Study Desk

But Abram said, "Lord God , what can you give me? I have no son, so my slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die."

Then God led Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky. There are so many stars you cannot count them. Your descendants also will be too many to count."

Abram believed the Lord . And the Lord accepted Abram's faith, and that faith made him right with God.

God said to Abram, "I am the Lord who led you out of Ur of Babylonia so that I could give you this land to own."

But Abram said, "Lord God , how can I be sure that I will own this land?"

Abram brought them all to God. Then Abram killed the animals and cut each of them into two pieces, laying each half opposite the other half. But he did not cut the birds in half.

The slave girl gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her: "You are ‘God who sees me,'" because she said to herself, "Have I really seen God who sees me?"

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty. Obey me and do what is right.

Then Abram bowed facedown on the ground. God said to him,

And I will make an agreement between me and you and all your descendants from now on: I will be your God and the God of all your descendants.

You live in the land of Canaan now as a stranger, but I will give you and your descendants all this land forever. And I will be the God of your descendants."

Then God said to Abraham, "You and your descendants must keep this agreement from now on.

God said to Abraham, "I will change the name of Sarai, your wife, to Sarah.

Then Abraham said to God, "Please let Ishmael be the son you promised."

God said, "No, Sarah your wife will have a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will make my agreement with him to be an agreement that continues forever with all his descendants.

After God finished talking with Abraham, God rose and left him.

Then Abraham gathered Ishmael, all the males born in his camp, and the slaves he had bought. So that day Abraham circumcised every man and boy in his camp as God had told him to do.

God destroyed the cities in the valley, but he remembered what Abraham had asked. So God saved Lot's life, but he destroyed the city where Lot had lived.

But one night God spoke to Abimelech in a dream and said, "You will die. The woman you took is married."

Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, "Yes, I know you did not realize what you were doing. So I did not allow you to sin against me and touch her.