Lectionary Readings for Friday, April 26th, 2019

God’s First Book Chapters X and XI

Chapter X

1. Abraham said: This testimony declare I unto you, whereof witnesses are of your own
brethren, that even the chosen of God can be deceived by evil angels; for they can take
any name and form; and, having no fear of God before them, declare falsehood for truth
and darkness for light.

2. And, as ye have seen, the evilest of cities, even as well as the purest, may be the
abiding place of angels.

3. For which reason ye shall not seek signs and miracles, for these may be of evil spirits,
even to the showing of their bodies and of conversing learnedly. It is not in the power of
man to know by words and signs, or by oaths or promises, what is truth.

4. One thing hath the Father created withal, which is His Own Light. Wherefore be ye
believing toward men and angels; and wherein they teach ye according to Jehovih,
which is life unto all, and happiness unto all, without sacrifice to any, they are holy.

5. If man or angel say: Visit the sick, and administer to the distressed, follow his advice,
for it is of the Father.

6. But if man or angel say: Do thou thus, and thou shalt have profit, or glory, or applause,
obey him not, for he adviseth for thyself and not for the brotherhood of men. He is not of
God.

7. For spirits will come in disguise of your fathers and mothers who are dead, professing
love and profit to you. Believe them not, save they teach you to sacrifice self for the good
of others.

8. The wicked in heart, having profited in herds, and in gold and silver, say: Behold, God
hath blessed me! But I say unto you, they are cursed, and not of God. Hath he here
gathered you together because ye were rich? Ye were slaves, and in poverty; sick, and in
bondage. And he came and delivered you. Be ye like unto him, and he will abide with
you.

9. If a man come, saying: Behold, this is my coat; give it me! Thou shalt say: Prove
thyself as to who thou art. But if a man come to thee, saying: Thy herd has gone astray;
thou shalt not say to him: Prove thyself as to who thou art. But go thou, and see after thy
herd.

10. If a spirit say: Behold, I am thy father, say to him: It is well; what wouldst thou?
And when he answereth thee, consider if his words be of God. And if his words be not of
God, which are for the glory of the Creator, thou shalt challenge him to prove himself.

11. As God is captain of heaven and earth unto all righteous souls, so is there a satan who
is captain over evil spirits.

12. And inasmuch as the kings’peoples have not faith in the Father, their souls fall a prey
to satan and his hosts.

13. Let not any man flatter himself, saying: Behold, I have joined the Faithists
(Israelites); my soul shall escape hell. For in that day and hour God may be putting him
to the test, to see if his heart be for good works and holiness. For as ye profess God,
ye are doubly bound to practice godliness in your behavior toward men and angels

Chapter XI

1. When Lot the younger escaped out of Sodom, he halted in a small city called Ben-ah,
and tarried there whilst Sodom and Gomorrah were being consumed with fire; and
because he was saved, he called the place Zoar, because he was a worshipper of the
doctrines of Zarathustra, who was called in the Fonecean language Zoa-raastra. And the
place was called Zoar for more than a thousand years.

2. When Lot departed out of Zoar, there went with him two tribes, and there were born of
the house of Lot, offspring to the two tribes who accompanied him, and these became the
nations in after years known as Moabites and Ammonites, who were of the Foneceans, as
their names show, and they followed the doctrines of Zarathustra.

3. In former years God appeared to Abraham in a dream, and said unto Abraham: Thou
shalt be a father to many peoples.

4. When Abraham awoke he told Sarai, his wife, and she was troubled, being barren, and
she prayed God for Abraham’s sake.

5. Now it came to pass that Hagar, Sarai’s maid, had a son, and called his name
Ishmael; and Sarai was jealous of Hagar, and abused her during pregnancy. And the Lord
spake to Abraham, saying: Because of the hatred betwixt thy women, Hagar’s son will be
as a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man shall be against him.

6. Abraham said: How, O God? And God said: I told thee thou shouldst be a father of
many peoples, and thou toldst Sarai, thy wife. Now Sarai became vain in her desires for
offspring, and, in her eagerness, she opened the door of thy house to satan, and hence this
matter is upon thee.

7. Go, therefore, my son, and reconcile thy women. And Abraham told Sarai what God
had said. And Sarai inquired of Abraham, saying: Before God, tell me, is Ishmael thy
son? And God shall judge betwixt us. Abraham said:

8. Teach me, O God, to answer Sarai, that I may reconcile them. And God said: Behold,
thy Creator is the Father of all the living.

9. And when Abraham told Sarai God’s words, she cried in sorrow and repentance,
saying: Thou art wise, O God! For what matter is it to me, since I know that Ishmael is
thy son, and Hagar is thy daughter?

10. And Sarai went to Hagar and said: O my sister, I have sinned before the Lord, my
God. I saw thy son, and knew God gave him, but I turned against mine own soul, and
loved not thy treasure.

11. Hagar said: Saidst thy God that Abraham was father to my child? And Sarai said:
Nay, O Hagar. Hagar said: Neither said I thy husband was Ishmael’s father.

12. So they were reconciled, and by right of the beginning of Abraham’s nations, Ishmael
was Abraham’s son before God, but not in the flesh.

13. Sarai had a son, and he was called Isaac, because he was born of Sarai after she had
passed the time of child-bearing.

14. And when Hagar beheld that Sarai bore a son, Hagar became jealous for Ishmael’s
sake, and she wept before Abraham. Hagar said:

15. I am an Egyptian woman, and I left my people for thee. Behold, I am not favored of
thy God. Abraham said: Have I not been as a father to thee and thy son? Yea, when all
people reviled thee because thou hadst a child in maidenhood, laying it on me, I denied
thee not nor justified myself before the king’s people, suffering these things for God’s
sake, and thine, and thy child’s.

16. Complain not, then, against my house, nor my wife, nor my son, Isaac; all things are
of the Creator. And Hagar was pacified for a season, but afterward returned to grief and
jealousy, and finally resolved to depart away from Abraham’s house.

17. Then said Abraham to Hagar: The matter lieth with thee. And I give thee, according
to the custom of the Egyptians, a jug with water, and bread and blankets.

18. So Hagar persisted, and Abraham provided her, and she departed, taking Ishmael with
her, and she went into Par-an and dwelt there.

19. In those days Arabin’ya was divided into many kingdoms, some having one city and
some two, and some as many as six cities. And they were constantly at war one with
another, and the victors always changed the names of the kingdoms. The largest and most
powerful always called itself the Sun Kingdom, after the manner of the Parsi’e’ans
(Persians).

20. In the Sun Kingdom dwelt men and women of learning, and they had tablets and
books and maps relating to heaven and earth, which books, maps, and tablets were kept in
a library, the summit of which building was used as an oracle for consulting with the
spirits, called Lords of heaven.

21. For which purpose, a man or woman, whose head had been flattened in infancy, sat by
a table covered with sand, whereon the spirits wrote with the finger. And the person so
communing with the spirits was called AEjin in the Egyptian language, and was in
rank next to the Sun King. Now, no matter what wars took place, the library, the temple
of the oracle and the AEjin were sacred, and never suffered harm even betwixt enemies.

22. The kings kept scribes whose business was to write and to translate, and to keep the
records of the kingdom. Besides these, there were gatherers of news, who held the second
rank of scribes.

23. Now when Abraham and his people came into Arabin’ya, especially into Egupt, the
matter was entered in the records of the different kingdoms, with especial reference to
Abraham’s professing to hear the voice of God, for he had not a flat head, and moreover,
had good judgment of his own, quite unlike the AEjins in the temples.

24. But because Abraham gave no counsel as to war or to earthly gain, he was not favored
by any of the kings, and was suffered to go his way unmolested.

25. When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, the kings’people heaped the blame of it
on Abraham’s head, and there rose up enemies against Abraham in those regions.

26. And they also accused him of attempting to burn his son Isaac as a sacrifice to his
God, after the manner of the heathen of old.

27. And they accused Abraham of being the father of Ishmael, by his servant-maid, and of
driving Hagar and Ishmael away to Par-an after he tired of her.

28. And these accusations, and many more of like wickedness, were heard of by the news
gatherers, the scribes, and they wrote them down, not knowing of a truth what they were
doing before God; and so, their records were entered into the libraries of the kings of
Arabin’ya, especially of Egupt.

29. Abraham perceived these matters, and he wept before God, saying: Alas, O God,
would that I had great learning and could write my record truthfully before men! God
answered him, saying:

30. Thy faith being in Jehovih, it is well with thee. In thousands of years, one Ezra
shall send his scribes into these countries to gather news, even as do the kings of this
day. And his scribes shall translate from these records, with all their errors and
falsehoods, and Ezra shall publish the matter as the history of THE DELIVERANCE.

31. Abraham hearing this of God, bowed down his head and wept, saying: Thy will be
done! And God comforted him, saying: I am the Light and the Life!

32. The God of heaven and earth will come afterward and render the records of thy life,
which are not dead, but of life everlasting. Since, then, thy people shall be honored by
even that which shall come from their enemies, how much greater will be their glory
when God of heaven speaketh for thee and them!