January 6: Genesis 18:1 – Genesis 21:7

The Lord Appears to Abraham – Genesis 18

• While Abraham sits at the door of his tent, three men arrive (God and two angels). Abraham has Sarah make flour cakes, has a young man prepare a young calf, and prepares curds and milk for the men. He stands by while they eat under a tree.
• The men ask Abraham where Sarah is, and Abraham tells them she is in the tent. They respond that they will return in about a year, and at that time he and Sarah will have a son. 
• Sarah is listening from inside the tent, and she laughs to herself because she and Abraham are so old.
• The Lord asks Abraham why Sarah laughed, and reminds Abraham that nothing is too hard for Him. Sarah is fearful and denies laughing, but God confirms that she did laugh.
• The three men leave, heading toward Sodom, and Abraham goes with them. God says that due to the great sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah, He will go and see the cities Himself.

Abraham Intercedes for Sodom

• Looking upon Sodom, Abraham asks God if he will sweep away the righteous of Sodom with the wicked. He asks that if there are fifty righteous within the city, would God spare them.
• God answers that if there are fifty righteous within the city, He will spare the entire city for their sake. From there, Abraham continues to question the Lord: What if there are forty-five righteous? What if there are forty? Thirty? Twenty? Ten?
• God tells Abraham that for the sake of ten righteous, He will not destroy the city.
• The Lord goes away, and Abraham returns to his tent.

God Rescues Lot – Chapter 19

• The two men (the angels with God) reach Sodom, where Lot is sitting at the gate (the gate of the city was where the town elders met, so Lot, in his wealth, had become a ruling elder).
• Lot greets them with respect and offers to let them stay at his home for the night. They reply that they will stay in the town square, but he insists and they agree to stay with him. Lot prepares a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they eat.
• Before they go to bed for the night, all the men of Sodom surround the house, and ask Lot to bring the two men out, so they might "know them." Lot steps outside and asks them to take his two virgin daughters instead of the men.
• The Sodomite men refuse, trying to break the door down, and the two men bring Lot into the house, shut the door, and strike the men outside with blindness.
• The two men ask Lot if he has any family in Sodom, and tell him to get them because they are about to destroy the city. Lot goes to his two son-in-laws, who are to marry his daughters, but they don't believe him.
• When morning comes, the two men tell Lot to take his wife and daughters and leave the city. Lot lingers, and the men take his wife and daughters by the hands and take them outside the city. The men tell them not to look back or stop anywhere in the valley, but to head to the hills.
• Lot tells them if he escapes to the hills, disaster may overtake him, and he asks if he can escape to  a small city instead. The men agree, and they escape to the city of Zoar.

God Destroys Sodom

• After Lot and his family reach Zoar at sunrise, God rains down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.
• Lot's wife looks back and turns to a pillar of salt.
• Abraham goes to the place where he had stood with the Lord and looks down upon Sodom and Gomorrah. God has remembered Abraham and sent Lot away to protect him.

Lot and His Daughters

• Lot is afraid to live in Zoar, so he takes his daughters and goes up into the hills to live.
• His daughters conspire to get Lot drunk and have sexual relations with him so they would have children. (Their husbands were dead in Sodom, and their mother had also died and they doubted their father would remarry again. If they died childless, no one would carry on their name.)
• The firstborn lies with their father that night after he is drunk, and the next night the younger daughter does the same. Both daughters become pregnant; the firstborn bears a son she names Moab (he becomes the father of the Moabites) and the younger bears a son she names Ben-ammi (he becomes the father of the Ammonites). This shameful act of incest results in the birth of two sons who would later greatly trouble Israel.

Abraham and Abimelech – Genesis 20

• Abraham moves to the territory between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourns in Gerar. 
• There he tells people that Sarah is his sister, and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sends for Sarah and takes her into his house. 
• God appears to Abimelech in a dream and warns him that Sarah is married. Abimelech points out that he didn't know this and that he hasn't touched Sarah. God agrees that Abimelech has shown integrity (and the He kept Abimelech from sinning against him), and tells Abimelech to return Sarah to Abraham.
• Abimelech confronts Abraham, and Abraham explains why they deceived him (they feared that since they were among people who didn't fear God, Abraham would be killed and Sarah taken). Abimelech tells Abraham he may dwell where he pleases and gives him a thousand pieces of silver.
• Abraham prays to God, and God heals Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so they again bear children (the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah). In this way, the people of Gerar learn about the Lord, just as the people in Egypt learned of God when a similar thing happened there.

The Birth of Isaac – Genesis 21:1–7

• Sarah conceives and bears a son whom they name Isaac. When he is eight days old, they circumcise Isaac.
• Sarah says that "God has made laughter for me. ... I have borne [Abraham] a son in his old age." (Gen. 21:6–7)