No Woman So Fair (33 page)

Their happiness was complete until a messenger came one day, disaster written on his face. When he said, “I am the servant of Melchizedek,” Abram welcomed him warmly.

“Come in, come in! Let me have the servants wash your feet.”

“I am Chalbain, the steward of the king of Salem. My master sent me with urgent news.”

Abram stared at Chalbain and knew that the news was grim. “Is the king in trouble?”

“He bids me tell you that a war has broken out.” Chalbain sketched the details of the battle and shook his head. “Many have been slain, and many more captured by the enemy.”

“Does King Melchizedek wish for me to come and take part in the battle?”

“He bids me to tell you that your kinsman, Lot, and his family have been taken. The city of Sodom was plundered by the enemy. They took your nephew and all his possessions with them.”

“Lot taken! I must go at once!”

“The king knew you would be anxious. He bid me to tell you that God Most High has spoken to him about your kinsman.”

“What did God tell him?”

“That you would be the instrument of his deliverance. He assures you that you will be victorious and that, if you go in the power of the Most High, your kinsman and all his family will be saved.”

Abram said instantly, “We will go and get my nephew back.”

Sarai spoke up. “They have an army, Abram. We have only a few men.”

Abram said quietly, “King Melchizedek is a priest of God Most High. I believe his word that the Eternal One will fight for us! We will go in the strength of God!”

The war that swept the country had complicated causes. The most powerful of the Amorite kings, Kedorlaomer, was a vicious man—greedy and without pity. He had exacted tribute from weak kingdoms, and when Sodom and Gomorrah and three other small kingdoms refused to pay, he had attacked. He had taken the five kings captive and many citizens along with them, among them Lot, the nephew of Abram.

Abram at once assembled all the men of his clan and began to prepare them for battle. It was Sarai who spoke what most of them were thinking. “Husband, you have only three hundred men. The king of the Amorites has thousands. You can't win against such numbers.”

“The Eternal One will be with us. They will be drunk and will take no thought that they will be attacked.”

Eliezer was standing beside Abram and Sarai, armed and ready. “What is your plan, master?”

“The Eternal One has spoken to me. We will follow them, not allowing ourselves to be seen. They will break up into small groups when they reach the mountains. The hostages and the captive kings will be close to Kedorlaomer. We will have the victory, for our God is with us!”

****

There were doubters among Abram's men, but his spirit gave them courage. He led his men into the mountains, and when the enemy settled in for the night, he divided his men into smaller groups. Eliezer was charged with leading the group assigned the task of freeing the prisoners, and Abram warned him, “They will try to kill the prisoners to keep them from being taken alive. You must be quick.”

“Yes, master!”

“Then we will fight—come!”

Eliezer led his men forward and discovered that almost all the men guarding the prisoners were drunk. Their numbers were few, so he charged the inebriated sentries, his men cutting them down like cornstalks. The drunken men had stumbled, confused and disoriented, then fled in fear, their screams and flight causing a wholesale panic among the army of Kedorlaomer. Soon the battle became a slaughter.

Eliezer's arm was weary. He had wielded his sword furiously, and now he exulted at seeing the enemy being driven away. He cast a glance to his right, where he saw Abram still unharmed, and felt a gush of relief.

“Press on!” Eliezer shouted. “Don't give them time to recover!”

All of the men of the tiny army that had attacked the invaders were screaming so that they sounded like a mighty host. The air was filled with the clanging of sword against sword, the screams of the wounded, and the fearful shouts of the enemy. As Eliezer pressed on, he saw more of the enemy fleeing and knew the joy of victory.

Suddenly he spotted one of his men with his sword raised over a woman and child on the ground. Eliezer shouted, “Leave those two alone!”

His shout startled the man, and he turned and saw Eliezer coming at him, his eyes blazing.

“Forget them!” Eliezer screamed. “Go find a man, a soldier to fight with.”

The man fled as Eliezer ran quickly to the woman and child. He saw that the woman had already been wounded, but he could not tell who had done it. He knelt on one knee by her side, saying, “Are you badly hurt?”

The woman's face was pale, and Eliezer saw then that she had been struck in the side with a sword. Her garment was soaked with blood, as was the ground beneath her.

“Please help my child,” she pleaded weakly, the pallor of death on her face.

Quickly he began to try to stanch the flow of blood. “What is your name?” he said. “Where are your people?”

“My name is Ameira. I am the wife of a chief, but he is dead.”

“Is this your daughter?”

With great effort, she reached up a hand. “Yes. Please. She has no one now.”

Eliezer took the woman's hand and leaned forward. He saw the glaze of death in her eyes, and he spoke impulsively. “Do not be afraid. I will take care of your daughter.”

“Will you promise?”

Eliezer nodded. He saw the child watching him, fear etched on her face. She was a thin child, no more than eight years old, and he reached his other hand out and touched her head. She flinched as if he had struck her. “Don't be afraid, child. I won't hurt you. What is your name?”

“Her name is…Zara,” the mother said. She held to Eliezer's hand with her fragile strength and then cried out, “Vow to your god that you will take care of her as your own. Please!”

“I swear by the Eternal One that I will take care of Zara as if she were my own.”

The woman stared at him, and a smile came to her lips. She turned to her daughter and whispered, “This is your father, Zara. He will take care of you.”

“Mother, don't leave me! You can't leave me!”

The woman's eyes faded and her body went limp. The child threw herself on her mother's breast, weeping with all her strength.

Eliezer held the dead mother and put his hand out and touched the child's hair. “I will keep you safe, child. Do not be afraid.”

“I have no one—no one!”

“Yes. You have me. You heard me vow to God that I will take care of you. I will keep that vow, Zara.”

The child looked at him, her face twisted with fear. “Will you promise?” she whispered.

“Yes, I will promise.”

****

Abram looked up to see Melchizedek, the king of Salem, waiting. He was weary after the battle but pleased that he had saved all the kings, and more than that, Lot was safe!

The cheers rose as Melchizedek lifted his hand and cried out, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

Abram bowed low, then lifting himself up, said, “I give you tithes of all the spoil, king and priest of God Most High!”

The kings came one by one, all bowing to Abram and promising him great gifts, but Abram shook his head. “I have sworn to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will not be able to say, ‘I have made Abram rich.'”

Later when Abram was alone with the king, he said, “I knew when I received your message that all would be well.”

Melchizedek nodded but was silent for such a long time that Abram asked anxiously, “Is something wrong, master?”

“No, all is well, very well. But God Most High revealed many things to me—about you, Abram.”

“About me, sire?” Abram was astonished, but then he asked eagerly, “What did He say about me?”

“Some of the things He told me He bade me keep only in my spirit. But you are to be greatly used, my son! He gave me a vision of what is to come, and you are God's choice to bring many things to pass.”

“But I am only a weak man! How can such a thing be?”

“God does not require strength, Abram. He is strong and requires only one thing in any man.”

“And what is that, O King?”

Melchizedek put his hands on Abram's shoulders, and his eyes were burning like fire. “No man can please the most high God without faith. And He has shown me that of all the men that He has created, you have more of that than any other of His servants. And I must warn you that in a day in the future, He will ask you to believe a thing that will seem impossible. No matter how impossible the thing seems, Abram, you must believe the word of the Most High! And in believing, you will be the father of all who will believe in times to come!”

Abram felt weak, but he whispered, “Pray for me, master, that I will believe all that God Most High tells me!”

The two men prayed, and when Abram left the king, he felt as if he had been in the very presence of God.

****

From that day on, the fame of Abram the Hebrew was known throughout the land of Canaan! It was not the victory, however, that Abram remembered most vividly for the rest of his life—the words that God gave him after he left Melchizedek were burned into his mind:

“
Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

“O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer? You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

“This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.”

Abram thought of his and Sarai's ages, and doubt tried to creep into his mind. But, remembering the words of the king, he shoved the doubts aside and cried out, “Lord God, I believe your promise!”

God said many other things to Abram that day, matters which he never revealed to another soul. But when he left that place, he knew he must go to Sarai and share the promise of a child to come from his loins. As he made his way home, his heart sang with joy that the God of heaven and earth had heard his prayer for a son!

Sarai had taken special care with Abram's midday meal. It began with a bowl of delicious thick porridge, prepared with sesame oil and served with warm cakes of barley flour, radishes, cucumbers, and sprouts of the cabbage palm. Roasted veal followed with loaves of
solet
bread and rich, creamy butter, and then a compote of plums and raisins, all washed down by flagons of fresh milk and sparkling wine.

Abram cut a piece of the tender veal off and tasted it. “This is good, wife,” he nodded with satisfaction.

“You say everything I cook is good. I think you might be getting too old to taste the food.”

“You're wrong about that.” Abram winked. “And I've noticed you're getting a bit plump. Nothing I like better than a plump woman!” He reached over and pinched her hip, and she slapped his hand.

“Keep your hands to yourself,” Sarai sniffed. She was actually pleased that he was still teasing her after all these years. Abram was still careful to pay her compliments, and he often took her hand and simply held it, a gesture that Sarai delighted in.

Chewing thoughtfully on a piece of the tender meat, Abram said, “I think we need to go into Sodom and pay Lot and Meri a visit. It's been seven years since we've seen them.”

“I don't want to go to Sodom. I thought after you saved him from getting killed in that war, he would have had sense enough to move out of that place.”

“I guess he's there for life. It's a shame. That is a wicked, wicked place.”

“I don't know why God doesn't simply allow that city to drop into the earth.”

“It's no worse than Gomorrah, from what I hear.”

“Well, that's not saying a lot.”

Sarai picked at her food. A thought had been coming to her for some time now, and she said finally, “Abram, have you ever thought you might have misunderstood what God said to you after you saved Lot?”

“I've never forgotten any of the times that the Eternal One spoke to me. His words were very clear. Why are you asking about that?”

Sarai hesitated. She pushed the meat around with her finger and looked up at him. “It's just that you told me that the Lord said you would have children and grandchildren and one day a whole host of descendants.”

“Yes, that's what He said.”

“But nothing has happened, and we're old now. Too old for children.”

Abram reached over and took Sarai's hand. He held it firmly and said quietly, “He is the Eternal One, the great Creator. He knows all things about everyone, about you and me, Sarai.”

“But it's impossible.”

“Nothing can be impossible for the one who made the earth and the stars.”

Sarai was aware of his strong hand holding hers. He was still a strong man despite his years. “I have a dream over and over again that I'm holding a baby—and it's our baby.”

Abram stared at her. “How long have you had this dream?”

“For a long time.”

“You've never told me about it.”

“I thought it was foolish after I got old, but it's been coming back lately, stronger than ever. It's so real, Abram. I can feel the baby and smell him and look into his eyes.”

Abram saw the tears in Sarai's eyes, and he squeezed her hand. “You keep that dream. I think it's from the Lord.”

The two sat there for a long time, and finally Abram asked, “Do you think Hagar is going to marry that young man from Benozi's tribe?”