Daily Bible Reading

Day 23

Today's reading: Genesis 19-20

Look for the promises in God’s word. As you read and find them, write them in your journal along with the scripture reference.

Genesis 19

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

1. The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.
2. He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.”
3. But he urged them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate.
4. Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house.
5. They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”
6. Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him.
7. He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly!
8. Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9. “Out of our way!” they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! We’ll do more harm to you than to them!” They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door.
10. So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door.
11. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness. The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door.
12. Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? Get them out of this place
13. because we are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14. Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them.
15. At dawn the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!”
16. When Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. They led them away and placed them outside the city.
17. When they had brought them outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”
18. But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord!
19. Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die.
20. Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.”
21. “Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned.
22. Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)
23. The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar.
24. Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord.
25. So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground.
26. But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt.
27. Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.
28. He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace.
29. So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.
30. Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
31. Later the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby to have sexual relations with us, according to the way of all the world.
32. Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine so we can have sexual relations with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
33. So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.
34. So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, “Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.”
35. So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.
36. In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
37. The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today.
38. The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

Genesis 20

Abraham and Abimelech

1. Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident in Gerar,
2. Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.
3. But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.”
4. Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, would you really slaughter an innocent nation?
5. Did Abraham not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience and with innocent hands!”
6. Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. That is why I have kept you from sinning against me and why I did not allow you to touch her.
7. But now give back the man’s wife. Indeed he is a prophet and he will pray for you; thus you will live. But if you don’t give her back, know that you will surely die along with all who belong to you.”
8. Early in the morning Abimelech summoned all his servants. When he told them about all these things, they were terrified.
9. Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done!”
10. Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What prompted you to do this thing?”
11. Abraham replied, “Because I thought, ‘Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’
12. What’s more, she is indeed my sister, my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s daughter. She became my wife.
13. When God made me wander from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”
14. So Abimelech gave sheep, cattle, and male and female servants to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.
15. Then Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you; live wherever you please.”
16. To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your ‘brother.’ This is compensation for you so that you will stand vindicated before all who are with you.”
17. Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children.
18. For the Lord had caused infertility to strike every woman in the household of Abimelech because he took Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

{Genesis 17-18}   {Daily Reading Guide}   {Genesis 21-22}