'Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.'

'Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.'

'After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.'

'And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.'

Abram, by faith, leaves his former life and culture and receives seemingly unfulfillable promises. Soon he is tested and falters, yet God had already provided a solution. Here are the lessons for today, and how those four mighty promises are fulfilled in believers even now.

The seeds of the woman and the serpent will always be in conflict (Genesis 3.15), but Babel marked 'world government' and supremacy of idolatry. God scattered languages and people to preserve the godly line and show the ungodliness of world social reformation as a goal for believers.

'Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image…

'And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'

We see in this study how beautiful pervasive perfume depicts the sensed presence of Christ, and how his biblical names (Shepherd, Husband, Friend, Prophet, Priest, King and Lord) lift the soul in all circumstances. There is no more moving theme for reflection.

'And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.'