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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=004050315-18062008>Whoever sent out the quote from Genesis did not sign
it, though i'm guessing it was Jeanene.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=004050315-18062008></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=004050315-18062008>Actually the feuding brothers in the Old Testament were
Jacob and Esau, who were twins. I'm not aware of any Biblical fights
between Ishmael (and descendants) and Isaac.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
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<P dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=5><FONT face=Script><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN
lang=en-us>greenBubble</SPAN> </FONT></FONT></FONT></P></FONT></SPAN></B><BR>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>Subject:</B> Re: [GCFL-discuss] Israel Without
Hillary<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Thank you. That's what I was in reference to. So many don't seem to
even look at this Biblical history to the hate between Ishmael and
Isaac<BR><BR>Lance<BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 10:24 PM, Discussion of the Good,
Clean Funnies List <<A
href="mailto:gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net">gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net</A>> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>The half brothers
are Ishmael (by Abram and an<FONT size=4> Egyptian slave Hagar)
and Isaac (by Abraham and Sarah) born 13 years apart.
</FONT></FONT><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4><FONT size=4>As with all
of Scripture, this bit of history is fascinating to me. I would love to
have a window into time past and watch as this story unfolds.
I learned these Bible stories hour after hour throughout my entire
childhood (birth to teens) and still love to read them and remember the
awesome God of the Old Testament. I regret that my children were not
told these stories as a part of church attendance. And I failed in
reading them to all three. My conscience has been pricked and I WILL
read and discuss these stories with my six-year-old
daughter.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Here is the story, and although
it appears long, it is worth the read:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Genesis 16 </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had
borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named
Hagar; so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children.
Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through
her." <BR>Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been
living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar
and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she
conceived. <BR>When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her
mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I
am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is
pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and
me." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>"Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you
think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. </DIV>
<DIV>The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the
spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, servant of
Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" <BR>"I'm
running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.</DIV>
<DIV>Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit
to her." The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they
will be too numerous to count." </DIV>
<DIV>The angel of the LORD also said to her:
<BR> "You are now with child
<BR> and you will have a son.
<BR> You shall name him
Ishmael, <BR> for the LORD has heard
of your misery.</DIV>
<DIV> He will be a wild donkey of a man;
<BR> his hand will be against everyone
<BR> and everyone's hand against him,
<BR> and he will live in hostility
<BR> toward all his brothers." </DIV>
<DIV>She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who
sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." That is
why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and
Bered.</DIV>
<DIV>So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she
had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him
Ishmael.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Genesis 17</DIV>
<DIV>When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said,
"I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my
covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." </DIV>
<DIV>Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my
covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will
you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a
father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make
nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my
covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants
after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your
descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an
alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants
after you; and I will be their God." </DIV>
<DIV>Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and
your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my
covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to
keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo
circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and
you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days
old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with
money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in
your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My
covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any
uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off
from his people; he has broken my covenant."</DIV>
<DIV>God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to
call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely
give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of
nations; kings of peoples will come from her." </DIV>
<DIV>Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be
born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of
ninety?" And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your
blessing!" </DIV>
<DIV>Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you
will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an
everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I
have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will
greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I
will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with
Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year." </DIV>
<DIV>When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Genesis 18</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>The LORD appeared to Abraham near
the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in
the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.
When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and
bowed low to the ground. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>He said, "If I have found favor
in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little
water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this
tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then
go on your way—now that you have come to your servant."
<BR> "Very well," they answered, "do as you
say." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>So Abraham hurried into the tent
to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it
and bake some bread." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Then he ran to the herd and
selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to
prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had
been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them
under a tree. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>"Where is your wife Sarah?" they
asked him. <BR> "There, in the tent," he
said. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Then the LORD said, "I will
surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have
a son." <BR>Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which
was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in
years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to
herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I
now have this pleasure?" </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Then the LORD said to Abraham,
"Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am
old?' Is anything too hard for the LORD ? I will return to you at the
appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>Sarah was afraid, so she lied and
said, "I did not laugh." <BR> But he said,
"Yes, you did laugh."</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Candara color=#000080 size=4>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Genesis 21</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the
LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a
son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised
him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore
him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as
God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was
born to him.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about
this will laugh with me." And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham
that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
</DIV>
<DIV>The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham
held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian
had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of
that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in
the inheritance with my son Isaac." </DIV>
<DIV>The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his
son. But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your
maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the
maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring." </DIV>
<DIV>Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and
gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with
the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba. </DIV>
<DIV>When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the
bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for
she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And as she sat there nearby,
she began to sob. </DIV>
<DIV>God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from
heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has
heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by
the hand, for I will make him into a great nation." </DIV>
<DIV>Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and
filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. </DIV>
<DIV>God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an
archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife
for him from Egypt.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></DIV><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>GCFL-discuss
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