husband is a prophet. Let her go back to him, and his prayers will save you from death. But if you don't return her, you and all your people will die.

    ⁸Early the next morning Abimelech sent for his officials, and when he told them what had happened, they were frightened. ⁹Abimelech then called in Abraham and said:

   Look what you've done to us! What have I ever done to you? Why did you make me and my nation guilty of such a terrible sin? ¹⁰What were you thinking when you did this?

    ¹¹Abraham answered:

   I did it because I didn't think any of you respected God, and I was sure that someone would kill me to get my wife. ¹²Besides, she is my half sister. We have the same father, but different mothers. ¹³When God made us leave my father's home and start wandering, I told her, "If you really love me, you will tell everyone that I am your brother."

    ¹⁴Abimelech gave Abraham some sheep, cattle, and slaves. He sent Sarah back ¹⁵and told Abraham that he could settle anywhere in his country. ¹⁶Then he said to Sarah, "I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver as proof to everyone that you have done nothing wrong." ^{[a] 17-18}Meanwhile, God had kept Abimelech's wife and slaves from having children. But Abraham prayed, and God let them start having children again.

Genesis 21

Sarah Has a Son

    ⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born, ⁶and Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. ^[b] Now everyone will laugh with me. ⁷Who would have dared to tell Abraham that someday I would have a child? But in his old age, I have given him a son." ⁸The time came when Sarah no longer had to nurse Isaac, ^[c] and on that day Abraham gave a big feast.

Hagar and Ishmael Are Sent Away

    ¹⁴Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar an animal skin full of water and some bread. Then he put the boy on her shoulder and sent them away.

   They wandered around in the desert near Beersheba, ¹⁵and after they had run out of water, Hagar put her son under a bush. ¹⁶Then she sat down a long way off, because she could not bear to watch him die. And she cried bitterly.

    ¹⁷When God heard the boy crying, the angel of God called out to Hagar from heaven and said, "Hagar, why are you worried? Don't be afraid. I have heard your son crying. ¹⁸Help him up and hold his hand, because I will make him the father of a great nation." ¹⁹Then God let her see a well. So she went to the well and filled the skin with water, then gave some to her son.

    ^20-21God blessed Ishmael, and as the boy grew older, he became an expert with his bow and arrows. He lived in the Paran Desert, and his mother chose an Egyptian woman for him to marry.

A Peace Treaty

    ²⁵One day, Abraham told Abimelech, "Some of your servants have taken over one of my wells."

    ²⁶"This is the first I've heard about it," Abimelech replied. "Why haven't you said something before? I don't have any idea who did it." ²⁷Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and then the two men made a peace treaty.

    ²⁸Abraham separated seven female lambs from his flock of sheep, ²⁹and Abimelech asked, "Why have you done this?"

    ³⁰Abraham told him, "I want you to accept these seven lambs as proof that I dug this well." ³¹So they called the place Beersheba, ^[g] because they made a treaty there. ³²When the treaty was completed, Abimelech and his army commander Phicol went back to the land of the Philistines. ³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree ^[h] in Beersheba and worshiped the eternal LORD God. ³⁴Then Abraham lived a long time as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines.

Genesis 22

The LORD Tells Abraham To Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice

   Abraham answered, "Here I am, LORD."

    ²The LORD said, "Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar." ³So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire. He put a saddle on his donkey and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go.

    ⁴Three days later Abraham looked off in the distance and saw the place. ⁵He told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back."

    ⁶Abraham put the wood on Isaac's shoulder, but he carried the hot coals and the knife. As the two of them walked along, ^7-8Isaac said, "Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"

   "My son," Abraham answered, "God will provide the lamb."

   The two of them walked on, and ⁹when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. ¹⁰He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son. ¹¹But the LORD's angel shouted from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

   "Here I am!" he answered.

    ¹²"Don't hurt the boy or harm him in any way!" the angel said. "Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son."

    ¹³Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.

    ¹⁴Abraham named that place "The LORD Will Provide." And even now people say, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." ^{[i] 15}The LORD's angel called out from heaven a second time:

    ¹⁶You were willing to offer the LORD your only son, and so he makes you this solemn promise, ¹⁷"I will bless you and give you such a large family, that someday your descendants will be more numerous than the stars in the sky or the grains of sand along the beach. They will defeat their enemies and take over the cities where their enemies live. ¹⁸You have obeyed me, and so you and your descendants will be a blessing to all nations on earth."

    ¹⁹Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him, and they returned to Abraham's home in Beersheba.

The Children of Nahor

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Treasures in Heaven

(Luke 12.33,34)

Light

(Luke 11.34-36)

Money

(Luke 16.13)

Worry

(Luke 12.22-31)

    ²⁷Can worry make you live longer? ^{[a] 28}Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don't work hard to make their clothes. ²⁹But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth ^[b] wasn't as well clothed as one of them. ³⁰God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith? ³¹Don't worry and ask yourselves, "Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?" ³²Only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. ³³But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.

    ³⁴Don't worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.