To The Word – Day 5

₁The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. ₂I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

₄When Abram was 75 years old, he started out from Haran, as the LORD had told him to do; and Lot went with him. ₅Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in Canaan, ₆Abram travelled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.) ₇The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants.” Then Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ₈After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshipped the LORD. ₉Then he moved on from place to place, going towards the southern part of Canaan.

₁₀But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while. ₁₁When he was about to cross the border into Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “You are a beautiful woman. ₁₂When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live. ₁₃Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well.” ₁₄When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful. ₁₅Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace. ₁₆Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.

₁₇But because the king had taken Sarai, the LORD sent terrible diseases on him and on the people of his palace. ₁₈Then the king sent for Abram and asked him, “What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? ₁₉Why did you say that she was your sister, and let me take her as my wife? Here is your wife; take her and get out!” ₂₀The king gave orders to his men, so they took Abram and put him out of the country, together with his wife and everything he owned.

₁Abram went north out of Egypt to the southern part of Canaan with his wife and everything he owned, and Lot went with him. ₂Abram was a very rich man, with sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as silver and gold. ₃Then he left there and moved from place to place, going towards Bethel. He reached the place between Bethel and Ai where he had camped before ₄and had built an altar. There he worshipped the LORD.

₅Lot also had sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as his own family and servants. ₆And so there was not enough pasture land for the two of them to stay together, because they had too many animals. ₇So quarrels broke out between the men who took care of Abram's animals and those who took care of Lot's animals. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were still living in the land.)

₈Then Abram said to Lot, “We are relatives, and your men and my men shouldn't be quarrelling. ₉So let's separate. Choose any part of the land you want. You go one way, and I'll go the other.”

₁₀Lot looked round and saw that the whole Jordan Valley, all the way to Zoar, had plenty of water, like the Garden of the LORD or like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.) ₁₁So Lot chose the whole Jordan Valley for himself and moved away towards the east. That is how the two men parted. ₁₂Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled among the cities in the valley and camped near Sodom, ₁₃whose people were wicked and sinned against the LORD.

₁₄After Lot had left, the LORD said to Abram, “From where you are, look carefully in all directions. ₁₅I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours for ever. ₁₆I am going to give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all; it would be as easy to count all the specks of dust on earth! ₁₇Now, go and look over the whole land, because I am going to give it all to you.” ₁₈So Abram moved his camp and settled near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.

₁Four kings, Amraphel of Babylonia, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim, ₂went to war against five other kings: Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah, Shinab of Admah, Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (or Zoar). ₃These five kings had formed an alliance and joined forces in the Valley of Siddim, which is now the Dead Sea. ₄They had been under the control of Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled against him. ₅In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and his allies came with their armies and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim, ₆and the Horites in the mountains of Edom, pursuing them as far as Elparan on the edge of the desert. ₇Then they turned round and came back to Kadesh (then known as Enmishpat). They conquered all the land of the Amalekites and defeated the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.

₈Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela drew up their armies for battle in the Valley of Siddim and fought ₉against the kings of Elam, Goiim, Babylonia, and Ellasar, five kings against four. ₁₀The valley was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah tried to run away from the battle, they fell into the pits; but the other three kings escaped to the mountains. ₁₁The four kings took everything in Sodom and Gomorrah, including the food, and went away. ₁₂Lot, Abram's nephew, was living in Sodom, so they took him and all his possessions.

₁₃But a man escaped and reported all this to Abram, the Hebrew, who was living near the sacred trees belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his brothers Eshcol and Aner were Abram's allies. ₁₄When Abram heard that his nephew had been captured, he called together all the fighting men in his camp, 318 in all, and pursued the four kings all the way to Dan. ₁₅There he divided his men into groups, attacked the enemy by night, and defeated them. He chased them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus, ₁₆and recovered the loot that had been taken. He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other prisoners.

₁₇When Abram came back from his victory over Chedorlaomer and the other kings, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (also called the King's Valley). ₁₈And Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and also a priest of the Most High God, brought bread and wine to Abram, ₁₉blessed him, and said, “May the Most High God, who made heaven and earth, bless Abram! ₂₀May the Most High God, who gave you victory over your enemies, be praised!” And Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the loot he had recovered.

₂₁The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Keep the loot, but give me back all my people.”

₂₂Abram answered, “I solemnly swear before the LORD, the Most High God, Maker of heaven and earth, ₂₃that I will not keep anything of yours, not even a thread or a sandal strap. Then you can never say, ‘I am the one who made Abram rich.’ ₂₄I will take nothing for myself. I will accept only what my men have used. But let my allies, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, take their share.”

₁After this, Abram had a vision and heard the LORD say to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I will shield you from danger and give you a great reward.”

₂But Abram answered, “Sovereign LORD, what good will your reward do me, since I have no children? My only heir is Eliezer of Damascus. ₃You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property.”

₄Then he heard the LORD speaking to him again: “This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir.” ₅The LORD took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that.”

₆Abram put his trust in the LORD, and because of this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted him.

₇Then the LORD said to him, “I am the LORD, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own.”

₈But Abram asked, “Sovereign LORD, how can I know that it will be mine?”

₉He answered, “Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon.” ₁₀Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds. ₁₁Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.

₁₂When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him. ₁₃The LORD said to him, “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for 400 years. ₁₄But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them. ₁₅You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried. ₁₆It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished.”

₁₇When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals. ₁₈Then and there the LORD made a covenant with Abram. He said, “I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the River Euphrates, ₁₉including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ₂₀the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ₂₁the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

₁Abram's wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, ₂and so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Why don't you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me.” Abram agreed with what Sarai said. ₃So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.) ₄Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she found out that she was pregnant, she became proud and despised Sarai.

₅Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's your fault that Hagar despises me. I myself gave her to you, and ever since she found out that she was pregnant, she has despised me. May the LORD judge which of us is right, you or me!”

₆Abram answered, “Very well, she is your slave and under your control; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly that she ran away.

₇The angel of the LORD met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur ₈and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”

She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.”

₉He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.” ₁₀Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. ₁₁You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your cry of distress. ₁₂But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.”

₁₃Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” So she called the LORD who had spoken to her “A God who Sees”. ₁₄That is why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered “The Well of the Living One who Sees Me”.

₁₅Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael. ₁₆Abram was 86 years old at the time.

[ ₁Then everyone went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ₂Early the next morning he went back to the Temple. All the people gathered round him, and he sat down and began to teach them. ₃The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery, and they made her stand before them all. ₄“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. ₅In our Law Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death. Now, what do you say?” ₆They said this to trap Jesus, so that they could accuse him. But he bent over and wrote on the ground with his finger.

₇As they stood there asking him questions, he straightened himself up and said to them, “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.” ₈Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. ₉When they heard this, they all left, one by one, the older ones first. Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there. ₁₀He straightened himself up and said to her, “Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you?”

₁₁“No one, sir,” she answered.

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.”]

₁₂Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. “I am the light of the world,” he said. “Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.”

₁₃The Pharisees said to him, “Now you are testifying on your own behalf; what you say proves nothing.”

₁₄“No,” Jesus answered, “even though I do testify on my own behalf, what I say is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going. You do not know where I came from or where I am going. ₁₅You make judgements in a purely human way; I pass judgement on no one. ₁₆But if I were to do so, my judgement would be true, because I am not alone in this; the Father who sent me is with me. ₁₇It is written in your Law that when two witnesses agree, what they say is true. ₁₈I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me also testifies on my behalf.”

₁₉“Where is your father?” they asked him.

“You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

₂₀Jesus said all this as he taught in the Temple, in the room where the offering boxes were placed. And no one arrested him, because his hour had not come.

₂₁Again Jesus said to them, “I will go away; you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot go where I am going.”

₂₂So the Jewish authorities said, “He says that we cannot go where he is going. Does this mean that he will kill himself?”

₂₃Jesus answered, “You belong to this world here below, but I come from above. You are from this world, but I am not from this world. ₂₄That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. And you will die in your sins if you do not believe that ‘I Am Who I Am’.”

₂₅“Who are you?” they asked him.

Jesus answered, “What I have told you from the very beginning. ₂₆I have much to say about you, much to condemn you for. The one who sent me, however, is truthful, and I tell the world only what I have heard from him.”

₂₇They did not understand that Jesus was talking to them about the Father. ₂₈So he said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that ‘I Am Who I Am’; then you will know that I do nothing on my own authority, but I say only what the Father has instructed me to say. ₂₉And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

₃₀Many who heard Jesus say these things believed in him.

₃₁So Jesus said to those who believed in him, “If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; ₃₂you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

₃₃“We are the descendants of Abraham,” they answered, “and we have never been anybody's slaves. What do you mean, then, by saying, ‘You will be free’?”

₃₄Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. ₃₅A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there for ever. ₃₆If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free. ₃₇I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are trying to kill me, because you will not accept my teaching. ₃₈I talk about what my Father has shown me, but you do what your father has told you.”

₃₉They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.”

“If you really were Abraham's children,” Jesus replied, “you would do the same things that he did. ₄₀All I have ever done is to tell you the truth I heard from God, yet you are trying to kill me. Abraham did nothing like this! ₄₁You are doing what your father did.”

“God himself is the only Father we have,” they answered, “and we are his true children.”

₄₂Jesus said to them, “If God really were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own authority, but he sent me. ₄₃Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my message. ₄₄You are the children of your father, the Devil, and you want to follow your father's desires. From the very beginning he was a murderer and has never been on the side of truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the father of all lies. ₄₅But I tell the truth, and that is why you do not believe me. ₄₆Which one of you can prove that I am guilty of sin? If I tell the truth, then why do you not believe me? ₄₇He who comes from God listens to God's words. You, however, are not from God, and that is why you will not listen.”

₄₈They asked Jesus, “Were we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon in you?”

₄₉“I have no demon,” Jesus answered. “I honour my Father, but you dishonour me. ₅₀I am not seeking honour for myself. But there is one who is seeking it and who judges in my favour. ₅₁I am telling you the truth: whoever obeys my teaching will never die.”

₅₂They said to him, “Now we are certain that you have a demon! Abraham died, and the prophets died, yet you say that whoever obeys your teaching will never die. ₅₃Our father Abraham died; you do not claim to be greater than Abraham, do you? And the prophets also died. Who do you think you are?”

₅₄Jesus answered, “If I were to honour myself, that honour would be worth nothing. The one who honours me is my Father — the very one you say is your God. ₅₅You have never known him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey his word. ₅₆Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad.”

₅₇They said to him, “You are not even fifty years old — and you have seen Abraham?”

₅₈“I am telling you the truth,” Jesus replied. “Before Abraham was born, ‘I Am’.”

₅₉Then they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and left the Temple.

₁As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. ₂His disciples asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents' sin?”

₃Jesus answered, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents' sins. He is blind so that God's power might be seen at work in him. ₄As long as it is day, we must keep on doing the work of him who sent me; night is coming when no one can work. ₅While I am in the world, I am the light for the world.”

₆After he said this, Jesus spat on the ground and made some mud with the spittle; he rubbed the mud on the man's eyes ₇and said, “Go and wash your face in the Pool of Siloam.” (This name means “Sent”.) So the man went, washed his face, and came back seeing.

₈His neighbours, then, and the people who had seen him begging before this, asked, “Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?”

₉Some said, “He is the one,” but others said, “No he isn't; he just looks like him.”

So the man himself said, “I am the man.”

₁₀“How is it that you can now see?” they asked him.

₁₁He answered, “The man called Jesus made some mud, rubbed it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash my face. So I went, and as soon as I washed, I could see.”

₁₂“Where is he?” they asked.

“I don't know,” he answered.

₁₃Then they took to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ₁₄The day that Jesus made the mud and cured him of his blindness was a Sabbath. ₁₅The Pharisees, then, asked the man again how he had received his sight. He told them, “He put some mud on my eyes; I washed my face, and now I can see.”

₁₆Some of the Pharisees said, “The man who did this cannot be from God, for he does not obey the Sabbath law.”

Others, however, said, “How could a man who is a sinner perform such miracles as these?” And there was a division among them.

₁₇So the Pharisees asked the man once more, “You say he cured you of your blindness — well, what do you say about him?”

“He is a prophet,” the man answered.

₁₈The Jewish authorities, however, were not willing to believe that he had been blind and could now see, until they called his parents ₁₉and asked them, “Is this your son? You say that he was born blind; how is it, then, that he can now see?”

₂₀His parents answered, “We know that he is our son, and we know that he was born blind. ₂₁But we do not know how it is that he is now able to see, nor do we know who cured him of his blindness. Ask him; he is old enough, and he can answer for himself!” ₂₂His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, who had already agreed that anyone who said he believed that Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. ₂₃That is why his parents said, “He is old enough; ask him!”

₂₄A second time they called back the man who had been born blind, and said to him, “Promise before God that you will tell the truth! We know that this man who cured you is a sinner.”

₂₅“I do not know if he is a sinner or not,” the man replied. “One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I see.”

₂₆“What did he do to you?” they asked. “How did he cure you of your blindness?”

₂₇“I have already told you,” he answered, “and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Maybe you, too, would like to be his disciples?”

₂₈They cursed him and said, “You are that fellow's disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. ₂₉We know that God spoke to Moses; as for that fellow, however, we do not even know where he comes from!”

₃₀The man answered, “What a strange thing that is! You do not know where he comes from, but he cured me of my blindness! ₃₁We know that God does not listen to sinners; he does listen to people who respect him and do what he wants them to do. ₃₂Since the beginning of the world nobody has ever heard of anyone giving sight to a person born blind. ₃₃Unless this man came from God, he would not be able to do a thing.”

₃₄They answered, “You were born and brought up in sin — and you are trying to teach us?” And they expelled him from the synagogue.

₃₅When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

₃₆The man answered, “Tell me who he is, sir, so that I can believe in him!”

₃₇Jesus said to him, “You have already seen him, and he is the one who is talking with you now.”

₃₈“I believe, Lord!” the man said, and knelt down before Jesus.

₃₉Jesus said, “I came to this world to judge, so that the blind should see and those who see should become blind.”

₄₀Some Pharisees who were there with him heard him say this and asked him, “Surely you don't mean that we are blind, too?”

₄₁Jesus answered, “If you were blind, then you would not be guilty; but since you claim that you can see, this means that you are still guilty.”