Sunday, March 4, 2012

Genesis 16:1-16 and Matthew 11:1-19 (NIV)

Genesis 16:1-16
1    Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;
2    so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”  Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
3    So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
4    He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.  When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
5    Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
6    “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7    The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
8    And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9    Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
10  The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11  The angel of the LORD also said to her:  “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son.  You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12  He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
13  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.”
14  That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15  So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
16  Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Matthew 11:1-19
1    After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.
2    When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples
3    to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
4    Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 
5    The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 
6    Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
7    As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 
8    If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 
9    Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 
10  This is the one about whom it is written:  “‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
11  Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 
12  From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. 
13  For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 
14  And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 
15  Whoever has ears, let them hear.
16  “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17  “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 
19  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

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