Genesis 12:1-20
The Obedience of Abram
12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
to the land that I will show you.
12:2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,
and I will make your name great,
so that you will exemplify divine blessing.
12:3 I will bless those who bless you,
but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,
and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”
12:4 So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.)
12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they left for the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.
12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)
12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord.
12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages down to the Negev.
The Promised Blessing Jeopardized
12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay for a while because the famine was severe.
12:11 As he approached Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman.
12:12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive.
12:13 So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you.”
12:14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
12:15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. So Abram’s wife was taken into the household of Pharaoh,
12:16 and he did treat Abram well on account of her. Abram received sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
12:17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
12:18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?
12:19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Here is your wife! Take her and go!”
12:20 Pharaoh gave his men orders about Abram, and so they expelled him, along with his wife and all his possessions.
Genesis 26:24-26
26:24 The
Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”
26:25 Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped
the
Lord. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well.
26:26 Now Abimelech had come to him from Gerar along with Ahuzzah his friend and Phicol the commander of his army.
Jeremiah 17:16
17:16 But I have not pestered you to bring disaster.
I have not desired the time of irreparable devastation.
You know that.
You are fully aware of every word that I have spoken.
Mark 7:21-22
7:21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
7:22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.
Mark 12:14-17
12:14 When they came they said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and do not court anyone’s favor, because you show no partiality
but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
Is it right
to pay taxes
to Caesar
or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
12:15 But he saw through their hypocrisy and said
to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius
and let me look at it.”
12:16 So
they brought one, and he said to them, “Whose image
is this, and whose inscription?” They replied,
“Caesar’s.”
12:17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
And they were utterly amazed at him.
Romans 1:29
1:29 They are filled
with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with
envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,