To The Word – Day 8

₁Abraham married another wife, whose name was Keturah. ₂She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ₃Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim. ₄The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were Keturah's descendants.

₅Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac; ₆but while he was still alive, he gave presents to the sons his other wives had borne him. Then he sent these sons to the land of the East, away from his son Isaac.

_7-8Abraham died at the ripe old age of 175. ₉His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in Machpelah Cave, in the field east of Mamre that had belonged to Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. ₁₀It was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; both Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried there. ₁₁After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near “The Well of the Living One who Sees Me”.

₁₂Ishmael, whom Hagar, the Egyptian slave of Sarah, bore to Abraham, ₁₃had the following sons, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ₁₄Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ₁₅Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ₁₆They were the ancestors of twelve tribes, and their names were given to their villages and camping places. ₁₇Ishmael was 137 years old when he died. ₁₈The descendants of Ishmael lived in the territory between Havilah and Shur, to the east of Egypt on the way to Assyria. They lived apart from the other descendants of Abraham.

₁₉This is the story of Abraham's son Isaac. ₂₀Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel (an Aramean from Mesopotamia) and sister of Laban. ₂₁Because Rebecca had no children, Isaac prayed to the LORD for her. The LORD answered his prayer, and Rebecca became pregnant. ₂₂She was going to have twins, and before they were born, they struggled against each other in her womb. She said, “Why should something like this happen to me?” So she went to ask the LORD for an answer.

₂₃The LORD said to her,

₂₄The time came for her to give birth, and she had twin sons. ₂₅The first one was reddish, and his skin was like a hairy robe, so he was named Esau. ₂₆The second one was born holding on tightly to the heel of Esau, so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

₂₇The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilled hunter, a man who loved the outdoor life, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home. ₂₈Isaac preferred Esau, because he enjoyed eating the animals Esau killed, but Rebecca preferred Jacob.

₂₉One day while Jacob was cooking some bean soup, Esau came in from hunting. He was hungry ₃₀and said to Jacob, “I'm starving; give me some of that red stuff.” (That is why he was called Edom.)

₃₁Jacob answered, “I will give it to you if you give me your rights as the firstborn son.”

₃₂Esau said, “All right! I am about to die; what good will my rights do me then?”

₃₃Jacob answered, “First make a vow that you will give me your rights.”

Esau made the vow and gave his rights to Jacob. ₃₄Then Jacob gave him some bread and some of the soup. He ate and drank and then got up and left. That was all Esau cared about his rights as the firstborn son.

₁There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. ₂The LORD had appeared to Isaac and had said, “Do not go to Egypt; stay in this land, where I tell you to stay. ₃Live here, and I will be with you and bless you. I am going to give all this territory to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham. ₄I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants. ₅I will bless you, because Abraham obeyed me and kept all my laws and commands.”

₆So Isaac lived at Gerar. ₇When the men there asked about his wife, he said that she was his sister. He would not admit that she was his wife, because he was afraid that the men there would kill him to get Rebecca, who was very beautiful. ₈When Isaac had been there for some time, King Abimelech looked down from his window and saw Isaac and Rebecca making love. ₉Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is your wife! Why did you say she was your sister?”

He answered, “I thought I would be killed if I said she was my wife.”

₁₀“What have you done to us?” Abimelech said. “One of my men might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have been responsible for our guilt.” ₁₁Abimelech warned all the people: “Anyone who ill-treats this man or his wife will be put to death.”

₁₂Isaac sowed seed in that land, and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because the LORD blessed him. ₁₃He continued to prosper and became a very rich man. ₁₄Because he had many herds of sheep and cattle and many servants, the Philistines were jealous of him. ₁₅So they filled in all the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug while Abraham was alive.

₁₆Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave our country. You have become more powerful than we are.” ₁₇So Isaac left and set up his camp in the Valley of Gerar, where he stayed for some time. ₁₈He dug once again the wells which had been dug during the time of Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death. Isaac gave the wells the same names that his father had given them.

₁₉Isaac's servants dug a well in the valley and found water. ₂₀The shepherds of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac's shepherds and said, “This water belongs to us.” So Isaac named the well “Quarrel”.

₂₁Isaac's servants dug another well, and there was a quarrel about that one also, so he named it “Enmity”. ₂₂He moved away from there and dug another well. There was no dispute about this one, so he named it “Freedom”. He said, “Now the LORD has given us freedom to live in the land, and we will be prosperous here.”

₂₃Isaac left and went to Beersheba. ₂₄That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid; I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants because of my promise to my servant Abraham.” ₂₅Isaac built an altar there and worshipped the LORD. Then he set up his camp there, and his servants dug another well.

₂₆Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army to see Isaac. ₂₇So Isaac asked, “Why have you now come to see me, when you were so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country?”

₂₈They answered, “Now we know that the LORD is with you, and we think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise ₂₉that you will not harm us, just as we did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you leave peacefully. Now it is clear that the LORD has blessed you.” ₃₀Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. ₃₁Early next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said goodbye to them, and they parted as friends.

₃₂On that day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug. They said, “We have found water.” ₃₃He named the well “Vow”. That is how the city of Beersheba got its name.

₃₄When Esau was forty years old, he married two Hittite women, Judith the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath the daughter of Elon. ₃₅They made life miserable for Isaac and Rebecca.

₁Isaac was now old and had become blind. He sent for his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son!”

“Yes,” he answered.

₂Isaac said, “You see that I am old and may die soon. ₃Take your bow and arrows, go out into the country, and kill an animal for me. ₄Cook me some of that tasty food that I like, and bring it to me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my final blessing before I die.”

₅While Isaac was talking to Esau, Rebecca was listening. So when Esau went out to hunt, ₆she said to Jacob, “I have just heard your father say to Esau, ₇‘Bring me an animal and cook it for me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.’ ₈Now, my son,” Rebecca continued, “listen to me and do what I say. ₉Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats, so that I can cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much. ₁₀You can take it to him to eat, and he will give you his blessing before he dies.”

₁₁But Jacob said to his mother, “You know that Esau is a hairy man, but I have smooth skin. ₁₂Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him; in this way I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”

₁₃His mother answered, “Let any curse against you fall on me, my son; just do as I say, and go and get the goats for me.” ₁₄So he went to get them and brought them to her, and she cooked the kind of food that his father liked. ₁₅Then she took Esau's best clothes, which she kept in the house, and put them on Jacob. ₁₆She put the skins of the goats on his arms and on the hairless part of his neck. ₁₇She handed him the tasty food, together with the bread she had baked.

₁₈Then Jacob went to his father and said, “Father!”

“Yes,” he answered. “Which of my sons are you?”

₁₉Jacob answered, “I am your elder son Esau; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing.”

₂₀Isaac said, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

Jacob answered, “The LORD your God helped me to find it.”

₂₁Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so that I can touch you. Are you really Esau?” ₂₂Jacob moved closer to his father, who felt him and said, “Your voice sounds like Jacob's voice, but your arms feel like Esau's arms.” ₂₃He did not recognize Jacob, because his arms were hairy like Esau's. He was about to give him his blessing, ₂₄but asked again, “Are you really Esau?”

“I am,” he answered.

₂₅Isaac said, “Bring me some of the meat. After I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing.” Jacob brought it to him, and he also brought him some wine to drink. ₂₆Then his father said to him, “Come closer and kiss me, my son.” ₂₇As he came up to kiss him, Isaac smelt his clothes — so he gave him his blessing. He said, “The pleasant smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed. ₂₈May God give you dew from heaven and make your fields fertile! May he give you plenty of corn and wine! ₂₉May nations be your servants, and may peoples bow down before you. May you rule over all your relatives, and may your mother's descendants bow down before you. May those who curse you be cursed, and may those who bless you be blessed.”

₃₀Isaac finished giving his blessing, and as soon as Jacob left, his brother Esau came in from hunting. ₃₁He also cooked some tasty food and took it to his father. He said, “Please, father, sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing.”

₃₂“Who are you?” Isaac asked.

“Your elder son Esau,” he answered.

₃₃Isaac began to tremble and shake all over, and he asked, “Who was it, then, who killed an animal and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came. I gave him my final blessing, and so it is his for ever.”

₃₄When Esau heard this, he cried out loudly and bitterly and said, “Give me your blessing also, father!”

₃₅Isaac answered, “Your brother came and deceived me. He has taken away your blessing.”

₃₆Esau said, “This is the second time that he has cheated me. No wonder his name is Jacob. He took my rights as the firstborn son, and now he has taken away my blessing. Haven't you saved a blessing for me?”

₃₇Isaac answered, “I have already made him master over you, and I have made all his relatives his slaves. I have given him corn and wine. Now there is nothing that I can do for you, my son!”

₃₈Esau continued to plead with his father: “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me too, father!” He began to cry.

₃₉Then Isaac said to him,

₄₁Esau hated Jacob, because his father had given Jacob the blessing. He thought, “The time to mourn my father's death is near; then I will kill Jacob.”

₄₂But when Rebecca heard about Esau's plan, she sent for Jacob and said, “Listen, your brother Esau is planning to get even with you and kill you. ₄₃Now, my son, do what I say. Go at once to my brother Laban in Haran, ₄₄and stay with him for a while, until your brother's anger cools down ₄₅and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send someone to bring you back. Why should I lose both my sons on the same day?”

₄₆Rebecca said to Isaac, “I am sick and tired of Esau's foreign wives. If Jacob also marries one of these Hittite women, I might as well die.”

₁Isaac called Jacob, greeted him, and said to him, “Don't marry a Canaanite woman. ₂Go instead to Mesopotamia, to the home of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of the young women there, one of your uncle Laban's daughters. ₃May Almighty God bless your marriage and give you many children, so that you will become the father of many nations! ₄May he bless you and your descendants as he blessed Abraham, and may you take possession of this land, in which you have lived and which God gave to Abraham!” ₅Isaac sent Jacob away to Mesopotamia, to Laban, who was the son of Bethuel the Aramean and the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

₆Esau learnt that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Mesopotamia to find a wife. He also learnt that when Isaac blessed him, he commanded him not to marry a Canaanite woman. ₇He found out that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Mesopotamia. ₈Esau then understood that his father Isaac did not approve of Canaanite women. ₉So he went to Ishmael son of Abraham and married his daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth.

₁₀Jacob left Beersheba and started towards Haran. ₁₁At sunset he came to a holy place and camped there. He lay down to sleep, resting his head on a stone. ₁₂He dreamt that he saw a stairway reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and coming down on it. ₁₃And there was the LORD standing beside him. “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham and Isaac,” he said. “I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying. ₁₄They will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth. They will extend their territory in all directions, and through you and your descendants I will bless all the nations. ₁₅Remember, I will be with you and protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised you.”

₁₆Jacob woke up and said, “The LORD is here! He is in this place, and I didn't know it!” ₁₇He was afraid and said, “What a terrifying place this is! It must be the house of God; it must be the gate that opens into heaven.”

₁₈Jacob got up early next morning, took the stone that was under his head, and set it up as a memorial. Then he poured olive oil on it to dedicate it to God. ₁₉He named the place Bethel. (The town there was once known as Luz.) ₂₀Then Jacob made a vow to the LORD: “If you will be with me and protect me on the journey I am making and give me food and clothing, ₂₁and if I return safely to my father's home, then you will be my God. ₂₂This memorial stone which I have set up will be the place where you are worshipped, and I will give you a tenth of everything you give me.”

₁“Do not be worried and upset,” Jesus told them. “Believe in God and believe also in me. ₂There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so. ₃And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am. ₄You know the way that leads to the place where I am going.”

₅Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; so how can we know the way to get there?”

₆Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me. ₇Now that you have known me,” he said to them, “you will know my Father also, and from now on you do know him and you have seen him.”

₈Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need.”

₉Jesus answered, “For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then, do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ₁₀Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I have spoken to you,” Jesus said to his disciples, “do not come from me. The Father, who remains in me, does his own work. ₁₁Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the things I do. ₁₂I am telling you the truth: those who believe in me will do what I do — yes, they will do even greater things, because I am going to the Father. ₁₃And I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father's glory will be shown through the Son. ₁₄If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.

₁₅“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. ₁₆I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you for ever. ₁₇He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.

₁₈“When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. ₁₉In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live. ₂₀When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.

₂₁“Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them.”

₂₂Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “Lord, how can it be that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

₂₃Jesus answered him, “Whoever loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and my Father and I will come to him and live with him. ₂₄Whoever does not love me does not obey my teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not mine, but comes from the Father, who sent me.

₂₅“I have told you this while I am still with you. ₂₆The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.

₂₇“Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid. ₂₈You heard me say to you, ‘I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father; for he is greater than I. ₂₉I have told you this now before it all happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. ₃₀I cannot talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, ₃₁but the world must know that I love the Father; that is why I do everything as he commands me.

“Come, let us go from this place.

₁“I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. ₂He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit. ₃You have been made clean already by the teaching I have given you. ₄Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

₅“I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me. ₆Whoever does not remain in me is thrown out like a branch and dries up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burnt. ₇If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. ₈My Father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples. ₉I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. ₁₀If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

₁₁“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ₁₂My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. ₁₃The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. ₁₄And you are my friends if you do what I command you. ₁₅I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. ₁₆You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. ₁₇This, then, is what I command you: love one another.

₁₈“If the world hates you, just remember that it has hated me first. ₁₉If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own. But I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it; that is why the world hates you. ₂₀Remember what I told you: ‘Slaves are not greater than their master.’ If people persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. ₂₁But they will do all this to you because you are mine; for they do not know the one who sent me. ₂₂They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not come and spoken to them; as it is, they no longer have any excuse for their sin. ₂₃Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ₂₄They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not done among them the things that no one else ever did; as it is, they have seen what I did, and they hate both me and my Father. ₂₅This, however, was bound to happen so that what is written in their Law may come true: ‘They hated me for no reason at all.’

₂₆“The Helper will come — the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father, and he will speak about me. ₂₇And you, too, will speak about me, because you have been with me from the very beginning.

₁“I have told you this, so that you will not give up your faith. ₂You will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time will come when anyone who kills you will think that by doing this he is serving God. ₃People will do these things to you because they have not known either the Father or me. ₄But I have told you this, so that when the time comes for them to do these things, you will remember that I told you.

“I did not tell you these things at the beginning, for I was with you. ₅But now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me where I am going. ₆And now that I have told you, your hearts are full of sadness. ₇But I am telling you the truth: it is better for you that I go away, because if I do not go, the Helper will not come to you. But if I do go away, then I will send him to you. ₈And when he comes, he will prove to the people of the world that they are wrong about sin and about what is right and about God's judgement. ₉They are wrong about sin, because they do not believe in me; ₁₀they are wrong about what is right, because I am going to the Father and you will not see me any more; ₁₁and they are wrong about judgement, because the ruler of this world has already been judged.

₁₂“I have much more to tell you, but now it would be too much for you to bear. ₁₃When, however, the Spirit comes, who reveals the truth about God, he will lead you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own authority, but he will speak of what he hears, and will tell you of things to come. ₁₄He will give me glory, because he will take what I say and tell it to you. ₁₅All that my Father has is mine; that is why I said that the Spirit will take what I give him and tell it to you.

₁₆“In a little while you will not see me any more, and then a little while later you will see me.”

₁₇Some of his disciples asked among themselves, “What does this mean? He tells us that in a little while we will not see him, and then a little while later we will see him; and he also says, ‘It is because I am going to the Father.’ ₁₈What does this ‘a little while’ mean? We don't know what he is talking about!”

₁₉Jesus knew that they wanted to question him, so he said to them, “I said, ‘In a little while you will not see me, and then a little while later you will see me.’ Is this what you are asking about among yourselves? ₂₀I am telling you the truth: you will cry and weep, but the world will be glad; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into gladness. ₂₁When a woman is about to give birth, she is sad because her hour of suffering has come; but when the baby is born, she forgets her suffering, because she is happy that a baby has been born into the world. ₂₂That is how it is with you: now you are sad, but I will see you again, and your hearts will be filled with gladness, the kind of gladness that no one can take away from you.

₂₃“When that day comes, you will not ask me for anything. I am telling you the truth: the Father will give you whatever you ask him for in my name. ₂₄Until now you have not asked for anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your happiness may be complete.

₂₅“I have used figures of speech to tell you these things. But the time will come when I will not use figures of speech, but will speak to you plainly about the Father. ₂₆When that day comes, you will ask him in my name; and I do not say that I will ask him on your behalf, ₂₇for the Father himself loves you. He loves you because you love me and have believed that I came from God. ₂₈I did come from the Father, and I came into the world; and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

₂₉Then his disciples said to him, “Now you are speaking plainly, without using figures of speech. ₃₀We know now that you know everything; you do not need someone to ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

₃₁Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now? ₃₂The time is coming, and is already here, when all of you will be scattered, each of you to your own home, and I will be left all alone. But I am not really alone, because the Father is with me. ₃₃I have told you this so that you will have peace by being united to me. The world will make you suffer. But be brave! I have defeated the world!”