NLT One Year Bible - Flipbook - Page 44
J A N U A R Y
1 1
me some of that red stew!” (This is how
Esau got his other name, Edom, which
means “red.”)
31“All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade
me your rights as the firstborn son.”
32“Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said
Esau. “What good is my birthright to me
now?”
33 But Jacob said, “First you must
swear that your birthright is mine.” So
Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all
his rights as the firstborn to his brother,
Jacob.
34Then Jacob gave Esau some bread
and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then
got up and left. He showed contempt
for his rights as the firstborn.
26:1 A
severe famine now struck the
land, as had happened before in Abraham’s time. So Isaac moved to Gerar,
where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.
2 The L ord appeared to Isaac and
said, “Do not go down to Egypt, but do as
I tell you. 3Live here as a foreigner in this
land, and I will be with you and bless
you. I hereby confirm that I will give all
these lands to you and your descendants,* just as I solemnly promised
Abraham, your father. 4I will cause your
descendants to become as numerous as
the stars of the sky, and I will give them
all these lands. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth
will be blessed. 5I will do this because
Abraham listened to me and obeyed all
my requirements, commands, decrees,
and instructions.” 6So Isaac stayed in
Gerar.
7 When the men who lived there
asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, he
said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to
say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “They
will kill me to get her, because she is so
beautiful.” 8But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out
his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah.
9 Immediately, Abimelech called for
Isaac and exclaimed, “She is obviously
40
your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my
sister’?”
“Because I was afraid someone would
kill me to get her from me,” Isaac replied.
10 “How could you do this to us?”
Abimelech exclaimed. “One of my people might easily have taken your wife and
slept with her, and you would have made
us guilty of great sin.”
11Then Abimelech issued a public
proclamation: “Anyone who touches this
man or his wife will be put to death!”
12 When Isaac planted his crops that
year, he harvested a hundred times more
grain than he planted, for the Lord
blessed him. 13He became a very rich
man, and his wealth continued to grow.
14He acquired so many flocks of sheep
and goats, herds of cattle, and servants
that the Philistines became jealous of
him. 15 So the Philistines filled up all of
Isaac’s wells with dirt. These were the
wells that had been dug by the servants
of his father, Abraham.
16 Finally, Abimelech ordered Isaac to
leave the country. “Go somewhere else,”
he said, “for you have become too
powerful for us.”
25:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
25:25 Esau sounds like a Hebrew term that means “hair.”
25:26 Jacob sounds like the Hebrew words for “heel” and
“deceiver.” 26:3 Hebrew seed; also in 26:4, 24.
MATTHEW 8:18-34
When Jesus saw the crowd around him,
he instructed his disciples to cross to
the other side of the lake.
19 Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens
to live in, and birds have nests, but the
Son of Man* has no place even to lay his
head.”
21Another of his disciples said, “Lord,
first let me return home and bury my father.”
22But Jesus told him, “Follow me now.
Let the spiritually dead bury their own
dead.*”
23 Then Jesus got into the boat and
started across the lake with his disci-
