Isaac accepted the bread and sat down but said nothing. Abraham watched him for a few moments and then asked, “Is something troubling you, my son?”
“I am almost sixty years old, my father, and I find that there are many things I have taken for granted and have not understood.”
Abraham almost laughed until he saw the serious look on his son’s face. “What have you not understood?” he asked.
After a long moment of silence, Isaac looked up at his father with such a look of pain that Abraham was shocked. “The most basic thing in our lives. It is the blessing Elohim has promised. What is it? How do you know I am the one to receive it?”
Abraham’s hand holding the bread stopped in midair. He turned to give Isaac a stunned look. He had always assumed that Isaac understood everything. He was such a devoted son and so careful to abide by the simple rules Elohim had given them. “You have done everything I have ever asked of you,” Abraham said. “You went up Moriah with me and let me tie you to the altar without crying or saying a word. You agreed to let Eleazar go back to Haran to find you a bride. What have you not understood?”
Now tears were in Isaac’s eyes. “Don’t you realize? I did those things because I loved you and you asked it of me.”
Abraham was visibly shaken. He placed the bread on the rim of the fire pot, pushed his headpiece back, grasped his beard, and frowned. For a moment he was speechless. He studied Isaac as though seeing him for the first time. When he spoke it was hesitantly. “My son, you are the child of promise. It is you who will receive Elohim’s special blessing. Don’t you understand that?”
“I have heard the words, but I don’t know what this blessing is and why you think I am to inherit it.”
Both men looked into the fire but seemed uninterested in the stew pot that was giving off a delicious fragrance. The large pieces of bread had been forgotten.
“To explain,” Abraham said, “I must start way back. You already understand that Elohim, the one God, has always existed. Men discover Him; they don’t invent Him. This is His world. He created it and everything in it.”
“He existed back before Noah and the great flood?” Isaac asked.
“Of course. He let the flood happen because men had become so evil.”
“And Noah? Why did He save Noah?”
“This is the first thing we have learned about Elohim. When He wants to do something in His world, He always chooses a man. Noah was chosen and I have been chosen as you are also chosen.”
Isaac was gazing at his father intently. “What does it mean to be chosen?” he asked. “Chosen for what?”
“We don’t always know. We must listen to Elohim and do what He tells us. We must know that He exists and that He has something of importance for us to do.”
“And Noah? What happened to him?”
“Noah obeyed Elohim and his family was the only one saved from the flood.”
“And his blessing?”
“He and his family were saved and he was given the rainbow as a very special gift from Elohim.”
“I know about the rainbow. Elohim will never again destroy the world with a flood. You used to tell me that after the rains.”
“Our family history tells us more about Noah. He was saved because God saw he was righteous and because he listened to God and believed in Him. But we also know that Noah left rules for us to follow if we would be righteous.”
“We have the rules of Noah?”
“Of course. Our people come from the line of his son Shem, and they settled just below the mountain where the ark landed. The village of Haran is not far from that mountain. Shem lived to be very old. I can remember seeing him when I went north on trading trips with my father.”
For a long time the two sat without saying anything. The moon rose and the fire died down. The sounds of mothers quieting their children could be heard, and then the soft, hurrying footfalls as someone walked by the tent. At last Abraham spoke. “It’s not difficult. One who would know Elohim must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him.”
“And,” said Isaac, “what are His rewards?”
“For each man they will be different, but for me and my family it is plain. I am to be given this land and descendants as numerous the stars. I will be blessed and in turn will be a blessing.”
“It’s that simple?”
Abraham smiled. “It’s as simple as a friendship. He has chosen to love me.”
“But I have no children. Rebekah is crushed with the burden of it all. She feels she has been rejected. She’s miserable.”
“My son,” Abraham said, after a pause, “have you asked Elohim for the child?”