Abraham Allegiant (Chronicles of the Nephilim Book 4) (16 page)

The strangers kept to themselves the rest of the journey and disembarked at Babylon. Abram watched Mikael give him a look back and a subtle wave as they walked into the gateway of the eternal city.

As they passed through the harbor, Abram could see the ziggurat Etemenanki and its complement temple Esagila towering behind the kiln-fired brick walls on the starboard side. It was a stunning sight even from the river. It was with good reason it was called “the eternal city,” with it grandiose painted arched gateways and huge statues of gods guarding its walls. He had been told much by Noah and Emzara about the spiritual reality behind the ziggurat step pyramids. He felt a dark oppression overcome his soul, as if demonic spirits were hissing at him. He could not wait to get moving on.

The next stop upriver, they got off the barges and rode their caravan the rest of the four hundred miles up to Haran. This cut their travel time in half, to about ten days, as Terah needed to get back to Babylon in time for the Akitu Festival.

Harran was a small city of only about ten thousand people that was noted by trade merchants for its tapestries and carpet weaving. Because of its location, it had a significant population of settled Amorites, a nomadic people from the northwestern hill country of Syria. The Amorites engaged in animal husbandry, selling their herds across the land. But as more of them settled, they became efficient in agricultural produce as well. They were an adaptive culture that worshipped Martu, the storm god, another name for Marduk. They had established trade routes from Haran all the way into the Jordan Valley of Canaan as it was now being called.

With the help of Terah, as Nimrod’s prince of host, they were able to find a well positioned home far enough away from the main temple of Sin the moon god, the patron deity of the city.

Abram settled his servants in the agricultural region around the city to work the land and raise herds.

But it was time to get back for Terah. He had a mere ten days to return to Babylon.

“I am going with you,” said Abram, as Terah was preparing for his journey.

“Why?” said Terah. “You are needed here. The Festival will only anger you.”

“I want to understand,” said Abram.

“What do you want to understand?”

“The reason for God’s wrath.”

Abram was thinking about the angels he had met on the barge, and he wanted to see what they were going to do.

Terah shook his head.

“Abram, if Nimrod discovers your presence, he will have you hung and quartered.”

“Or thrown in a furnace?” said Abram with a smirk.

“You should not test your god.”

“Do not worry, father, I have no intention of causing trouble this time. I will stay out of sight. I just want to observe.”

“Who will oversee the family household?” said Terah.

Abram had already made plans. “Eliezer is already like a brother to me. And Lot can learn from him.” Eliezer had proven dependable over the last twenty days. During their course upriver Eliezer had moved to protect Abram against the strangers, and he had also saved Abram’s life once from falling off the barge into the churning waters.

Abraham added, “Most of the city will be down in Babylon anyway, so trade and public institutions have shut down for the next couple weeks.”

“I will not slow down for you,” said Terah.

“You will not need to,” said Abram.

“All right. Get your horse and let us go.”

Abram said his goodbyes and left with Terah and his personal guard of about twenty soldiers. They rode to Babylon.

Babylon was bustling with excitement and festivities. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all the cities of Sumer and Akkad had been traveling into Babylon to participate in the event. Many even came from distant lands like Elam in the east, the Levant in the west, and Egypt in the south, including royalty and political dignitaries. All the lodgings were full around the city, and tens of thousands spread their tents in the surrounding plains.

All the world was at Babylon. Babylon was all the world.

Abram and Terah made it back in time for Terah to perform his duties and Abram to hide out in the massive crowds, looking for Mikael and his two companions.

It was the month of Nisannu, the spring new year, and the Akitu Festival would take twelve days to bring that new year into full fruition. During each day, the populace would engage in celebration in their homes and during public gatherings, but they would not necessarily be involved inside the temple areas during the priestly activities.

• • • • •

The first day, the
mubannu
, or high priest cook, brought a wooden key and opened the Exalted Gate of the Esagila, Marduk’s temple area.

Abram wandered around the city of Babylon trying to find the archangels in their disguises, looking for any figure or stance that struck him as familiar. The crowds were jam packed all over the city. His chances were near impossible. It was like wading through a myriad of ants in an anthill. There were just too many people.

• • • • •

On the second day, a
sesgallu
priest bathed in the river, and prayed a prayer to Marduk in his temple, before opening the doors to the public. The prayer exalted the supremacy of Marduk and Babylon, and offered a contractual agreement for Marduk to protect the city and establish his greatness.

As Abram strained to see the Esagila temple through the throngs of multitudes, he heard his name called out.

“Abram.”

Strange. The voice was in his head, not in the crowd around him. But he looked around anyway, and spotted Mikael, already upon him.

“What on earth are you doing here?” hissed Mikael. It threw Abram, who was not expecting such rejection.

“I wanted to see what you were going to do.”

Mikael was incredulous. “And you were going to watch God’s wrath standing right in the midst of it all were you?”

“I guess I had not thought of it that way,” said Abram.

He saw the huge form of the Destroyer standing in the distance scanning the masses. And he realized what a completely stupid sheep-headed thing he had done. If the Destroyer was the instrument of mass destruction, of course that would mean a kind of leveling that would not be selective in a crowd. Once again, Abram’s overconfidence in his protected status dulled his thinking.

“I am sorry,” said Abram. “Have I thwarted any of El Shaddai’s plans?”

“Of course not,” said Mikael. “But that does not justify your moronic irresponsibility. Follow me.”

Mikael led him away through the pulsating masses of idol worshippers.

They arrived at a small inn where Mikael took him back to the stalls of animals.

Mikael had a small fire and a blanket for sleeping.

“Where is the Angel of Yahweh?” asked Abram.

“In the heavenlies.” Mikael considered how much he should tell Abram. “There has been a slight change of plans, and the divine council is in deliberation about what to do right now.”

“Did I…?” Abram was horrified.

“I told you, it was not you,” interrupted Mikael. He was a bit impatient with Abram.

“Is the Destroyer coming back here?”

“No,” said Mikael.

“So it is just you. Why are you still here?”

Mikael looked at him like a parent scolding a child. “To protect you from hurting yourself.”

Abram felt foolish. He was like a child being watched by a babysitter.

• • • • •

On the third day of the festival, after the daily rituals, a carpenter, a metal worker, and a goldsmith worked together to create two small figurines of tamarisk and cedar, overlaid with gold and gemstones. These represented mankind, and in their hands a scorpion and a serpent represented the dangerous threats to their existence.

This was also the day that Semiramis and Mardon fornicated on Nimrod’s throne while the king was away participating in the ceremonies. It was empowering to both of them as they had planned an assassination of the Mighty Hunter before the end ceremonies so that Mardon would ascend to the throne just as the new age dawned and the cosmic mountain was established for the gods.

But it had to look like an insurrection, a reaction against tyranny. For what authority would they have over a populace that knew they were seeking personal ambition and power?

• • •
• •

The start of the New Year began on the fourth day. After that day’s daily rituals, a priest would recite the
Enuma Elish
before Marduk. The Enuma Elish was the Babylonian creation epic that told the story of Marduk’s victory over Tiamat, of his splitting of the great sea dragon’s body in half to establish the new heavens and the earth with Babylon, and of Marduk’s ascension to supremacy in the pantheon as king of the gods. It told of his receiving the Tablet of Destinies, and it ended with a recitation of the fifty names of Marduk.

During the recitation of the epic, the crown of Anu and the seat of Enlil were veiled in humility before Marduk’s might and glory.

In the divine council of heaven, a different story was being unveiled. Ten thousand times ten thousand of Yahweh Elohim’s holy ones, the Sons of God, surrounded his throne chariot in the heavenly courtroom of the temple above the waters. On earth, the forefathers Enoch and Noah knew the Creator only as Elohim, and Abram knew him as El Shaddai. But in the heavenlies, he was always Yahweh Elohim.

In this courtroom was where legal and providential decisions were deliberated by Yahweh Elohim, and a particularly hostile lawsuit had been recently initiated. The prosecuting adversary, the satan Mastema, had sued for peace and had delayed the total annihilation of the city of Babylon. It was clear that the earth was once again unified in rebellion under the totalitarian regime of the imperial King Nimrod. But since Yahweh Elohim would never again flood the land as punishment, another means was necessary for justice to preside.

Yahweh Elohim cleared the courtroom of the myriad Sons of God. It was Yahweh Elohim alone with the satan. And the judgment would not be revealed until the proper moment because the satan had a gag order placed on him. He could not make public the court ruling until the sentence was carried out.

But Yahweh Elohim had changed his mind. That sentence would not involve the Destroyer.

• • • • •

The fifth day was the climax of the festival. It was full of ceremonies, purifications, and rituals, including intercessory prayers, a building of a shrine, and an exorcism of evil spirits from the temple. But the most important was the humiliation of the king before Marduk.

The humiliation of the king consisted of a
sesgallu
priest stripping the king of the symbols of his power, his mace, his scepter and crown. The elements were placed before Marduk in his throne room. Then the priest went back and slapped the king across the cheek, yanked his ears, and led him before the presence of Marduk to kneel in supplication and prayer. It was indeed humiliating for Nimrod; a mere reflection of the sexual domination Marduk imposed on Nimrod in private chambers. But it publicly reinforced the hierarchy of power and represented the reversion of chaos followed by the renewal of order, a reiteration of the very fertility rite of the entire festival.

Marduk then returned the emblems and insignia of kingship back to Nimrod for one more year.

That evening, Nimrod would have to suffer a more brutal sexual humiliation and subjugation to Marduk. He would be tied up,
flogged with a leather whip, and repeatedly raped in all his orifices by Marduk with several blunt objects until he bled. Since he was a Naphil, Nimrod had a greater strength than humans and could endure more violence and pain, which satisfied Marduk’s sadistic lusts. But it also gave Nimrod ideas for what he would then do to his own sexual slaves as emotional compensation. It was a spiral of violence that unfortunately most of the humans did not have the physical capacity to survive.

• • • • •

On day six, the other gods of the pantheon arrived on boats to join in the festivities. They gathered in the shrine on the top of Etemenanki as sacrifices were offered. Then the little clay figurines of mankind were struck by priests and purified in fire for the atonement of the people.

Abram was allowed to stay in the city under the protection of Mikael. He wondered what God’s remedy was to be for this obscene fulcrum of corruption and depravity. Why was mass destruction ruled out? What could possibly be enough? It was not just the city that was malignant; it was the entire earth that had come to be “one” under this maleficent tyrant. They all spoke one language, had one religion, and served one god king and pantheon.

Abram looked around him at the royal representatives from the cities: Nippur, Sippar, Borsippa, Lagash, Uruk, Ur, Eridu, Nineveh. They had come from all corners of the earth to participate in this massive orgy of idolatry. What could El Shaddai possibly have in mind that could bring justice upon this festering boil of villainy and spiritual rebellion?

The thought passed through Abram’s mind that maybe God had given up.

• • • • •

On the seventh day, the human statues were bathed and redressed in new garments to rejoin as new humanity.

On the eighth day, the gods were aligned according to rank in the temple of Marduk, and a pig was ritually slaughtered, the blood strewn around the base of the temple. Then came the decreeing of the destinies. Marduk would carry out the Tablet of Destinies and first be proclaimed all powerful and invested with supreme authority over the pantheon. The gods would retire to the temple and there Marduk would announce the decrees for the king and his people of that year, for the ears of the gods and priests alone. The scribe Sinleqi would record them for the archives.

Semiramis had a destiny she secretly decreed for Nimrod, and it was not a long life. She had Sinleqi do another archives search for any living members of the tribes of Joktan or Phenech, the sons of Noah. Nimrod had their immediate royal families executed at his wedding to Semiramis fifty years ago. That was when he first took power as world potentate. But these things were never cut and dry. There was always a family member who could not make it to the festivities, whether for sickness or for being abroad. Whatever the case, she was sure there had to be some who did not make it that day, and were spared their lives. But any other survivors, including household servants, were immediately inducted into the slave force.

Sure enough, Sinleqi found them. There were two males from Joktan’s family line who were babes at the time and did not face their intended fate. Their names were Ophir and Uzal. They ended up as brick makers. So they had been slaves for fifty years building the city upon the blood of their fathers. That was plenty of pent up bitterness to exploit.

She arranged for their escape on this very day and made it look like they were alone in their conspiracy. It was quite easy as there was not much security over the slave force but a handful of wranglers and organizers. Where else could a fugitive go?

She met with them and discovered they were both strong, agile, and practiced in weapons. As it turned out, they actually were hoping to escape one day and kill Nimrod in revenge. Perfect. It could never be traced to her. No doubt they had leaked their intentions to other slaves who would corroborate the evidence in an investigation.

She and Mardon conspired with them about Nimrod’s weaknesses and his ability to sense danger. It would be a difficult task, because he was a giant Gibborim warrior, but he had become flabby and unpracticed over the years as he spent more time in his regal duties and less on the battlefield. The fact was that there was no need for battle because the entire world was at peace under his absolute reign. They were all de facto slaves, but Nimrod’s kingdom was at peace.

Should these two disgruntled assassins be successful, they would be hailed as the liberators of the people. Semiramis promised them a hefty financial reward and royal titles upon Mardon’s succession to the throne.

But she planned for them to be hanged immediately as traitors.

• • • • •

On the ninth day of the festival, Abram and Mikael positioned themselves to watch the grand parade of the gods. It proceeded down the Processional Way from Esagila all the way past the temple of Ishtar in the north of the city. A large flock of white doves, the bird of the goddess, was released from Ishtar’s temple as they passed, creating a spectacle of peaceful liberation.

The parade continued out through the vainglorious Ishtar Gate on to another temple by the river where they held a banquet of the gods. This was the most public of events as throngs of people crowded the lanes of the Processional Way trying to get a glimpse of the gods in their glorious chariots, covered with dazzling jewels. Cultic musicians, dancers, and singers accompanied the parade through the city. Priests, royalty, and visiting dignitaries received front row seats to the spectacle.