Today is the seventh day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here around the Global Campfire with you today. It's a special day.

We have completed, well we haven't, we're about to complete our first full week of the year and our first full week on this journey through the Scriptures together.

We have moved through it, we are settling in for the journey of a lifetime. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward.

And of course that next step leads us to the place, the exact place that we left off yesterday which happens to be back in the Book of Genesis.

Today Genesis chapter 16 verse 1 through 18 verse 15.

Now, Sarai, Abram's wife had not been able to bear children for him, but she had an Egyptian servant named Haggar. 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, so Sarai, Abram's wife, took Haggar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife.

This happened 10 years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan. So Abram had sexual relations with Haggar and she became pregnant. But when Haggar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with contempt.

And 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? Abram replied, look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.

Then Sarai treated Haggar so harshly that she finally ran away. The angel of the Lord found Haggar beside the spring of water in the wilderness along the road to shore.

The angel said to her, Haggar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going?

I'm running away from my mistress Sarai, she replied. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her authority. Then he added,

I will give you more descendants than you can count. 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.

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.

Thereafter, Haggar 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?

So that well was named Beer Lahai Roy, which means well of the living one who sees me. It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.

So Haggar gave Abram a son, an Abram named him Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am El Shaddai. God Almighty.

Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.

At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. And God said to him, this is my covenant with you. I will make you the Father of a multitude of nations.

What's more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham. For you will be the Father of many nations.

I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations and kings will be among them.

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