God Speaks to Abraham
Sargon the Great ruled over many cities in Mesopotamia. One of the cities in Sargon’s empire was called Ur. And a very important man lived in the city of Ur. His name was Abram. The book of Genesis, in the Bible, tells us about Abram:
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ong ago, Abram lived with his father Terah in the city of Ur.
He helped his father to run his business. Terah was a merchant; he bought and sold copper, gold, purple and scarlet cloth, cinnamon, and salt. He grew rich buying and selling in Ur.Terah should have been happy. Ur was the perfect place for a merchant to live. The city was built right on the banks of the Euphrates River, so that traders could sail right up to the city with their goods. But Terah lived in difficult times. After Sargon’s death, his empire had fallen apart. The kings of the cities around Ur were fighting with each other. Tribes of wild people called Gutians were invading the land between the rivers. If Ur was attacked, the city might be burned. Terah could lose all of his riches in the war.
Terah worried and worried. He asked the ancient Mesopotamian gods what he should do. He made extra sacrifices to the moon-god—the special god of the city of Ur. He even went to Ur’s largest ziggurat and asked the moon-god to protect him from evil. (The ziggurats were special pyramids, built with steps up the sides so that priests could go up to the top and sacrifice to the gods.)
Finally, Terah decided that he would take his family and leave Ur. He took Abram and Abram’s wife Sarai with him, and set off to find a better place to live. They traveled along the banks of the Euphrates River, looking for a city to settle in. When they arrived at the city of Haran, up in the north of Mesopotamia, Terah liked what he saw. Haran was a rich city where people came to trade.
And the people of Haran also worshipped the moon-god, so Terah felt right at home.Terah and Abram and Sarai settled into Haran. Terah started to work as a merchant again. Abram took care of the sheep, goats, and cows that Terah bought with all the money he earned. The whole family was doing well.
But Terah was an old man, and after several years in Haran, he died. Then Abram became the head of the family.
One night after Terah’s funeral, Abram went out for a walk in the dark. He leaned his arms on the fence surrounding his flocks, and listened to the noise of the sheep and goats. He wondered whether he should keep on farming, or whether he should become a merchant like his father. Maybe he should go back to Ur, where the rest of his relatives were. He thought to himself, “Maybe I will ask the moon god, or one of the other gods, to tell me what to do.”
Suddenly he heard a voice say, “Abram!”
He looked around, but he didn’t see anyone!
“Who are you?” he said. “Are you one of the gods?”
“I am the one God,” the voice said, “and there is no other God except for me!”
“What do you want me to do?” Abram asked.
“Leave Haran,” God said, “and go to the land I will show you. I will give it to you and your children. I will make you into a great nation! I will bless your friends and curse your enemies. And everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.”
God told Abram to go to Canaan. Abram had never thought about going to Canaan. After all, there were no large trading cities there. There were no rivers. It was far, far away from Mesopotamia—the only civilized place that he knew. Strange, wild tribes lived in Canaan. Why would he go there?
But Abram decided to do what God told him. He took Sarai, all his servants, and all of his sheep, goats, cows, and camels. And all of them left the safe city of Haran and started off into the wilderness.
Finally they arrived in Canaan. When they got there, God appeared to Abram again.
“I will make an agreement with you,” God said to Abram.
“Obey me and worship me. You will be the father of a whole new nation, and I will give the whole land of Canaan to you and your children and grandchildren. I am going to change your name from Abram to Abraham, because Abraham means ‘father of many children.’ And I am going to change Sarai’s name to Sarah, because Sarah means ‘princess.’ Sarah will be the mother of a whole nation of people!”Abraham thought this was very funny, because he was an old man—older than your grandparents. He laughed and laughed at God’s promise. “How can Sarah and I have children?” he asked God.
“Nothing is impossible for God!” God said. And the next year, Sarah had a baby—when she was at least ninety years old! Abraham and Sarah named their son Isaac, which means “laughter,” because they had laughed at God.
Isaac had a son named Jacob. And then Jacob had sons—twelve of them. These twelve sons all had families of their own. All of these families lived in Canaan.
Eventually, each one of Jacob’s sons had a whole tribe of people named after him. The tribe of Judah was named after Jacob’s son Judah. The tribe of Benjamin was named after his youngest son Benjamin. These twelve tribes became known as the nation of Israel, or the Jewish people.
Note to Parent: For more on this story, please see Appendix Four, on page 329.
