Study Desk

God said to him, "I am the Lord Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land for your own."

And Abram said, "O Lord God, how may I know that it will be mine?"

God said to Abram, "Know for sure that your children and those born after them will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. There they will be servants and suffer for 400 years.

So Hagar gave this name to the Lord Who spoke to her, "You are a God Who sees." For she said, "Have I even stayed alive here after seeing Him?"

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him and said, "I am God All-powerful. Obey Me, and be without blame.

Then Abram fell on his face. God said to him,

I will make My agreement between Me and you and your children after you through their whole lives for all time. I will be God to you and to your children's children after you.

I will give to you and your children after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan for yourselves forever. And I will be their God."

Then God said to Abraham, "You must keep My agreement, you and your children after you for all time.

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

Then Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live before You!"

But God said, "No, but your wife Sarah will give birth to your son. And you will give him the name Isaac. I will make My agreement with him and for his children after him, an agreement that will last forever.

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

Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money, and every man and boy who lived in his house. And he cut off their piece of skin that very day, as God had told him to do.

But when God destroyed the cities of the valley, He remembered Abraham. He sent Lot out of the center of the danger, when He destroyed the cities where Lot lived.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said, "See, you are a dead man because of the woman you have taken. For she is already married."

Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this with a heart of honor. And I kept you from sinning against Me. I did not let you touch her.

Abraham said, "I did it because I thought there was no fear of God in this place. I thought they would kill me because of my wife.

When God made me go from my father's house, I said to Sarah, ‘This is the kindness you must show me. Everywhere we go, say of me, "He is my brother."'"

So Abraham prayed to God. And God healed Abimelech, his wife and the women who served him, so that they gave birth to children.