Faith of AbrahamFinding a wife for IsaacStairway to Heaven Joseph

“Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, and so she said to Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Why don’t you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me.’ Abram agreed with what Sarai said. So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.) Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she found out that she was pregnant, she became proud and despised Sarai.” (Genesis 16:1-4 GNB)

“Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘It’s your fault that Hagar despises me. I myself gave her to you, and ever since she found out that she was pregnant, she has despised me. May the LORD judge which of us is right, you or me!’ Abram answered, ‘Very well, she is your slave and under your control; do whatever you want with her.’ Then Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly that she ran away. The angel of the LORD met Hagar at a spring in the desert…” (Genesis 16:5-8 GNB)

“Hagar asked herself, ‘Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?’ So she called the LORD, who had spoken to her, ‘A God Who Sees.’” (Genesis 16:13 GNB)

“But Sarah saw Ishmael—the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar—making fun of her son, Isaac. So she turned to Abraham and demanded, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won't have it!’ This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son.” (Genesis 21:9-11 NLT)

“Early the next morning Abraham took bread and a container of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder. He also gave her the boy and sent her on her way. So she left and wandered around in the desert near Beersheba. When the water in the container was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went about as far away as an arrow can be shot and sat down. She said to herself, ‘I don’t want to watch the boy die.’” So she sat down and sobbed loudly. (Genesis 21:14-16 GW)

“But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, ‘Hagar, what's wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.’” (Genesis 21:17-18 NLT)

“Abraham married another woman, whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. (Genesis 25:1-2 – GN)

“Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac; but while he was still alive, he gave presents to the sons his other wives had borne him. Then he sent these sons to the land of the East, away from his son Isaac.” (Genesis 25:5-6 – GN)

Isaac and Rebecca “Isaac preferred Esau, because he

enjoyed eating the animals Esau killed, but Rebecca preferred Jacob.” (Genesis 25:28 – GN)

Jacob (Heal grabber, to deceive)Esau married 2 Hittite women

“They made life miserable for Isaac and Rebecca” (Genesis 26:35 – GN)

“They are always ready to tell lies; dishonesty instead of truth rules the land. The LORD says, ‘My people do one evil thing after another and do not acknowledge me as their God.’ Everyone must be on guard against their friends, and no one can trust their relatives; for all relatives are as deceitful as Jacob, and everyone slanders their friends.’” (Jeremiah 9:3-4 GNB)

“He dreamed that he saw a stairway reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and coming down on it. And there was the LORD standing beside him. ‘I am the LORD, the God of Abraham and Isaac,’ he said. ‘I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying.’” (Genesis 28:12-13 GNB)

“Then Jacob made a vow to the LORD: ‘If you will be with me and protect me on the journey I am making and give me food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then you will be my God.’” (Genesis 28:20-23 – GN)

“Not until the next morning did Jacob discover that it was Leah.” (Genesis 29:25 – GN)

“Jacob had intercourse with Rachel also, and he loved her more than Leah.” (Genesis 29:30 – GN)

“Jacob deceived Laban by not letting him know that he was leaving.” (Genesis 31:20 – GN)

“Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in a camel’s saddlebag and was sitting on them. Laban searched through the whole tent, but did not find them. Rachel said to her father, ‘Do not be angry with me, sir, but I am not able to stand up in your presence; I am having my monthly period.’ Laban searched but did not find his household gods.” (Genesis 31:34,35 – GN)

“Then Jacob prayed, ‘God of my grandfather Abraham and God of my father Isaac, hear me! You told me, LORD, to go back to my land and to my relatives, and you would make everything go well for me. I am not worth all the kindness and faithfulness that you have shown me, your servant. I crossed the Jordan with nothing but a walking stick, and now I have come back with these two groups.” (Genesis 32:9-10 GNB)

“Then a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak. When the man saw that he was not winning the struggle, he hit Jacob on the hip, and it was thrown out of joint. The man said, ‘Let me go; daylight is coming.’ ‘I won’t, unless you bless me,’ Jacob answered. ‘What is your name?’ the man asked. ‘Jacob,’ he answered.” (Genesis 32:24-27 GNB)

“The man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel.’ Jacob said, ‘Now tell me your name.’ But he answered, ‘Why do you want to know my name?’ Then he blessed Jacob. Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face-to-face, and I am still alive’” (Genesis 32:28-30 GNB)

“We cannot let our sister marry a man who is not circumcised; that would be a disgrace for us. We can agree only on the condition that you become like us by circumcising all your males.” (Genesis 34:14,15 – GN)

“Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men…” (Genesis 34:25 – GN)

“Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ‘You have gotten me into trouble; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I do not have many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed.’” (Genesis 34:30 GNB)

“God said to Jacob, ‘Go to Bethel at once, and live there. Build an altar there to me, the God who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau.’” (Genesis 35:1 GNB)

“While Jacob was living in that land, Reuben had sexual intercourse with Bilhah, one of his father’s concubines; Jacob heard about it and was furious.” (Genesis 35:22 - GN)

“Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.” (Genesis 37:3 – NLT)

“When Joseph came up to his brothers, they ripped off his long robe with full sleeves. Then they took him and threw him into the well, which was dry. While they were eating, they suddenly saw a group of Ishmaelites traveling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels were loaded with spices and resins. Judah said to his brothers, ‘What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up the murder? Let's sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we won't have to hurt him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.’ His brothers agreed…” (Genesis 37:23-27 GNB)

Judah marries a Canaanite woman “When Judah saw her, he thought that

she was a prostitute, because she had her face covered. He went over to her at the side of the road and said, ‘All right, how much do you charge?’ (He did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.)” (Genesis 38:15,16 – GN)

“About three months later someone told Judah, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been acting like a whore, and now she is pregnant.’ Judah ordered, ‘Take her out and burn her to death.’” (Genesis 38:24,25 – GN)

“He sent his brothers off and as they left, he said to them, ‘Don’t quarrel on the way.’” (Genesis 45:24 – GN)

“After the death of their father, Joseph’s brothers said, ‘What if Joseph still hates us and plans to pay us back for all the harm we did to him?’ So they sent a message to Joseph: ‘Before our father died, he told us to ask you, 'Please forgive the crime your brothers committed when they wronged you.' Now please forgive us the wrong that we, the servants of your father's God, have done."

Joseph cried when he received this message. Then his brothers themselves came and bowed down before him. ‘Here we are before you as your slaves,’ they said. But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid; I can’t put myself in the place of God. You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.” (Genesis 50:15-20 GNB)

“This is the list of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, who was a descendant of Abraham. From Abraham to King David, the following ancestors are listed: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers; then Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, and King David.” (Matthew 1:1-2 – GN)

“From David to the time when the people of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon, the following ancestors are listed: David, Solomon (his mother was the woman who had been Uriah's wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.” (Matthew 1:7 – GN)

“And I was told that the number of those who were marked with God’s seal on their foreheads was 144,000. They were from the twelve tribes of Israel, twelve thousand from each tribe: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.” (Revelation 7:4-5 – GN)

“The most wonderful thing in this world is not the good that we accomplish, but the fact that good can come out of the evil we do. I have been struck, for example, by the numbers of people who have been brought back to God under the influence of a person to whom they had some imperfect attachment.... Our vocation is, I believe, to build good out of evil. For if we try to build good out of good, we are in danger of running out of raw materials.” Paul Tournier, in a Person Reborn, 80-81

“That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” (Romans 8:28 MSG)*

“Wherever they went, they gave me a bad name. People said, ‘These are GOD’s people, but they got kicked off his land.’ I suffered much pain over my holy reputation, which the people of Israel blackened in every country they entered. ‘Therefore, tell Israel…I’m not doing this for you, Israel. I’m doing it for me, to save my character, my holy name, which you've blackened in every country where you’ve gone. I’m going to put my great and holy name on display, the name that has been ruined in so many countries, the name that you blackened wherever you went. (Ezekiel 36:20-23 MSG)

“The people of Israel are as stubborn as mules. How can I feed them like lambs in a meadow?” (Hosea 4:16 – GN)