GENESIS 16:6-16 After Hagar fled from Sarah's presence, before Ishmael was born, the angel of the Lord said to her, "Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man;...
GENESIS 16:1-6 Ten years had passed since God had first promised Abraham descendants, and now three years had gone by since God had reassured Abraham of this same thing. Whereas in Genesis 15 Abraham is seen as a man of faith, in chapter 16 we see him as a man...
GENESIS 15:1-6 God assured Abraham that He was Abraham's "exceeding great reward" (Gen. 15:1). The king of Sodom had offered Abraham all the riches that Abraham and his servants had brought back, but he turned them down. Notice that the tense is not past or future, but present. Not "I...
GENESIS 14:17-24 When the king of Sodom tempted Abraham by urging him to take the earthly goods, Abraham's attitude was the same as the apostle Paul's. In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul said, "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for...
GENESIS 14:10-16 What should be our attitude when a brother is taken captive by the things of this world? Some have a distorted concept of separation. When they see a brother fall into sin, they shout it from the housetops and publish it in their magazines. This is not what...
Unconsecrated Christians who are living according to the flesh are referred to as "carnal" in the Scriptures (see 1 Cor. 3:1,3). It is never recorded that Lot built an altar. He was not known for his communion with God. As a result, he got into trouble, just as any believer...
GENESIS 13:1-4 Even though Abraham returned to fellowship with God, irreparable damage had been done. When a believer backslides, he does things he will never be able to undo. Abraham's testimony had been weakened, and damage beyond repair had been done to worldly Lot, Abraham's nephew. Lot had gone with...
Abraham’s downward steps away from God eventually led to open rebuke. The Bible says, “Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have...
GENESIS 12:9-13 After Abraham pitched his tent, built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord, the Scriptures say that “Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south” (Gen. 12:9). Instead of staying where he had his altar—his contact with God—Abraham went farther south. He went away from...
GENESIS 12:7-9 The tent symbolized Abraham’s dependence on God. Hebrews 11:9-10 says of Abraham that “by faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles [tents] with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a...