I believe the second greatest country in the history of the world is the United States of America. God has blessed our country with resources and creative people many times over. Our country was founded upon the principle of religious freedom and the Judeo-Christian ethic. American missionaries have taken the lead in the propagation of the gospel to the four corners of the earth. No country in history has had the military power that the United States has wielded to fight for freedom in this country and around the world. Americans have shared their wealth with the poor and hurting people of the world. With all its historical and current shortcomings, I am proud to be an American citizen. Of course, I am more thankful that God has granted me citizenship in His kingdom for eternity.
However, I believe the greatest country in history is the historical nation of Israel. That is because God chose it as His dwelling place and has granted it His divine favor:
"For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His
habitation. This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I
have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will
satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests
with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
There will I make the Horn of David to bud: I have
ordained a lamp for Mine Anointed. His enemies will I
clothe with shame: but upon Himself shall His crown
flourish."1
God, the omnipotent Creator of the universe, chose Zion or Israel as the place of His habitation. Out of all the beautiful countries in the world He chose this small strip of land along the eastern Mediterranean Sea to be His dwelling place.
God has a special affection for the land of Israel:
"And that you may prolong your days in the land [of Israel],
which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give unto them
and to their seed, a land that flows with milk and honey.
For the land, where you go in to possess it, is not as the
land of Egypt, from where you came out, where you sowed
your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of
herbs: But the land, where you go to possess it, is a land of
hills and valleys, and drinks water of the rain of heaven: A
land which the LORD your God cares for: the eyes of the
LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of
the year even unto the end of the year."2
God gave the land of Israel to the Jews and promised it would be a land flowing with "milk and honey". Here the Bible declares that God cares about the land of Israel and that His eyes are always watching it.
Just as God has a special affection for the land, so too He has a special affection for the people that He gave it to, the Jews:
"When the Most High divided to the nations their
inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set
the bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel. For the LORD's portion is His people;
Jacob [i.e., Israel] is the lot of His inheritance. He found
him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness;
He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the
apple of His eye."3
When God set up the boundaries for the nations of the world He gave the land of Israel to the Jews and gave them the special appellation: "The apple of His eye". Just as our children are the apples of our eyes, so too is the Jewish nation of Israel the pleasure of His eye.
Though God has disciplined His children many times in history because of their rebellion, He always protects them from complete destruction and punishes those who seek to destroy them:
"Deliver yourself, O Zion, that dwell with the daughter of
Babylon. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory
has He sent Me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he
that touches you touches the apple of His eye. For, behold,
I will shake Mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil
to their servants: and you shall know that the LORD of
hosts has sent Me. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion:
for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, saith
the LORD. And many nations shall be joined to the LORD
in that day, and shall be My people: and I will dwell in the
midst of you, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts
has sent Me unto you. And the LORD shall inherit Judah
His portion in the Holy Land, and shall choose Jerusalem
again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for He is
raised up out of His holy habitation."4
God had allowed the Babylonian empire to punish Israel for their rebellion against Him by conquering it. However, God declared that He would never leave them in a state of captivity. He would send the Messiah to set them free and He will dwell in the midst of Israel. God refers to Israel as the "Holy Land", a reference that Jews and Christians still use to this day.
The Babylonian captivity was just one of many times that God punished the Jews for their disobedience to Him. In this case He brought the Jews back to the Land of Israel after seventy years of captivity.
At other times God allowed foreign powers to rule over the Jews while they were living in Israel. It was at such a time when the Romans were occupying the land that God sent His Son to deliver the Jews, not from foreign oppression but the oppression of sin, which is more deadly than any earthly power.
Forty years after the Jews as a nation rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God dispersed them throughout the known world. As we will see though, God was not through with the Jewish people. His word declares many times that He will return the Jews to the land of Israel once and for all.
The reason for this is that God promised the land of Israel to Abraham and His Jewish descendants until the ordinances of the celestial bodies cease to exist.5 Though modern Islam and even some Christian organizations and churches reject this premise, the Bible does not.
Throughout the Bible God makes various covenants or contracts with His human creations. Some of these covenants have conditions attached to them while others are unconditional. One example is the New Testament or Covenant, which has the condition that if we accept God's Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior and receive forgiveness through His sacrificial death, then we will be saved for eternity. However, the covenant that I will discuss in this section is unconditional.
Almost four thousand years ago God chose a man named Abraham to fulfill His purpose for the human race. Abraham faithfully served God for the rest of his life. This faithfulness resulted in three of the world's major religious faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It also led to Abraham's Jewish descendants having the honor of giving God's Son and Messiah to the world.
God had spoken to Abraham while he was living in the city of Haran, which was located near the modern Syrian-Turkey border. It was there that God made His first promise to Abraham (originally his name was Abram until God changed it):
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get you out of your
country, and from your kindred, and from your father's
house, unto a land that I will show you: And I will make of
you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your
name great; and you shall be a blessing: And I will bless
them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in
you shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram
departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went
with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when
he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai [changed
later to Sarah] his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all
their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that
they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into
the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they
came."6
God tells Abraham to leave the land of his fathers and go to the land of Canaan, which would later become Israel. The first promise that God made to Abraham was that He would make a great nation out of his descendants. God then tells him that He will bless those that bless him and his descendants and curse those who curse him and his descendants. Lastly, God tells Abraham that all the earth will be blessed because of him. This blessing came when the Messiah was born to one of Abraham's descendants. Thus, Abraham departed from Haran as the Lord had instructed him to.
After Abraham arrived in Canaan God made another promise to him:
"And Abram passed through the land unto the place of
Shechem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was
then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and
said, Unto your seed will I give this land: and there built
he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him."7
God declares here that He is giving the land of Israel to Abraham's descendants. As we will see in a moment, God specifies that it is the Jewish descendants of Abraham who are entitled to the land of Israel.
Next, God gives to Abraham the boundaries of the land of Israel that his descendants will inherit:
"And [Abraham] went on his journeys from the south even
to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the
beginning, between Bethel and Ai; Unto the place of the
altar, which he had made there at the first: and there
Abram called on the name of the LORD...And the LORD
said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him,
Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you
are northward, and southward, and eastward, and
westward: For all the land which you see, to you will I give
it, and to your seed for ever."8
The city of Bethel is located about ten miles north of Jerusalem. From there Abraham could see the land of Israel spreading out before him. God promises Abraham that all this land will belong to his descendants forever.
Abraham moved south and dwelt in the city of Hebron, which is located about twenty miles south of Jerusalem. While Abraham was living there God appeared to him and made him another promise:
"After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram
in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and
your exceeding great reward. And Abram said, LORD
God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the
steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And
Abram said, Behold, to me You have given no seed: and, lo,
one born in my house is my heir. And, behold, the word of
the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be your
heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels
shall be your heir. And He brought him forth abroad, and
said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be
able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall your
seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it
to him for righteousness."9
Abraham was concerned because he had no physical heirs to inherit his legacy. He told God the only person that was close to being his heir was his steward Eliezer. God tells him that Eliezer will not be his heir but that He will give Abraham a son who will inherit the blessings that God gives to Abraham. His son will come out of Abraham's loins and his descendants will be as many as the stars in heaven. Because Abraham believed God's word, God counted him as a righteous man.
Immediately after this God makes a covenant with Abraham:
"And He said unto him, I am the LORD that brought you out
of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.
And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall
inherit it? And He said unto him, Take Me an heifer of
three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a
ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young
pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in
the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the
birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon
the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun
was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an
horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He said unto
Abram, Know for certain that your seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they
shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation,
whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall
they come out with great substance. And you shall go to your
fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. But
in the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass,
that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a
smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between
those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant
with Abram, saying, Unto your seed have I given this land,
from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river
Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the
Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the
Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the
Girgashites, and the Jebusites."10
This passage is the foundation of the current Israeli-Arab conflict that exists in the Middle East. It is crucial that you understand exactly what took place here.
Although Abraham had no trouble believing that God was going to give him a son, for some reason he wanted reassurance that God was also going to give him and his descendants the land of Israel forever. Thus, God instructs Abraham to get a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon and bring them before the Lord. It is interesting that God will later tell the Jews that each of these animals will be an acceptable Temple sacrifice to Him under the laws given to Moses. Abraham did as God told him to do and cut each of these dead animals in half, except for the birds. He laid the halves of the animals opposite each other and left a small pathway between them. Then God caused a deep sleep to come over Abraham during which he suffered a nightmare. God tells him that his descendants will be strangers in a strange land [Egypt] and shall be that people's slaves for four hundred years. However, God declares that He will punish Egypt and return Abraham's descendants to the land of Israel. The reason for the delay is because God will allow time for the people currently living in the land of Israel, the Amorites, to repent of their sins. Since God knows that they will not repent, He promises that Abraham's people will take the land from the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Then to confirm this promise God performs a strange ritual. While Abraham is sleeping, yet with some comprehension of what is taking place, a flaming torch that seemingly represents the Lord passes through the animal carcasses. This ritual was God's way of making Abraham understand that He was making a covenant or contract with him. By performing this deed God was telling Abraham that He would indeed give the land of Israel to him and his descendants.
There are a couple of things to note here that are of extreme importance. The first is that this covenant was unconditional. Abraham did not have to do anything for God to give him the land of Israel. He did not have to serve God faithfully or perform any other act in order for God to give him the land. God declared He would give possession of the land to Abraham without any strings attached. This is evidenced by the fact that Abraham was asleep during the making of this covenant. This becomes an important component in Chapter 17 of this book where I discuss a doctrine called "Replacement Theology".
The other noteworthy item in this passage is that God states that Abraham's descendants would displace the current residents of the land. In recent history Arabs have made unsubstantiated claims that their ancestors were the ancient Canaanites. They claim this to support their position that the land of Israel belongs to them since their ancestors predated the ancient Hebrews. There is absolutely no historical evidence that they are related to the Canaanites. Even if by some stretch of the imagination their claims were true, God states here that He took the land from them and gave it to the Jews.
God promised Abraham that he would have a son who would inherit the promises that God gave to him. As sometimes happens with humans, we take it upon ourselves to "help" God out in fulfilling His will. Such is the case with Abraham and his wife Sarai whose name God would later change to Sarah:
"Now Sarai Abram's wife bore him no children: and she had
an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And
Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD has
restrained me from bearing: I pray you, go in unto my
maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And
Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's
wife, took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had
dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her
husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar,
and she conceived: and when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And
Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon you: I have
given my maid into your bosom; and when she saw that she
had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge
between me and you."11
Just like Abraham, Sarah also wanted a child. It appears though that she was not willing to wait for God to fulfill His promise. In the culture that she lived in, it was permissible for a man to marry more than one woman at a time. Since Sarah was barren she told her husband to marry her servant Hagar in order that she might have a child by her. Abraham fulfilled his wife's wishes and Hagar became pregnant. This caused Hagar to believe that she was blessed of God and that her mistress, Sarah, was rejected by God. Understandably, this led to a conflict between Sarah and Hagar:
"But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, your maid is in your
hand; do to her as it pleases you. And when Sarai dealt
harshly with her, she fled from her face. And the angel of
the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the
wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said,
Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest you? and where will
you go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress
Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to
your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands. And
the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply your
seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for
multitude. And the angel of the LORD said unto her,
Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son, and shall
call his name Ishmael; because the LORD has heard your
affliction."12
Because Sarah had mistreated Hagar in response to her haughtiness, she fled from the presence of her mistress. The angel of the Lord told Hagar she needed to return and continue serving Sarah. He then promised her that she would bear a son whose name would be Ishmael. Through him the Lord would multiply Hagar's descendants exceedingly. This is almost the exact promise that God had made to Abraham. Hagar did return and gave birth to Ishmael when Abraham was eighty-six years old. However, it would not be until fourteen years later that God fulfilled His promise to Abraham by giving him a son by his wife Sarah.
God made a new covenant with Abraham that also reinforced the land covenant that He had made previously with him:
"And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD
appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty
God; walk before Me, and be you perfect. And I will make
My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply
you exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God
talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is
with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but
your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations
have I made you. And I will make you exceeding fruitful,
and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of
you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you
and your seed after you in their generations for an
everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you, and to your
seed after you. And I will give unto you, and to your seed
after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land
of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be
their God. And God said unto Abraham, You shall keep My
covenant therefore, you, and your seed after you in their
generations. This is My covenant, which you shall keep,
between Me and you and your seed after you; Every man
child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall
circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a
token of the covenant between Me and you. And he that is
eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man
child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or
bought with money of any stranger, which is not of
your seed."13
God tells Abraham that he will be the father of many peoples. He also promises that He will be God to Abraham's descendants. Unlike the first covenant this promise or covenant does have a condition attached to it. It is to be an everlasting covenant and as a sign of Abraham's acceptance of this covenant with God he is to circumcise all the males in his family. Abraham's descendants are to do the same from generation to generation as a sign of their relationship with God.
God then declares that He will give the land of Israel to these descendants. At the time that God offered this covenant to Abraham, the only heir that he had was his son Ishmael, whom he later circumcises. Therefore, are Ishmael's descendants entitled to the land of Israel? God answers this question immediately after offering this covenant to Abraham:
"And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you
shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
And I will bless her, and give you a son also of her: yes, I
will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings
of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face,
and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born
unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah,
that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto
God, O that Ishmael might live before you! And God said,
Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed; and you shall
call his name Isaac: and I will establish My covenant with
him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after
him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: Behold, I have
blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply
him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will
make him a great nation. But My covenant will I establish
with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto you at this set time
in the next year."14
Abraham still believes that God is going to fulfill this covenant through his son Ishmael. However, God straightens him out on this matter. He is not going to fulfill this covenant through Ishmael but through the son that God had originally promised to Abraham, Isaac. God does declare that he is going to bless Ishmael with many descendants.
The modern Arabs claim that Ishmael is the patriarch of their people. If this is true then God did indeed fulfill His promise to bless Ishmael with many descendants. The crucial point is that in this passage God explicitly states that it will be Abraham's descendants through his son Isaac who will inherit the land of Israel. There is no other possible interpretation of this verse.
How do the Muslims of today get around this passage in the Bible? By simply declaring that the Jews changed the wording of it so that instead of Ishmael being the true heir, they made Isaac the heir to God's covenant with Abraham. There are many problems with this theory. The biggest one is that the last book of the Old Testament was written one thousand years before the birth of Mohammed. There was no religion of Islam in existence until six hundred years after Jesus Christ came to earth. Therefore, the Jews had to be extraordinarily prescient, by one thousand years, to know that one day there would be a dispute over a small strip of land on the eastern Mediterranean seacoast. If the Jews had switched the names then that means the entire New Testament is based on a false premise.
The Bible makes it clear that the Messiah was to be a descendant of Abraham through Isaac and the seed of the Jewish King David. This would make Jesus a false prophet since He claimed numerous times to be the Son of David as a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. However, this would conflict with Islamic claims that Jesus or "Isa" as they call Him is a prophet of Allah (though Muslims reject the idea that He is the Son of God). Since the Muslims know this is a fallacious argument they resort to other means to claim the land of Israel for their own. I mentioned one above concerning modern Arab-claims that they are the descendants of the Canaanites who predated the ancient Hebrews and thereby are the rightful heirs to the land of Israel. Nevertheless, God's word clearly disagrees with modern Arab-claims and declares that the Jews are the sole heirs to the land of Israel.
Abraham confirms this just before he dies when he gives all of his possessions to Isaac and not Ishmael:
"And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac...And these
are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived,
an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham
gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man,
and full of years; and was gathered to his people. And his
sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of
Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the
Hittite, which is before Mamre."15
There was no question in Abraham's mind that Isaac was to be the heir through whom God would fulfill His covenants. God further delineates the family line of succession from Abraham through Isaac through Isaac's son, Jacob:
"And Isaac entreated the LORD for his wife, because she
was barren: and the LORD was entreated of him, and
Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled
together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I
thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD
said unto her, Two nations are in your womb, and two
manner of people shall be separated from your bowels;
and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;
and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days
to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in
her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy
garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that
came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's
heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was
threescore years old when she bore them."16
Isaac married Rebekah and she gave birth to twins, Jacob and Esau. Even though Esau was born first God declared that Jacob would have precedence over him. He later promises Jacob that he will be the recipient of the covenants that He made with his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac:
"And [Jacob] came upon a certain place, and tarried there
all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones
of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in
that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder
set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven:
and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on
it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am
the LORD God of Abraham your father, and the God of
Isaac: the land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to
your seed; And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth,
and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east,
and to the north, and to the south: and in you and in your
seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And,
behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places
where you go, and will bring you again into this land; for I
will not leave you, until I have done that which I have
spoken to you of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and
he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it
not."17
God tells Jacob that He will fulfill the covenants He made with his fathers through his descendants. Consequently, the promise of the land of Israel will go through Isaac's son Jacob instead of his other son Esau. God also reaffirms the Messianic promise that He will bless the nations of the earth through Jacob's descendants.
A little while after this experience God again visits Jacob and changes his name:
"And he said unto him, What is your name? And he said,
Jacob. And he said, Your name shall be called no more
Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince have you power with God
and with men, and have prevailed."18
This is the first time in the Bible that the word "Israel" is used. At this point God declares that this is Jacob's new name. Later, it becomes synonymous with the name of the land where Jacob's descendants dwell.
Jacob ends up having thirteen children, twelve sons and one daughter. He names one of his sons "Judah". It is from this word that the appellation "Jew" derives and eventually is applied to all the descendants of Jacob's children.
When Jacob is old a famine sweeps through Israel. He and his family move down to Egypt. At first, they are welcomed but later they become captives and slaves of the Egyptians. This fulfilled the prophecy that God had spoken to Abraham when He made the original covenant with him. God told Abraham that his descendants would become slaves for four hundred years. Then He would bring them back to the land of Israel. He accomplished this deliverance through His servant Moses. It was Moses' successor, Joshua, who led the children of Israel into the "promised land" of Israel.
The Jews dwelt there off and on for the next fifteen hundred years. What happened after that is the subject of the next chapter.
Before leaving this section I want to mention one other aspect to the Jews' right to live in the land of Israel.
Many Christians such as myself fully support the Jews' right to the land of Israel. The fact that some Christian Zionists are excited that the Jews are back in Israel after nineteen hundred years is upsetting to some Jews. This is because they believe that these Christians only care about the fulfillment of end-times prophecy. Though I too, believe the return of the Jews to Israel is a fulfillment of prophecy that is not why I support the Jews' right to the land of Israel. I support them for the simple fact that God gave this land to the Jews. God, the Creator of the universe, can give anything He wants to whomever He wants. He declares in Isaiah, "I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King."19 Therefore, since He created Israel He can give it to whomever He desires. As we have seen, He gave the land of Israel to the Jews forever. That is the sole reason that I believe the land of Israel belongs to the Jews and them alone.
1 Psalm 132:13-18
2 Deuteronomy 11:9-12
3 Deuteronomy 32:8-10
4 Zechariah 2:7-13
5 Jeremiah 31:35-37
6 Genesis 12:1-5
7 Genesis 12:6-7
8 Genesis 13:3-4,14-15
9 Genesis 15:1-5
10 Genesis 15:7-21
11 Genesis 16:1-5
12 Genesis 16:6-11
13 Genesis 17:1-12
14 Genesis 17:15-21
15 Genesis 25:5, 7-8
16 Genesis 25:21-26
17 Genesis 28:11-16
18 Genesis 32:27-28
19 Isaiah 43:15
