Lot lived with Abraham, his uncle, in the land of Canaan. Eventually, Abraham and Lot had so many animals that there was not enough land for all of them. Abraham said to Lot: ‘We can no longer live together in one place. Please choose which way you would like to go, and I will go the other way.’ That was unselfish of Abraham, wasn’t it?

Lot saw a beautiful part of the land near a city called Sodom. There was plenty of water as well as green grass. So he chose that place and moved his family there.

The people of Sodom and of the nearby city of Gomorrah were very bad. In fact, they were so bad that Jehovah decided to destroy those cities. But God wanted to save Lot and his family, so he sent two angels to warn them: ‘Hurry! Get out of this city! Jehovah is going to destroy it.’

Lot did not leave right away. He kept on delaying. So the angels took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and rushed them out of the city, saying: ‘Run! Escape for your life, and do not look back. If you look back, you will die!’

When they arrived at the city called Zoar, Jehovah made it rain fire and sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. Those two cities were completely destroyed. When Lot’s wife disobeyed Jehovah and looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt! But Lot and his daughters were safe because they had obeyed Jehovah. They must have been very sad that Lot’s wife had disobeyed. But they were glad that they had listened to Jehovah’s instructions.

Abraham taught his son Isaac to love Jehovah and to trust all of Jehovah’s promises. But when Isaac was about 25 years old, Jehovah asked Abraham to do something that would be very hard to do. What was it?

God told Abraham: ‘Please, take your only son and offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah.’ Abraham had no idea why Jehovah had asked him to do that. But he still obeyed Jehovah.

Early the next morning, Abraham took Isaac and two servants and went toward Moriah. After three days, they could see the mountains in the distance. Abraham told his servants to wait while he and Isaac went off to offer a sacrifice. Abraham gave Isaac firewood to carry, and Abraham took a knife. Isaac asked his father: ‘Where is the animal that we will sacrifice?’ Abraham answered: ‘My son, Jehovah will provide it.’

When they finally arrived at the mountain, they built an altar. Then Abraham tied Isaac’s hands and feet and put him on the altar.

Abraham picked up the knife. At that moment, Jehovah’s angel called from the heavens: ‘Abraham! Do not harm the boy! Now I know that you have faith in God because you were willing to sacrifice your son.’ Then Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. He quickly untied Isaac and sacrificed the ram instead.

From that day on, Jehovah called Abraham his friend. Do you know why? Abraham did whatever Jehovah wanted him to do, even when he didn’t understand why Jehovah had asked him to do it.

Jehovah repeated his promise to Abraham: ‘I will bless you, and I will multiply your children, or offspring.’ This meant that Jehovah would bless all good people through Abraham’s family.