Creative Sample: The Epic of Abraham

The Epic of Abraham

by Trevor Brogan

     History is full of beginnings.  This tale concerns a man who saw the beginning and ending of many things that still strongly influence the world today, a hero and progenitor to three great religious traditions: Abraham.    Abraham lived a long, eventful life wandering the lands between Mesopotamia and Egypt raising herds of sheep and cattle while communing with his singular God about posterity and promises.  The best-known stories of Abraham are found in the Biblical book of Genesis, but they say nothing of Abraham’s birth and youth, nor do they explain why he took up the life of a wandering shepherd.  Those early days are in the realm of folklore and mythology – that is, fantastic and heroic tales which aren’t part of an acknowledged religious canon.

     After the Great Flood, Noah’s three sons- Japheth, Shem, and Ham - got busy repopulating the Earth.  The kids were supposed to spread out across the whole face of the Earth, but one of Noah’s grandsons, Nimrod the great hunter, gathered many of them together and founded a city called Babel or Babylon.  Nimrod, full of pride, ambition, and impatience, rejected the religious teachings of Noah and conceived the idea of building a tower to reach Heaven.  After God showed his disapproval of the Tower idea by knocking it over and confounding the people’s language to make them spread out, Nimrod decided he’d go and make his own gods, with himself among the pantheon.

     Fast-forward a few generations, and we find Nimrod still kicking around Mesopotamia as god-king of a people called the Chaldeans.  Among his devoted courtiers was Terah, a Hebrew man who could trace his lineage through first-born sons all the way back to Shem.  The night before Terah’s first son was born, great signs were seen in the heavens.  A comet flew through the sky, and as it went several great stars moved to stand in its way.  The comet consumed each star and scattered them to the four corners of the Earth and continued on its way, growing larger until it passed beyond the horizon.  Nimrod’s astrologers debated the meaning of this sign through the night and came to the realization that it meant a child of destiny had been born and that destiny was to bring down the great powers of the earth.  No man was greater than King Nimrod, so they sent warning to him so he could act in his own defense.

     Nimrod knew that Terah’s wife had just given birth, and since no other children had been born in the kingdom on the night of the sign, Nimrod knew where to find the child.  He called Terah to him and commanded that the infant be brought to him.  Nimrod knew the risks of trusting the destruction of a fated child to another’s hands, so he intended to bash the baby’s head in himself, a plan he made quite clear to his loyal Hebrew servant.  He failed to account for Terah’s paternal love overruling his loyalty to the king, because Terah went straight home and made arrangements for baby Abram and a nursemaid to be smuggled out of the city and hidden in a cave.  Terah then went to one of his servants who had a boy just a couple days older than Abram and took that kid to Nimrod.  Nimrod, not suspecting any sort of treachery, dashed the baby against the floor and considered the matter dealt with.

     Out in the cave, Abram grew up quickly, learning to walk and speak coherently within his first year.  He spent his days wandering in the wilderness near his home, enjoying the beauty of nature, the glorious wonder of the sun, and all the other aspects of creation.  Abram wondered how these all came to be, and an Angel of God visited to tell him of the One True God and warn him against ascribing intelligence or the aspects of deity to unthinking objects.  As Abram grew older, his explorations took him farther from the cave until one day he found the home of Noah and Shem, who were still enjoying their antediluvian longevity.  The patriarchs taught Abram more about God and the proper manner of worship.  All this occurred without Terah’s knowledge, since he dared not contact his son while the prophecy remained fresh in Nimrod’s memory.

     Years passed before Nimrod ceased to brag about how he had overpowered fate itself by killing a child destined to overthrow his kingdom.  Terah sent for Abram to come home to Ur and join the household alongside his brothers Haran and Nahor.  When he wasn’t attending Nimrod’s court, Terah was a maker and seller of idols.  He kept a large personal collection of the gods he was most proud of in his home, including a life-sized stone statue with outstretched hands to receive offerings.  Once Abram was settled in the house, he asked Terah if he knew who had created the heavens and earth.  Terah answered by showing Abram the idol collection, describing each god’s role and character with passion.  Abram was disappointed to learn his father was an idolotor, but Terah’s religious conviction cast some doubts in Abram’s mind about his own experiences with God’s messengers in the wilderness.  

     Abram devised a simple test to see if Terah’s gods were worth anything: he had his mother prepare his favorite meal, placed it in front of the idols, and sat down in the room to watch.  He sat there all day, but none of the idols deigned to take and eat the food.  The next day, Abram had even more food made and repeated the experiment, and again the statues did not move.  Abram then took up a hammer and began to pulverize the idols, beginning from the smallest. When only the largest idol remained, mischief entered Abram’s mind to spare it from destruction and instead place the hammer in its hands and await Terah’s return home.

     Terah was, naturally, horrified to come home and find his collection of idols lying in pieces all over the floor.  He brought his sons together and demanded to know who was responsible.  Abram pointed to the hammer in the surviving statue’s hand and said that it was obviously the perpetrator, perhaps seized by a sudden fit of jealousy toward the other gods.  Terah was unimpressed by Abram’s cheek.  “Do you think I am a fool?” he asked.

     “I do think so,” Abram retorted courageously.  “You serve gods who do not breathe or act, either to accept gifts of food or to protect themselves from harm.  If these idols do not have the strength to protect themselves, how can you expect them to answer your prayers, or to fight your battles?”

     Years later, Terah became sick and, fearing that he would die, told Abram and Haran to go to the market in his stead and sell enough idols to cover his funeral costs.  Haran followed his father’s command loyally, but Abram saw an opportunity to spread his monotheism beyond the household.  Rather than load several of the smaller idols into a cart, Abram selected one of the larger idols, tied a rope around its neck, and dragged it behind him face-down in the road as he walked.  His sales pitch was “Who wants to purchase an image that is good for nothing, neither for itself nor for anyone who worships it?  Who will buy something that has a mouth yet cannot speak and has eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, and cannot walk upon its own feet?”  Surprisingly, this cry did attract one customer: an old woman approached Abram, eager to buy the image he had because thieves had broken into her home and stolen her old idols.  Abram gently repeated his list of reasons why idols were worthless and told the old woman about the true God, one who could hear, see, speak, and act and did not require a physical representation on Earth in order to interact with His followers.  He spoke with such passion and conviction that the woman swore off idolatry on the spot and went around sharing Abram’s words with her friends in the market.

     Terah was never easily swayed from his idols, because crafting them was a lucrative business.  Tension existed between Abram and Terah for years because of their religious differences, but it was never strong enough to drive a permanent wedge between them.  Abram’s brother Nahor grew tired of the pressure he felt from the conflicting personalities and left the home as soon as he could; the last anyone heard of him he’d gotten married and started his own family.  Haran, the other brother, stayed with his family but never fully committed to Abram’s or Terah’s position.

     Abram’s preaching eventually got him into trouble when word reached King Nimrod that one of Terah’s sons was going around saying that Nimrod was not the living god he claimed to be, and was being quite successful at converting the populace to the worship of an idol-hating God.  These stories chilled Nimrod to the core, because the God Abram described reminded the king of the God his grandfather Noah had worshipped and who had knocked over his tower-to-heaven centuries ago.  The stories also brought to mind the half-forgotten prophesy of a certain Semite who would overthrow Nimrod’s earthly power.  He sent soldiers to arrest Abram and bring him to Nimrod’s great throne.  The throne was on top of a small tower of the finest wood and covered in worked gold and jewels, and Nimrod’s robes of state were of even greater quality.  Nimrod hoped to intimidate Abram into renouncing his God, but when the humbly-dressed man was brought forth he wasted no time in rebuking Nimrod for his pride and love of material goods.  Seeing that Abram refused to submit, Nimrod had him cast into prison until an appropriate means of removing him was devised.

     Nimrod’s advisers suggested a variety of execution methods – beheading, hanging, casting Abram into a den of beasts, and even offering him as a sacrifice to one of the gods.  Nimrod considered the options and decided that burning Abram in a furnace would be the best way to insure he wouldn’t avoid death in some manner.  As an added measure of caution, Nimrod ordered the furnace be heated to such a high temperature that anyone who came too close to the open door would catch on fire, provided they were quick enough to get away before something else lit up.  Four men lost their lives throwing Abram into the furnace, but Abram himself only lost his shoes, coat, and shirt.  Nimrod was impressed at Abram’s apparent nonflammability, but he figured the supernatural protection would run out eventually so he commanded the furnace be kept alight for three days straight and stationed guards as close as was safe to prevent Abram from climbing out.  Abram spent the three days in relative comfort, lounging on the flaming wood and chatting with the guards about how awesome God was to not only protect His servant’s body but also His servant’s modesty, for Abram’s pants were not even smudged with coal.  At the end of the third day, the wood supplies ran out and Nimrod finally gave up and let Abram out.

     While Abram’s stint in the fiery furnace justified his religious position, it also taught him an important lesson: if he stuck around in Ur and kept doing things the way he had been he’d just keep facing more attempts on his life.  Messengers from God reinforced that impression, saying that Abram’s destiny lay in lands outside Chaldea.  So, Abram packed his things and gathered everyone who wanted to go with him: his young wife Sarai, his nephew Lot and his wife, and –most surprisingly – Terah, who had lost faith in Nimrod’s idol pantheon after the attempt on Abram’s life and the loss of Haran due to the persistent famine problems of the era.  Famine had stalked the lands between Egypt and Mesopotamia for most of Terah’s lifetime, varying in intensity but never quite leaving.  Idolatrous gods had come and gone as the people sought to find and propitiate the divine power responsible for the famines with anything they could lay their hands on, including human sacrifice.

     Abram’s family traveled north for a time before settling in a place they called Haran, near the border between the lands of Chaldea and Canaan.  There were already people living near Haran, but they were a disorganized group seeking a different life away from the powerful kingdoms like Abram was doing.  Abram preached to them about his God: a living God of both heaven and earth who ruled over all things and always rewarded those who followed His commands faithfully.  Many of the people of Haran accepted Abram’s God as their own and looked up to Abram as a community leader.  Others were less receptive, but gave Abram’s group no grief.  The famine conditions came to an end while Abram was in Haran and with the return of agricultural prosperity came a new demand for idols.  Tempted by the possibility for wealth, Terah resumed his idol craftsmanship and lived out the remainder of his days in Haran.

     When Abram was seventy-five years old, the voice of God came to him and told him to pack up his family and take up the nomadic life of a shepherd.  God said he would guide Abram through the land that would someday belong to his faithful descendants.  God further promised that, so long as he remained faithful, Abram would become a father of nations, with more natural and adopted offspring than the stars in the sky or the grains of sand in the desert.  Abram wasted no time in gathering his goods, trading away whatever was expendable for the flocks and tents as wandering shepherd clan would need, and setting out with his wife, nephew, and everyone in Harna who wished to join him.  God had never steered Abram wrong before, and he was particularly anxious to receive the promised offspring, because despite his and Sarai’s ages they had no children of their own.

     As Abram traveled through the land of Canaan, he encountered many different sorts of people in the various city-states.  In the lowlands, a verdant and well-watered plain even during the worst of the famines, were the sister cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and three lesser cities called Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela.  The land’s resistance to famine made the cities wealthy and the people proud.  Abram gave Sodom and Gomorrah a wide berth and dealt with them only when necessary, for he saw a greater tendency to wickedness in the people than even Nimrod’s blasphemous court.  The Sodomites mistreated any man they considered a stranger, denying many of the customary rights afforded to guests and cheating merchants out of a fair price.  There were rumors of sexual abominations performed among the men of Sodom, and rumors that strangers who displeased the rulers would be stoned for the slightest offense.  Abram had no desire to test these rumors, nor to put God’s protection to any unnecessary tests, and so he and his household stayed in the area that would eventually come to be called Beth-el.

     In contrast to the cities of the plain, Abram found reason to rejoice in the highland city of Salem.  Salem was ruled by Melchezidek, who was also a high priest of the God Abram worshipped.  Melchezidek ruled his people fairly and led them in a practice of caring for the poor and gifting surplus property to the less-fortunate so that all could survive or even prosper no matter the condition of the land.  Melchezidek and Abram struck up a close friendship, although their separate destinies did not permit them to visit one another often.  Abram contributed tithes to Salem’s economy of sharing when he could, and Melchezidek gave advice to Abram on how to be a priest and patriarch to his clan.

     Abram also had an interest in Egypt, whose cultural influence was even as far away as Ur.  The Egyptians were famed for their knowledge of astronomy and astrology, and some Egyptian travelers Abram met claimed that their Pharaoh could command the power of the gods because he was a direct descendant of Noah through Ham.  Abram found this claim hard to swallow, because he recalled his childhood visits with Noah and Shem and how they had once mentioned that Ham’s lineage had been cursed regarding the priesthood because of a tendency to make light of sacred things.  Regardless of the validity of Pharaoh’s claim to divine power, the knowledge his people possessed was of great interest to Abram, and so he travelled south and waited for a reason to cross over from Canaan to Egypt.  The onset of a new famine provided the perfect opportunity, for the Nile River made Egypt another bastion of fertility and Abram had grown so rich in sheep and cattle since leaving Haran he would command respect in any market.

As Abram’s group neared Egypt, Abram somehow got the idea that there would be trouble when the Egyptians saw Sarai.  Sarai was in her early sixties and still lacking in the childbearing department, and yet men considered her very fair to look upon.  Abram feared that Egypt’s princes would have him murdered if they knew Sarai was his wife, so that one of them or Pharaoh could marry her.  To avoid this fate, Abram came up with a plan to pass Sarai off as his sister.  The plan wouldn’t change anything about how the Egyptians would react to Sarai’s beauty, but it would at least spare Abram’s life and give him a chance to reclaim Sarai later, once he’d had enough time to think of an idea.  Sarai wasn’t happy that Abram hadn’t thought his plan through to the end, but she believed in God’s promise to make Abram into a mighty nation and so agreed to play along with the deception so long as it kept Abram’s life safe.

     The officials at Egypt’s borders did take a great interest in Sarai and judged her so worthy in appearance that when fed the story that she was Abram’s sister, arranged for Abram’s flocks to be pastured outside the capital, his people to be accommodated comfortably in the city, and for Sarai to be presented to Pharaoh himself.  Once everyone was settled, Abram went before Pharaoh and mentioned his interest in Egyptian astronomy and religion.  Pharaoh had heard something about Abram, mainly his own religious philosophies and friendship with the reclusive King Melchizedek of Salem, and was interested in seeing Abram contend with Egypt’s priests and astrologists on divine matters.  Pharaoh gave Abram an open invitation to have discussions in Pharaoh’s court; Abram accepted the invitation gladly, both for his own interests and because it would allow him to keep a close eye on his poor wife whom Pharaoh was trying to court.  Sarai resisted Pharaoh’s advances as gently as she could, and so time rolled on for several months without any major incidents.

     At length, though, Pharaoh became impatient and pressed harder for Sarai to become his wife, even taking her to his bed every night.  Abram was still too caught up in studying the esoteric to go to his wife’s defense, so God stepped in.  Because Sarai was barren, God cursed all of Pharaoh’s house with barrenness and infertility.  Blight and illness began afflicting Pharaoh’s crops and herds.  The ordinary people under Egyptian rule suddenly found reasons to complain about the government, and some government officials were caught harboring thoughts of insurrection.  Pharaoh’s advisors and astrologers were at a loss to explain the sudden appearance of these problems until somebody noticed that they correlated with Pharaoh’s greater interest in Sarai.  They reasoned that the woman was actually somebody’s wife and Pharaoh was being punished for violating the sanctity of marriage, albeit in ignorance.  Pharaoh summoned both Sarai and Abram and demanded an explanation, and Abram admitted the deception and his reasoning for it.  Pharaoh was betrayed that Abram thought him and his princes capable of such pettiness as to murder a man to claim his wife even after so many months of friendship and respectful exchange of ideas.  Knowing that Abram’s God was taking credit for afflicting his household, Pharaoh felt compelled to give Abram a large gift of every kind of herd-beast as an atonement payment.  He then promptly told Abram to get out of Egypt.

     Abram returned to the Beth-el area of Canaan, but he’d barely finished setting all the tents up when trouble rose up in the camp.  Pharaoh had given so many animals to Abram that he couldn’t oversee the care of them all, so he’d given his nephew Lot ownership of half the herds and authority over the herdsmen assigned to those animals.  The land around Beth-el wasn’t sufficient for both Abram and Lot’s flocks to find enough pasture and the herdsmen argued and even came to blows over who had priority.  Abram realized that the only way to settle the disputes was for Lot to split off from the main group and settle his herds in a different region of Canaan.  When he explained his decision to Lot and offered him first choice of land, Lot elected to take his family and share of the herds to the well-watered plains of Sodom.  This choice troubled Abram, for Sodom’s reputation had not improved much over the years, but he respected Lot’s right to choose and sent him off with a warning not to let Sodom’s customs corrupt his values.  After Lot departed, Abram moved his camp to the plain of Mamre, near Hebron.  On the journey, God spoke to Abram and reaffirmed the promise that Abram’s seed would be mighty in the land.

     When Lot settled near Sodom, he discovered that the political situation in the region had changed while he’d been in Egypt with Abram.  An alliance of kings from Babylonia had subjugated Sodom and its four neighbors and demanded tribute annually.  The Sodomites resented being under the thumb of an outside power, but they lacked the strength to resist.  The Babylonian presence made Sodom slightly safer for outsiders, since the city could not afford to mistreat traders and still pay the tribute.  They welcomed Lot because of his wealth in sheep, cattles, and other beasts, and soon Lot was living inside the city walls.  For twelve years Sodom and Gomorrah seethed under the subjugation, but in the thirteenth year their pride finally provoked them to rebel and refuse to pay the tribute.  Chedorlaomer of Elam, one of the conquering kings, responded by bringing his armies down and sacking the cities of the plain, taking the kings of Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela and several other prominent citizens hostage.  One of the hostages was Lot.

     If Lot had not been among the captured, Abram would have been content to leave Sodom and Gomorrah to suffer the chastisement for their pride.  For the sake of his unlucky nephew, however, he armed his men and called on his neighbors Mamre, Aner, and Eschol to aid him in pursuing the armies of Chedorlaomer.  Abram’s army was small – his contribution numbered only three hundred and eighteen men – so when they caught up to Chedorlaomer at the northern end of the Canaanite lands they waited until night to launch a surprise attack from multiple sides.  By a miracle, the Elamite army broke and Abram pursued them nearly to Damascus before he recovered Lot and everything else Chedorlaomer had taken from the cities of the plain.

     When Abram returned in triumph from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer’s army, he was met by the king of Sodom and Melchizedek, who brought bread and wine for a celebratory meal.  After eating, Melchizedek pronounced a simple blessing on Abram and Abram gave Melchizedek a tithe of the spoils he’d reclaimed.  The king of Sodom offered to let Abram keep all the material goods Chedorlaomer had taken, but Abram refused the gift because he did want Sodom to be able to claim they had made Abram rich.  All he claimed from the spoils besides the tithe to Melchizedek was the food the soldiers had eaten on the way back and the portion his three friends were entitled to.  As everyone prepared to leave, Abram tried to convince Lot to move out of Sodom, but Lot was too comfortable in his city house.

     With peace restored to Canaan, Abram looked to his own affairs and started to worry.  He was coming up on his eighty-fifth year and still had no children of his own.  By the customs of the day, Abram’s chief steward Eliezer of Damascus would inherit if Abram died without children.  Abram began to wonder if he’d been taking God’s promise of seed too literally and if it would be through the lineages of his followers that God would make a people to inherit the land.  Abram prayed and expressed these concerns to God, and God assured him that the promise was literal – Abram would father a child that would begin a chosen nation.  Sarai, feeling a little less patient with both God’s timing and her infertile womb, decided that if she couldn’t give Abram a child then she’d do the next best thing: get him another wife.  Sarai had a handmaiden named Hagar, and Egyptian woman who served her mistress loyally and had not yet managed to catch the eye of any of the men in Abram’s company.  Sarai offered Hagar to Abram, but Abram was initially hesitant, because he loved Sarai deeply and worried that having a child by another woman would hurt her socially and emotionally.  None of Abram’s friends could give him any solid advice one way or the other, not even Melchizedek, and God did not seem to object to the idea when Abram prayed about it.  Finally, Abram accepted Sarai’s proposition and took Hagar as his wife.  A few days later, Hagar was confirmed to be pregnant.

     Once Hagar knew she was pregnant, her relationship with Sarai took a hard turn for the worse.  The once loyal servant turned into a preening, boastful shrew who took every opportunity to rub her pregnancy in Sarai’s face, one of the situations Abram feared would come about if he took another woman into his bed.  Sarai tried to make peace with Hagar, but the Egyptian quickly made life intolerable for her mistress, and her attitude only grew worse once her son, named Ishmael, was born.  Sarai complained to Abram, not just about Hagar’s behavior but that Abram wasn’t taking any action.  Abram told Sarai that Hagar was her handmaiden, and thus she had the right to discipline her.  Feeling vindicated by her husband’s words, Sarai returned Hagar’s abuse twofold.  Hagar reacted to the sudden change in Sarai’s attitude by fleeing the camp, taking the infant Ishmael with her.  After a day or two wandering in the wilderness, Hagar realized she had been so hot blooded and hasty that she’d neglected to take any supplies in her flight.  Fearing that she would die of thirst and not wanting to see her son perish, she hid the boy under a bush and went away to sulk and complain to God.

     God sent an angel down to converse with Hagar.  The angel asked what Hagar was doing, and she answered “I am fleeing from the face of my mistress, Sarai.”  The angel reproved her, telling her to respect the social standing she was in: second wife to Abram and a servant of the household.  Hagar had been out of line to hold her own child up as a symbol of superiority over Sarai; such behavior was disrespectful to everyone involved, including the child.  Hagar was still upset over the whole situation, but the angle placated her by promising that Ishmael would be a great man and the father of many nations, provided her survived to adulthood.  The angel then guided Hagar and Ishmael to a spring of water that allowed the two to survive the walk back to Abram’s camp.