Meditate

Genesis 16

16. Hagar and Ishmael

¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi Beer Lahai Roi means well of the Living One who sees me.; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

    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 Or seen the back of the One who sees me.”
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 Or live to the east / of all his brothers.”

    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, Ishmael means God hears.
   for the LORD has heard of your misery. ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

    ⁹ Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 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.

    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. 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.

    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.”

    ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

   When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 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. 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. ¹ Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;

Mark 6:33-44

6. Teachings and Miracles

³³ But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

    ³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

    ³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

   They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages Greek take two hundred denarii! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

   ³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

   When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

    ³⁹ Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Jesus Walks on the Water

   

Psalm 74

74. Psalm 74

¹ O God, why have you rejected us forever?
   Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
² Remember the nation you purchased long ago,
   the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—
   Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
³ Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,
   all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.

    ⁴ Your foes roared in the place where you met with us;
   they set up their standards as signs.
⁵ They behaved like men wielding axes
   to cut through a thicket of trees.
⁶ They smashed all the carved paneling
   with their axes and hatchets.
⁷ They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
   they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.
⁸ They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
   They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.

    ⁹ We are given no signs from God;
   no prophets are left,
   and none of us knows how long this will be.
¹⁰ How long will the enemy mock you, God?
   Will the foe revile your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
   Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!

    ¹² But God is my King from long ago;
   he brings salvation on the earth.

    ¹³ It was you who split open the sea by your power;
   you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
¹⁴ It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
   and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
¹⁵ It was you who opened up springs and streams;
   you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
¹⁶ The day is yours, and yours also the night;
   you established the sun and moon.
¹⁷ It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
   you made both summer and winter.

    ¹⁸ Remember how the enemy has mocked you, LORD,
   how foolish people have reviled your name.
¹⁹ Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;
   do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
²⁰ Have regard for your covenant,
   because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
²¹ Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace;
   may the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
   remember how fools mock you all day long.
²³ Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
   the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.