Fleeing to his mother’s family in Paddan-aram from his brother Esau who had sworn to kill him when their father Isaac died, Jacob stopped overnight at Luz. There he dreamed of a ladder going up to Heaven. From the top of the stairway, God reiterated to Jacob His promise to his grandfather Abraham that through their descendants all the families of the earth would be blessed. The next morning, Jacob renamed that place Bethel – the house of God.
This diagram shows the family relationships of Jacob’s twelve sons who became the progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Their lineage is traced back to Abraham’s father Terah. The underlined names follow the line leading to Jesus.
Genesis 26 tells the story of Isaac lying to Abimelech King of the Philistines that Rebekah was Isaac’s sister just as Isaac’s father Abraham had done years before. Afterward, Abimelech and Isaac swore oaths to live peacefully together in the land of the Philistines. In Genesis 27, we read how Isaac’s wife Rebekah and his younger son Jacob deceived Isaac into giving his double-portion inheritance blessing that should have gone to Isaac’s firstborn son Esau to his younger brother Jacob instead.
After 13 chapters devoted to detailing Abraham’s life, Genesis 25 tells us about his latter years and his death at the age of 175. The chapter then lists the 12 princes born to Abraham’s elder son Ishmael. The latter part of Genesis 25 brings us into the fourth section of our Genesis study with the birth of Abraham’s twin grandsons Esau and Jacob. Finally, we see the story of the elder twin Esau selling his birthright of the double-portion inheritance due the first-born son to his younger brother Jacob.
Following the death of Sarah, Abraham sent his servant to Paddan-Aram to obtain a wife for his son Isaac from his family. Abraham’s nephew’s daughter Rebekah returned to Negev with the servant to marry Isaac.
God’s call for Abraham to offer Isaac is disturbing, not only due to our innate abhorrence of child sacrifice, but also due to confusion about how God could afterward still fulfill His plan of salvation to bring forth Jesus the Messiah though Isaac’s line if Isaac were sacrificed on the altar. In coming to grips with our confusion about this disturbing and confusing story, we focus on the lessons God teaches through it for Abraham, for Isaac, and for us.
Genesis 21 includes the stories of the birth of Isaac – Abraham’s promised heir, Abraham casting out his son Ishmael and his mother Hagar, and the oath between Abimelech and Abraham at Beersheba
Following the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters bore sons by their own father – Moab and Ammon. Abraham and Sarah deceived Abimelech King of the Philistines saying that Sarah was Abraham’s sister, but not saying she was his wife.
The story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is very familiar. We begin by looking at the humorous story of Abraham’s “negotiation” with God on the cities’ behalf. Afterward, we study Lot’s escape from the destruction with his family.
About 14 years after Ishamael’s birth, God appeared once more to Abram to establish a new covenant in which He stated that Abram’s wife Sarai would bear him an heir about the same time the following year. As part of this new covenant, God renamed Abram and Sarai – Abraham and Sarah and commanded every male in Abraham’s family and all of his male descendants to be circumcised.