Matthew 4:12-17 Acts 5:1-16 Psalms 8 Genesis 21-23

Matthew 4:12-17
Mat 4:12 When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee.
Mat 4:13 He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills.
Mat 4:14 This move completed Isaiah's sermon:
Mat 4:15 Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, road to the sea, over Jordan, Galilee, crossroads for the nations.
Mat 4:16 People sitting out their lives in the dark saw a huge light; Sitting in that dark, dark country of death, they watched the sun come up.
Mat 4:17 This Isaiah-prophesied sermon came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: "Change your life. God's kingdom is here."

Acts 5:1-16
Act 5:1 But a man named Ananias--his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him--sold a piece of land,
Act 5:2 secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it.
Act 5:3 Peter said, "Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field?
Act 5:4 Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn't lie to men but to God."
Act 5:5 Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead. That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it.
Act 5:6 The younger men went right to work and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.
Act 5:7 Not more than three hours later, his wife, knowing nothing of what had happened, came in.
Act 5:8 Peter said, "Tell me, were you given this price for your field?" "Yes," she said, "that price."
Act 5:9 Peter responded, "What's going on here that you connived to conspire against the Spirit of the Master? The men who buried your husband are at the door, and you're next."
Act 5:10 No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she also fell down, dead. When the young men returned they found her body. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Act 5:11 By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with.
Act 5:12 Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon.
Act 5:13 But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them.
Act 5:14 On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, men and women both.
Act 5:15 They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter's shadow when he walked by.
Act 5:16 They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedeviled. And they all were healed.

Psalms 8
Psa 8:1 A David psalm. GOD, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
Psa 8:2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.
Psa 8:3 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Psa 8:4 Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?
Psa 8:5 Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden's dawn light.
Psa 8:6 You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Psa 8:7 Made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild,
Psa 8:8 Birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.
Psa 8:9 GOD, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.

Genesis 21-23
Gen 21:1 GOD visited Sarah exactly as he said he would; GOD did to Sarah what he promised:
Gen 21:2 Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, and at the very time God had set.
Gen 21:3 Abraham named him Isaac.
Gen 21:4 When his son was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded.
Gen 21:5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.
Gen 21:6 Sarah said, God has blessed me with laughter and all who get the news will laugh with me!
Gen 21:7 She also said, Whoever would have suggested to Abraham that Sarah would one day nurse a baby! Yet here I am! I've given the old man a son!
Gen 21:8 The baby grew and was weaned. Abraham threw a big party on the day Isaac was weaned.
Gen 21:9 One day Sarah saw the son that Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, poking fun at her son Isaac.
Gen 21:10 She told Abraham, "Get rid of this slave woman and her son. No child of this slave is going to share inheritance with my son Isaac!"
Gen 21:11 The matter gave great pain to Abraham--after all, Ishmael was his son.
Gen 21:12 But God spoke to Abraham, "Don't feel badly about the boy and your maid. Do whatever Sarah tells you. Your descendants will come through Isaac.
Gen 21:13 Regarding your maid's son, be assured that I'll also develop a great nation from him--he's your son too."
Gen 21:14 Abraham got up early the next morning, got some food together and a canteen of water for Hagar, put them on her back and sent her away with the child. She wandered off into the desert of Beersheba.
Gen 21:15 When the water was gone, she left the child under a shrub
Gen 21:16 and went off, fifty yards or so. She said, "I can't watch my son die." As she sat, she broke into sobs.
Gen 21:17 Meanwhile, God heard the boy crying. The angel of God called from Heaven to Hagar, "What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy and knows the fix he's in.
Gen 21:18 Up now; go get the boy. Hold him tight. I'm going to make of him a great nation."
Gen 21:19 Just then God opened her eyes. She looked. She saw a well of water. She went to it and filled her canteen and gave the boy a long, cool drink.
Gen 21:20 God was on the boy's side as he grew up. He lived out in the desert and became a skilled archer.
Gen 21:21 He lived in the Paran wilderness. And his mother got him a wife from Egypt.
Gen 21:22 At about that same time, Abimelech and the captain of his troops, Phicol, spoke to Abraham: "No matter what you do, God is on your side.
Gen 21:23 So swear to me that you won't do anything underhanded to me or any of my family. For as long as you live here, swear that you'll treat me and my land as well as I've treated you."
Gen 21:24 Abraham said, "I swear it."
Gen 21:25 At the same time, Abraham confronted Abimelech over the matter of a well of water that Abimelech's servants had taken.
Gen 21:26 Abimelech said, "I have no idea who did this; you never told me about it; this is the first I've heard of it."
Gen 21:27 So the two of them made a covenant. Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech.
Gen 21:28 Abraham set aside seven sheep from his flock.
Gen 21:29 Abimelech said, "What does this mean? These seven sheep you've set aside."
Gen 21:30 Abraham said, "It means that when you accept these seven sheep, you take it as proof that I dug this well, that it's my well."
Gen 21:31 That's how the place got named Beersheba (the Oath-Well), because the two of them swore a covenant oath there.
Gen 21:32 After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and his commander, Phicol, left and went back to Philistine territory.
Gen 21:33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped GOD there, praying to the Eternal God.
Gen 21:34 Abraham lived in Philistine country for a long time.
Gen 22:1 After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, "Abraham!" "Yes?" answered Abraham. "I'm listening."
Gen 22:2 He said, "Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll point out to you."
Gen 22:3 Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him.
Gen 22:4 On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Gen 22:5 Abraham told his two young servants, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we'll come back to you."
Gen 22:6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together.
Gen 22:7 Isaac said to Abraham his father, "Father?" "Yes, my son." "We have flint and wood, but where's the sheep for the burnt offering?"
Gen 22:8 Abraham said, "Son, God will see to it that there's a sheep for the burnt offering." And they kept on walking together.
Gen 22:9 They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood.
Gen 22:10 Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.
Gen 22:11 Just then an angel of GOD called to him out of Heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Yes, I'm listening."
Gen 22:12 "Don't lay a hand on that boy! Don't touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn't hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me."
Gen 22:13 Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Gen 22:14 Abraham named that place GOD-Yireh (GOD-Sees-to-It). That's where we get the saying, "On the mountain of GOD, he sees to it."
Gen 22:15 The angel of GOD spoke from Heaven a second time to Abraham:
Gen 22:16 "I swear--GOD's sure word!--because you have gone through with this, and have not refused to give me your son, your dear, dear son,
Gen 22:17 I'll bless you--oh, how I'll bless you! And I'll make sure that your children flourish--like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches! And your descendants will defeat their enemies.
Gen 22:18 All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me."
Gen 22:19 Then Abraham went back to his young servants. They got things together and returned to Beersheba. Abraham settled down in Beersheba.
Gen 22:20 After all this, Abraham got the news: "Your brother Nahor is a father! Milcah has given him children:
Gen 22:21 Uz, his firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (he was the father of Aram),
Gen 22:22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel."
Gen 22:23 (Bethuel was the father of Rebekah.) Milcah gave these eight sons to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
Gen 22:24 His concubine, Reumah, gave him four more children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
Gen 23:1 Sarah lived 127 years.
Gen 23:2 Sarah died in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Abraham mourned for Sarah and wept.
Gen 23:3 Then Abraham got up from mourning his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites:
Gen 23:4 "I know I'm only an outsider here among you, but sell me a burial plot so that I can bury my dead decently."
Gen 23:5 The Hittites responded,
Gen 23:6 "Why, you're no mere outsider here with us, you're a prince of God! Bury your dead wife in the best of our burial sites. None of us will refuse you a place for burial."
Gen 23:7 Then Abraham got up, bowed respectfully to the people of the land, the Hittites,
Gen 23:8 and said, "If you're serious about helping me give my wife a proper burial, intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar.
Gen 23:9 Ask him to sell me the cave of Machpelah that he owns, the one at the end of his land. Ask him to sell it to me at its full price for a burial plot, with you as witnesses."
Gen 23:10 Ephron was part of the local Hittite community. Then Ephron the Hittite spoke up, answering Abraham with all the Hittites who were part of the town council listening:
Gen 23:11 "Oh no, my master! I couldn't do that. The field is yours--a gift. I'll give it and the cave to you. With my people as witnesses, I give it to you. Bury your deceased wife."
Gen 23:12 Abraham bowed respectfully before the assembled council
Gen 23:13 and answered Ephron: "Please allow me--I want to pay the price of the land; take my money so that I can go ahead and bury my wife."
Gen 23:14 Then Ephron answered Abraham,
Gen 23:15 "If you insist, master. What's four hundred silver shekels between us? Now go ahead and bury your wife."
Gen 23:16 Abraham accepted Ephron's offer and paid out the sum that Ephron had named before the town council of Hittites--four hundred silver shekels at the current exchange rate.
Gen 23:17 That's how Ephron's field next to Mamre--the field, its cave, and all the trees within its borders--
Gen 23:18 became Abraham's property. The town council of Hittites witnessed the transaction.
Gen 23:19 Abraham then proceeded to bury his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah that is next to Mamre, present-day Hebron, in the land of Canaan.
Gen 23:20 The field and its cave went from the Hittites into Abraham's possession as a burial plot.