Word Surprises

Image being asked to leave home just because you a have a new baby step-brother? Worse than that, your mother is a slave to your step-mother and has no choice in the matter! The clincher; your father loves you dearly and doesn't want you to go but has no choice but to ask you to leave. The scenario described above is recorded in  Genesis 21  which covers the period from the birth of Isaac (baby step-brother) until he was weaned. Abraham (father) held a feast to celebrate this milestone but during the feast Sarah (step-mother) sees her 16 year-old step-son Ishmael teasing her son. This was too much for her, and she demanded that Abraham "cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac." (v10).  For more than sixteen years Hagar (mother) had served Sarah as a bondwoman (servant). The problem was that Hagar also had borne a child to Abraham (with Sarah's agreement) and Hagar's son Ishmael had become ...

Was Lot a "boiled frog" ? It has been said that changes in values and morals are like frogs in a pot of cold water gently simmering away. What the frogs don't realize is that the water is heating up bit-by-bit and they slowly cook to death without any attempt to jump out. In other words, by the time we see the consequences, it is too late. In Genesis 19 we meet up with Abraham's nephew who is now married with children in Sodom which seems a long way from the days when he was part of Abraham's extended family who traveled from Haran ( Genesis 12-13 ) with their livestock. Over time both Abraham and Lot became wealthy after settling in Canaan but strife between Lot's and Abraham's shepherds led to Abraham offering him the choice to live in any area away from Abraham's herds and flocks that he wanted. Lot immediately c hose the lush green Jordan river valley instead of the barren desert hills that he and Abraham's flocks and herds presently ...