Come Follow Me 8: Genesis 18-23
Introduction:
Our lives carry both happiness and sadness. This life is a testing period (See Abraham 3:25).
Will I do all things that Heavenly Father requires of me? Am I doing so now? What can I change to be a greater following after righteousness?
Abraham did prove faithful. Abraham trusted God, and God trusted Abraham. Do I believe God’s promises? Do I flee wickedness and never look back, and do I trust God regardless of the required sacrifice?
Personal Study (and Family):
The Joseph
Smith account says that Abraham and Sarah rejoiced, not laughed. I
don’t think that their “laughter” was in disbelief or in
levity. I think that sometimes with rejoicing, we laugh. The
impossible became the possible, and then a reality.
Do you trust that things will happen according to the Lord’s will in His own time? Doctrine and Covenants 88:68.
Readings: Chapter
18:
Abraham welcomed three holy men and offered them
food, rest, and refreshment.
Vs 6 He bid Sarah to make bread
vs 7 He had a servant prepare a young calf
vs 8 He also got butter and milk to go with the meal.
Vs 9-14 The Holy men say that Sarah shall have a child. She laughs and asked if she and Abraham being old shall have pleasure. (So not only was she past the age to conceive; they were both past the age to have full sexual intimacy.)
The men assured them
that she indeed would have son.
“Is
any thing too hard for
the Lord?”
vs
14.
What
has happened in your own life that has helped you gain this
understanding, that nothing is too hard for the Lord?
The
Lord trusted Abraham to be righteous and to teach his posterity to be
righteous; but the Lord knew there was great wickedness in Sodom and
Gomorrah (where Lot currently was).
The men went on their
way there at the Lord’s bidding.
Will the Lord spare
the city for 50 righteous men, Abraham asked. How about 45?
40?
30? 20? 10?
Is our Country and are the countries of the
world being saved because of the righteousness of a relatively few?
Alma 10:22–23. If it were not for the prayers of the righteous! Are you praying sufficiently?
Are We Fleeing Wickedness?
The Lord gives us warning and directions to flee wickedness. “How does the Lord help you and your family flee or find protection from evil influences in the world?”
Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah or worldly sins: see Ezekiel 16:49–50
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Lot’s wife looked back, because she lacked faith and found it
hard to leave her home. “Faith
is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay
there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us
and that Christ truly is the ‘high priest of good things to come’”.
(Elder
Holland, and Hebrew 9:11)
Will We All Be Tested Like Abraham Was?
Jacob 4:5 Abraham and Isaac’s willingness to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, because of the Lord’s command, is a similitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who was given unto us by the Father.
Look for the
similarities.
Wonderful video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEwxLO-Z29c
Abraham was willing to be obedient to Jehovah in offering
up Isaac. Like Jesus, Isaac was willing to submit to all the will of
his father and be the required sacrifice.
In this short
film, Isaac carries the wood and kindling for the sacrifice, even as
Jesus carries his own cross.
What sacrifices have you
been asked to make? How has sacrifice blessed your life?
Readings: Chapter 19:
Lot served two angels that came into the city.
The angels were beautiful and the men of the city desired to know them sexually.
Vs
8 Did Lot really offer his virgin daughters to these evil men? NO,
read JST
Joseph
Smith Translation, Genesis 19:9–15 He please that they would
NOT do this evil thing.
Vs 12 the holy men or the angels told Lot to flee that evil place. Vs 13 The Lord sent them to destroy it.
Lot’s family would not listen to his warnings. Because of the Lord’s mercy, the angels brought Lot, his wife, and two daughters out of that place. Vs 16
vs 17 Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
How can the words “ Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou” remind you of the importance and the immediacy of following the Spirit of the Lord in your daily activities? What destructive influences do you need to escape from?
Lot didn’t accept what the Lord asked and begged to go to a little city. Vs 20
The Lord allowed Lot to escape to Zoar.
24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
26 ¶ But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Vs 27-28 In the
morning; Abraham saw the smoke of those cities which had been
destroyed.
The daughters of Lot got him drunk two nights
in a row and both had sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, Moabites and children
of Ammon.
Chapter 20:
Abimelech was warned by God not to take Sarah to himself, because she
already belonged with Abraham.
Abraham and Sarah were
half-siblings.
vs 12 And yet
indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter
of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my
wife.
Abimelech gave offerings to the Lord and gifts to
Abraham. He dealt kindly with Abraham and Sarah, and he regained the
favor of the Lord.
Chapter 21:
God indeed blessed Sarah with a son, Isaac, who was circumcised on the 8th day.
Vs 6 We can all rejoice with Sarah. “And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.”
vs 7-8 Sarah nursed and weaned her child. Abraham held a great feast.
Vs 9-11 There is still jealousy among good people. Sarah wanted Hagaar and Ishmael cast out, because she saw the teenager mocking. Hmmm. Abraham was very sad. Ishmael was also his son.
The Lord heard Hagar’s distress and the voice of her son. He comforted and blessed them.
17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
21 And
he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him
a wife out
of the land of Egypt.
How does God’s love and mercy for the outcast help you
understand God’s love for you?
Abimelech and Abraham
make a covenant and an alliance with each other.
Chapter 22:
Heading: Abraham is commanded to sacrifice Isaac, his son—Both father and son yield to the will of God—Abraham’s seed will be as the stars and the sand in number—In his seed, all nations will be blessed
vs 3 Abraham rose up early. He didn’t put off this hard thing to do.
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
I’m thankful
for the lesson Abraham and Isaac provided, and I’m thankful that
God provided His Son the Lamb, and that Jesus was willing to be that
Last and real sacrifice for all of us.
Because of
Abraham’s obedience, even to give up his son of the covenant, the
blessing God gave him was truly established with him forever.
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Abraham is also told of his brother Nahor’s family, and the birth of Rebekah is mentioned.
Chapter 23:
Abraham was so respected by the people he lived among. When Sarah
died, he asked for a place to bury her, calling himself a stranger
among them. They revered him as a prince and said that he could have
wherever he chose. He wanted to bury Sarah in a cave in Machpelah on
Ephron’s land, and he offered to pay the worth of it. But Ephron
didn’t want to accept money from Abraham. Not only did he give him
the cave, but also the field where the cave was.
Abraham pressed upon him to pay the money and gave him 400 shekels of silver. This became the burying place for Abraham’s family.
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