The Sons of Isaac (5 page)

She led him around the edge of the small pond, then pulled some bushes aside to reveal a niche in the stone wall. In the niche was a clay figure. Slowly Isaac realized this was an image of the local earth goddess. The statue had the body of a naked woman with small pointed breasts and a frighteningly ugly head. She had a large nose but there was no mouth and the eyes were slitted and strange. Around her feet curled a snake.

Isaac drew back. He was jolted by the terrible reality of the thing. Anatah was lovely and beautiful, but this image was ugly and he could not imagine what the image could have to do with them.

Anatah laughed. “Don’t be afraid. This is my goddess and she will see that we have whatever we desire.”

“But she is only clay,” Isaac stammered.

“Of course she is clay, but inside the clay is a being of such power that she can grant any wish.”

Isaac was astounded. His father had told him about idols but he had said they were lifeless clay or stone and had no power at all. “How,” he asked, “can she do this?”

Anatah grew serious. “So it is a jinn but it can grant wishes.”

“The jinn are evil spirits,” Isaac said, drawing back.

Anatah tossed her head and laughed. “This jinn is good and will grant whatever I ask of it,” she said.

With that she flung her arms around Isaac and kissed him, then pulling back she said in a low chanting voice, “This is the man, oh my goddess, that I must have. Grant me my wish and let no one come between us.”

For a moment she had a strange look about her eyes and then she released him. “Now you can go,” she said in her normal voice. “Your stepmother is probably looking for you. Remember we have pledged in the presence of the great earth goddess and such pledges are binding.”

*  *  *

All the way back to camp Isaac was silent. He rode as in a dream, but it was a disturbing dream. One minute the lovely, desirable Anatah with her tempting lips and seductive glances appeared before him and the next he was remembering the ugly idol in the garden and the ritual he had witnessed and even been a part of.

He found that something strange had happened to him. He wanted Anatah with a terrible urgency like wanting water when out in the desert and the water skins were empty. To add to his torment Anatah had whispered just before he mounted his mule ready to leave, “Now that we are pledged to each other, I can give myself to you whenever you come.”

What would his father say to such things? He feared to tell him and yet he had never held anything back from his father. He must tell him. But instead of being excited and joyful, he dreaded the encounter.

Abraham noticed as the men sat around the campfire that night that Isaac was silent and looked disturbed. Something had happened to his son and it could well have to do with the trip to Gerar. It was always in the cities that evil occurred. Even when he had drawn himself and his family away from them, they still intruded with their evil.

When the others were leaving, Abraham drew Isaac aside and invited him to come sit with him for a time. The two walked back in silence to Abraham’s tent, where an oil lamp had been left burning. This was always a favorite time of day for Isaac. Even as a small boy he had loved the evening. To sit just inside his father’s tent with the flaps up so they could see the stars was a special treat. They seemed so close, almost alive in the black curtain of the sky.

His father was always talking about the stars. Coming from Ur he knew many interesting facts about them; more than that, he always mentioned the promise. The strange promise from Elohim that his descendants could be numbered as the stars.

Eventually the moon would rise over the jagged mountains to the east, changing familiar objects into mysterious and fanciful shapes. The soft glow of the hanging oil lamp cast long shadows on the sides of the tent and across the ground coverings. It was a magical time, a time for talking and confiding, and the two had shared many such times ever since Isaac could remember. Since it was his habit to never hold anything back from his father, he now struggled to find words to tell him of the strange happenings in Gerar.

“There is a lovely young princess in Gerar,” he said finally.

“And, this princess, is she a good match for you?” Abraham asked.

“Oh yes, she loves me and has even made arrangements to give herself to me.”

Abraham’s eyebrows shot up and his eyes narrowed. His fingers pulled at the fringe on his shawl as he struggled to form a statement or word a question. “So,” he said finally, “she plans to give herself to you. Does her father approve?”

“Well, she has the approval of the goddess she worships.”

For a moment there was silence. Abraham leaned forward and opened his mouth but no words came. He stared at Isaac as though really seeing him for the first time. He had assumed so much. It had never occurred to him this child of the promise could be tempted by someone who worshiped idols.

Of course it was evident he was no longer a child. In fact he was almost forty years old and might have been married long before this if his mother had lived.

“My son,” Abraham said at last, “I have been remiss in that I have not sought out a wife for you as Sarah insisted before she died. Other sons of mine like Ishmael can marry as they please, but you are different. You are the child of promise and those who come from you will inherit the blessing.”

Isaac’s face clouded as he struggled to put his thoughts into words. “But is a woman of that much importance?” he asked finally.

Abraham understood. Often, even among his own people, it was thought that since the man ruled the family, his wife was of little importance. She was simply a means of bringing children into the world and taking care of them until they could care for themselves. He pondered this as he struggled to find words to express his own thoughts.

“My son,” he said, “all my life, starting in my old home in Ur, I have studied the stars and it is evident that there is a pattern in things, a plan behind all that we see. It is the pattern put there by Elohim, and when we fit into that pattern, things go well for us. A father and mother both guide their children and teach them the ways of Elohim. That is His plan.”

“But this princess, she’s not just beautiful, she’s everything I could want in a wife. I would be so happy with her.”

Abraham frowned. He had not imagined that it had gone so far. Something must be done quickly, but what he didn’t know. This was going to be very difficult. He realized once more that as much as he might wish for a proper wife for Isaac, he knew no one who met the requirements. He wondered what Sarah would have done. Surely she would have known how to find the ideal bride for her beloved son.

“Isaac,” he said, “it’s late and such important decisions need much thought and prayer. We must not decide this quickly.” The two sat for a while longer, discussing a hunting trip into the desert and then Isaac said good night and left for his own tent.

Abraham watched him go with an aching heart. He could see that Isaac was drawn to this woman who was so wrong for him. He saw only the glittering attraction and had no idea of the price he would pay if he married her.
Marriage,
he thought,
is the union of two people who will bring children into the world, and so the world is changed for better or for worse with every new generation. Good children are the reward of wise marriages.

Abraham sat by the fire for a long time thinking about all that had been said, but most of all he pondered the problem of where he would find the right wife for his son.

Later that night he was unable to sleep. He rose quietly and paced back and forth, trying to piece together some solution to the problem. He bitterly regretted that he had let so much time pass since Sarah’s death without finding a wife for Isaac. Certainly a Canaanite princess who worshiped idols was in no way a proper bride for this son who was to have the blessing of Elohim as well as that of Abraham, and would claim the birthright.

Early the next morning he sent for Keturah. Abraham thought that she might have some solution to the problem. Keturah wished she could say something that would relieve his anxiety.

“It’s difficult for the lad,” she said after reviewing the events of the visit to the palace. “There’s no one in our camp who would be really suitable for Isaac.”

“It’s all the more complicated than it may have seemed at first,” Abraham confided. “He says he has found the woman who can make him happy. Her name is Anatah.”

“I saw Anatah. She is a proud beauty with a saucy manner that could be quite flattering to any young man she was attracted to.”

Abraham groaned. “Where can we ever find a wife for him who is acceptable and who can make him forget someone like that?”

“He’ll want to go back,” she said, “and what will you say to that?”

“He must not go back. She has told him that since they have pledged themselves in front of the goddess, she will give herself to him even without her father’s permission.”

Keturah drew back and covered her mouth as though to stifle an expression of shocked disbelief. “In front of one of their images? He told you this?”

Abraham was silent. He felt embarrassment and shame that he hadn’t paid more attention to training his son in their beliefs. “It’s my fault. I assumed too much. He was the promised son. When I had to take him up on Moriah to sacrifice him, he trusted me and Elohim.”

“As I heard it from Sarah,” Keturah said, “he trusted you and you trusted Elohim. That is different. He loves you and will do anything you ask … but he knows very little of Elohim.”

“How can this be? All my life I have tried to do the will of Elohim. How can my son not know Him?”

*  *  *

Before the morning star blazed in the eastern sky, Abraham knew what he must do. First of all it was evident that he must send back to his own people in Haran to find a bride. A traveling merchant had brought word of Nahor’s family, saying, “By his wife, Milcah, he has eight sons and by his concubine, Reumah, he has four sons.” No mention was made of daughters, but undoubtedly there were girls in the family too.

It was true that many of his people still worshiped idols, but they did not engage in the hurtful, evil practices of the Canaanites or the Amorites. To indulge in human sacrifice or to offer young children to the fertility gods was not something his family had ever taken part in. Furthermore they were of the family of the old patriarch, Noah. They had descended from his son Shem, and it was Shem who had Noah’s special blessing.

No matter how hard it would be to carry out such a plan, it was the only choice he had. To give his son to one of those who did not have Noah’s blessing would be to somehow cheat him of what was due him. A blessing given by a man of God’s own choosing, such as Noah, was not lost or dissipated in one or two generations. It would carry down the years, bringing blessing to thousands of children yet unborn.

He wondered if he himself should go back to Haran to choose the bride. Then he thought better of it. He was no longer agile enough to travel so far. It would be better to send someone he could trust. Someone who knew just what was wanted and would be most sensitive to the bidding of Elohim. Immediately one man came to mind, Eleazar, his chief steward. He had never failed in any trust. He was also a man who listened to and knew the voice of Elohim and would not move without such guidance.

He had no doubt that Eleazar would agree to go, but far more difficult would be the persuasion of Isaac. He had trusted his father when they had climbed Mount Moriah, but would he trust his father and Elohim when it meant giving up the princess who had already captured his heart?

He hoped it wasn’t too late to find a bride for him who would blot out the memory of the princess of Gerar. This too he must put in the hands of Elohim. Only the creator God could know who was right for Isaac and lead them to her.

It was time to find such a bride.

A
fter a sleepless night spent in prayer, Abraham walked out into the desert and sat down under an acacia tree to watch the sun come up. He felt as though a great burden had lifted. He didn’t know how it would happen, but he felt his prayers had been heard and an answer was on the way.

He walked back to camp with high expectations. As he neared the first tent, a young boy ran to meet him with the news that a messenger had come from the king of Gerar and that he was needed right away.

It was as the boy had said; the messenger carried a written parchment that was fastened with the king’s own seal. When Abraham arrived, the messenger stepped forward, broke the seal with a flourish, and read the formal message. To everyone’s surprise it announced the coming of the king’s steward. The king’s steward dealt only with the most serious business of the king’s realm and they wondered why he would be coming to visit them.

Immediately after the message was read, the young man snapped the scroll back together and dropped it into the leather case. With military precision he turned and shouted at the few retainers who had come with him. In minutes they were back on their mules headed toward Gerar in a cloud of dust.