ing of Salem, to whom he gave a tenth of everything (Genesis 14:20). God now renewed his promise of a son to Abraham, a pivotal step in creating a new God-chosen people. When no son came, however, his wife suggested he take her maid Hagar as his concubine (Genesis 16:2). When Abraham was eighty-six, Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. Thirteen years later, God told Abraham that the yet-to-come son of Sarah, not Hagar, would be his heir. The Lord appointed the rite of circumcision for the first time as the sign of the covenant made between Him and Abraham (Genesis 17). When two visitors, presumably angels, visited Lot in Sodom, God protected him and his still faithful, at least semi-moral (not to be fully participating in Sodom's sin, but choosing to live there regardless) family. The angels blinded the people who wanted the visitors and told Lot to escape, while God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). Meanwhile, Abraham moved to the south country (Genesis 20:1) where he lived in a number of places, including with the Philistines. He had an experience similar to the one with Sarah in Egypt with Abimelech, King of Gerar. When Abraham was one hundred years old, Isaac was born (Genesis 21:1-21). A treaty between Abimelech and Abraham at Beersheba followed Hagar and Ishmael's being sent away. However, Abraham's faith in God's promise met one last severe test when God commanded him to sacrifice his one and only son, a significant test that can relate to the Lord and his own son. Judging by his actions, Abraham would have done it. He was saved by doing it, however, because it had only been a test (Genesis 22:2,6-7,12). After Sarah died, when Abraham was one hundred forty years old, he got Isaac a wife from his own people in Haran. Then Abraham married Keturah, by whom he had six more children, but Isaac remained his sole heir. At the age of one hundred seventy five Abraham died. He was buried beside Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah, which he had...
