Study Desk

Abram answered: The Lord God Most High made the heavens and the earth. And I have promised him

Abram asked, " Lord God, how can I know the land will be mine?"

Hagar thought, "Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?" So from then on she called him, "The God Who Sees Me."

Abram was ninety-nine years old when the Lord appeared to him again and said, "I am God All-Powerful. If you obey me and always do right,

Abram bowed with his face to the ground, and God said:

I will always keep the promise I have made to you and your descendants, because I am your God and their God.

I will give you and them the land in which you are now a foreigner. I will give the whole land of Canaan to your family forever, and I will be their God.

Then he asked God, "Why not let Ishmael inherit what you have promised me?"

But God answered: No! You and Sarah will have a son. His name will be Isaac, and I will make an everlasting promise to him and his descendants.

God finished speaking to Abraham and then left.

On that same day Abraham obeyed God by circumcising Ishmael. Abraham was also circumcised, and so were all other men and boys in his household, including his servants and slaves. He was ninety-nine years old at the time, and his son Ishmael was thirteen.

When God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot lived, he remembered his promise to Abraham and saved Lot from the terrible destruction.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream and said, "You have taken a married woman, and for this you will die!"

God 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.

Abraham 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.

When 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."

Meanwhile, God had kept Abimelech's wife and slaves from having children. But Abraham prayed, and God let them start having children again.

Although Abraham was very old, Sarah had a son exactly at the time God had said.

and Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Now everyone will laugh with me.

But God said, "Abraham, don't worry about your slave woman and the boy. Just do what Sarah tells you. Isaac will inherit your family name,