February 28, 2011
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Story of the World – Chapter Six
————— Follow the Fertile Crescent —————Things are about to change in the ‘Story of the World’ book we’ve been doing, for now we’re embarking on Bible stories, and the introduction of Israel into the picture! The story is that of Abram (later, Abraham), and his family lineage… not to mention his calling by the one and only True God.
When the story starts out, Abram’s father is living in Ur (in Mesopotamia) and worships the gods of the Mesopotamian people at the ziggurats. But because of Sardon’s conquests in order to build the world’s first Empire (the Babylonian Empire), Terah worries that Ur (a large city-state) will be fought/conquered, and he wants to avoid being in the middle of a battle. So he moves his family to Haran (a smaller village area). Then Ha’Shem calls Abram to leave Haran – after Terah’s death – and go to Canaan, an unsettled place away from the civilization they were familiar with. There Ha’Shem made a covenant with Abram, changing his (and Sarai’s) names to Abraham and Sarah and promising them to be the start of a great nation.
And of course we know Abraham had Ishmael (Islam) and Isaac (Israel), Isaac had Esau (Islam) and Jacob (Israel), and Jacob had twelve sons… the twelve tribes of Israel – the second youngest (Joseph) of which went on to be a great ruler in Egypt… which brings us back through to Egypt, again.
Now… what to do to make this chapter come alive. Hrm. I thought about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph… but I already have pictures of them in our Book of Centuries from when we studied them in Genesis (in our Bible study time). So THAT’S covered.
But what came to mind was a tree. A tree that would take us not only through the lineage (Terah to Joseph), but from Ur down to Egypt. A Journey Tree – the journey being time, family, and location, all at the same time! So I went on a hunt to see where Ur and Haran were in proximity to Caanan… and shocker of all shockers.. they weren’t ANYWHERE near where I expected ‘em to be. In fact, if you follow the Journey from Ur to Canaan, guess what you’re traveling? Not a tree – it’s the FERTILE CRESCENT (that we learned about in Chpt. 1)!! Check this out:
image from http://www.pbase.com/daveb/image/42673320Ur is down by the Persian Gulf (ish). Haran is up in the green, almost to Anatolia/Turkey. And Canaan is down along the Mediterranean. So following the story, we go with Terah from Ur to Haran, then with Abram from Haran to Canaan, then there’s Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, who takes us down to Egypt.We just traveled the WHOLE Fertile Crescent!!Now I’ve heard those stories ALL my life, but I never knew that! Nobody ever told me that! ((Hell, until today, I didn’t even know where Ur was!)) That is absolutely amazing! The Lord not only provided, but He directed them to travel down the most beautiful, plentiful path through the Middle East that there was!
Pardon me for getting excited, but this school stuff is just TOTALLY kewl!
