Today I'm going to read from Genesis 17 through 28!
Genesis 17
1And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
2And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
The Lord appears to Abram and tells a flesh and blood man to be perfect before the Lord. If the Lord told Abram that, then we have to as well, and He expects that from us. The laws and commandments are not to hard to bear; the Lord does not give us more than we can bear. Then the Lord makes a covenant with Abram.
7And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
The Covenant was that every male should be circumcised in the flesh as a token between them and the Lord. At 8 days from birth, the male child should be circumcised in all generations, even the stranger, or hire servants bought with money, which aren't Abraham direct seed. If they aren't circumcised, they will be cut off because they have broken the covenant. God changed Abram's name to Abraham, the ham meaning many, and changed Sarai's name to Sarah (v10-15).
Abraham Wishes for Ishmael
18And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
21But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Abraham wanted Ishmael to have the covenant but the Lord honors the first wife; and made the covenant with Isaac who was not born yet. Still the Lord blessed Ishmael; but the covenant went to Isaac.
26In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. This is what you call obedience. In the same they they went and got circumcised.
Genesis chapter 18
The Lord shows up to Abraham with three men who were angels and prepares to tell Abraham something. They told Abraham your wife will have Isaac at this time next year. Sarah laughed because she was an older woman now; but is anything too hard for God?
The Lord then tells the three men to go to Sodom and Gomorrah and see what is going on there; if it is really as bad as they say. The Lord also, because He knew Abraham was a good man told Abraham what He was going to do. Abraham asked the Lord if there were just 5 good people in Sodom will He still burn it down and the Lord said no He wouldn't.
Genesis chapter 19
Lot see's the men that were with the Lord and presses them to not stay in the streets; but to come into his home for the evening. And the wicked men of Sodom already got glimpse of the men and came to Lot to release them to them so they can fight.
5And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
No, not so they can fight, but so that they can know them. This "know them" is to know someone in a sexual way. This is homosexuality; and we know this because of the next verse below:
8Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
Lot offered his two daughters who had not known man, in other words, they were virgins and the men of Sodom could lay with them; but the men pressed forward almost ready to knock Lot's door down. The men hit the men with blindness and they still tried to find the door and they told Lot and his family they have to leave because they will destroy the city tomorrow. Lot was told to tell anyone he knew that was righteous about what was to happen. He told the men who were to marry his daughters; but they mocked saying the Lord is not going to do that. So Lot and his wife, and two daughter took off for the hills.
A lot of people were not homosexuals, but they condoned the behavior and this got them caught up in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The city and the sister cities were all burned to the ground. Lot's wife did not make it because she disobeyed and looked back at the destruction and was turned to a pillar of salt.
When Lot and his daughters made it to a safe place, his daughters knowing that their mother was gone wanted their daddy's seed to continue (since he had no sons), so they plotted to get Lot drunk and lay with him each and have child of him. They succeeded and Lot through his own daughters fathered the Ammonites and Moabites. The city of Ammon today is in the country Jordan and these are most likely the decedents of Lot and his daughters today!
Genesis 20
1And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
2And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
3But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.
4But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
5Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
6And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
7Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
This is just an amazing story and more one that points the fact that the Lord had established His commandments prior to Moses Abimelech knew about adultery before Moses was even in existence. This is surely a missing verse in the bible. Abraham again told the people that Sarah was his sister for fear of killing him to get his wife. These people were upright in keeping the Lord's will that is why the Lord had mercy and warned Abimelech in a dream. The Lord warns His servants; just like we warn people we like and love. You'll tell someone if they are about to face danger or if they were going to face a uncomfortable situation.
9Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.
The Lord had Abraham pray for the man and the man gave riches to Abraham. When the Lord puts the fear of you into your enemies; you can surely know they will do you no harm because they fear God.
Genesis 21
1And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
Sarah had the child as the Lord had spoken and named him Isaac and had the boy circumcised on the 8th day of his life, as God commanded. Abraham was a hundred years of age when he had Isaac. Sarah became angry with Hagar more and had her tossed out the house with her son; and this was very hard on Abraham.
11And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
12And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
13And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
However, the Lord comforted him and told him to listen to his wife. Ishmael was still promised to be a great nation and to be taken cared of by the Lord. Today if we view the Arab nations, they supply the world with most of it's oil; and they are very wealthy. The Lord has followed up on that promise.
Genesis 22
1And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Here Abraham is put to the test to see how far he'd go in serving the Lord. The Lord tempts us to see the extent in which we'll serve Him. He does not tempt us to break His laws. An example would be you are stretched out for money and the Lord comes and lays 500 hundred dollars on the hood of someone's car. He does not do that type of tempting. The Lord will tempt you by not giving you a job you think you should have got and see if you will still serve Him.
Here with Abraham, He ordered Abraham to kill this son of his that he waited so long for. And Abraham did not skip a beat, and loaded all the things for sacrifice and went straight to do it. This is what you call faith and belief.
10And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Abraham would have killed his own son for the Lord had the Lord not stopped him. This confirmed to the Lord that Abraham would serve Him even to death. There are funny questions people lay that didn't the Lord know that already, why did He take Abraham through all of this? This is certainly a question you can ask immediately you see the Lord when He returns. God has His reasons for doing things that I do not understand because like everyone else here; I am merely a man.
18And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
In this seed (singular) all nations of the earth will be blessed because Abraham obeyed the voice of the Lord in not withholding his only son (of the covenant), Isaac, from the Lord. That seed is Jesus Christ.
Genesis 23
1And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.
2And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
Sarah dies, living a 127 years and just as a man or woman loses a spouse today, it is much weeping and much to mourn about. It is very sad in losing one even when you know you will see them again. Abraham bought a field to bury pretty much his entire family when they died, he certainly wanted to be buried next to his wife Sarah when he passed.
Genesis chapter 24
Now as Abraham is aging and being hit with years, the end of the road becomes clearer to see; he commands his servant to go back to his homeland and find Isaac a wife. Abraham must have observed the life style of the people of Canaan and did not want Isaac to mingle with such. We should be very careful in who our children marry because the fact is they will marry who they are around. If you really want to influence who your child married; put them around the people you want.
And the servant being led by the Lord found Rebekah. 16And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. She was very beautiful to look upon and also had plenty of jewels in her head as well.
She was brought before Isaac and they went into the tent and got married. This is an example of how you marry. After you make the verbal intent and the whatever ceremonies we do today; the actual marriage is when it is consummated. When you take your wife in the tent; this is when she officially, in the eyes of the Lord becomes your wife and likewise your husband.
Genesis 25
1Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
Abraham remarried and as we see had lots of children all by a woman named Keturah. Abraham passed his wealth down to his son Isaac; but to all his sons he had by his concubine or second wife Keturah, he gave them gifts and sent them away.
8Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
Abraham lived to be 175 years of age and finally died, and his sons Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury him in the cave he'd purchased for Sarah.
Ishmael had twelve sons who are the 12 prices of the Arab nations we still have today. Go ask any Arab that knows his background how many nations of actual Arab people there are, and he should give you twelve. It may be 13 today because they are attempting to count Egypt as an Arab nation, which it is not. It is only being occupied by Arabs.
16These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. Ishmael lived to be 137 years before he died and was buried.
18And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren. His children and his children's children lived in Havilah unto Shur, which is before Egypt as it goes towards Assyria.
The chapter ends with the birth of Esau and Jacob. It gives distinct difference in their appearance and their tussle to be first out of the womb. The first out will serve the second out in a prophecy the mother received and Esau was first. He had the birthright; but did not care too much for it as he traded it for a bowl of red soup.
34Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
Genesis 26
1And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
2And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
Here is a famine and the Lord directing Isaac what to do and where to go. There is really not a worry in life when you are being steered by the Creator.
Missing Verse in the Bible:
5Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Abraham obeyed God, kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws. Many people like to think or do not know that the Lord's commandments did not come when Moses showed up. They've been around forever, sin is what had Satan removed from heaven, so the Lord's laws were even then.
Isaac does the same thing Abraham did when he visited Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. He tells them Rebekah is his sister and not his wife. But he is caught sporting with her and is confronted. Abimelech's reaction once again confirms even the children of Ham were keeping the Lord's commandment or at least knew about them.
10And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.
11And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
Thou shall not commit adultery, you cannot lay with another man's wife.
Isaac became a hard worker and became a great man in herds and sowing in the land and the Philistines envied him because of his wealth.
16And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. When God is with you, this is what your enemies will say. They will want you away from them because they know they cannot win. To show that they knew the Lord was with him, skip down a few verses and read.
26Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
27And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?
28And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;
Abimelech came down to make a covenant that Isaac would not hurt his people.
Esau Marries:
34And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
35Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
If Abraham took the time to make sure Isaac married someone from his home town, I'm sure Isaac took the time to do the same. However, Esau couldn't wait and married a Hittite and even took himself two wives. This was to the grief of his parents.
Genesis chapter 27
Isaac is now up in age and he is getting ready to pass the blessings down to his sons and the inheritance to the first born. He calls Esau to make a meal for him. Rebekah heard this conversation and she noticed that Esau did not say to Isaac, that he gave the birthright to Jacob. He went along with it forgetting his agreement. Also, Rebekah remembered what the Lord said when the two, Esau and Jacob, were wrestling in the womb that the older will serve the young. So she informed Jacob and commanded he get ready to pretend he's Esau and collect the blessing.
9Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: Isaac loved goat meat; and his wife prepared it for him for Jacob to take in to him. Rebekah had Jacob cover all his bases in pretending to be Esau and it worked. Isaac blessed Jacob thinking he was blessing Esau because of his eyes growing dim.
Jacob's Blessing
28Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
29Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
The blessing included the dew of heaven, that is possession of the word of God, fatness or riches in the earth, let people serve you and nations bow down to Jacob. Also he will be master over his brother, and his mother's sons will bow down to thee. Everyone that curses him will be cursed and everyone that blesses him will be blessed. One thing I'd like to point out is that Isaac and Rebekah only had two sons, Esau and Jacob. So how is it that it says "let your mother's sons bow down to thee?"
These are the type of missing verses we have to look out for when reading the bible. It is very clear that this has gone into a spiritual prophetic statement in nature, not referring to Jacob's mother Rebekah, but to Jacob's mother Eve.
Esau returns and is made known that Jacob had gotten him again.
36And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
37And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
Isaac tells Esau that he has made Jacob Esau's master, as the Lord told Rebekah before these two kids were born, and has given all his brothers to him for servants. Again, Jacob only had a twin brother in Isaac. This is a spiritual context here.
At this point Esau just begged for any blessing, any thing he could get he'd take.
39And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;
40And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
Isaac gave Esau riches and gave him the same dew from heaven, so the sons of Esau know some solid truth today, and they live by the sword and still serve their brother.
Esau from that moment hated his brother, and wait until his father passed away before he made out to kill Jacob. That hatred still last even until today as I type and read, between Esau and Jacob. Rebekah saw that Esau would be violent towards her baby boy Jacob; and made him go stay with her brother Laban, in disguise of finding his wife.
Genesis 28
Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob back to Padanaram to find his wife and he obeyed. When Esau saw that Jacob obeyed and that it did not please Isaac to see him with a wife from Canaan, Esau took two more wives from among Ishmael's daughters. I think he was doing that to attempt to please his father.
Jacob's Ladder?
12And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
13And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
15And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.
Jacob we see did not have a ladder, he dreamed and the Lord gave him a vision that He would be with him in his journey all the way until he fulfilled what the Lord said about all families of the earth being blessed in Jacob's seed. Jacob then vowed a vow to pay a tenth to the Lord if he is to return safely. This is where the children of Israel continue to give the Lord a 10th of whatever He gives them.
22And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
This concludes today's reading.
