Page 44 - The MacArthur Daily Bible

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JANUARY 9
in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he
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lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three
men were standing by him; and when he saw
17:15 Sarai…Sarah. Fittingly, since Sarai (“my them, he ran from the tent door to meet them,
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princess”) would be the ancestress of the prom- and bowed himself to the ground, and said,
ised nations and kings,God changed her name “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your
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to Sarah,taking away the limiting personal pro- sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please
noun “my,”and calling her “princess”(v.16). let a little water be brought, and wash your feet,
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and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will
bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh
her and also give you a son by her; then I will your hearts. After that you may pass by, inas-
bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; much as you have come to your servant.”
kings of peoples shall be from her.” They said, “Do as you have said.”
Then Abraham fell on his face and So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah
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laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child and said, “Quickly, make ready three meas-
be born to a man who is one hundred years ures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.”
old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender
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bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he
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“Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and
Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall milk and the calf which he had prepared, and
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bear you a son, and you shall call his name set it before them; and he stood by them
Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him under the tree as they ate.
for an everlasting covenant, and with his 9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah
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descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I your wife?”
have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, So he said, “Here, in the tent.”
and will make him fruitful, and will multiply 10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you
him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve according to the time of life, and behold,
princes, and I will make him a great nation. Sarah your wife shall have a son.”
But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, (Sarah was listening in the tent door which
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whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time was behind him.) Now Abraham and Sarah
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next year.” Then He finished talking with were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had
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him, and God went up from Abraham. passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sa-
rah laughed within herself, saying, “After I
have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord
being old also?”
13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did
17:19 call his name Isaac. The name of the
promised son meant “he laughs,”an appropri- Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a
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ate reminder to Abraham of his initial,faithless child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for
reaction to God’s promise. the LORD? At the appointed time I will return
to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah
shall have a son.”
15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not
So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who laugh,” for she was afraid.
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were born in his house and all who were And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”
bought with his money, every male among the 16 Then the men rose from there and looked
men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them
flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as to send them on the way. And the LORD said,
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God had said to him. Abraham was ninety- “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing,
nine years old when he was circumcised in the 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great
flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son and mighty nation, and all the nations of the
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was thirteen years old when he was circum- earth shall be blessed in him? For I have
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cised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very known him, in order that he may command
same day Abraham was circumcised, and his his children and his household after him, that
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son Ishmael; and all the men of his house, they keep the way of the LORD, to do righ-
born in the house or bought with money from teousness and justice, that the LORD may bring
a foreigner, were circumcised with him. to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
Then the LORD appeared to him by the ter- 20 And the LORD said, “Because the outcry
18 ebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and
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