On the way to Laban’s house, Jacob has a dream. In it, he sees a stairway to heaven where angels of God are ascending and descending. Then the Lord gives Jacob the same promises regarding land and descendants that He gave his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham – “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

When Jacob arrives at Padan Aram, Laban, Rebekah’s brother, welcomes him into his household. Jacob falls in love with Laban’s younger, beautiful daughter Rachel and works seven years for her hand in marriage. But Laban, a schemer himself, tricks Jacob into marrying the not so beautiful, older daughter, Leah. When Jacob realizes he was given Leah as his bride instead of Rachel, he protests to Laban. Laban tells Jacob that he will also give him Rachel after he fulfills a week with Leah and agrees to serve him another seven years. Jacob agrees and now he has two wives. 

“When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to have children, but Rachel could not conceive.” Rachel becomes jealous of Leah and has Jacob sleep with her maid, Bilhah, so she will bear children for her. Then the baby making contest begins! One thing leads to another and eventually Jacob fathers twelve sons and one daughter by Leah, Rebekah, and both of their maids. Leah’s children are Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and a daughter named Dinah; Leah’s servant Zilpah gives birth to Gad and Asher; Rachel’s son is Joseph and later she will give birth to Benjamin; and Rachel’s servant Bilhah gives birth to Dan and Naphtali.

This family drama isn’t too much for our Lord to use to accomplish His awesome purposes. The priesthood will eventually be established through Levi’s descendants, the story of the Israelites landing in Egypt for four hundred years will come through the life of Joseph, and the Messiah will come through Leah’s son Judah, who has a pretty colorful story himself, so keep reading! (Genesis 28:6-30:24)

Today we see how lying, scheming, and manipulating ruins a family. Starting with Jacob talking Esau, a man driven by the flesh, into selling his birthright for a bowl of stew. “And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

When a famine hits the land, Isaac trusts the Lord and doesn’t flee to Egypt as his father Abraham did. But Isaac does follow in the footsteps of Abraham by lying to Abimelech about his wife saying, for his own protection, that she was his sister. However, the Lord protects Rebekah as He did Sarah. God is growing Isaac into a man of great faith like his father Abraham and using his wife in the process.

We see spiritual maturity in Isaac when disputes arise with the herdsmen of Gerar over wells they dug. Instead of fighting, Isaac trusts the Lord and simply keeps moving and digging more wells until the disputes stop. Then Isaac says, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” So the Lord blesses Isaac saying, “‘I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.’ So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.”

Later, when Isaac falsely assumes that he is dying, Rebekah and Jacob lie and scheme to steal Esau’s blessing from Isaac instead of trusting the Lord. Remember, the Lord already told Rebekah that her older son Esau would serve her younger son Jacob (Genesis 25:23). However, since Rebekah and Jacob manipulate the situation, Esau wants to kill Jacob. So Jacob flees to his uncle Laban’s house. Rebekah instructs Jacob to stay with her brother a few days, but it’s twenty years before he returns home. It is possible that this is the last time that Jacob sees his mom. 

Scheming never works out well for anyone, and sin always costs more than we want. Currently this family is severely broken. Yet, over time, we will see the Lord grow Jacob’s faith and restore the brokenness. However, before that happens, the family drama continues, and out of this messy family will come the twelve tribes of Israel, so keep reading! (Genesis 25:27-28:5)

Abraham marries Keturah, has six children with her, and has more children with his concubines. “And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east.” 

God keeps His promise to make you a great nation to Ishmael, Abraham’s son born by Hagar. Ishmael lives “one hundred and thirty-seven years; and he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. (They dwelt from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria.) He died in the presence of all his brethren.”

However, the story continues through the promised son Isaac. When Rebekah is unable to conceive, Isaac and Rebekah do not take matters into their own hands like Abraham and Sarah. Instead, Isaac pleads to the Lord on behalf of his wife. The Lord hears his prayers and opens his wife’s womb. Isaac and Rebekah have twins, Esau and Jacob, who begin fighting as early as in the womb. The Lord tells Rebekah that the older, Esau, will serve the younger, Jacob. We will learn that this family is extremely messy, but God is going to continue fulfilling His plan of sending a Savior to redeem broken and messy people through Isaac’s son Jacob. 

We end the reading with the death of Abraham. Abraham dies having eight named descendants plus other children by his concubines, a piece of burial land, and promises from the Lord that He would make him a great nation, kings would come from him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. God always does what He says He is going to do; although we might not see it played out on this side of heaven. But we are fortunate enough to get to read His promises, so keep reading! (Genesis 25:1-4, 1 Chronicles 1:32-33, Genesis 25:5-6, 12-18, 1 Chronicles 1:28-31, 34, Genesis 25:19-26, 7-11)

Today we see how much Abraham’s faith has grown. He obeys the Lord regarding Hagar and Ishmael by sending them away per his wife Sarah’s request. However, God reassures Abraham that he will care for Ishmael – “Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.” And God, once again, sees Hagar’s distress when Ishmael is near death in the wilderness. The Lord comforts her and her son Ishmael as He had promised. “So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.”

Then the Lord tests Abraham by instructing him to “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Abraham’s faith is now so strong that he is willing to sacrifice Isaac, believing that God would even raise him from the dead to fulfill the promises made to him (Hebrews 11:17-19). But God doesn’t require Abraham to sacrifice his son. No, that’s not the Lord’s plan. The Lord provides a sacrificial ram in place of Isaac, just as the Lord is providing a sacrifice in our place. God is going to be the One that has to sacrifice His Son Jesus Christ as the final sacrificial Lamb for us. 

After Abraham demonstrates his faith in the Lord, the Lord reveals to him that his brother has a granddaughter named Rebekah. So Abraham’s servant, trusting God, meets Rebekah through a divine appointment made by the Lord and brings her from her father’s house to Isaac to be his wife.

Isaac is comforted by Rebekah as he was mourning the death of his mother Sarah. Abraham buried Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. This will be the only piece of property that Abraham will own during his lifetime. Abraham will die having to trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises through his descendants. 

So the story continues – Will Isaac make the same mistakes his father made early in his faith journey? Keep reading to find out. (Genesis 21:8-23:20, Genesis 11:32, Genesis 24:1-67)

Today God lets Abraham in on His plan to destroy wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. So Abraham begins interceding for his nephew, Lot, because Abraham knows God does not destroy the righteous with the wicked. We saw this with the flood when the Lord spared Noah and his family who were deemed righteous because of their faith in the Lord. And we see it again here when God graciously answers Abraham’s request and spares Lot and his daughters. But unfortunately, Lot’s wife does not trust the Lord and clings to things of this world and perishes. 

So Lot and his daughters are now living in a cave in a mountain. And this is when Lot’s daughters come up with an interesting plan. They decide to get their father, Lot, drunk and have sex with him to preserve the family line. The daughters likely came up with this plan based on what they witnessed living in the wicked city of Sodom. The offspring born from this sexual sin between Lot and his daughters become the Moabites and Ammonites. Lot’s descendants will show up later in the story as a people group immersed in sexual immorality. 

And yes, Abraham passes Sarah off again to a foreign ruler, Abimelech. However, the Lord protects Sarah again by keeping her from harm and returning her to Abraham. Although Abraham just made another foolish decision which puts his wife in harm’s way, the Lord still calls Abraham a prophet when He instructs Abraham to return her. “So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.”

The Lord is maturing Abraham into the man of faith that he will one day become, and He is using his wife Sarah in the process. God just showed Abraham and Sarah that He is the one to open and close the womb. And as promised, the Lord opens Sarah’s womb – “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, ‘God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.’ She also said, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.’”

Abraham and Sarah are on a faith journey which isn’t always a smooth and easy road. However, as the Lord told Abraham yesterday, God is our shield and our exceedingly great reward through the journey. Now that Isaac is on the scene, he too will begin a faith journey. This boy is in for an adventure! Keep reading. (Genesis 18:1-21:7)

After Abram rescues Lot and refuses an award from the king of Sodom, the Lord appears to him in a vision saying, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Then the Lord tells Abram once again that he will have numerous descendants. “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” 

The Lord puts Abram into a deep sleep and says to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.” And this is exactly what will happen. Abraham’s descendants will be slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. We will read about the four hundred years of enslavement during the Exodus Era. 

Meanwhile, Sarai is growing impatient after waiting ten years and still no child. So she decides to assist God with His plan by having Abram sleep with Hagar, their servant that they likely picked up while in Egypt. However, Sarai’s plan does not go well. 

When Hagar becomes pregnant, she treats Sarai with contempt. So Sarai deals harshly with Hagar. As a result, Hagar flees to the wilderness where the Angel of the Lord appears to her and instructs her to return to Sarai and submit to her. The Angel tells Hagar that she will have a son named Ishmael. “Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, ‘Have I also here seen Him who sees me?’” The Lord doesn’t immediately change Hagar’s situation. Therefore, she will have to trust that He will see her through it. And He will! Abram and Hagar have a son, and Abram names him Ishmael. 

When Abram is ninety-nine and Sarai is ninety years old, God says to them, once again, that they will have descendants. Then He changes their names to Abraham and Sarah. The Lord makes a covenant with Abraham and his future descendants. He promises them the land in Canaan and says great nations and kings shall come from Abraham’s descendants. As a sign of this new covenant, the Lord has Abraham circumcise all males eight days and older “born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.” 

In the Kingdom and Divided Kingdom Eras, we will meet kings from Abraham’s descendants, pointing us to the arrival of the Ultimate King, King Jesus! But before we get there… tomorrow, God destroys wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. Will Lot and his family survive? Keep reading to find out. (Genesis 15:1-17:27)