It had been twenty-five years since Abraham had left Haran based upon a promise that God had given to him—a son. Few events, apart from the birth of Jesus, were as anticipated as this event. Finally in Genesis 21—after many misadventures—anticipation became reality when to Abraham and Sarah a child was born, a son was […]

Genesis 20 is considered by some commentaries to be a variation of Genesis 12. After all, there are several similarities. Abraham and Sarah moved to a different area where he was afraid of the ruler. They agreed to say that they were brother and sister instead of husband and wife. The ruler of the land […]

The life of Abraham must have changed completely when Ishmael was born. Suddenly it became Abraham and Ishmael; Ishmael and Abraham; father and son; son and father. I am sure that on many afternoons Abraham could be heard saying, “Let the servants do the work; I’m going to spend time with my son. Sometimes the […]

The great Jehovah had made great promises to Abraham and had also led Abraham through many periods of testing. Some of those tests he passed; some of the tests he failed, but in all of them he learned to lean more and more on the sovereign God who had brought him into the land of […]

In this chapter we have the first biblical reference to mourning for the dead and burial. Sarah is also the only woman whose age is recorded in the Scriptures; she was one hundred twenty-seven years old. The marriage of Abraham and Sarah is the first godly marriage the Bible unfolds for us. Sarah had been […]

Genesis 24 is the longest chapter in the book of Genesis. In it, the same story is told twice—once as it happens and once as it is reported by Abraham’s servant. God’s testing of Abraham is now complete, and we see the focus shift from the patriarch to his son, Isaac. Redemptive history is beginning […]