Day 6, Genesis 18-20

Sorry for the late post, today did not go as planned. It started off really well. My husband brought me a cup of coffee, I crawled out of bed, and sat down to read today’s passages. I finished the reading, making notes and highlighting the parts that stood out. It was nice, I was finally understanding things!

Before I could really delve into the reading like I’ve been doing through journaling in these posts, I noticed my sugar glider Joey was not acting like himself. He was awake (he is nocturnal so this was out of the ordinary), and just sitting there staring off like his eyes weren’t focusing. His breathing was very heavy and fast, and every breath shook his whole body. I held him trying to comfort him because something was obviously wrong. I was able to feel his little heart beating what seemed to be like a mile a minute. He was very lethargic and barely moving at all with no strength to hold himself up. He crawled into one of his cozy little beds, and oddly was laying on his back. His legs looked as though they were cramping up. I called around for a small animal vet clinic and found one up in Stockton. I put Joey in his pouch for the last time and nuzzled him into my chest for the drive.

The vet took him in right away and put him on oxygen. Best guess in his old age, was he was having heart failure, had pneumonia, or cancer. They wanted to keep him overnight on oxygen and could do x-rays and blood work to try to find out what was going on. Getting close to the end of his lifespan, we chose not to spend the almost $2,000 to do that. I wrapped him in his favorite blankie, we said our goodbyes, and we left. After ten years of having our baby, the vet put him to sleep today.

Now we’re home, and in between twinges of sadness, I’m trying to focus on my Bible study and stay busy. My husband is lingering over me, not sure what he can do for me at this point. This has been a bad year for us and our babies. We put our dog of nine years down in the spring; and now Joey here in the fall. It is all just very sad. We have a very somber home today.

Today’s reading went really well. Three men came to visit Abraham, the Lord and apparently two others. Who were the other two? I enjoyed how loyal Abraham was to the Lord and wanted to honor him.

“O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on–since you have come to your servant.”

-Genesis 18:3-5

He had his wife Sarah make cakes and he took a calf from the herd. Talk about having an important house guest!

The Lord said how next time he would see them, Sarah will have given birth to a son. She laughed at him, and the Lord did not appreciate that.

“The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

-Genesis 18:12-15

There is finally some clarification as to why Abraham was chosen. I have been wondering that this whole time.

“For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

-Genesis 18:19

God was upset with the city Sodom and all its sin. He was going to check it out for Himself and basically wipe it out. Abraham stood before the Lord, trying to convince him to have mercy on them.

“Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous and the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?”

-Genesis 18:23-25

God rescues Lot, his wife, and daughters before destroying Sodom.

“Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven….But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

-Genesis 19:24, 25

Then, things start to get weird. Lot and his daughters are left alone up in the hills. The daughters, seeing there are no men around and wanting to preserve their offspring, get their dad drunk so they can, ummm, “have their way.” Both daughters became pregnant by their father.

The story switches back to Abraham and he again is telling people how Sarah is his sister. Except this time, God came to the other man in a dream.

“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”

-Genesis 20:3

This guy is all, “But I didn’t know, he said she was his sister! This is not my fault.”

“Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live.”

-Genesis 20:6-7

Abimelech asks Abraham why he lied and did that to him, in which Abraham basically said, “You people have no fear in God, and I figured you’d kill me because of my wife.” Then, it come out that Sarah is indeed his sister after all!

“Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.”

-Genesis 20:12-13

I wonder if this is a literal, or a metaphorical idea in the sense of, “We’re all God’s children” type of thing? Whatever it was, it all ended up resulting in Sarah being healed and now able to bear children.