201 Abraham traveled from there south to the Negev and settled down between Kadesh and Shur. While he was camping in Gerar, 2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She's my sister."
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream that night and told him, "You're as good as dead - that woman you took, she's a married woman." 4 Now Abimelech had not yet slept with her, hadn't so much as touched her. He said, "Master, would you kill an innocent man? 5 Didn't he tell me, 'She's my sister'? And didn't she herself say, 'He's my brother'? I had no idea I was doing anything wrong when I did this." 6 God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know your intentions were pure, that's why I kept you from sinning against me; I was the one who kept you from going to bed with her. 7 So now give the man's wife back to him. He's a prophet and will pray for you - pray for your life. If you don't give her back, know that it's certain death both for you and everyone in your family."
8 Abimelech was up first thing in the morning. He called all his house servants together and told them the whole story. They were shocked. 9 Then Abimelech called in Abraham and said, "What have you done to us? What have I ever done to you that you would bring on me and my kingdom this huge offense? What you've done to me ought never to have been done." 10 Abimelech went on to Abraham, "Whatever were you thinking of when you did this thing?" 11 Abraham said, "I just assumed that there was no fear of God in this place and that they'd kill me to get my wife. 12 Besides, the truth is that she is my half sister; she's my father's daughter but not my mother's. 13 When God sent me out as a wanderer from my father's home, I told her, 'Do me a favor; wherever we go, tell people that I'm your brother.'"
14 Then Abimelech gave Sarah back to Abraham, and along with her sent sheep and cattle and servants, both male and female. 15 He said, "My land is open to you; live wherever you wish." 16 And to Sarah he said, "I've given your brother a thousand pieces of silver - that clears you of even a shadow of suspicion before the eyes of the world. You're vindicated." 17 Then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his maidservants, and they started having babies again. 18 For God had shut down every womb in Abimelech's household on account of Sarah, Abraham's wife.
211 God visited Sarah exactly as he said he would; God did to Sarah what he promised: 2 Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, and at the very time God had set. 3 Abraham named him Isaac. 4 When his son was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born. 6 Sarah said, God has blessed me with laughter and all who get the news will laugh with me! 7 She also said, Whoever would have suggested to Abraham that Sarah would one day nurse a baby! Yet here I am! I've given the old man a son!
8 The baby grew and was weaned. Abraham threw a big party on the day Isaac was weaned.
9 One day Sarah saw the son that Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, poking fun at her son Isaac. 10 She told Abraham, "Get rid of this slave woman and her son. No child of this slave is going to share inheritance with my son Isaac!" 11 The matter gave great pain to Abraham - after all, Ishmael was his son. 12 But God spoke to Abraham, "Don't feel badly about the boy and your maid. Do whatever Sarah tells you. Your descendants will come through Isaac. 13 Regarding your maid's son, be assured that I'll also develop a great nation from him - he's your son too."
14 Abraham got up early the next morning, got some food together and a canteen of water for Hagar, put them on her back and sent her away with the child. She wandered off into the desert of Beersheba. 15 When the water was gone, she left the child under a shrub 16 and went off, fifty yards or so. She said, "I can't watch my son die." As she sat, she broke into sobs. 17 Meanwhile, God heard the boy crying. The angel of God called from Heaven to Hagar, "What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy and knows the fix he's in. 18 Up now; go get the boy. Hold him tight. I'm going to make of him a great nation." 19 Just then God opened her eyes. She looked. She saw a well of water. She went to it and filled her canteen and gave the boy a long, cool drink. 20 God was on the boy's side as he grew up. He lived out in the desert and became a skilled archer. 21 He lived in the Paran wilderness. And his mother got him a wife from Egypt.
22 At about that same time, Abimelech and the captain of his troops, Phicol, spoke to Abraham: "No matter what you do, God is on your side. 23 So swear to me that you won't do anything underhanded to me or any of my family. For as long as you live here, swear that you'll treat me and my land as well as I've treated you." 24 Abraham said, "I swear it." 25 At the same time, Abraham confronted Abimelech over the matter of a well of water that Abimelech's servants had taken. 26 Abimelech said, "I have no idea who did this; you never told me about it; this is the first I've heard of it." 27 So the two of them made a covenant. Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. 28 Abraham set aside seven sheep from his flock. 29 Abimelech said, "What does this mean? These seven sheep you've set aside." 30 Abraham said, "It means that when you accept these seven sheep, you take it as proof that I dug this well, that it's my well." 31 That's how the place got named Beersheba (the Oath-Well), because the two of them swore a covenant oath there. 32 After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and his commander, Phicol, left and went back to Philistine territory.
33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped God there, praying to the Eternal God. 34 Abraham lived in Philistine country for a long time.
221 After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, "Abraham!" "Yes?" answered Abraham. "I'm listening." 2 He said, "Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll point out to you."
3 Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him. 4 On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Abraham told his two young servants, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we'll come back to you." 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together. 7 Isaac said to Abraham his father, "Father?" "Yes, my son." "We have flint and wood, but where's the sheep for the burnt offering?" 8 Abraham said, "Son, God will see to it that there's a sheep for the burnt offering." And they kept on walking together. 9 They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. 10 Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.
11 Just then an angel of God called to him out of Heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Yes, I'm listening." 12 "Don't lay a hand on that boy! Don't touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn't hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me." 13 Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 Abraham named that place God-Yireh (God-Sees-to-It). That's where we get the saying, "On the mountain of God, he sees to it."
15 The angel of God spoke from Heaven a second time to Abraham: 16 "I swear - God's sure word! - because you have gone through with this, and have not refused to give me your son, your dear, dear son, 17 I'll bless you - oh, how I'll bless you! And I'll make sure that your children flourish - like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches! And your descendants will defeat their enemies. 18 All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me." 19 Then Abraham went back to his young servants. They got things together and returned to Beersheba. Abraham settled down in Beersheba.
20 After all this, Abraham got the news: "Your brother Nahor is a father! Milcah has given him children: 21 Uz, his firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (he was the father of Aram), 22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel." 23 (Bethuel was the father of Rebekah.) Milcah gave these eight sons to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24 His concubine, Reumah, gave him four more children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
19 "Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or - worse! - stolen by burglars. 20 Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. 21 It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
22 "Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. 23 If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
24 "You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.
25 "If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. 26 Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. 27 "Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? 28 All this time and money wasted on fashion - do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, 29 but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. 30 "If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never even seen - don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? 31 What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. 32 People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. 33 Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. 34 "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
(Read Matthew 6:19-24)
Worldly-mindedness is a common and fatal symptom of hypocrisy, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold of the soul, under the cloak of a profession of religion. Something the soul will have, which it looks upon as the best thing; in which it has pleasure and confidence above other things. Christ counsels to make our best things the joys and glories of the other world, those things not seen which are eternal, and to place our happiness in them. There are treasures in heaven. It is our wisdom to give all diligence to make our title to eternal life sure through Jesus Christ, and to look on all things here below, as not worthy to be compared with it, and to be content with nothing short of it. It is happiness above and beyond the changes and chances of time, an inheritance incorruptible. The worldly man is wrong in his first principle; therefore all his reasonings and actions therefrom must be wrong. It is equally to be applied to false religion; that which is deemed light is thick darkness. This is an awful, but a common case; we should therefore carefully examine our leading principles by the word of God, with earnest prayer for the teaching of his Spirit. A man may do some service to two masters, but he can devote himself to the service of no more than one. God requires the whole heart, and will not share it with the world. When two masters oppose each other, no man can serve both. He who holds to the world and loves it, must despise God; he who loves God, must give up the friendship of the world.
(Read Matthew 6:25-34)
There is scarcely any sin against which our Lord Jesus more warns his disciples, than disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life. This often insnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich. But there is a carefulness about temporal things which is a duty, though we must not carry these lawful cares too far. Take no thought for your life. Not about the length of it; but refer it to God to lengthen or shorten it as he pleases; our times are in his hand, and they are in a good hand. Not about the comforts of this life; but leave it to God to make it bitter or sweet as he pleases. Food and raiment God has promised, therefore we may expect them. Take no thought for the morrow, for the time to come. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you. As we must not boast of tomorrow, so we must not care for to-morrow, or the events of it. God has given us life, and has given us the body. And what can he not do for us, who did that? If we take care about our souls and for eternity, which are more than the body and its life, we may leave it to God to provide for us food and raiment, which are less. Improve this as an encouragement to trust in God. We must reconcile ourselves to our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. We cannot alter the disposals of Providence, therefore we must submit and resign ourselves to them. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure of thoughtfulness for the world. Seek first the kingdom of God, and make religion your business: say not that this is the way to starve; no, it is the way to be well provided for, even in this world. The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none of these things move us. Happy are those who take the Lord for their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves wholly to his wise disposal. Let thy Spirit convince us of sin in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness of our hearts.
