As Sure as the Dawn(127)
God, help me. Give me your words.
“I’m a simple man, Atretes, with simple thoughts and simple faith.”
Atretes leaned forward, determined to understand. “Who are Adam and Eve, and where’s this Garden of Eden of which you spoke?”
Theophilus felt relief. Ask in my name and it will be granted you. The answer had come: Start at the beginning. He laughed softly, rejoicing. God answers. Let the Scriptures be known.
“Let me tell you the whole story, not just the finish.” His face shone in the firelight, angelic and carved in strength, holding Atretes’ full attention.
Rizpah listened as Theophilus told the story of the creation of the heavens and the earth and all that was on the earth, including man. Like music, the Roman’s deep voice drove back the sounds of enveloping darkness, making her aware of the stars in the heavens and the hope of God.
“And then man was created in the image of God, and woman was fashioned from his rib to be his companion and helper.”
Rizpah marveled anew. God spoke and all things came into being. The Word was the very breath of life in the beginning, as it would be to the end of time.
Theophilus told of Satan, God’s most beautiful creation, an ancient of ancients who was cast out of heaven because of pride, who entered the Garden in the form of a serpent and tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge with the promise that she would become like God. Deceived, she ate while her husband stood silent beside her, and sin was conceived and born. Eve gave of the fruit to her husband, who also ate, and because of their disobedience, God cast them out of the Garden. They would no longer live forever nor be in the presence of the Lord, but would live out a life span of years and struggle for existence. And thus, death, the consequence of sin, came into being.
“Adam and Eve bore sons who carried the seed of sin within them. Sin took root and grew in the jealousy of Cain, who murdered his brother, Abel. As men multiplied upon the earth, their wickedness increased until every intent of man was evil.
“The Lord was sorry he had made man and decided to blot him out as well as the animals and all creeping things he had created,” Theophilus said. “Only one creature found favor in God’s sight, a man named Noah.”
Atretes sat enthralled, absorbing every word and feeling faint stirrings within him, as though some deep part of him that had slumbered was now awakening. He listened as raptly as a child to the story of Noah building the ark, of the animals entering into it two by two, male and female, and then of the rains coming to flood the earth and destroy all life upon it.
“Every living thing died except those in the ark. And then God allowed the waters to recede and set the ark upon a mountain where he made a covenant with Noah. God said he would never destroy man by flood again, and set a rainbow in the sky as a sign of his promise. And so Noah and his wife, and his sons and their wives, left the ark and began to populate the earth again.”
Caleb awakened hungry, and Rizpah rose to sit with him and feed him the nourishing gruel with bits of rabbit meat mixed into it.
Theophilus went on. “Now, the whole earth used one language and the people gathered together to build for themselves a tower of brick and mortar to reach heaven. Seeing what they were doing, God confused their language and scattered them abroad from there across the face of the earth. Thousands of years passed before God spoke to man again. Then he came to one man, Abram, whom he told to leave his country of Ur and his relatives and his father’s house and go to the land he would show him. God promised to make of Abram a great nation through which all the nations of the earth would be blessed.”
Theophilus prodded the fire, spreading the glowing coals and adding more thick branches as he spoke.
“Abram did go forth as God told him for he believed God, but he took with him Sarai, his half sister who was his wife; Lot, an ambitious nephew; and Terah, his father. He also took with him all of his possessions, including the slaves he had acquired. When he reached the land God showed him, a dispute broke out between him and Lot, and he gave his nephew the choice of land. Abram settled in the land, and Lot settled in the cities of the valley and lived in Sodom.
“God told Abram again that he would make of him a nation, great in numbers. Abram believed God, even knowing that his wife, Sarai, was barren. Sarai believed for a time, but lost patience and took it upon herself to convince Abram that he should beget a child with her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar. Abram did as she suggested, and Hagar bore a son, Ishmael. Trouble came immediately. Hagar became proud; Sarai, jealous.
“When Abram was ninety-six, the Lord came to him and made a covenant with him. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means ‘the father of nations.’ The sign of this covenant was circumcision. Every male eight days old was to be circumcised. Abraham, Ishmael, and all the boys and men in his tribe were circumcised in obedience to this covenant. As for Sarai, God said she would bear Abraham a son in their old age, and they would call him Isaac, meaning ‘laughter.’ ”