The Call of Abram and God's Promise

 

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Important People and Important Vocabulary

I. Abraham- Father of Biblical Faith.

II. Sarah- Abraham's wife.

III. Abram/ Sarai- Abraham and Sarah first appear in the Book of Genesis with these names.

IV. Semites- Refers to a number of ancient peoples of the Near East, from whom the Israelites descended.

V. Promise- God promises that from Abram's offspring will come a great nation, a blessing for the world.

VI. Lot- Abram's nephew.

VII. Canaan- Promised Land; God leads Abram to this land.

• Semites are members of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language, including the Jews and Arabs.
• Canaan may be derived from a Semitic word signifying ‘reddish purple’, a reference to the purple dye made in the area or to the wool made with such dye. It has also been suggested that it may come from kana ‘to be low’ or ‘humble’, thus ‘lowlands.’

The Call of Abram

Now mthe Lord said1 to Abram, “Go from your country2 and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 nAnd I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 oI will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and pin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”3

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from qHaran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram rpassed through the land to the place at Shechem, to sthe oak4 of tMoreh. At that time uthe Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, v“To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of wBethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Genesis 12: 1-9

Why did I choose this verse?  

I chose this verse because I think we should follow the plan that God has for us. God always gives us his word. 

Visited by Strangers

Genesis 18:12
Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After i have become old, shall i have pleasure, my lord being old also?"

Visited By Strangers

Genesis 17:17
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "will a child be born one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?"

Visited By Strangers

Genesis 13:2
Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

Visited By strangers

I. Hospitality- The friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.
II. Isaac- He is the son of Sarah. He married Rebekah

1) Genesis 18:14
Its anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.

Enter Isaac, Exit Ismael

The father of the Arab peoples is Ishmael.

To Muslims, Ishmael is considered the father because Abraham is their father in faith through the line of Ishmael.

Important Vocabulary

1. bedouin- a nomadic Arab
2. Islam- the religion of the Muslims
3. monotheistic- worshiping one God

Shall we RETROGRESS?

Sooooooo, Isaac is like, born and Sarah was all, "Hagar, you are soooo not cool. Get outta here!" OMG, now Hagar is jus' wandering the dry streets with this new wild kid and they are super thirsty. THANK GOD some dude in white robes decides to come out with a pack of Gatorade and now Hagar and her kid AREN'T supah thirsty.

Okay, enough of that. I just thought that'd be entertaining to read. :)

Alrighty! In the bible, the writers didn't want to boast about the heroes. Instead, they wrote about how the actual heroes of any of the stories WEREN'T perfect. Somehow, God has made them a light to the world, so ultimately it was to encourage us imperfect people to become a little more perfect.

Reading for this section: Genesis 21- 1- 21

Isaac Is Born

¹ Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had ^[a]promised. ² So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. ³ Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. ⁴ Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ^[b]with me.” ⁷ And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Sarah Turns against Hagar

⁹ Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^[c]mocking. ¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son ^[d]Isaac.” ¹¹ The matter ^[e]distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “^[f]Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac ^[g]your descendants shall be named. ¹³ And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your ^[h]descendant.” ¹⁴ So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a ^[i]skin of water and gavethem to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was used up, she ^[j]left the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me ^[k]see the boy die.” And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept. ¹⁷ God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. ¹⁸ Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by ^[l]the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the ^[m]skin with water and gave the lad a drink.

²⁰ God was with the lad, and he grew; and he ^[n]lived in the wilderness and became an archer. ²¹ He ^[o]lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

***

Before this Hagar and Ishmael didn't have anything to drink. This just comes to show that God loves us and will care for us no matter how distant or imperfect we are...

An Alternative Plan: Hagar

Hagar and Ishmael

Hagar- Abram and Sarai's maid, who they decide would be the concubine (a marriage-like relationship with a man the woman cannot marry for a specific reason) and beget a child by her since Sarai cannot bear children

Ishmael- born of Hagar, but legally Sarai's son

• Tensions rose between Sarai and Hagar.


• God convinces hagar to go back to Sarai in promise to Hagar that Ishmael will grow into a manhood wild and free.


• God still has a plan for Sarai to bear child.

VOCABULARY

polygamy- the practice of taking more than one wife

monogamy- taking only one wife

Factoids...
Polygamy was an early biblical custom.
If a wife was barren, a servant might become a surrogate child bearer, a concubine to a husband. Or the husband may take a 2nd wife to give the family children.

These practices ensure the survival of a tribe.

The story of Adam and Eve, however, says that monogamy was the biblical idea.

Biblical reading for this section: Genesis 16: 1-16

Hagar and Ishmael

¹ Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”

⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

⁷ The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

¹¹ The angel of the LORD also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,^[a]
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward^[b] all his brothers.”

¹³ She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen^[c] the One who sees me.” ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi^[d]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

*** We chose this verse, the words bold and in red, because it shows who Ishmael is destined to be. This also convinces Hagar to give up Ishmael to Abram and Sarai.