Signs and Wonders (6 page)

Then Abraham laughed and said to himself: How can I father a child at my age? And my wife, Sarah, who is ninety years old, how can she bear a child?

And Abraham said to the Lord: “I have one son and am too old to have another. I beg you to bless my son, Ishmael.”

God said: “Your wife, Sarah, shall indeed bear you a son, whom you shall name Isaac. It is Isaac who shall inherit the covenant; his sons shall inherit this land. But I will not forget Ishmael. Twelve princes shall he father, and they shall become a strong nation. But the great inheritance belongs to Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear in a year’s time.”

Abraham obeyed God’s word and circumcised himself and all the men of his household, and his son, Ishmael, who was thirteen years old.

Now, Abraham was grazing his flocks on the plain of Mamre, and the Lord sent three angels there. They did not appear in their own bright form, but as three travelers. They came in the heat of the day, as Abraham sat in his tent door; they were dusty and stained with travel. But Abraham immediately recognized them as coming from the Lord.

“You are welcome,” he said. “Rest yourselves in the shade of this tree. My servants will bring water to wash your feet, and a bit of bread, for you must be hungry.”

He hurried to Sarah and said: “We have guests, very special guests. A mighty thing is happening, but I don’t know what. Prepare a small feast as quickly as you can.”

Sarah kneaded three measures of her finest wheat flour and baked cakes upon the hearth. She ordered a shepherd to kill a calf and dress it. It was a young one, fat and tender, and the savor of its smoke rose to the sky as it roasted over an open fire.

Abraham and Sarah served the guests with their own hands, bringing them the roasted calf, newly baked cakes, butter, and milk. The men ate. One of them said: “Do you know who we are?”

“You come from the Lord,” said Abraham. “Do you bring a message?”

“He brings His own message. We are here to prepare His coming.”

Abraham and Sarah knelt to the ground before the strangers and kissed the hem of their robes. Then they hastened to bathe themselves and put on fresh garments. They came out of the tent and heard the voice of the Lord: “Abraham, your wife Sarah shall bear a son, as I have promised.”

Sarah laughed in her heart and said to herself: My husband and I are very old. Shall we return to such pleasures? And will I have a child as well?

One of the strangers said: “Why does Sarah laugh when the Lord tells her she will bear a child? Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

Sarah was afraid. She said: “I did not laugh.”

“You did,” said the stranger. “You laughed. Therefore, the son you bear next year shall be named Isaac, meaning ‘laughter.’ ”

Abraham believed what God had promised. Sarah wished to believe, but still doubted.

Sodom and Gomorrah

The Lord had assembled His angels for vengeance. He said: “The evil that is being done in Sodom and Gomorrah is a stench in my nostrils. These cities must be destroyed, their abominations rooted out. But I shall speak first to Abraham, for they are his neighbors. And Abraham is a righteous man who hears my words and teaches his household to obey my will.”

The Lord spoke to Abraham, saying, “Hear me, O Abraham. My two messengers, my angels—those who visited you with great tidings—they go now to the cities of the plain to see if those who dwell there practice the evil that is reported. If I know them to do such evil, then I shall let my wrath fall upon these cities, and they will turn to ash.”

Abraham said: “Will you destroy the righteous along with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty good men who live there, will not the cities be spared for their sake? It is not like you, O Lord, to punish those who do good. You are the judge of all the earth. Can your judgment be other than perfect?”

The Lord said: “If I find fifty good men in Sodom, then I shall spare the city for their sake.”

But Abraham answered, “Do I dare to question Almighty God, I who am but dust? If I do it is because I am what you have made me, and I have learned righteousness from you. Suppose there are only forty-five good men there instead of fifty. Will you destroy the city because it lacks five good men?”

The Lord said: “If I find forty-five good men there, I shall not destroy it.”

“Suppose there are only forty?”

“I shall spare the cities for the sake of the forty.”

Abraham said: “Do not be angry with me, Lord that I love, but suppose you find only thirty good men?”

“Thirty will be sufficient.”

“Twenty?”

“Twenty will be sufficient.”

“Spare me your wrath, Almighty God, and forgive me for bearding you in this way, but suppose you find only ten good men in these wicked cities? Must the righteous be destroyed in the same fire that consumes the wicked?”

The Lord said: “From no other man on earth would I permit such harassment. But you have walked in my ways and done my will, and I may indeed have taught you more than I knew I was teaching. This is my answer then: If I find ten good men in these abominable cities, I shall withhold my vengeance.”

Abraham went back to his tent, satisfied.

Now, as the sun sank, the two angels came to Sodom and were greeted by Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who dwelt there. Lot rose to greet the angels, then bowed to the ground.

“Welcome, my lords,” he said. “Enter my house, I pray you, and rest yourselves. You shall wash your feet, and eat a meal, and stay the night, if you wish.”

“No,” said the angels. “We will stay in the streets all night.”

But Lot did not wish them to spend the night in the streets. He knew his neighbors well, and knew that they would rob the strangers, then enslave and abuse them.

“I beg you not to spend the night in the streets,” he said. “Come into my house and rest there.”

He urged them so warmly that they came into his house, and he served them a fine meal.

As he was settling to sleep Lot heard a great clamor in the streets and rushed to the window. Torches flared, lighting the wild, slobbering faces of the men of Sodom. He heard them shouting, “Lot! Lot! Where are your guests? Bring them out!”

“No,” he said.

“Bring those tall young men out and give them to us. They are as beautiful as angels. Bring them out or we shall burn your house down.”

Lot went out and faced the mob, closing the door behind him; He said: “Do not do this; it is evil.”

“Bring them out! Give them to us.”

“I have two daughters,” said Lot, “lovely young virgins. They are dearer to me than anything in the world. I shall bring them out and give them to you to do with as you please, but do not molest these strangers. They are my guests. Under God’s law my life is pledged to their safety.”

“You’re a stranger yourself,” they shouted. “How dare you sit in judgment on us? Now we shall take them, and you, too. And your wife and your daughters, and do with you according to our pleasure.”

The mob surged forward. Cruel hands seized Lot and began to batter down the door. By the wavering flare of the torches the mob saw the two young men come out. They bore flaming swords, brighter than the torches. Terrible was their strength. They pulled Lot away from his captors and went back into the house, closing the door. Then they came out again and stood before the door, facing the multitude. They slashed a pattern of flame in the night air, and the air took fire. All those who watched were struck blind on the spot. The strange flame seared their eyeballs, leaving empty sockets. But so wild was their lust that they kept groping for Lot’s door in their blindness, until they grew weary and crept away.

The angels said to Lot: “Call your family together—sons, sons-in-law to be, wife, and daughters. Leave the house, and leave the city. Be gone before morning breaks. Because this is the last night of Sodom and of Gomorrah. They have angered the Lord, and He has sent us to destroy them.”

Lot awakened his household and said: “We must leave this house. We must leave this city, for the Lord will destroy it. His angels told me.”

But his sons-in-law to be jeered at him. “You have dreamed a dream, old man, full of flames and awful threats. Go back to sleep, and let us sleep.”

They slept, and Lot did not wish to leave without them. But dawn was breaking now. The last day of the city had come, and the angels did not let him linger.

“Arise!” they said. “Take your wife and your two daughters, and leave this city now.”

But Lot moved slowly. The angels seized him and his wife and his two young daughters, and carried them beyond the city gates.

“Do not linger upon this plain,” they said. “Get up into the hills, for the two cities will burn, and all the land that lies between them. Go now. Don’t stop to look back.”

But Lot fell to the ground and prayed: “O, Lord,” he cried, “if I have earned grace in your sight and such great mercy, allow me one mercy more. I am afraid of the mountain and its wilderness and the beasts that prowl. I am afraid. Therefore, I pray you, let me stop at that little city halfway up the hill and dwell there. And do not destroy that little city, for it is very small.”

The Lord spoke, saying, “Go to the little city and dwell there. It will be spared for your sake.”

And Lot hastened toward the city, which was called Zoar. It was full day now, and very hot, although the sun was hidden by black and purple clouds. The sky was like a great bruise. Lightning seared the clouds, terrible hooks of fire flashed from sky to earth. Then it began to rain—not water, but fire. Every raindrop was a flame; where they fell, great blossoms of fire grew. In Sodom and Gomorrah the houses burned. Men and women ran screaming into the streets, clothing on fire, hair on fire. Before an hour had passed, the cities of the plain were piles of smoldering ash. And the ashes of those who had dwelt there mixed with the ash of their houses.

Lot and his daughters climbed the hill toward Zoar. They felt the heat of the fire; they heard people screaming. They did not look back. But Lot’s wife, who had been unwilling to leave her home, stopped and looked back—and was immediately scorched to a deathly dryness. She turned into a pillar of salt, then crumbled away.

That day Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord, and looked down upon the plain. He saw Sodom and Gomorrah burning. He saw the plain become a furnace.

The Lord spoke like thunder out of the terrible sky: “Behold, my wrath has fallen upon the wicked cities. I have blotted out those men of twisted appetite and murderous intention. But I have spared Lot and his two daughters.”

“Thank you, Lord, for your mercy,” said Abraham, and left that place. He never saw Lot again.

Lot’s Daughters

The people of Zoar were unfriendly. They knew that Lot had dwelt in Sodom, but were ignorant of the favor God had shown him and feared that the curse of Sodom still clung to him. They said: “Leave this place or we will kill you.”

Lot took his daughters and climbed into the mountain, and they dwelt in a cave. It was a wilderness, a place of bears and eagles. Even hunters feared to go there. And Lot and his daughters saw only one another. One day the elder daughter led the younger from the cave and spoke to her. “God’s fire will strike Zoar,” she said. “It was spared only for our father’s sake, and now we are driven out. Therefore the city will be destroyed, and the young men there, and we shall have no husbands.”

The younger one said: “No one can find us in this cave. We shall have no husbands, and die childless.”

“I will have a child,” said the elder.

“Whose?”

“My father’s. He is the only man left.”

“It is a sin.”

“To remain barren is a worse sin. God did not spare our lives and bring us to this ripeness that we might wither away without man and without child. I will lie with my father tonight.”

“He will refuse.”

“We will make him drunk.”

“We cannot both lie with him. He is an old man.”

“I am the eldest, I will go first.”

That night they gave their father strong wine to drink, and made him drunk.

Lot dreamed that he was young again, and that his wife was not dead but was with him again, as beautiful as in the days of her youth. His withering heart swelled with happiness, and he embraced her.

The next night, his daughters again gave him wine to drink until he was drunk. And again that night he dreamed that his wife had returned to him—even younger this time, as upon their wedding night. He wept tears of joy and embraced her.

Lot never knew what had happened. After those two nights of wonderful dreams he missed his wife more than ever, and died of grief before his daughters grew big with child.

The elder daughter bore a son whom she named Moab. He became the father of a nation called the Moabites.

A son was born to the younger daughter, also. She named him Ben-Ammi, and he became the father of a nation called the Ammonites.

In days to come both these nations waged bloody war against the descendants of Abraham and were defeated after inflicting terrible losses. Some say that this slaughter was a sign of God’s anger at the behavior of Lot and his daughters in the cave above Zoar, and of His further displeasure with Abraham for having persuaded Him to spare Lot from the rain of fire that consumed the cities of the plain.

There was a lake of blue waters whose shore touched the plain. On the Day of Wrath the ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah fell into the lake, poisoning its waters, killing all the fish that lived there. Since that day the waters have been too bitter for any creature to live in, and are called the Dead Sea.

Another story tells that the waters were made bitter by the tears of Lot’s daughters, orphaned and widowed on the same day.

In another tale the Dead Sea takes its name from the deathly salt of Lot’s wife, who fell into the lake and embittered its waters forever.

The Birth of Isaac

The Lord smiled upon Abraham, and the warmth of it was like the sun, which quickens old roots until they put forth green shoots. Abraham was filled with a springtime ardor, and Sarah was like a girl again. They embraced joyously, and Sarah knew that finally, after ninety barren years, she was to bear a child.