GENESIS 20:1- 22:24
MATTHEW 7:15- 29
PSALM 9:1- 12
PROVERBS 2:16- 22
Now Abraham moved south to the Negev and settled for a while between Kadesh and Shur at a place called Gerar. 2 Abraham told people there that his wife, Sarah, was his sister. So King Abimelech sent for her and had her brought to him at his palace. 3 But one night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, "You are a dead man, for that woman you took is married." 4 But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, so he said, "Lord, will you kill an innocent man? 5 Abraham told me, `She is my sister, 'and she herself said, `Yes, he is my brother.' I acted in complete innocence!" 6 "Yes, I know you are innocent," God replied. "That is why I kept you from sinning against me; I did not let you touch her. 7 Now return her to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don't return her to him, you can be sure that you and your entire household will die." 8 Abimelech got up early the next morning and hastily called a meeting of all his servants. When he told them what had happened, great fear swept through the crowd. 9 Then Abimelech called for Abraham. "What is this you have done to us?" he demanded. "What have I done to you that deserves treatment like this, making me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? This kind of thing should not be done! 10 Why have you done this to us?" 11 "Well," Abraham said, "I figured this to be a godless place. I thought, `They will want my wife and will kill me to get her. '12 Besides, she is my sister-- we both have the same father, though different mothers-- and I married her. 13 When God sent me to travel far from my father's home, I told her, `Wherever we go, have the kindness to say that you are my sister.'" 14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and servants-- both men and women-- and gave them to Abraham, and he returned his wife, Sarah, to him. 15 "Look over my kingdom, and choose a place where you would like to live," Abimelech told him. 16 Then he turned to Sarah. "Look," he said, "I am giving your `brother 'a thousand pieces of silver to compensate for any embarrassment I may have caused you. This will settle any claim against me in this matter." 17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and the other women of the household, so they could have children. 18 For the LORD had stricken all the women with infertility as a warning to Abimelech for having taken Abraham's wife. 21:1 THEN the LORD did exactly what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant, and she gave a son to Abraham in his old age. It all happened at the time God had said it would. 3 And Abraham named his son Isaac. 4 Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. 5 Abraham was one hundred years old at the time. 6 And Sarah declared, "God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me. 7 For who would have dreamed that I would ever have a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!" 8 As time went by and Isaac grew and was weaned, Abraham gave a big party to celebrate the happy occasion. 9 But Sarah saw Ishmael-- the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar-- making fun of Isaac. 10 So she turned to Abraham and demanded, "Get rid of that servant and her son. He is not going to share the family inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won't have it!" 11 This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son. 12 But God told Abraham, "Do not be upset over the boy and your servant wife. Do just as Sarah says, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. 13 But I will make a nation of the descendants of Hagar's son because he also is your son." 14 So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food for the journey, and strapped a container of water to Hagar's shoulders. He sent her away with their son, and she walked out into the wilderness of Beersheba, wandering aimlessly. 15 When the water was gone, she left the boy in the shade of a bush. 16 Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. "I don't want to watch the boy die," she said, as she burst into tears. 17 Then God heard the boy's cries, and the angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, "Hagar, what's wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy's cries from the place where you laid him. 18 Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants." 19 Then God opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well. She immediately filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness of Paran. He became an expert archer, 21 and his mother arranged a marriage for him with a young woman from Egypt. 22 About this time, Abimelech came with Phicol, his army commander, to visit Abraham. "It is clear that God helps you in everything you do," Abimelech said. 23 "Swear to me in God's name that you won't deceive me, my children, or my grandchildren. I have been loyal to you, so now swear that you will be loyal to me and to this country in which you are living." 24 Abraham replied, "All right, I swear to it!" 25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's servants had taken violently from Abraham's servants. 26 "This is the first I've heard of it," Abimelech said. "And I have no idea who is responsible. Why didn't you say something about this before?" 27 Then Abraham gave sheep and oxen to Abimelech, and they made a treaty. 28 But when Abraham took seven additional ewe lambs and set them off by themselves, 29 Abimelech asked, "Why are you doing that?" 30 Abraham replied, "They are my gift to you as a public confirmation that I dug this well." 31 So ever since, that place has been known as Beersheba-- "well of the oath"-- because that was where they had sworn an oath. 32 After making their covenant, 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 he worshiped the LORD, the Eternal God, at that place. 34 And Abraham lived in Philistine country for a long time. 22:1 LATER on God tested Abraham's faith and obedience. "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. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to 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 to build a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place where God had told him to go. 4 On the third day of the journey, Abraham saw the place in the distance. 5 "Stay here with the donkey," Abraham told the young men. "The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back." 6 Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the knife and the fire. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac said, "Father?" "Yes, my son," Abraham replied. "We have the wood and the fire," said the boy, "but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" 8 "God will provide a lamb, my son," Abraham answered. And they both went on together. 9 When they arrived at the place where God had told Abraham to go, he built an altar and placed the wood on it. Then he tied Isaac up and laid him on the altar over the wood. 10 And Abraham took the knife and lifted it up to kill his son as a sacrifice to the LORD. 11 At that moment the angel of the LORD shouted to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Yes," he answered. "I'm listening." 12 "Lay down the knife," the angel said. "Do not hurt the boy in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me." 13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering on the altar in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the place "The LORD Will Provide." This name has now become 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 beloved son, I swear by my own self that 17 I will bless you richly. I will multiply your descendants into countless millions, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, 18 and through your descendants, *all the nations of the earth will be blessed-- all because you have obeyed me." 19 Then they returned to Abraham's young men and traveled home again to Beersheba, where Abraham lived for quite some time. 20 Soon after this, Abraham 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 Kemuel (the father of Aram), 22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. 24 In addition to his eight sons from Milcah, Nahor had four other children from his concubine Reumah. Their names were Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
"Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart. 16 You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You don't pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles. 17 A healthy tree produces good fruit, and an unhealthy 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, the way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that is produced. 21" Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as `Lord,' but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. 22 On judgment day many will tell 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. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.' 24 "Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse, because it is built on rock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash." 28 After Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 for he taught as one who had real authority-- quite unlike the teachers of religious law.
For the choir director:A psalm of David, to be sung to the tune "Death of the Son."
1 I will thank you, LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.
2 I will be filled with joy because of you.
I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.
3 My enemies turn away in retreat;
they are overthrown and destroyed before you.
4 For you have judged in my favor;
from your throne, you have judged with fairness.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have wiped out their names forever.
6 My enemies have met their doom;
their cities are perpetual ruins.
Even the memory of their uprooted cities is lost.
7 But the LORD reigns forever,
executing judgment from his throne.
8 He will judge the world with justice
and rule the nations with fairness.
9 The LORD is a shelter for the oppressed,
a refuge in times of trouble.
10 Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have never abandoned anyone who searches for you.
11 Sing praises to the LORD who reigns in Jerusalem.
Tell the world about his unforgettable deeds.
12 For he who avenges murder cares for the helpless.
He does not ignore those who cry to him for help.
Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the adulterous woman. She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God. Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to hell. The man who visits her is doomed. He will never reach the paths of life. Follow the steps of good men instead, and stay on the paths of the righteous. For only the upright will live in the land, and those who have integrity will remain in it. But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be destroyed
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