One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 48
28
January 9
Abimelech left with Phicol, the commander of
his army, and they returned home to the land
of the Philistines. 33 Then Abraham planted
a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he
worshiped the Lord, the Eternal God.* 34 And
Abraham lived as a foreigner in Philistine
country for a long time.
22:1 Some time later, God tested Abra
ham’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,” Abra
ham 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. 14 Abraham named the
place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord
will provide”). To this day, people still use that
name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the
Lord it will be provided.”
15 Then the angel of the Lord called again
to Abraham from heaven. 16 “This is what the
Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and
have not withheld even your son, your only
son, I swear by my own name that 17 I will
certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants* beyond number, like the stars in
the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your
descendants will conquer the cities of their
enemies. 18 And through your descendants all
the nations of the earth will be b
lessed—all
because you have obeyed me.”
19 Then they returned to the servants and
traveled back to Beersheba, where Abraham
continued to live.
20 Soon after this, Abra
ham heard that
Milcah, his brother Nahor’s wife, had borne
Nahor eight sons. 21 The oldest was named
Uz, the next oldest was Buz, followed by Kem
uel (the ancestor of the Arameans), 22 Kesed,
Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 (Bethuel
became the father of Rebekah.) In addition to
these eight sons from Milcah, 24 Nahor had
four other children from his concubine Reu
mah. Their names were Tebah, Gaham, Ta
hash, and Maacah.
20:16 Hebrew 1,000 [shekels] of silver, about 25 pounds or
11.4 kilograms in weight. 21:6 The name Isaac means “he
laughs.”
21:9 As in Greek version and Latin Vulgate; Hebrew
lacks of her son, I saac.
21:16 Hebrew a bowshot.
21:33 Hebrew
El-Olam.
22:17 Hebrew seed; also in 22:17b, 18.
MATTHEW 7:15‑29
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their
fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you
pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from
thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit,
and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good
tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree
can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that
does not produce good fruit is chopped down
and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can
identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify
people by their actions.
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord!
Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only
those who actually do the will of my Father in
heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many
will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in
your name and cast out demons in your name
and performed many miracles in your name.’
23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away
from me, you who break God’s laws.’
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and
follows it is wise, like a person who builds a
