<TITLE>05. Par 22-25</TITLE>L-22 Then we find coming on after that, the destruction of Sodom, God raining fire and brimstone out of the Heavens and destroying Sodom.
Now, I want you to notice though, before one bit of fire ever struck Sodom, Lot and the sleeping bride (as we would refer to it today), come (or the sleeping virgin) come out of Sodom, come out, then the fire fell. He said, "Hasten, hither, quickly, for I can do nothing till thou has come thence, come out."
The call of the Church today, is come out of Sodom. Come out of it. Then the fire fell. And we find Abraham then, and Sarah--real old people. Abraham was one hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety.

L-23 Now, as I expressed a few moments ago about reading between the lines... But if you're reading between the lines and try to make It say something, that in between the lines says something different than what the lines says, then it's wrong. But it's got to agree, all the way through It. The Bible is just like a great jig-saw puzzle, if you'll excuse the expression. And if you just try to put it together just the way you look at it, you've got to have something over here to look at. If you don't, you'll ruin your scene. You'll have a cow picking grass on top of a tree. So it won't be right.
So that's the way it is with--when you try to put the Bible together with a intellectual understanding of It. You can't do it. It's a Spirit written Word, and it takes the Holy Spirit to place It together. Then you get the whole great picture from Eden out into chaos, and the way of the cross back home. That's the entire picture: God's redemption story of sending His own Son to redeem a lost and polluted people.

L-24 Now, Sarah was ninety years old. And Abraham was a hundred years old. Here they are; the Bible said they were both well stricken in age. At ninety years old, that would make her about forty-five years past menopause. But this Angel that spoke to Sarah--or spoke to Abraham gave Abraham this promise, that according to the time of life (otherwise, next month), according to the time of life, which would be with Sarah, I'm going to visit you. That was His promise. God keeps His promise.
Now, they'd had a--a baby by Hagar. And Hagar had, 'course, later on had to take her baby and have it cast out, she and her baby; for the bondswoman and her child will not be heir with the freewoman and her child.

L-25 I want you to notice a little story here. When Hagar, how she must have thought the misbehavior of Sarah and of Abraham, that lovely couple; they'd lived together, the sweethearts of the Old Testament. And all of a sudden, the attitude of Sarah changed, and Abraham did not want to cast his child away. But the Lord spoke to Abraham and said, "Do as Sarah has said."
Then Hagar, how she must have felt that morning when she took her baby, a son of Abraham, and a bottle of water, and a little basket of bread on top of her head--that young Egyptian woman, and went out into the wilderness. And the water was all spent, and the baby started crying for water. And she took the little fellow and put him under a bush, and went a bowshot--a hundred and fifty yards or something--and knelt down and begin to cry. She couldn't stand to hear the baby crying for water and dying in that condition.


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