ABRAM MEETS KING MELCHIZEDEK
You would have thought that after this, Lot would have seen that it was wrong for him to live in Sodom; but he went back to that city, and made his home there once more, even though his heart was made sad by the wickedness that he saw around him.
After Abram had gone back to his tent under the oak trees at Hebron, one day the Lord God spoke to him, and said:
"Fear not, Abram; I will be a shield to keep you safe from enemies; and I will give you a very great reward for serving me."
And Abram said, "O Lord God, what good can anything do to me, since I have no child to whom I can give it; and after I die, the man who will own everything that I have is not my son, but a servant." For although Abram had a large family of people around him, and many servants, he had no heir, and he was now an old man, and his wife Sarai was also old.
And God said to Abram, "The one to receive what you own shall not be a stranger, but shall be your own son."
And that night God brought Abram out of his tent, under the heavens, and said to him:
"Look now up to the sky, and count the stars, if you can. The people who shall spring from you, your descendants, in the years to come, shall be many more than all the stars that you can see."
Abram did not see how this promise of God could be kept; but he believed God's word, and did not doubt it. And God loved Abram because he believed the promise. Although Abram could not at that time see how God's promise could be kept, yet we know that it was kept, for the Israelite people in the Bible story, and the Jews everywhere in the world now, all came from Abram.
After that, one day, just as the sun was going down, God came to Abram again, and told him many things that should come to pass. God said to Abram:
"After your life is ended, those who are to come from you, your descendants, shall go into a strange land. The people of that land shall make slaves of them, and shall be cruel to them. And they shall stay in that strange land four hundred years; and afterward they shall come out of that land, not any more as slaves, but very rich. And after the four hundred years they shall come back to this land, and this shall be their home. All this shall come to pass after your life, for you shall die in peace and be buried in a good old age. And all this land where you are living shall belong to your people."
So that Abram might remember this promise of God, God told Abram to make ready an offering of a lamb and a goat and a pair of pigeons, and to divide them in pieces, and place them opposite to each other. And that night Abram looked, and saw a smoke and fire, like a flaming torch, that passed between the pieces of the offering.
So a promise was made between God and Abram. God promised to give Abram a son and a people and a land, and Abram promised to serve God faithfully.
Such a promise as this, made by two people to each other, was called a covenant; and this was God's covenant with Abram.
The Angel by the Well
Genesis xvi: 1, to xvii: 27.
You Remember that Abram's wife, who had journeyed with him from Ur of the Chaldees, and who lived in his tent all those years, was named Sarai. Now Sarai had a maid, a servant that waited on her, whose name was Hagar. She came from the land of Egypt, where were the pyramids and the temples. But Sarai and her maid Hagar had some trouble; they could not agree, and Sarai was so sharp and severe with Hagar, that at last Hagar ran away from Sarai's tent.
She went out into the desert, and took the road that led down to Egypt, her own country, the land from which she had come. On the way she stopped beside a spring of water. There an angel from the Lord met her, and said to her:
"Hagar, are you not the servant of Sarai, Abram's wife? What are you doing here? Where are you going?"
HAGAR BY THE SPRING OF WATER
And Hagar said to the angeclass="underline"
"I am going away from my mistress Sarai, because I do not wish to stay with her and serve her any longer."
Then the angel said to Hagar:
"Go back to your mistress Sarai, and submit to her, for it is better for you than to go away. God knows all your troubles, for he sees you and hears you, and he will help you. By and by you shall have a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because God has heard you."
The word Ishmael means "God hears." So whenever Hagar should speak her boy's name, she would think "God has heard me."
Then the angel told Hagar that her son Ishmael should be strong and fierce, and that no one should be able to overcome him, or his children, or his descendants, those who should come after him.
So Hagar was comforted, and went back again to serve Sarai.
And afterward the well where she saw the angel was called by a name which means "The well of the Living One who sees me." And after this, Hagar had a son; and as the angel told her, she called his name Ishmael; that is, "God hears." We shall read more about Hagar and Ishmael a little later. After this, while Abram was living near Hebron, the Lord came to him again and spoke to him, while Abram bowed with his face to the ground. God said:
"I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect; and I will make you a father of many nations. And your name shall be changed. You shall no more be called Abram, but Abraham, a word that means "Father of a multitude," because you shall be the father of many nations of people. And your wife's name shall also be changed. She shall no more be called Sarai, but Sarah; that is, "princess." And you and Sarah shall have a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and he shall have sons when he becomes a man, and his descendants, those who spring from him, shall be very many people." So from this time he was no longer Abram, but Abraham, and his wife was called Sarah.
The Rain of Fire That Fell on a City
Genesis xviii: 1, to xix: 30.
One day Abraham,—for we shall call him now by his new name,—was sitting in the door of his tent, when he saw three men coming toward him. He knew from their looks that they were not common men. They were angels, and one of them seems to have been the Lord God himself, coming in the form of a man.
When Abraham saw these men coming, he went out to meet them, and bowed to them; and he said to the one who was the leader:
"My Lord, do not pass by; but come and rest a little under the tree. Let me send for water to wash your feet; and take some food; and stay with us a little while."
So this strange person, who was God in the form of a man, sat with his two followers in Abraham's tent, under the oak-trees at Hebron. They took some food which Sarah, Abraham's wife, made ready for them, and then the Lord talked with Abraham. He told Abraham again that in a very little time God would send to him and Sarah a little boy, whose name should be Isaac. In the language that Abraham spoke, the name Isaac means "laughing;" because Abraham and Sarah both laughed aloud when they heard it. They were so happy that they could scarcely believe the news.
Then the three persons rose up to go, and two of them went on the road which led toward Sodom, down on the plain of Jordan, below the mountains. But the one who Abraham called "My Lord" stopped after the others had gone away, and said:
"Shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do? For Abraham is to be the father of a great people, and all the world shall receive a blessing through him. And I know that Abraham will teach his children and all those that live with him to obey the will of the Lord, and to do right. I will tell Abraham what I am going to do. I am going down to the city of Sodom and the other cities that are near it, and I am going to see if the city is as bad as it seems to be; for the wickedness of the city is like a cry coming up before the Lord."
And Abraham knew that Sodom was very wicked, and he feared that God was about to destroy it. And Abraham said: