4:ABRAHAM - Genesis 12:1-25:11

Part 1 of Abraham is at 12:12 of the top video 

and the first part of the second video

Here is Abraham part A (Genesis 12-21):

https://vimeo.com/groups/240885/videos/98904461

Here is Abraham Part B (Genesis 22) 

https://vimeo.com/groups/240885/videos/98904462


HIS WORDS: Genesis 12:1-25:11

MY WORDS

Many generations after Noah (or Adam, if that was your last story), there was a man named Abram who lived among idol worshipers in what is now modern day Iraq. One day, God called Abram to leave his country and his father's house to go to a land that He would show him. God promised Abram that he would be a great nation (that is to have many descendants) that He would bless Abram and make his name great, and that through Abram all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. The first part of that promise was hard to believe since Abram was 75 and his wife Sarai was 65, and they had no children! But Abram obeyed God by taking his wife, and his nephew, Lot, and went to the land of Canaan.

Later, God came to Abram in a vision, and He told him He would protect Abram and greatly reward him, but Abram asked, "How can You reward me when I have no descendants?" 

But God said, "You will have a child." He also told him, "Look to the heavens, your descendants will be as countless as the stars." 

So Abram believed God's promise and he was made right before God because of his faith. 

With that, God changed his name from Abram, which means noble father, to Abraham, which means father of many nations. He also changed Sarai's name to Sarah which means princess. 

It had been almost 25 years since God promised Abraham and Sarah a child, but one day three men came to their tents, and one of the three men was an angel of the Lord, who said, "This time next year, your wife will have a new baby." When Sarah overheard this she laughed because she was 89 years old at that time.

But the angel of the Lord said, "Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too difficult for the Lord?" And Sarah had a baby a year later when she was 90 years old. 

(This can be a separate story.) 

Several years later, God told Abraham, "Take your son, your only son whom you love and go to one of the mountains in the land of Moriah and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. So Abraham obeyed God and took two servants, his son, and the materials for the burnt offering to Mount Moriah. 

When they got to the point where he saw the mountain in the distance, he told his two servants, "Stay here with the donkey while my son and I go up to worship and afterwards we will return to you."

So Abraham gave the wood for the sacrifice to his son, and he took the fire and the knife. Then his son asked, "Father, the wood and fire are here, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"

Abraham replied, "God will provide the lamb." So they went up to the mountain, and Abraham built an altar and placed his son on the altar. When he lifted the knife to kill his son, an angel of the Lord called from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham! Do not harm the boy. Now I know that you really fear God because you have not withheld your son, your only son." 

Just then, Abraham looked up and saw a male sheep caught by its horns in a thicket. He took the sheep and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Abraham called that place, "The Lord will provide."

Then the angel of the Lord said, "Because you have been faithful in not withholding your son, your only son. I will greatly bless you, and will greatly multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and the sand of the seashore. And through your offspring (seed -- Galatians 3:16) all peoples of the earth will be blessed." 

I WILL

Believe God for something that just happened today!