JIREH [PT IV]

Continued...

After 6 hours of the strenuous climb up the craggy and harsh 3rd hill of Mt Moriah, Abraham and his son finally reach the spot he had seen from the plains... indeed an altar had been erected, by whom? Abraham knew not... He untied the leather band around the log that he'd piled up on his faithful Ass... 

"Help me arrange the logs on the altar" Abraham told Isaac who appeared to be searching the cleared space for something. Isaac pressed pause on his search and went about the task his aged and wise father had just assigned him... 

"Dad?" Isaac quizzed as he piled logs "I don't see any sacrificial lambs... what are we offering as the burnt offering?" 

Abraham paused in mid-stride... How was he to explain YHWH's demand to a 13 year old whose only knowledge of YHWH was of a merciful and faithful God? A 13 year old whose only knowledge of his father was of a loving and dotting dad...? 

"YHWH will provide for Himself a sacrificial lamb" was the first thing that came to Abraham's lips... 

"He has already" the tempter hissed from out of nowhere "Young, fresh, plump, unblemished and spotless Isaac" 

Abraham ignored the voice and dumped the logs on the altar... 

Then he took out a piece of leather from under his undercoat... knelt on the biting rock... and beckoned on Isaac 

"Son" He started as Isaac stood before him "Do you trust me?" 

"Yes I do dad" Isaac responded with a sparkle in his eyes... Abraham almost backed down... he bit his lip holding back the tears that were welling up in his throat... 

"There are some things in life that we cannot explain logically" He continued with a tremble now apparent in his voice "Some requests that YHWH makes that we cannot fully grasp the import... but being that He is God, we must obey... always" 

"Always" Isaac repeated and Abraham's tear glands won the battle "Dad, why are you crying?" 

"Someday in eternity I will explain" Abraham said as he cried freely "Close your eyes son" 

Isaac obeyed and Abraham blindfolded him with the piece of leather in his hand... 

"YHWH has provided a sacrificial lamb son" Abraham muttered in between sobs "He has" 

Then he turned Isaac around and bound his wrists with another piece of leather he retrieved from his overcoat... 

"Dad" Isaac said with a shaky voice "I love you" 

And Abraham hugged him... wailing openly... He knew... Isaac knew that he was the sacrificial lamb... yet he didn't struggle... how could such an obedient son be slaughtered...? 

"My point exactly" the tempter hissed harder than ever.... "Who slaughters such an awesome obedient kid...? Only an insane father... instructions from YHWH or not" 

Abraham sobbed for a good 5 minutes... as he hugged Isaac, he saw an olive brush some distance away and wondered why an olive tree was budding high up this rocky terrain.... 

"Dad, YHWH is forever good" Isaac whispered in-between his sobs and Abraham fell flat on his face in pain... "Dad, do what you must" 

Abraham rose with the torment in his spirit, soul and body... he lifted Isaac and dropped him on the altar... 

"I love you son..." Abraham whispered amidst the sobs and glob dripping from his nostrils "but YHWH must be obeyed"

"Always" Isaac responded... "Always dad" 

Still sobbing, Abraham retrieved the skean he had rubbed every night since they left their home in Beersheba... 

Painstakingly... he rubbed the edge hard... the skean bit in... and he felt an artery release...

The final episode drops soon...

JIREH [PT III]

Continued...

Abraham opened his eyes abruptly... but his breathing wasn't hard... it was mellow and flooded with serenity... Sarah stirred in her sleep and mumbled calming words... even after 75 years; she still loved in her dreams... 

The dream he just had was difficult to explain, yet it had a soothing effect on him... 

He had seen a hand... mightier than any he had ever seen.... without aforethought, he had known that the hand was YHWH's... it had glowed in translucence yet it was solid, bold and fiery... electric currents had sparked off it as it descended from the skies... 

Abraham had been back at the open fields... there was a grain of millet in his hand... the fields where bare just like in the vision he had the previous day... and as the hand descended, it opened... Abraham instinctively dropped the grain of millet in the hand... before his eyes... the hand threw the grain of millet up and down rained millions of millet grains... 

As Abraham watched... the grains of millet germinated and sprouted... grew into mature stalks... a fruitful field rose before Abraham in a matter of seconds... 

Instinctively he knew... sacrificing Isaac was the right thing to do... 

*** 

For two days, Abraham, Isaac and their three servants had traversed the rugged terrains in the wilderness of Beersheba... finally they arrived the plains of Moriah in the wee hours of the evening... the three graduating rugged hills of Moriah peaked like monstrous spikes in the night skyline... To Abraham, the three hills, in their gait and dominion over all nature in Moria, represented the Almightiness of The Trinity... 

In the last two nights, the tempter had tormented his thoughts with fear, disdain, distrust, doubt and even retreat... yet, the dream he had the night before he departed his home kept him in perfect peace... As they set camp and Abraham set Isaac to sleep, he knew deep within him that the tempter would pay him a visit again... 

While the rest of his camp snored in the early hours of their third day on the journey to Moriah, Abraham walked over to the edge of the camp to worship YHWH despite the lump lodged in his throat... 

As he knelt, he felt the slithering creepiness of the tempter... 

"Hi Abe" the tempter whispered again "You know, your loins will not be stirred up again?" 

"Same was said of me at 100" Abraham replied 

"But you are 113 now" the tempter retorted 

"Wouldn't the same YHWH who did it at 100 do it at 200?" Abraham said calmly 

"The God you speak about set down natural laws... He wouldn't go against his word" the tempter hissed again 

Then the dream flashed before him again and he smiled... "Let it be known this day, that even if YHWH would not restore Isaac to me again... I will obey him still... for He who has promised is MORE than ABLE to redeem" 

And the tempter left Abraham alone for a while... 

At that instant a beam of the eastern sun tore through the nights cloak and lit up a spot on the third hill of Moriah... from where Abraham stood, he saw what he imagined to be an altar and knew deep within him that that was the altar YHWH wanted him to sacrifice Isaac on... 

He quickly walked back to the camp and woke his servants in haste... His haste was partly borne out of the trepidation of the task ahead... a little delay could lead to thought reversals and abdication from received mission... 

"Three of you will wait here" Abraham whispered to his chief servant, Mirah "I will go up Mt. Moriah with Isaac to offer burns sacrifices to YHWH... when we are done, we will meet you here" 

"Abe..?. Did you just say 'we will return'?" the tempter surfaced again "How will you return with the boy after slaughtering and burning him? Okay... I get it... You'll bring his ashes back with you... by the way, did you remember to bring his urn along?" 

Abraham bit his tongue in an effort not to respond... "Silence doesn't change the fact that you are about to commit cold murder" the tempter snickered as he spat more doubt at Abraham "worse off, you are about to lose the son you waited 25 days for... oh sorry, make that 25 gruelling, excruciating, heartrending years" 

Abraham walked over to his tent and woke Isaac as he muttered "YHWH is able to restore"

"Dad?" Isaac stirred 

"It's time son"

The Tale continues next week

JIREH [PT II]

Continued...

...Finally, Abraham said "Your will be done YHWH" 

The hardest words Abraham had spoken in his 113 years of existence... No words had chewed his heart and spirit harder than these... he bled from every pore of his soul as the words dripped out... he could imagine Sarah's reaction when he told her the instructions he had received from YHWH... sure hysteria... what would his servants think when they heard that he had sacrificed his son... 

Would they flee his home and service knowing this madman could sacrifice any of them...? Was it right for him to have sent Ishmael away...? He had told YHWH he would sacrifice Isaac... but could he follow through on his words...? Kill his own son? What kind of father did that? 

He lifted his face off the earth as he felt a tug on his left leg... It was Isaac... 

"Dad, why are you lying on your face?" he asked 

Abraham considered his son's face and a single tear rolled down his wrinkled lids... "YHWH was here" 

"Where dad?" an excited Isaac searched the surrounding earnestly for YHWH, having been told long exciting tales about YHWH's visits... Abraham considered the boys energy and sighed... if only he knew... 

*** 

In his palatial home, later that evening at dinner Abraham stared at his wife ad infinitum, but she was just a translucent glass through which he stared into eternity... Sarah stole glances at Abraham and made faces at Isaac as she served him huge chunks of lamb steak... 

"Dad had a visit from YHWH today" Isaac blurted and a startled Abraham came out of his reverie 

"You don't say?" Sarah retorted as she slipped into the drawn chair close to her husband of over 75 years... "Darling?" 

"Dad fell flat on his face and was weeping" Isaac continued... Abraham, who hadn't touched the heavy pouri serving, pushed back his seat and rose... 

"Darling?" Sarah called the second time 

"I need to take a walk" Abraham touched Sarah's graying hairs and swallowed hard... Sarah smiled weakly... the last time her husband looked this way was when YHWH asked him to leave his father's house... Even then, he had not been this distraught... Whatever YHWH had required of him was heavy?

 "Should I come with you darling?" Sarah asked 

"I'll be fine" Abraham smiled weakly... then he walked out... 

*** 

Later that night... 

Sarah lay awake awaiting the arrival of her husband... the sheets felt cold without him... the room felt heavy... she could feel the weight on him even in his absence... you don't spend the number of years they'd spent together and not share each other's burdens... 

The room door creaked open and a hunched Abraham dragged his frame in... he pulled off his overcoat and slipped into the soft livestock-fur bed pulling the tanned leather over his tired frame... He was aware that Sarah was wide awake awaiting his taciturn report... 

"I am leaving for Mt Moriah tomorrow" He said while looking away from her... He felt her turn round to face him... Please don't ask me what for 

"YHWH wants you to offer a sacrifice?" Sarah asked "So, why are you distraught?" 

The long silence bore many holes in Abraham's heart... what was he going to tell her...? How would he explain YHWH's instructions... the child she had waited for over 25 years to conceive... the same child she had been mocked for...? Abraham thought about the many days Sarah had cried on his shoulders over the issue of her infertility... matters had gotten worse when Hagar conceived and bore Ishmael... then there was no disputing the fact that Sarah was indeed barren... 

After enduring all that shame for gruelling years... how could he tell her that YHWH wanted that same son SLAUGHTERED? 

"Oh no" Sarah gasped and grabbed Abraham's toned arm "You are going with Isaac... isn't it? That's why you've been sulking all evening... you have been worrying about tearing him away from me for a week" 

She doesn't know the half of it... Abraham thought... 

"It's okay my King" Sarah continued as she snuggled closer to Abraham "You can go with him... I will learn to cope without him... He needs to learn about YHWH experientially... Yes My King" 

Another tear rolled down Abraham's cheek... thoughts of her hysteria when he returned without Isaac flooded his mind... Sarah snuggled closer, worsening the state of his wrecked heart....

The tale continues next week...