Malcom: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 87
Sometime later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, do not
be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you and your reward will be great.
But Abram replied, oh, sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings
when I don't even have a son?
Since you've given me no children, ezer of Damascus, a servant in my
household will inherit all my wealth.
You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my
servants will be my heir.
Then the Lord said to him, no, your servant will not be your heir for
you will have a son of your own.
Who will be your heir?
Then the Lord took Abraham outside and said to him, Look up into the
sky and count the stars if you can.
That's how many descendants you will have.
And Abraham believed the Lord.
Now, the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Then the Lord told him, I am the Lord who brought you out of earth of the Chaldeans
to give you this land as your possession.
But Abram replied, oh, sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that
I will actually possess it?
The Lord told him, bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old
female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
So Abram presented all these to him and killed them.
Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side.
He did not, however, cut the birds in half.
Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a terrifying
darkness came down over him.
Then the Lord said to Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be
strangers in a foreign land where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400
years, but I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end
they will come away with great wealth.
As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.
After four generations, your descendants will return here to this land.
For the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.
After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abrams saw a smoking fire
pot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the carcasses.
So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, I have
given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of
Egypt to the great Euphrates River.
The land now occupied by the Kennis Kenna cites Caite, Hittites
parasites, rites, Amorites, Canaanites, Gsites, and Jabu sites.
Now, Sarah Abram's wife had not been able to bear children for him.
But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.
So Sarah, I said to Abram, the Lord has prevented me from having
children go and sleep with my servant.
Perhaps I can have children through her.
And Abram agreed with Sarah's proposal.
So Sarah, I, Abram's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian servant and
gave her to Abram as a wife.
This happened 10 years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.
So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar and she became pregnant.
But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress.
Sarah, I with contempt.
Then Sarah, I said to Abram, this is all your fault.
I put my servant into your arms.
But now that she's pregnant, she treats me with contempt.
The Lord will show who's wrong, you or me?
Abram replied, look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.
Then Sarah, I treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the
wilderness along the road to shore.
The angel said to her, Hagar, I servant, where have you come
from and where are you going?
I'm running away from my mistress, Sarah.
I, she replied.
The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress
and submit to her authority.
Then he added, I will give you more descendants than you can count.
And the angel also said, you are now pregnant and will give birth to his son.
You are to name him Ishmael, which means God hears for the Lord
has heard your cry of distress.
This son of yours will be a wild man as untamed as a wild donkey.
He will raise his fist against everyone and everyone will be against him.
Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.
Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her.
She said, you are the God who sees me.
She also said, have I truly seen the one who sees me?
So that well was named Beer Leroy, which means well, of the living
one who sees me, it can still be found between Kadish and Beed.
So Hagar gave Abram a son and Abram named him Ishmael.
Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am lha.
I God almighty, serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to
give you countless descendants.
At this Abram fell face down on the ground.
Then God said to him, this is my covenant with you.
I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.
What's more, I am changing your name.
It will no longer be Abram.
Instead, you will be called Abraham.
For you will be the father of many nations.
I will make you extremely fruitful.
Your descendants will become many nations and kings will be among them.
I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after
you from generation to generation.
This is the everlasting covenant.
I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you
and I will give the entire land of Canaan where you now live as a
foreigner to you and your descendants.
It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.
Then God said to Abraham, your responsibility is to obey
the terms of the covenant.
You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.
This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep.
Each male among you must be circumcised.
You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between
me and you from generation to generation.
Every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth.
This applies not only to members of your family, but also to the servants
born in your household and the foreign born servants whom you have purchased.
All must be circumcised.
Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant.
Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant
family for breaking the covenant.
Then God said to Abraham regarding Sarah, your wife, her name will
no longer be Sarah from now on.
Her name will be Sarah and I will bless her and give you a son from her.
Yes, I will bless her richly and she will become the mother of many nations.
Kings of nations will be among her descendants.
Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief.
How could I become a father at the age of 100?
He thought, and how can Sarah have a baby when she is 90 years old?
So Abraham said to God, may Ishmael live under your special blessing.
But God replied, no, Sarah, your wife will give birth to a son for you.
You will name him Isaac and I will confirm my covenant with him and his
descendants as an everlasting covenant.
As for Ishmael, I will bless him.
Also, just as you have asked, I will make him extremely fruitful
and multiply his descendants.
He will become the father of 12 princes and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you
and Sarah about this time next year.
When God had finished speaking, he left Abraham on that very day.
Abraham took his son, Ishmael, and every male in his household, including those
born there and those he had bought.
Then he circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins just as God had told him.
Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised, and Ishmael, his son was 13.
Both Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that same
day, along with all the other men and boys of the household.
Whether they were born there or bought as servants, all were circumcised with him.
The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the Oak Grove, belonging to mammary.
One day, Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during
the hottest part of the day.
He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby.
When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them.
Bowing low to the ground, my Lord.
He said, if it pleases you, stop here for a while.
Rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet.
And since you've honored your servant with this visit, let me
prepare some food to refresh you before you continue on your journey.
All right.
They said, do as you have said, so Abraham ran back to the tent and
said to Sarah, hurry, get three large measures of your best flour.
Needed him to dough and baked some bread.
Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to
his servant who quickly prepared it.
When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk and the roasted
meat, and he served it to the men.
As they ate, Abraham waited on them in the shade of the trees.
Where is Sarah, your wife?
The visitors asked.
She's inside the tent.
Abraham replied.
Then one of them said, I will return to you about this time next year,
and your wife Sarah, will have a son.
Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent.
Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long
past the age of having children.
So she laughed silently to herself and said, how could a worn out woman like
me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master, my husband, is also so old.
Then the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh?
Why did she say, can an old woman like me have a baby?
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.
Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, I didn't laugh, but
the Lord said, no, you did laugh.
This concludes today's Immer reading experience.
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