Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [37]
But the story takes on a wonderful human quality when the barren Sarai becomes jealous of the pregnant Hagar and mistreats her. Hagar runs away into the wilderness, where God promises that her unborn child will also have many offspring, and she returns to Abram to bear his first son, Ishmael (“God hears”). Arabs trace their origin to the “Ishmaelites,” the Bedouin tribes of the southern wilderness. This is the ancient connection between Arab and Jew through Abraham.
But God promises yet another son to the incredulous Abram, now ninety-nine years old, and Sarai, who is ninety. God tells Abram (“exalted ancestor”), that he will now be called Abraham (“ancestor of a multitude”), promises him all the land of Canaan, and asks him to keep the deal by circumcising every male in his tribe. Abraham agrees and all the adult males, including thirteen-year-old Ishmael, are circumcised. The ritualistic removal of the male foreskin is not peculiar to the descendants of Abraham. It was practiced by many African, South American, and Middle Eastern people, including the Egyptians.
Sarai laughs at the seemingly ridiculous notion that she will bear a son at her age. God also changes her name to Sarah (both names are forms of “princess”). Later, Sarah gives birth to Isaac (“he laughs”), who will become Abraham’s heir. Hagar is once more forced to flee because of Sarah’s jealousy, and again the promise is made that Ishmael will found a nation. Left in the wilderness without water, Hagar begs not to see her son die. An “angel,” an English word derived from the Greek word for “messenger,” appears to Hagar and a well miraculously begins to flow.
BIBLICAL VOICES
Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen. 18:23-25)
PLOT SUMMARY: SODOM AND GOMORRAH
Once again, people have turned very bad, especially in that biblical hot spot, Sodom, where Abraham’s nephew Lot has chosen to settle. God looks down and once again doesn’t like the scene. Evil is everywhere, especially in the form of unspecified sexual depravity, which is why certain sexual crimes are still gathered together under the catch-all term “sodomy.” Once again, God decides to do away with at least some of his most troublesome creations. (Remember, God promised Noah that he would never again destroy everyone.)
But before God wipes anybody out, Abraham strikes a bargain with the Lord, persuasively arguing that God should not destroy the innocent with the guilty. Abraham haggles with God, negotiating down from fifty righteous men to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty. God finally agrees that for the sake of ten righteous men the town won’t be destroyed.
Apparently ten aren’t to be found. Two angels in human form, sent to warn Abraham’s nephew Lot of Sodom’s impending doom, are welcomed into Lot’s home, fed, and offered beds for the night in the best tradition of ancient hospitality. But a lusty and unruly crowd of Sodom’s men—“all the people to the last man”—demands that Lot turn over these “strangers” so that they might “know” them. Clearly the crowd is not the Welcome Wagon and has more in mind than a simple “We’d like to get to know you” visit. Faced with turning his guests over to a certain homosexual gang rape, Lot refuses, even going so far as to offer his two virgin daughters to the frenzied mob. He views his obligation as host as greater than his role as father. The crowd angrily presses in on him and Lot is pulled back into his house.
The angels tell Lot to take his family away. Sodom is about to be leveled. Lot’s future