One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 54
34
January 11
the region from Havil ah to Shur, which is east
of Egypt in the direction of Asshur. There
they lived in open hostility toward all their
relatives.*
19 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.* I saac was sixty years
old when the twins were born.
27 As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob
had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at
home. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed
eating the wild game Esau brought home, but
Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 One day when Jacob was cooking some
stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness
exhausted and hungry. 30 Esau said to Jacob,
“I’m starved! Give 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.
34 Then 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 Lord appeared to I saac and said, “Do
not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you. 3 Live
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. 4 I 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. 5 I will do this because Abraham listened to me and obeyed all
my requirements, commands, decrees, and
instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men who lived there asked I saac
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.” 8 But some time later,
Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out
his window and saw I saac caressing Rebekah.
9 Immediately, Abim
elech called for Isaac
and exclaimed, “She is obviously 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.”
11 Then Abimelech issued a public proclamation: “Anyone who touches this man or his
wife will be put to death!”
12 When I saac planted his crops that year, he
harvested a hundred times more grain than
he planted, for the Lord blessed him. 13 He became a very rich man, and his wealth continued to grow. 14 He 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.”
20 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live
