Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 36
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IMMERSE
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BEGINNINGS
18:7-26
large measures of your best flour, knead it into dough, and bake 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.”
Then the men got up from their meal and looked out toward Sodom. As
they left, Abraham went with them to send them on their way.
“Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the Lord asked. “For Abraham
will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the
earth will be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will
direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord by doing
what is right and just. Then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised.”
So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom
and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if
their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham. Abraham approached him and said, “Will you
sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty
righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and
not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the
righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that!
Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”
And the Lord replied, “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will
spare the entire city for their sake.”
