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Cookies on the Low ShelfA Family Friendly Bible Reading PlanWeek 3: Abraham, Isaac, and JacobMonday: Genesis 12:1-6, 15:1-6Abram leaves his home, is promised a sonchapter 12. The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2?I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3?I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” 4?So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5?He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan, 6?Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. chapter 15. 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.” 2?But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3?You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” 4?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.” 5?Then the Lord took Abram 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!” 6?And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.Genesis 1 to 11 explained how God created a beautiful world, but humans messed it all up. Today we begin to see God’s plan to repair the world and make everything new again. This is a BIG plan, but it starts very small. God began his plan of salvation by creating a special family (the people of Israel) who would have the job of bringing God’s blessing and salvation to the whole world. This family started with one man, Abram. God asks him to leave his home (Ur is near modern day Baghdad) and go to an unknown place (which turns out to be modern day Israel). God promises that everyone on earth will be blessed through him. Abram must have been a lot like us – forgetful and needing reassurance – because God has to repeat his promises to Abram many times. In chapter 15, two promises are repeated: Abram will be the father of an enormous number of descendants (eventually all Christians are “children of Abram”), and he will have the land of Palestine (present day Israel). Our reading ends with verse 15:6, one of the most important in all the Bible: Abram is made righteous (this means “acceptable to God”) because he believed God’s words and promise. This promise will be fulfilled when one of Abram’s great-great-great grandchild – Jesus – rescues all people. Sometimes God asks us to go places or do things that are unfamiliar. Pray for the faith to trust that God is leading you to the best situation for serving him.Tuesday: Genesis 18:1-15Abram promised a sonThe Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day. 2?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. 3?“My lord,” he said, “if it pleases you, stop here for a while. 4?Rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet. 5?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.” 6?So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, “Hurry! Get three large measures of your best flour, knead it into dough, and bake some bread.” 7?Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to his servant, who quickly prepared it. 8?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. 9?“Where is Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked. “She’s inside the tent,” Abraham replied. 10?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. 11?Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12?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?” 13?Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14?Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15?Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.” But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.” (NLT)In chapter 17, which we didn’t read, God reaffirms his promise to Abram, and changes his name to Abraham (which means “father of many.”) This was hard for Abraham to believe, because by now he was 100 years old, and still didn’t have any children! But then Abraham is visited by three men, who are actually the Holy Trinity (Father, Son & Spirit) in disguise. As he gives them generous hospitality, they tell him that God will bring him a son in a year’s time. When Sarah hears this, she laughs in disbelief. But God reminds her “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” This is one of several times in the Bible, where someone shows kindness to a stranger, only to discover it was God in disguise. Jesus would later say “when you (helped) one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Matthew 25:40). Pray that the Holy Spirit helps you to be hospitable to strangers, and pray for the faith to believe that nothing is too hard for God.Wednesday: Genesis 21:1-7The Birth of IsaacThe Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. 2?She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. 3?And Abraham named their son Isaac. 4?Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. 5?Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. 6?And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. 7?Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!” (NLT)Sure enough, old as they are, Abraham and Sarah have a baby. He is named Isaac, which means “son of laughter,” which refers to Sarah’s laughing in yesterday’s reading. This reminds us that one day, though Abraham’s family, God would send another baby to a woman who didn’t think she could become pregnant. That woman was Mary, and her child Jesus would bring joy and laughter to the whole world.Thursday: Genesis 22:1-13God will provide (The Sacrifice of Isaac)Sometime later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” 2?“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” 3?The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. 4?On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5?“Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.” 6?So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, 7?Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” 8?“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together. 9?When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10?And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11?At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!” 12?“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.” 13?Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. (NLT)In the chapters we didn’t read, there were many times when Abraham did not trust God. He lied to other people, and he was impatient, and tried to do things himself, instead of waiting for God’s help. So God arranges a strange situation to help Abraham rediscover his faith. He gives Abraham a test, asking him to give up his only son. This would seem to go against God’s promise to save the world through Abraham’s child. But he trusts that God will find a way to keep the promise, so he tells his son in 22:8, that “God will provide the lamb.” And God did! This refers not only to the actual lamb Abraham used, but it is a picture of how Jesus will be the lamb who is sacrificed for all of our sins. While Abraham didn’t actually have to sacrifice his son, the story reminds us that God the Father did sacrifice his only Son, so that we don’t have to die! In your prayers, give thanks to God for keeping his promises.Friday: Genesis 25:19-26Jacob and Esau19?This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham. 20?When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean. 21?Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. 22?But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the Lord about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked. 23?And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.” 24?And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! 25?The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau. 26?Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.The Bible doesn’t say too much about Abraham’s son Isaac, until he has kids of his own, which turn out to be twins. Take note of the meaning of the names: Esau means “hairy” and “red,” Jacob means “grabber” and “trickster.” Very often in the Bible, people’s names describe their character. Next week we will learn how Jacob tricked his older brother, which led to some bitter sibling rivalry. Pray for God’s help for you to be a good brother or sister to your siblings.Bonus Day: Hebrews 11:1-3, 6-12, 17-19 Examples of Living by FaithFaith shows the reality of what we hope for;?it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2?Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. 3?By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. 6?And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. 7?It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. 8?It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 11?It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. 12?And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. 17?It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18?even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” 19?Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. (NLT)For our bonus reading this week, we turn toward the end of the Bible to chapter 11 of Hebrews, one of the most important teachings in the Bible concerning faith. Carefully read the definition of faith (11:1). Then read about the faith of the Bible characters we have already learned about. This faith, where we truly trust God, pleases God more than anything else (11:6). Pray for the Holy Spirit to increase your faith. ................
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