Every once in a while you come on a situation that makes you wonder how involved you should be.  If it were not for me discovering who Abram was I may have ridden away after we arrived.  The family was a mess.  When we made it to the house of Abram’s father Terah, everyone was packing up to leave.

Abram’s Family Faces A Death

Jared and Nathan did some sniffing around to see if they could quietly discover what was taking place.  I did not want to embarrass anyone by pushing into their life, but I needed to know if danger was present.

Terah himself was a solid man, business like, and carried himself well.  He apologized for the confusion we found on our arrival but was thankful that we had come.  Jared reported back to me that this all seemed to stem from business deals after the death of Haran, which was Terah’s son.

These deals were made well before his passing but through time began to sour.  Due to this, money was lost and relationships began to go south. 

Haran was the father of Lot. With the passing of Haran traditions would place Abram as the one to act more like Lot’s father.  Despite the family upheaval which had taken place there seemed to be no danger.  No doubt the loss of Terah’s son held a great impact on him.

That night I met Lot and his wife, Abram’s wife Sarai, and other members of the family.  What shocked me about this family was that they too worshiped idols, but Abram was different.  It turns out he was always the “different” kid.

I remember the “different” kids when I was younger.  Often they liked to make a statement by beliefs, dress, or some other kind of rebellion.

It was common to find them wearing goth or alt fashions, listening to different music, maybe experimenting with other religions or wicca.  It was a radical statement as the child began to form identity regardless of that identity being good or bad.

The irony for me being here with Abram’s family was that the entire group was pagan and Abram was the one seen as being radical.  He was the one stepping outside of the box of conformity to the culture which surrounded him.

Abram’s Family Leaves Ur For Haran In Assyria

That first night Abram volunteered to lead the way spearheading the departure from Ur.  The goal was to move material, some of the workers, and animals to their new home.  Terah would follow with family in tow.  It had been decided that the family was moving to a place called Canaan.

The next morning we set off once again traveling but our movement was much slower than I desired.  There were constant problems.  Wagons breaking, wheels snapping, and some of Terah’s workers were ill.  Nothing was going right.

Abram decided to push for a community named for his brother called Haran.  There we could make repairs and give men a chance to recover before continuing.  At our arrival I discovered that it was Abram’s brother who founded the place.

I found this quite interesting as its location was within Assyrian territory which were typically hostile towards those from Mesopotamia. The brother Haran had quite the business acumen for establishing himself. The city served as a waypoint for trade and was at the crossroads of caravan routes.

After our arrival in Haran it would take one more day for Terah to arrive with the family.  That evening he decided that the family would settle there and not push forward into Canaan.  So, this was to be our new home.

Settling In Haran With Abram

As I said, it was all a bit of a mess to deal with and sort out. Knowing a little about Abram from the Bible I never imagined myself living around Assyrians. The amount of information I missed in church never ceased to amaze me.

I did not associate myself with Terah or the rest of the family. The one exception was Abram.  While I did get along with Abram, there was something about the rest I could not handle.  I didn’t want to build close relationships there.

Abram managed to get a piece of land sectioned off for me and my men.  There we would build homes.  Some of the men took wives, others did not.  Jared and Nathan pushed to make our little group a community for trade and training.

Of the services offered, if the price was right, could be security escort for merchants.  In some ways it was almost as if we went from being nomads to now a private army built around trade.  In many ways I had completely disconnected from Terah and his family, but would regularly meet with Abram to catch up on his life.

He kept insisting that he knew God would call him to something.  He simply did not know what it was he would be called to do.  He tried to apologize for the life I had been forced into.  I told him to not worry because it was a nice change having a roof over our heads and beds to sleep in.

Abram’s Father Terah Dies

If there was something I had come to understand in my time with Noah and my travels, it was patience.  Things never seemed to move as quickly as we believed they should.  Whatever it would require to take Abram and turn him into Abraham would come in time.

It would be a short season of peace and what one could call normalcy.  As life will do in sending a series of events, they would come and our paths would change.

One night as I was laying in bed sleeping a rider came into our camp.  Nathan met the rider to learn that Terah had passed in his sleep.  The patriarch of the family being gone would certainly mean new directions in our path to come.

Abram Is Called By God To Canaan

This brief season of rest would end when Abram came one evening pounding on my door.  Nathan and Jared were with me that night as we were playing Senet.  Jared was happy for the interruption due to how much money he had been losing.

Abram burst through the door like his hair was on fire. “It happened!  He came to me!  He told me what to do!”

“Whoa slow down, slow down, who came and told you what?” Jared was concerned.
“Yah, He came to me and told me.” Abram was so excited he couldn’t speak straight.
“Okay Abram, slow down, what did He tell you?” Nathan asked.

I pulled up a chair for Abram because from my experience this could take a while.  We finally managed to get Abram to sit and relax for a moment then the details began to come out.

“The sun was setting and then I could hear Him, feel His presence, I could actually hear His voice!  He said for me to leave this land and that I am to go to a place that He will show me.  He said that He would make me a great nation, bless me, and make me a great name.” Abram detailed.

If it was not for me knowing who Abram was, I would have been more like how Nathan and Jared reacted.  In truth there were many who followed false gods and idols that came away with similar stories.  To be fair to Nathan and Jared’s reaction, they believed this was nothing more than another one of those episodes.

Within idol worship it would be common to use some kind of hallucinogenic drug.  This was to help the person become in tune with their god.  People would walk away after that kind of experience with all kinds of insane ideas.  Nathan and Jared were smiling at each other as they turned back to the game of Senet.

“Clay!  I know you believe me.” Abram stated.
“Yes I do Abram.  Let me know when you are ready to leave and we will follow.” I said.

The boys eyes shot at me like I had gone mad along with Abram.  After giving Abram the validation he wanted, he jumped up from the seat and went running out the door.

The Debate Of Abram’s Authenticity

“Clay what are you thinking?  You know he was high.” Nathan said.
“Give me one instance when you have ever seen Abram drunk or high.” I demanded.
“Okay so you believe this is real?” Jared said looking at me seriously for the first time.
“Yes, I do.  Be prepared and gather men who will be ready.” I stated.

Nathan and Jared held a solemn look on their faces.  Clearly they had been talking.  I know this new life held its comforts yet these two were never ones to cling to those ideas.  Whatever it was had to be something deeper bothering them.

Nathen spoke “You know we will follow you wherever you want to go.  Just tell us what makes this guy so different?  He seems like everyone else.  His family itself is nothing special and they are all pagan. They are not like Noah and his family.”

Jared was next. “We know when you come from, we’ve talked about that before.  So, you know who he is.  Is what he says true?”

I only remembered parts of Abraham’s story.  My memory from childhood in church was fractured, stories at times mixed up, and no one story did I really know completely.  I did remember some of Abraham’s, but more importantly I certainly did know who he was.

“Yes, what he says is true.  It will take time. I do not know how long, but it is true.  You guys know I have trouble remembering details.  Nevertheless, I am certain that following Abram is the right thing to do.” I said.

Nathan made his next move on the Senet board.  Both men sat silent for a few moments.  Jared countered Nathan’s move and exclaimed that he won, grabbed the money, and busted out laughing.  The losing streak was finally over.  Just like that we were all in agreement.

Famine In Canaan Forces A Decision

It would take a couple weeks for proper preparations to be made.  Abram informed me that Lot and his family would be coming with him.  Of the fifty men we arrived with, our numbers grew yet we would be leaving here with thirty.

I wished to keep this location as a home base for training, rest, repairs, and reinforcement if needed.  There was no point in taking the full number of our manpower with us.  We had other significant issues to deal with in the surrounding lands aside from raiders.

At the present moment there was a famine in the region.  Whoever would go with us is another mouth to feed with no easy way of obtaining food.  This famine was a serious one.  It was the result of climate change which ensued with the earth attempting to stabilize after the flood.

As the ice caps retreated to levels more closely resembling what we would know in modern times, we saw more storms, rain, and local floods.  This period would end with “mini ice ages” which collected water at the poles.

In turn this resulted in some years of dry, drought, and famine.  It was a world of extremes where the landscapes paid the price.  The world was changing quickly.

After a couple weeks we would push out of Haran towards Canaan.  There we would encounter the Canaanites.  Abram would also encounter God on more than one occasion.  On a mountain near Bethel he would build an alter to worship Yah.

The land we would travel in was promised to Abram.  God said that this would be the home of Abram’s family and they would posses it.  For the moment though we were travelers in a land filled with famine.  One of my fears would come true one night.  Our destination was to take an unexpected turn.

Abram visited to inform me that we needed aid desperately.  This we all knew.  There was little to no help to be had back in Haran.  Abram said that we would press down into Egypt.

In my travels I had intentionally avoided going to Egypt.  Then it was unstable.  In my opinion, in this time it was still unstable.  Little good came from there and we would stand to lose far more than we could gain.  This concerned me.

I do not remember Abram ever going into Egypt.  My next fear was that I had somehow changed events in time.  Noah had told me to not let these concerns worry me.  He said that I could not stop God’s plan.  Despite my pleading to avoid this direction the decision was made, we would need to be ready.

On that night I gave orders to the men to prepare to conceal who we were, conceal their weapons, and get their mind ready for a possible fight.  This move made me nervous.