251 And Abraham took another wife named Keturah. 2 She became the mother of Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. 3 And Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And from Dedan came the Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. 4 And from Midian came Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the offspring of Keturah. 5 Now Abraham gave all his property to Isaac; 6 But to the sons of his other women he gave offerings, and sent them away, while he was still living, into the east country.
7 Now the years of Abraham's life were a hundred and seventy-five. 8 And Abraham came to his death, an old man, full of years; and he was put to rest with his people. 9 And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, put him to rest in the hollow rock of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, near Mamre; 10 The same field which Abraham got from the children of Heth: there Abraham was put to rest with Sarah, his wife.
11 Now after the death of Abraham, the blessing of God was with Isaac, his son.
12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, the servant of Sarah: 13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their generations: Ishmael's first son was Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam 14 And Mishma and Dumah and Massa, 15 Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: 16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names in their towns and their tent-circles; twelve chiefs with their peoples. 17 And the years of Ishmael's life were a hundred and thirty-seven: and he came to his end, and was put to rest with his people. 18 And their country was from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt: they took their place to the east of all their brothers.
19 Now these are the generations of Abraham's son Isaac: 20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, and the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife. 21 Isaac made prayer to the Lord for his wife because she had no children; and the Lord gave ear to his prayer, and Rebekah became with child. 22 And the children were fighting together inside her, and she said, If it is to be so, why am I like this? So she went to put her question to the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your body, and two peoples will come to birth from you: the one will be stronger than the other, and the older will be the servant of the younger. 24 And when the time came for her to give birth, there were two children in her body. 25 And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe of hair, and they gave him the name of Esau. 26 And after him, his brother came out, gripping Esau's foot; and he was named Jacob: Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.
27 And the boys came to full growth; and Esau became a man of the open country, an expert bowman; but Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28 Now Isaac's love was for Esau, because Esau's meat was greatly to his taste: but Rebekah had more love for Jacob.
29 And one day Jacob was cooking some soup when Esau came in from the fields in great need of food; 30 And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Edom. 31 And Jacob said, First of all give me your birthright. 32 And Esau said, Truly, I am at the point of death: what profit is the birthright to me? 33 And Jacob said, First of all give me your oath; and he gave him his oath, handing over his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave him bread and soup; and he took food and drink and went away, caring little for his birthright.
261 Then came a time of great need in the land, like that which had been before in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. 2 And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge: 3 Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham; 4 I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth; 5 Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.
6 So Isaac went on living in Gerar; 7 And when he was questioned by the men of the place about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful. 8 And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife. 9 And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her. 10 Then Abimelech said, What have you done to us? one of the people might well have had connection with your wife, and the sin would have been ours. 11 And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death.
12 Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the Lord was on him. 13 And his wealth became very great, increasing more and more; 14 For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy. 15 Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with earth by the Philistines. 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are stronger than we are. 17 So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there. 18 And he made again the water-holes which had been made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names which his father had given them. 19 Now Isaac's servants made holes in the valley, and came to a spring of flowing water. 20 But the herdmen of Gerar had a fight with Isaac's herdmen, for they said, The spring is ours: so he gave the spring the name of Esek, because there was a fight about it. 21 Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah. 22 Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land. 23 And from there he went on to Beer-sheba. 24 That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham. 25 Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his servants made a water-hole.
26 And Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the captain of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you? 28 And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and let us make an agreement with you; 29 That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you. 30 Then he made a feast for them, and they all had food and drink. 31 And early in the morning they took an oath one to the other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way in peace. 32 And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him, We have come to water. 33 And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day.
34 And when Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35 And Isaac and Rebekah had grief of mind because of them.
81 And when he had come down from the mountain, great numbers of people came after him. 2 And a leper came and gave him worship, saying, Lord, if it is your pleasure, you have power to make me clean. 3 And he put his hand on him, saying, It is my pleasure; be clean. And straight away he was made clean. 4 And Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing about this to anyone; but go and let the priest see you and make the offering which was ordered by Moses, for a witness to them.
5 And when Jesus was come into Capernaum, a certain captain came to him with a request, 6 Saying, Lord, my servant is ill in bed at the house, with no power in his body, and in great pain. 7 And he said to him, I will come and make him well. 8 And the captain in answer said, Lord, I am not good enough for you to come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be made well. 9 Because I myself am a man under authority, having under me fighting men; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. 10 And when these words came to the ears of Jesus he was surprised, and said to those who came after him, Truly I say to you, I have not seen such great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say to you that numbers will come from the east and the west, and will take their seats with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be put out into the dark, and there will be weeping and cries of pain. 13 And Jesus said to the captain, Go in peace; as your faith is, so let it be done to you. And the servant was made well in that hour.
14 And when Jesus had come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother in bed, very ill. 15 And he put his hand on hers and the disease went from her, and she got up and took care of his needs. 16 And in the evening, they took to him a number of people who had evil spirits; and he sent the spirits out of them with a word, and made well all who were ill; 17 So that the word of Isaiah the prophet might come true: He himself took our pains and our diseases.
(Read Matthew 8:1)
This verse refers to the close of the foregoing sermon. Those to whom Christ has made himself known, desire to know more of him.
(Read Matthew 8:2-4)
In these verses we have an account of Christ's cleansing a leper, who came and worshipped him, as one clothed with Divine power. This cleansing directs us, not only to apply to Christ, who has power over bodily diseases, for the cure of them, but it also teaches us in what manner to apply to him. When we cannot be sure of God's will, we may be sure of his wisdom and mercy. No guilt is so great, but there is that in Christ's blood which atones for it; no corruption so strong, but there is that in his grace which can subdue it. To be made clean we must commend ourselves to his pity; we cannot demand it as a debt, but we must humbly request it as a favour. Those who by faith apply to Christ for mercy and grace, may be sure that he is freely willing to give them the mercy and grace they thus seek. And those afflictions are blessed that bring us to know Christ, and cause us to seek help and salvation from him. Let those who are cleansed from their spiritual leprosy, go to Christ's ministers and open their case, that they may advise, comfort, and pray for them.
(Read Matthew 8:5-13)
This centurion was a heathen, a Roman soldier. Though he was a soldier, yet he was a godly man. No man's calling or place will be an excuse for unbelief and sin. See how he states his servant's case. We should concern ourselves for the souls of our children and servants, who are spiritually sick, who feel not spiritual evils, who know not that which is spiritually good; and we should bring them to Christ by faith and prayers. Observe his self-abasement. Humble souls are made more humble by Christ's gracious dealings with them. Observe his great faith. The more diffident we are of ourselves, the stronger will be our confidence in Christ. Herein the centurion owns him to have Divine power, and a full command of all the creatures and powers of nature, as a master over his servants. Such servants we all should be to God; we must go and come, according to the directions of his word and the disposals of his providence. But when the Son of man comes he finds little faith, therefore he finds little fruit. An outward profession may cause us to be called children of the kingdom; but if we rest in that, and have nothing else to show, we shall be cast out. The servant got a cure of his disease, and the master got the approval of his faith. What was said to him, is said to all, Believe, and ye shall receive; only believe. See the power of Christ, and the power of faith. The healing of our souls is at once the effect and evidence of our interest in the blood of Christ.
(Read Matthew 8:14-17)
Peter had a wife, yet was an apostle of Christ, who showed that he approved of the married state, by being thus kind to Peter's wife's relations. The church of Rome, which forbids ministers to marry, goes contrary to that apostle upon whom they rest so much. He had his wife's mother with him in his family, which is an example to be kind to our relations. In spiritual healing, the Scripture speaks the word, the Spirit gives the touch, touches the heart, touches the hand. Those who recover from fevers, commonly are weak and feeble some time after; but to show that this cure was above the power of nature, the woman was at once so well as to go about the business of the house. The miracles which Jesus did being noised abroad, many thronged to him. He healed all that were sick, though the patient was ever so mean, and the case ever so bad. Many are the diseases and calamities to which we are liable in the body; and there is more, in those words of the gospel, that Jesus Christ bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows, to support and comfort us under them, than in all the writings of the philosophers. Let us not grudge labour, trouble, or expense in doing good to others.
