Abraham vs Isaac

1) Don’t go to Egypt during a famine – point Isaac

2) Don’t lie about your beautiful wife being your wife – point no one

3) Wait on the Lord to bless your wife w child – point Isaac

Isaac was doing so well but everything got a little crazy! First, Esau, a man driven by the flesh, sells his birthright to Jacob for a meal. Then Isaac thinks he is dying so Rebekah and Jacob scheme and steal Esau’s blessing. As a result, Esau wants to kill Jacob so Jacob flees to his uncle Laban’s house (it‘s possible that Jacob never sees his mom again). Rebekah tells Jacob to stay with her brother a few days but it’s 20 years before he comes back home. Scheming never works out well for anyone! Sin always cost more than we want! So, currently no one is trusting the Lord. We will see Jacob’s faith grow over time but before that happens things get nuts. Out of all this family drama we will meet the 12 tribes of Israel. (See, all families have probs but no prob is too big for God) Keep reading!

(Genesis 25:27-28:5)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Abraham marries Keturah, has 6 more kids, and he has more children with concubines. God kept His promise to make a great nation out of Ishmael…but back to Isaac. So Isaac and Rebekah have two sons, Esau and Jacob, who began fighting as early as the womb. The Lord tells Rebekah that the older, Esau, will serve the younger, Jacob. This family is a wreck but keep your eye on Jacob. Also, Abraham dies with 8 named kids, some other children, 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. Remember, God always does what He says He is going to do BUT we might not get to see it played out on this side of heaven. However, 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)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Without instruction from the Lord, Abraham made a decision based on sight and not faith when he fled to Egypt during a famine. This is probably when he picked up Hagar the Egyptian servant and we know what they did together.🙈 Ishmael, son of the bondwoman, enters the scene. This was not God’s plan. (Galatians 4) God makes clear that Isaac will be the promised son whom God will use to carry out His redemption plan.

Today Abraham gets some wins!! 👏👏We know that Abraham’s faith has grown bc he listens to the Lord regarding Hagar and Ishmael by sending them away per his wife’s, Sarah, request. Next, the Lord tests Abraham and we see just how much he now trusts the Lord. Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac believing that God would even raise him from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19) to fulfill the promises made to him. But God doesn’t make Abraham sacrifice his son. That is not the Lord’s plan. God is going to be the One that has to sacrifice His Son for us.

We also learn that Sarah dies and Isaac marries Abraham’s brother’s granddaughter, Rebekah. And so the Story continues… Will Isaac make the same mistakes his dad made? Keep reading.

(Genesis 21:8-23:20, Genesis 11:32, Genesis 24:1-67)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Today God let Abraham in on His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and He said “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation”. Abraham goes to bat for his nephew, Lot, bc Abraham knows God does not destroy the righteous with the wicked. God graciously answers Abraham’s request and spares Lot and his daughters. Then Lot’s daughters come up with this interesting plan to get daddy drunk and have sex with him. 🤔Hmm…wonder if they learned to do that in the wicked city where they were living? Needless to say, these kiddos don’t turn out so great. They become the Moabites and Ammonites. They show up later in the Story as well as Canaan’s, Ham’s son, descendants the Canaanites (remember when Ham did something naughty to his dad, Noah, when Noah was passed out drunk and Noah cursed Ham’s son Canaan? Yeah, Canaan is the father of the Canannites and they don’t turn out well either). And yes, Abraham pawns Sarah off AGAIN but God protects her AGAIN. God is still growing Abraham. The Lord sees him as the man he will one day become. Lastly, the promised son, Isaac, has arrived on the scene. This boy is in for an adventure!

(Genesis 18:1-21:7)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

🤦‍♀️Just one day reading later and now Sarai is the one with the terrible idea to have Abram sleep with Hagar, their servant that they picked up in Egypt, bc she wasn’t pregnant yet. This does not go well! These people are a mess..and I can totally relate to them! Each choice made by man or woman has consequences but none of this craziness will stop God’s plan to redeem His people!

So Hagar having sex with Abram and becoming pregnant causes conflict between Sarai and Hagar. Shocker! So Hagar flees but the Lord sees her tells her to return and submit to Sarai and He will multiply her descendants exceedingly.

When Abram is 99 years old the Lord makes a covenant with him saying that he will be a father to many nations and He would give him the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. Then He changes his name to Abraham and tells him as a sign of the covenant, to circumcise all the males 8 days old and older.

God also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah and says she will have a child. “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?””. But nothing is impossible for the Lord. He says they will have a son named Issac and God will establish an everlasting covenant with him.

So much has happened already in the Story: 1) We finished Creation Era which is Adam – Noah. 2) Began Patriarch Era which is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Book of Job. 3) Abram received future info in Gen 15:13-14 on next era which is Exodus Era. As you watch the Story unfold you will see God’s people land in Egypt as slaves under oppression for 400 years when God will raise up a deliverer to bring them out with great possessions just as He told Abram. God ALWAYS does what He says and we will see all of this played out soon!

Note: Chronological Bible Teaching (CBT) breaks the Chronological Bible into 14 Eras: Creation, Patriarch, Exodus, Conquest, Judges, Kingdom, Divided Kingdom, Captivity, Return, Silent, Gospel, Church, Missions, End of Times/New Beginnings.

Congrats on completing first Era!

(Genesis 15:1-17:27)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Today we read about the tower of Babel where pride leads the people to build a tower to reach the heavens. The Lord then confuses their language which scatters the people across the earth accomplishing His command to Noah and his sons; “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”. (Genesis 9:1)

Ten generations after Noah, the Lord calls Abram, a descendant of Shem’s, to leave his home with his wife Sarai and head to the land of Canaan and “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”. (There is one problem, Sarai is old and barren.) So Abram, at the age of 75, departs with his wife Sari and his nephew Lot. When a famine hits the land Abram goes down to Egypt and he did what????😱 Ok ok, so he made a poor decision and pawned his wife off to Pharaoh to cover his own neck but surely he learned from this terrible decision and never does anything like this again! Or does he? 🤔 We will find out in a couple of days…keep reading but don’t worry, Abram is on a faith journey just like the rest of us and the Lord is using everything to grow him into Father Abraham! (Did y’all notice how God totally protected Sarai when her spouse made a really bad decision? He is good like that and we can trust Him!)

Lastly we read that Lot and Abram have to separate bc of their vast amount of flocks, herds and tents. Lot chooses the land in Sodom. Some time after, Lot and his stuff were taken when surrounding kings invaded Sodom and Gomorrah. Abram rescues Lot, all the other people and their goods. On his way home Abram meets Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High. Melchizedek blesses Abram and Abram gives him a tithe. Later in the Story, Jesus will be compared to Melchizedek as one who is both Priest and King and who enters the Story with no genealogy. (Hebrews 7:3) But a lot happens in this Story before Jesus comes on scene so keep reading!

(Genesis 11:1-26, 1 Chronicles 1:24-27, Genesis 11:27-14:24)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Excerpt from “The 14 Eras” booklet by Iva May

The Patriarch Era

Genesis 11:27-50:26 (Approximately 360 years)

Ten generations after the flood passed, God spoke to a man named Abram, whose father was an idol worshiper. God promised Abram that He would bless him and make him a great nation, although Abram was 75 years old and his wife, Sarai, could have no children. God promised Abram that He would give him a land—the land of Canaan. God

promised that He would bless those who bless Abram, curse those who curse Abram, and that in Abram’s seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God also told Abram that his descendants would go into captivity for four hundred years, and that God would bring them out of captivity to the land that God had promised him. God’s promises demanded faith on Abram’s part; Abram in response simply believed God. God eventually changed his name to Abraham and God counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness.

After ten years of waiting on God to fulfill His promise, Sarai succumbed to unbelief, persuaded Abraham to sleep with Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant, who then bore a son, Ishmael. He was not the child of promise.

God commanded Abraham and his male descendants to be circumcised as a physical reminder of His covenant that one day One would come who would fulfill the promises of God. For twenty-five years, Abraham trusted God to fulfill His promise regarding a male heir, and God gave him a son through Sarah named Isaac.

God began to keep his promise to Abraham through succeeding generations. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. God promised that the older son would serve the younger. Isaac’s younger son, Jacob, had twelve sons. The eleventh son, Joseph, was given two dreams about the future and had to wait thirteen years for God to fulfill them. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave to Egypt, trying to keep his dreams from being fulfilled. God delivered Joseph in Egypt, where he eventually became prime minister. Through Joseph’s position in Egypt, God rescued all of Jacob’s family and united them during a time of famine. Before his death, Jacob blessed all his sons. Jacob promised his son, Judah (through Leah), that from his descendants would proceed kings, a lawgiver, and Shiloh (the Messiah).

What does the Patriarch Era reveal about God?

God Speaks

• God initiates a relationship with Abram and obligates Himself to Abram by promising him an heir, a land, and a nation who will be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

• God’s detailed instructions reveal His knowledge of the future and His determination to fulfill promises made to past generations.

God Acts

• God opens Sarah’s barren womb twenty-five years after He promised Abraham a son.

• God provides a substitute ram in place of the offering of Isaac.

God Reveals

• A gap exists between the promises of God and the fulfillment of His promises. During this gap man must learn to walk with God by faith (Hebrews 11:6).

• Things are never as they appear in the natural realm. Circumstances are the least reliable gauge to spiritual reality.

• God takes a man as he is and changes him over time as He orchestrates his circumstances, teaches him to trust Him, and demonstrates His covenant faithfulness.

• Flawed people do not prevent God from fulfilling His promises; rather, He receives great glory for accomplishing His purposes through unlikely participants.