A4 • HISTORY
THE BATTLEFIELD CHRONICLES • FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013
HISTORY
Nimrod sought to overthrow God by trying to kill Abraham
STAFF REPORTER
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
It is reported that Abraham had a
close brush with death on the very night
of his birth. According to our source,
king Nimrod’s stargazers told him that
Terach’s newly-born son would one day
be a danger to his throne. Nimrod ordered Terach to send him the baby to
be put to death. Terach, however, outwitted the king. Instead of sending his
real son to the king, he sent the baby of a
slave who was born on the same night as
Abraham, and Nimrod killed the baby
with his own hands, believing that he
was now safe from the threat. The baby
Abraham, with his mother, were hid-
den in a cave for ten years. At the age of
ten, Abraham decided to leave the cave
and to go to visit old Noah and Shem, of
whom his mother had told him many
wonderful stories. Unknown to anybody, Abraham made his way from the
low country to the mountainous region
of Ararat in the land of Kedem, where
Noah and his family lived. He was made
welcome by old Noah and Shem who
taught him all they knew about the ways
of their God, who would later became
Abraham’s God. Abraham stayed there
for nearly 39 years. It was at the end of
this period, when he was 48 years old,
while still at Noah’s house, that Abraham heard about the world-shattering event of the Tower of Babel, which
took place in the land of Shinear, where
Nimrod reigned supreme. Nimrod and
his people wanted to build a tower that
would reach up to heavens so that they
might establish their reign upon on the
earth. It was the height of arrogance and
defiance of men against God. As the story goes, God came down from heaven
and confused their common language.
This led to their dispersal and division
into various tongues and different nations. Abraham took it upon himself
to go out and teach people the truth
about God, and about the falsehood and
worthlessness of the idols they were
worshiping, even though he knew that
in defying Nimrod, and even his own
father, he would be risking his life, for
Nimrod had proclaimed himself god
and demanded that all the people worship him. At the age of fifty, Abraham
returned to his father’s house in Babylon. Terach was also a high priest of the
idols he worshipped. Personally, he had
twelve chief gods, one for each month of
the year. In fact, there was a workshop
in Terach’s house, where idols of wood,
stone, silver and gold were made. People
came to offer sacrifices to these idols, or
to buy them, and Terach had a thriving
business. Terach appointed Abraham to
be the salesman and take charge of the
business. Our source told us an amusing story about the time when Abraham
tried to convince his father of the folly of
worshipping his idols.
BROKEN IDOLS
A big, smashing idol dilema
STAFF REPORTER
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
Once, Terach had to travel, so he left Abraham to manage the shop. People would come in and ask to buy idols. Abraham would say, “How old are
you?” The person would say, “Fifty,” or “Sixty”. Abraham would say, “Isn’t it
pathetic that a man of sixty wants to bow down to a recently made idol?” The
man would feel ashamed and leave. One time a woman came with a basket of
bread. She said to Abraham, “Take this and offer it to the gods”.
Abraham got up, took a hammer in his hand, broke all the idols to pieces,
and then put the hammer in the hand of the biggest idol among them.
When his father came back and saw the broken idols, he was appalled.
“Who did this?” he cried. “How can I hide anything from you?” replied Abraham calmly. “A woman came with a basket of bread and told me to offer it to
them. I brought it in front of them, and each one said, “I’m going to eat first.”
Then the biggest one got up, took the hammer and broke all the others to pieces. “What are you trying to pull on me?” asked Terach, “Do they have minds?”
“Listen to what your own mouth is saying?” said Abraham. “They have no
power at all! Why worship idols?”
HISTORY
King of Canaan put most, if not all, trust in prime minister Terach
STAFF REPORTER
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
Nimrod was one of the sons of Cush.
Cush was the son of Ham, one of Noah’s
three sons. Nimrod came from a line
which was cursed by Noah: “Cursed be
Canaan, a slave of slaves shall he be unto
his brothers.” By birth, Nimrod had no
right to be a king or ruler. But he was sly
and tricky, and a great hunter and trapper of men and animals. His followers
grew in number, and soon Nimrod be-
came the mighty king of Babylon, and
his empire extended over other great
cities. As was to be expected, Nimrod
did not feel very secure on his throne.
He feared that one day there would appear a descendant of Noah’s heir and
successor, Shem, and would claim the
throne. He was determined to have no
challenger. Some of Shem’s descendants had already been forced to leave
that land and build their own cities and
empires. There was only one prominent
member of the Semitic family left in his
country, and that was Terach, the son of
Nahor. Terach was the ei v