Abraham Passes the Test (GN22)

Sometimes God asks us to do hard things. God asked Abraham to do a very hard thing.

"Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son, Isaac, to me on a mountain that I will show you." God said.

Wow! God will never ask us to hurt anyone. He may ask us to give up a favorite toy or do things that we don'y want to do, but He won't ask us to hurt anyone... ever.

The next morning, Abraham took his son, Isaac and a few servants and headed toward the mountain.

Remember how long Abraham waited for a son? 100 years! He must have been brokenhearted as they walked up the mountain. But Abraham trusted God. He trusted that God would keep His promise. Remember that God promised Abraham that he would have lots and lots of grandkids and great grandkids and great, great grandkids. (more than the stars in the sky) Abraham didn't know what God had planned, but he knew that he should obey God.

About halfway up the mountain, Abraham told his servants to stay there until he and Isaac came back. A little farther up the , Isaac asked Abraham, "We have the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"

"God will provide a lamb for the sacrifice." Abraham answered. He kept remembering God's promise.

When they got to the top of the mountain, Abraham tied Isaac to the alter and raised a knife above him. "Stop! Do not harm the boy!" a voice said. It was God. "Now I know that you trust me and believe me." God said. "I will bless you!"

Just then Abraham saw a ram caught in a thorn bush. God had provided a sacrifice! Abraham named that place: God Will Provide.

God wants us to realize how hard it must have been for Abraham to sacrifice his son so that we can appreciate how hard it was for God to sacrifice His son, Jesus for us.

God provided the ram in the thorn bush to save Isaac. Jesus is the lamb (with a crown of thorns) to save us! God has PROVIDED!

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed! (Gn 19)

"I am Going to send fire down from the sky and destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah!" God told Abraham.

"Please, God." Abraham pleaded . " My nephew Lot is a good man. He and his family are living in Sodom. I ask you to spare the city."

"There is just too much evil there. I cannot spare the city. But I will save Lot and his family." God answered.

The next evening, God sent a couple of angels to the city of Sodom. They found Lot sitting at the gate of the city. Lot saw the men/angels and knew they were special. "Come home with me for the night. I will give you a hot meal and a bed." Lot said. At first the men said no, but Lot insisted and they agreed.

"You have to get you family together and leave this evil city." One of the angels told Lot after they had gone back to Lot's house. Lot's wife and his two daughters were there and heard as the angel continued. " Sodom is an evil city and is has been marked for destruction by God himself. If you have any other family members, like sons or son-in-laws..... let them know!"

Lot's wife said, " Be careful and hurry back." as Lot ran off to tell his sons-in-law about what God had in store for the city of Sodom. When Lot returned home he told his wife and daughters that he couldn't convince the sons-in-laws to leave Sodom because they thought he was joking.

One of the angels shouted, "OK, well it's time to get going!" But Lot and his wife started to look around at everything they had. Lot was rich and they would be leaving a lot of stuff behind.

" I can't believe it! You guys are worried about what you are leaving behind! If we don't leave right now...." The angel said as they grabbed Lot and his wife by the arm."... you will be burned up with all your stuff! Just start running toward the mountains and whatever you do, don't stop and don't look back!" The angels had to pull Lot and his family out of the house.

"There is a small city named Zoar." Lot told the angels. " The mountains are quite far and it would be hard to live there. Can't we just go as far as Zoar and stop there?"

"OK." said the angel, " Zoar will be spared and you can start a new life there. But get there quickly, because as soon as you get to Zoar, fire will fall from the sky and destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah!"

Lot, his wife and two daughters ran a fast as they could, remembering not to stop and not to look back. As soon as they reached the city gates of Zoar, Lot and his family could see the sky brightening and they knew that fire was falling from the sky behind them. Lot and his two daughters continued to head into the city and not look back, but Lot's wife stopped and looked behind her. and she became a pillar of salt!

Abraham got up early the next morning and stood on top of a hill. He looked down toward Sodom and saw very thick smoke coming from where the city once was. He knew that his nephew was safe, because God promised to spare him and God always keeps his promises.

Wow! What a story! We can learn a few things from Abraham, Lot and Lot's wife.

1. Abraham was asking God to spare his nephew's life. We can talk to God! Isn't that amazing that we can talk to the same God that Abraham talked to. The same God that created the earth!

It's called PRAYER. When we are praying, we are talking to God. When we are talking to God, we are praying. We can pray for other people. God wants us to pray for others.

2. Lot's son-in-laws didn't believe Lot. Why? Probably because Lot had not told the truth all the time. We have to be careful not to lie. Because then people won't believe us when we tell them the truth.

3. Lot and his wife almost didn't get out in time because they were looking at everything that they were leaving behind. Because we are in God's family now, we can't live the same way that we did before.

4. Lot's wife looked back and she became salt. She looked back with her eyes and her heart. This word looked means "longed for". She wanted what she left behind. If we keep looking back at what we can't do or can't have now that we are Christians... we will miss what God want for us and what purpose He has for our lives.

TRY THIS: Put a penny on the floor at the base of a wall. Now you to the opposite side of the room. Start walking toward the penny, but look at something on the wall behind you. ( a picture of a clock etc...) Now try to pick up the penny while you are still looking backwards. How did you do?

Abram becomes Abraham

Remember last time... God told Abraham to look at the stars. God promised that Abraham would have more descendants than the stars. Beginning with a son. Well... twenty years later God reminds Abraham of that promise. Imagine waiting twenty years! But this time God told Abraham that it would happen in a year. I'm sure Abraham felt much better, but he laughed because he was now 99 years old. "You mean I will have a son when I am 100 years old?" asked Abraham.

"Yes!" said God, "and from now on your name will not be Abram... it will be Abraham." The first 99 years of his life.... Abraham's real name was Abram. (Which means honored father) Now God changed it to Abraham (which means father of many).

Later that day, Abraham was Looking out his tent and he saw 3 men walking along. He ran out to them and offered them dinner. When they said yes, Abraham ran back and asked Sarah (his wife) to throw together something good to eat for their 3 guests. Abraham brought them out some food and ate with them under a tree.

"Where is your wife Sarah?" One of the men asked.

"She's in our tent." Abraham replied.

"We will be back at this time next year, and by the time we return, Sarah will have had a son."

Sarah was listening to the men from the inside of her tent. She laughed when the men said that she will have a son. The men heard her and told her that she shouldn't laugh because nothing is too hard for God. They were right. Sarah had a son the next year. Abraham and Sarah named him Isaac, just as God told them to.( Isaac means, laughs)

Sometime we have to wait . It is hard to wait. It seems like the more we want something.... the longer the wait. Have you ever counted down the days till Christmas? It seems like forever! When God makes a promise, He always keeps it.... but sometimes it is not right away... and we have to wait.

Before the men left that day, they were wondering wether or not to tell Abraham some disturbing news. They decided to tell him.

"The city where your nephew Lot is living will be destroyed because it is too wicked.

After the men left, Abraham prayed. " God please spare the city because not everyone in that city is evil."

God said that if there were 10 good men in the city, He would not destroy it. But there were not even ten good men.

The name of the city was Sodom and next week we will see if Lot and his family get out of the city before it is destroyed

Abraham believes God

After God confused the language of the men building the Tower of Babel, the people moved to different lands. Hundreds of years later, God talked to a man named Abram. (God changed his name to Abraham .. we'll find out why later)
So God told Abraham to gather up his family and all his belongings and go. He didn't tell Abraham where he was going, He just said to head east. So right away, Abraham took his wife, his nephew Lot, his servants (Abraham was pretty rich) and all his stuff. Wow! Abraham really obeyed God! It was probably pretty hard leaving the place where his father had made a home for them. Abraham was 75 years old when he left his home. He followed God for hundreds of miles to a place called Canaan. When they arrived, God told Abraham, "See all this land, I will give it to you and your children and their children." But Abraham didn't have any children. But he didn't question God, instead he built an alter to thank God for all the blessing in his life.

Abraham couldn't stay in the land however. It hadn't rained for a while and it was hard to find food. So Abraham took his family and all his belongings to a place a couple of hundred miles away along the Nile river where there was plenty of food. When food became a little easier to find back in Canaan, Abraham took his family again and headed back toward the land that God has promised.

So let's see. God tells Abraham to leave is comfortable home and travel for months to a place where there is no food. So Abraham has to travel for a few more months to a place where there is food.... then he has to travel for a few more months back to the place that God promised to Abraham's kids... and he doesn't even have any kid's. On top of that, Abraham is about 80 years old! If I was Abraham, I'd be thinking " God... are you sure?"

We are so blessed that we get to see the whole story in the Bible. We know that God ALWAYS knows what He's doing. He ALWAYS keeps His promises and He's ALWAYS good and he ALWAYS will be good.

Ok back to the story. Remember that Abraham took his nephew Lot along with him. Abraham took him along because Lot's father, Haran, had died and Abraham had taken care of Lot as he was growing up. Well Lot was a man now, and as Lot and Abraham headed back to the promised land, they realized that they had to go their separate ways. It was too hard to travel together since both men were very rich and had a many cattle and sheep. Abraham gave Lot a choice and Lot decided to go toward the best looking land, so Abraham headed in the other direction.

Sometimes the best looking things are not really the best. That's why we should pray about our choices. We see the outside but God sees the whole picture. He knows best. As it turned out, the land that Lot chose was full of a lot of evil men. Also there was a war going on there and Lot was taken prisoner. Abraham was living peacefully with his wife Sarah when he heard about what happened to Lot. Abraham got 318 of his men together and they rescued Lot and all the other people that were taken prisoner. Abraham gave God all the credit and the king praised God. We should always give God the credit. That's called glorifying God and then other people may realize what great things that God does and give Him the credit too.

So Abraham went back home. He was living just outside of the land that God promised. There were people living in the land at the time. Finally Abraham asked God. "Remember when you said that this land would be my children's and their children's? Were you saying that I am going to have children? Or did you mean my servant's children?"

God answered Abraham by taking him outside. "Look up at the stars Abraham." God said. " If you could count every star, it still would not be as many as your own descendants." Abraham believed God and because he believed, Abraham was now in God's family.

We can learn a lot about trusting God, following God and believing God from Abraham. The Bible is God's word. First we have to trust what He says in His word. Second we have to do what He says in His word. That's what following is all about. Finally God want's us to believe that he sent His son Jesus to die for our sins so that we can spend eternity in heaven with Him. When we believe Him, we become part of God's family... just like Abraham.

Next time we will find out how long Abraham had to wait for a son and why God changed his name from Abram to Abraham.

The Tower of Babel (Gn11)

This is a story about putting ourselves before God. When we do that, we are prideful. Pride is the root of a lot of bad things. We will se a couple of them in this story.

After Noah and his family finally came out of the ark. (Remember the flood?) Noah built an alter to God. Noah thanked God and worshipped Him. Then God told Noah to "be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth." So what does that mean? God wanted Noah to have a great big family, so that his children would have great big families. Then God wanted them to move into all different parts of the world. The world is a big place and God wanted everyone to spread out and not stay in one place. We have to remember what God told Noah, because it is important in the tower of Babel story.

A few hundred years after the flood, there were a lot of people on the earth again. Noah had obeyed God and had a lot of children and they had a lot too. Many moved east to the other side of the river (not too far away) and found some nice flat land. Flat land was great for building. The people said "Come let us build a city with a giant tower that reaches all the way up to heaven. We will make a name for ourselves here and we won't end up being scattered around the world." (Gn11:4) God was looking down and knew what the people were planning. He knew that they were not building a tower for Him, but for themselves. God also knew that if they built the tower, the people would not fill the earth (spread out through the whole earth) like he told Noah, because they would stay near the tower.

God had a plan. His plan is funny if you think about it. God confused their language so that they couldn't understand each other!(vs.7) Imagine trying to build something and you can't understand your boss or the other workers. If one of the other workers asks you to pass a medium sized brick, but to you it sounds like blah blah blah blah blah, you wouldn't know what to do. Construction on the Tower of Babel had to stop because no one could understand each other. Babel means confused. They were confused all right! Did you ever hear anyone babbling about something. Not making any sense. I have.

So God scattered the people throughout the earth.(vs8) They didn't obey God, so He had to do something to make His plan work. I think God was pretty easy on these guys. He didn't hurt them. They deserved a lot worse. When God doesn't give us what we deserve, it's called mercy. God had mercy on the people building the tower. Has God ever had mercy on you?

Sometimes we put things before God. Things like our toys or games, our friends, or our allowance. Imagine if all of a sudden you spoke a different language than everyone else. You could't play games with your friends, or you could't understand your teachers or your parents. God may not confuse us like he did to the people in this story, but He does try to get our attention in different ways if we are too prideful or disobedient. Have you ever lost a favorite toy. Maybe it was more important than God. God says that if we put him first, He'll make sure about everything else that we need. (Mt6:31)

God gave us talents, when we draw a beautiful picture, write a wonderful story of play terrific music, we have to be careful not to be prideful about what we have done, but instead about what God has done through us. That is called glorifying God. He likes that. (Ps86:12)

Noah is saved.... and God's promise Gn 8&9

In the last few weeks, we got to know a little about Noah. Noah and his family were the only people on earth that knew God and loved God. When God told Noah to build a huge boat and gather all the animals inside, he obeyed. When the flood lasted a long time and then Noah and his family had to wait for God to let them out of the boat, we saw that Noah was patient.Here is a coloring page for you. Thanks to RaisingOurKids.com

We can be like Noah if we love God, obey God and wait for God. There is one more important thing that we can learn from Noah.... and that is to believe God. The Bible says that Noah was

righteous because he believed God. What does that mean? It means that Noah was going to heaven when he died. We will see Noah in heaven some day. Won't that be so cool! We could ask him about the flood and all the animals. What would you ask Noah? God didn't say that Noah was going to heaven because he built the ark. God didn't say that Noah was going to heaven because he was patient. God said that Noah was going to heaven because he believed Him.

A few weeks ago, we talked about believing God. We believe that Jesus is His son. That He died for our sins and that we would follow Him. We believed God and that's why we are going to heaven some day. If God said all we have to do is run around the block to get to heaven... some people can't walk. If God said it would only cost a penny to get to heaven... some people don't even have a penny. God wants everyone to know him and be in heaven with Him. Believing is something that everyone can do and Jesus made it possible.

After Noah and his family finally got off the ark, Noah wanted to thank God for saving him and his family, so Noah built an alter to God and prayed to Him. We should thank God for sending Jesus to save us. God was pleased with Noah. He blessed Noah and his family and He promised Noah that he would never again flood the earth. Do you remember what God put in the sky as a sign to Noah about this promise? Right.... a rainbow! Have you ever seen a rainbow. Aren't they wonderful?!

The Flood

Last time we saw how Noah obeyed God by building an Ark. (a really big boat) Did you know that God gave Noah exact instructions about building the ark? He told him what kind of wood to use, how big to make it, where to put the windows and how to make it waterproof. Did your dad ever have to follow the instructions to put something together? Like a bicycle or a swing set? If he followed the instructions, it made putting it together a lot easier. God gives us instructions for our life. It's called the BIBLE! Because He wants our lives to be blessed.

This week we find that Noah has finished building the ark. (It only took him 100 years!) Do you think Noah ever thought it would never be finished? The Bible says that after he finished building the ark, Noah took his whole family into the ark and then God sent the animals in two by two. (Gn 7:6-9)

God shut Noah and his family in the boat with the animals. They were waiting for the rain to start. First day, no rain. Second day, no rain. Third day no rain! Do you think Noah was wondering if he heard God right? Finally on the seventh day it began to rain. (Gn 7:10)

It rained for forty days! When the rain finally stopped, the water was 20 feet above the highest mountain! Have you ever seen a mountain? Imagine a flood higher than that! The water didn't go down right away either. It took 5 months for the water to go down enough to see the tops of the mountains. Do you think that God could have flooded the earth in one day and dried it up the next? He sure could have. Remember we learned that God created the water in one day, then the land the next. Nothing is impossible with God.. (Lk 1:37)

Finally the ark came to rest at the top of a mountain called Mount Arafat. Noah, his family and all the animals stayed in the boat for three more months as the water kept going down. (so far they have been in the boat for over nine months, thats more than one full school year.)

After another forty days, Noah let a dove go. The dove flew away and then came back. Noah was hoping it would bring some kind of proof that the land was drying up, but the dove had nothing in its beak. The next week Noah sent it out again. This time the dove brought back an olive branch. I bet Noah and his family were celebrating! They knew that they would soon be stepping on solid ground. Noah knew that he had to wait for God to say that it was OK. So they waited and waited and waited. Finally 2 months later, God said it was OK for them to come out. God opened the hatch and Noah and his family and all the animals came out. I bet they were so happy to see the ground!

Noah and His family were in that boat for more than a year. They showed patience over and over again. They waited seven days for the rain to begin. They waited for the rain to stop. They waited for the ground to dry and then they waited for God's OK to come out.

The Bible tells us that we should wait for God. (Is 30:18) Why? Because God sees all things. He knows what will happen in the future. So by waiting for Him, we are showing that we trust Him. Being patient is not easy. We always want everything right away.

I remember one time, my mom had baked a cake. She took it out of the oven and put it on top of the stove to cool. I started to take a piece and my mom said to wait. When she left the room, I hurried up and took a piece and shoved it quickly into my mouth before she came back. It was so hot! I burned my mouth. I was screaming and crying. My mom came in. " Couldn't you even wait for it to cool down?" She was just trying to protect me. She knows what is best for me. I couldn't eat anything for two days, my mouth was so sore. By that time, the cake was all gone.

God tells us in the Bible to be patient. (Jas 5:7) He knows what is best for us.