Memory Text: Genesis 18:14 KJV Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Genesis 18:14 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Where human wisdom and strength fail, and where nature, enfeebled, lacks ability to act, there God still has full sway and brings things to pass according to the counsels of His own divine will. In fact, He often permits circumstances to reach an impasse so that human impotence may stand forth in striking contrast to His omnipotence.

Sunday, November 16 Hagar and Ishmael
Genesis 16 NLT “1 ¶ Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The LORD has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) 4 ¶ So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The LORD will show who’s wrong––you or me!” 6 Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away. 7 ¶ The angel of the LORD found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied. 9 The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 ¶ Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.” 11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the LORD has heard your cry of distress. 12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.” 13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the LORD, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer–lahai–roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered. 15 ¶ So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty–six years old when Ishmael was born.”
Genesis 17:21 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The later history of the two sons fully justifies God’s selection of the one and rejection of the other. Even though Hagar had come to believe in the true God, the influence of her earlier Egyptian training proved to be decisive in the life of Ishmael and his sons, for his descendants became pagans.

Monday, November 20 The Covenant Reiterated
Here are the earlier promises God made to Abram:
Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV “1 ¶ Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."”
Genesis 12:7 NKJV “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.”
Genesis 15:4-6 NKJV “4 And behold, the word of the LORD [came] to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”
Genesis 15:13 NKJV “Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land [that is] not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.”
Here are the latest promises:
Genesis 17:1-16 MKJV “1 ¶ And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, I [am] the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. 3 And Abram fell on his face. And God talked with him, saying, 4 ¶ As for Me, behold! My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you a father of many nations. 6 And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, greatly so, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you. 7 ¶ And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you. 8 And I will give the land to you in which you are a stranger, and to your seed after you, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God. 9 And God said to Abraham, And you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you in their generations. 10 This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised. 11 And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. And it shall be a token of the covenant between Me and you. 12 And a son of eight days shall be circumcised among you, every male child in your generations; he that is born in the house, or bought with silver of any stranger who [is] not of your seed. 13 He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your silver, must be circumcised. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant. 15 ¶ And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name [shall be] Sarah. 16 And I will bless her, and give you a son also of her. Yes, I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother] of nations, kings of people shall be from her.”
Compare these verses with those that follow:
Genesis 17:15-19 KJ21 “15 ¶ And God said unto Abraham, "As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her and give thee a son also by her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her." 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear?" 18 And Abraham said unto God, "O that Ishmael might live before Thee!" 19 And God said, "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.”
Romans 4:16-25 KJ21 “16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be given by grace to the end that the promise might be made sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 ¶ (as it is written: "I have made thee a father of many nations"), in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which are not, as though they were. 18 Abraham, against all hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So shall thy seed be." 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, nor yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 And therefore "it was imputed to him for righteousness." 23 ¶ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.”

Tuesday, November 21 The Lord On Earth
Genesis 18:16-21 NRSV “16 ¶ Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge 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 about for Abraham what he has promised him." 20 Then the LORD said, "How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21 I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know."”

Wednesday, November 22 On the Eve of Doom
Genesis 19:1-7 NRSV “1 ¶ The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 He said, "Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the square." 3 But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 ¶ But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; 5 and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them." 6 Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, 7 and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.”
Genesis 19:4 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY News of the arrival of two strangers had spread quickly. The men of the city gathered around Lot’s house, intending to violate the Oriental right of hospitality in order to satisfy their unnatural lusts….Moses’ emphasis on the fact that both old and young were at the door of Lot’s house shows clearly how justified God was in bringing destruction on these cities.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 NKJV “49 "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 "And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw [fit].”

Thursday, November 23 Sodom Destroyed
Genesis 19:12-29 MKJV “12 ¶ And the men said to Lot, Have you anyone here besides yourself? Bring your sons-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whatever [you have] in the city, bring [them] out of this place. 13 For we will destroy this place because great is the cry of them before the face of the LORD. And the LORD has sent us to destroy it. 14 And Lot went out and spoke with his sons-in-law, who married his daughters, and said, Get up and get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked to his sons-in-law. 15 ¶ And when the dawn rose up, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, Rise up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city. 16 And he lingered, the angel laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters (the LORD being merciful to him), and they brought him forth and set him outside the city. 17 And it happened when they brought him outside, He said, Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stay in all the plain. Escape to the mountain lest you be consumed. 18 And Lot said to them, Oh no, Lord, 19 behold now, Your servant has found grace in Your sight, and You have magnified Your mercy, which You have shown to me in saving my life. And I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die. 20 Behold now, this city [is] near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. 21 And He said to him, See, I have accepted you concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 22 Hurry and escape there! For I cannot do anything till you have come there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. 23 The sun had risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Zoar. 24 ¶ Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire, from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 26 ¶ But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 ¶ And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD. 28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the lands of the plain, and saw, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. 29 And when God destroyed the cities of the plain, it happened that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.”
Genesis 19:26 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Her obdurate heart has made her memory a perpetual warning to those who would like to be saved but who are content with halfway measures, who seem to forsake the world, but whose hearts are still in it.