Abraham and His Descendants

The Sacrifice of Issac, by Carravaggio

By Asha, dictated to Mom

The Sacrifice of Isaac

God tells Abraham, “You will have a son. You will call your son Isaac.”

Abraham said, “I'm 100 years old and Sarah is 90 years old!” They both laughed at Him. Abraham and Sarah had to move to Canaan because God told them to. That was where they had their son, Isaac. God made a promise to Sarah and Abraham and that promise came true. Sarah had her son and named him Isaac, which means “laughter.”

God tells Abraham to sacrifice their son, but Abraham does not like that plan. Abraham and Issac both went up on a mountain, called Mount Moriah. Abraham brought a knife, a torch, and Isaac brought bundles of sticks, but they forgot a lamb. Isaac said, “Where's the lamb for the sacrifice?”

Abraham said, “We don’t need a lamb to sacrifice.”


Isaac asked, “Then who are we sacrificing on the fire at night?”


Abraham said, “I’m going to sacrifice you because God told me to, which is a bad idea.”

Isaac laid on the bundle of sticks. Abraham tied him up, then he started making a fire. Abraham heard a noise up in the sky.


An angel said, “Don’t kill Issac! Kill the ram instead!” Then, Abraham noticed the ram and he untied his son and hugged him.

“Thank God you don’t have to die!” said Abraham. They sacrificed the ram instead and probably ate it.


God was smiling down at them saying “Good job, Abraham for not killing your son, and the next generation will go on.”

Isaac and Rebekah

Isaac grows up and sees a beautiful woman named Rebekah. They get married and have two twin sons, named Essau and Jacob. Essau had red hair when he was born and Isaac told him that he’d be the next king to rule their small kingdom. Essau was a good hunter.


Jacob was a shepherd. Essau came back from the hunt and brought his kill. Jacob, on the other hand, was waiting for his soup. Essau went to the place where Jacob was. He could not wait for the soup, so they made a deal. The deal was that Jacob would carry their dad’s legacy if he gave his brother his soup. Then Essau ate.


Their mother told Jacob, “You should carry on instead of Essau!” So, Jacob put on fur arm bands and brought his father some food. His father was blind so he couldn’t see. He stuck his hands out and touched Jacob, who he thought was Essau. He gave the blessing to Jacob. Rebekah just stood by smiling.

The problem was when Essau came back and brought a deer to his father and Essau was ready to be blessed, but Issac said, “I already blessed you!”


Essau said, “You must be mistaken, Father! You probably blessed Jacob instead of me!”

His father said, “NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Jacob, Rachel and Leah

Jacob grew up and married Leah and Rachel, but his favorite wife was Rachel because she was more beautiful than Leah, unfortunately for Leah. Jacob had a lot of kids. Leah had Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zubulun, and their only daughter, Dinah. Leah’s servant had Gad and Asher. Rachel had Benjamin and Joseph. They were Jacob’s favorite sons. Her servant had Dan and Naphtali. Together there were 12 sons and 1 daughter. These are the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Jacob’s new name is Israel, given by God.

The Story of Joseph

Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son. The other eleven sons did not like him because Jacob gave Joseph the colorful robe. Why did Jacob give Joseph a colorful robe? He was the favorite. Benjamin, the youngest of all them, was adorable.


The eleven older brothers had a plan to throw Joseph down a well and leave him there, but then they saw people coming and they sold their brother to them. They pretended that Joseph was dead. They told their father, “Joseph is dead!” Jacob was very sad.


Meanwhile… Joseph ends up a slave in Egypt. Egypt has pyramids and a very big city. It’s hot. The Nile River is the source of water. The wife of the man he was working for lied about him doing something wrong. So, he went to jail.

While he was in jail, there was a person who told him his dream and Joseph understood what it meant. It came true; the man was freed.


Then the pharaoh, the Egyptian king, had a dream. His dream was about seven fat cows and seven skinny cows. The seven skinny cows ate the fat cows. What could it mean? The man from the jail said that Joseph could tell what the dream means.

Joseph said, “The fat cows mean seven years of plenty of food. The skinny cows mean seven years of no food.” Joseph suggested that Egypt save up food for the people. Pharaoh was amazed and impressed. He freed Joseph, gave him nice clothes, and made him second in command.


Egypt had seven years of good food. They saved up. Then the people came to get the food when the seven years of bad luck came. After many years, there was no food left.


Then Joseph recognized his brothers, who came to Egypt to get food because they were hungry. The brothers did not recognize him. Then, they told him they had nothing to eat.


Joseph forgave his brothers and said, “Hey it’s me, Joseph!” The brothers were staring at him.


“Oh my goodness!” They were surprised to see him. They didn’t know it was Joseph. Joseph celebrated with a feast for them.