Study Desk

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.

Then Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,

I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

And to you and your descendants I will give the land of your sojourn-all the land of Canaan-as an eternal possession; and I will be their God."

God also said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep My covenant, you and your descendants for the generations to come.

Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai, for her name is to be Sarah.

And Abraham said to God, "O that Ishmael might live under Your blessing!"

But God replied, "Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

When He had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money-every male among the members of Abraham's household-and he circumcised them that very day, just as God had told him.

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.

One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman."

Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, "Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her.

Abraham replied, "I thought to myself, 'Surely there is no fear of God in this place. They will kill me on account of my wife.'

So when God had me journey from my father's house, I said to Sarah, 'This is how you can show your loyalty to me: Wherever we go, say of me: He is my brother.'"

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they could again bear children-

So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.

Then Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me."

But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.