Mother Stories from the Old Testament.

by Anonymous.

OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

ADAM AND EVE.

In the beginning G.o.d made the heaven and the earth He also made the sun, moon, and stars; trees, flowers, and all vegetable life; and all animals, birds, fishes, and insects. Then G.o.d made man. The name of the first man was Adam, and the first woman was Eve. Both were placed in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden, where they might have been happy continually had they not sinned. But G.o.d forbade them to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan tempted Eve to take the fruit of this tree. She ate, and gave to Adam, and he ate also. Thus they sinned, and sin came into the world.

Then G.o.d called to Adam and said, "Where art thou?" Before this, Adam and Eve had been happy when G.o.d was near, now they were afraid. Why?

Because they knew they had done wrong. So sin makes us afraid of G.o.d.

G.o.d rebuked them for the evil they had done; and then drove them out of the Garden of Eden, placing an angel to keep watch over the gate so that they could not return.

CAIN AND ABEL.

What a sad story the Bible tells us in the fourth chapter of Genesis!

Cain and Abel were brothers, the sons of Adam and Eve. How they should have loved each other! Yet we find that Cain killed Abel. Why did he do this?

Cain was a husbandman, who tilled the ground; Abel was a shepherd, who kept sheep. One day each offered a sacrifice to G.o.d. Cain brought fruit, and Abel brought a lamb. G.o.d accepted Abel's offering, but not Cain's. Why? Well, I am not quite sure, but I think it was because Abel offered his sacrifice according as G.o.d had commanded, and had faith in a promised Saviour; but Cain simply acknowledged G.o.d's goodness in giving him the fruits of the earth. G.o.d had probably told them, too, that when they came to worship Him, they were to bring a lamb or a kid as a sacrifice for their sins; this Abel had done, but Cain had not. Cain was angry because G.o.d had accepted Abel's offering and not his; and he hated his brother Abel.

G.o.d knew the evil thought Cain had towards his brother, and asked him, "Why art thou wroth?" and said, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" But Cain did still more wickedly. When out in the field he killed his brother. Was it not a cruel deed? They were alone when this murder was committed, yet one eye saw it all. G.o.d saw it, and said to Cain: "Where is Abel, thy brother?" We cannot sin without G.o.d knowing it! Cain told G.o.d a lie. He answered, "I know not." But he did know.

G.o.d was angry with Cain for his sin, and sent him as a fugitive and vagabond to wander on the earth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ABEL'S SACRIFICE.]

THE FLOOD.

About fifteen hundred years had pa.s.sed since Cain slew Abel, during which time man had become more and more wicked. At length G.o.d saw "that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Then G.o.d said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth."

But one man was righteous and served G.o.d. His name was Noah. G.o.d told him that the world would be drowned by a flood because of the wickedness of the people, and commanded him to build a great ark to float upon the waters. In this ark G.o.d promised to preserve alive Noah and his family; and also two of each of every living thing on the earth--animals, birds, and creeping things. All the rest were to die.

Noah built the ark as G.o.d commanded. It took him a great many years, during which time the people were warned to forsake their sins and turn to G.o.d, but they did not do so. At last the ark was finished, and Noah, with his wife, and his sons with their wives, and the animals, birds, and creeping things, as G.o.d had commanded, all entered into it.

What a long procession it must have been! Then G.o.d shut them in, and they dwelt in safety while the rain came down, and the waters rose up and covered the earth. All were drowned except those in the ark.

A year afterwards, when the waters were dried up, Noah, and all that had been with him, left the ark. Then Noah built an altar, and offered sacrifices to G.o.d, in thankfulness for G.o.d's goodness to him and his family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTERING THE ARK.]

THE TOWER OF BABEL.

Babel means confusion. Was it not a strange name to give a tower? How did it get this?

After Noah left the ark, G.o.d made a promise to him that He would no more destroy the earth by a flood, and blessed him and his sons. In course of time many little children were born, baby boys and girls, who grew up to be fathers and mothers having children also. In this manner a great many people dwelt again on the earth. For more than one hundred years they all spoke the same language, and as, in course of time, they journeyed onward, they came to a large plain in the land of Shinar, near to where Babylon was afterwards built. Here they said they would remain and build a great city, with a high tower ascending to heaven.

Now G.o.d, when he blessed Noah, had said to him, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth;" meaning that the people were to scatter abroad, so that the world might become inhabited again. But these men wanted to keep together, and found one great empire, the centre of which should be the great city with the lofty tower. So they made bricks and burnt them, and took a kind of pitch for mortar, and began to build. Some learned men say they took three years in getting the materials, and were twenty-two years building the tower. It was very great and high, but it was never finished. The people did wickedly in building it, and G.o.d, who saw all they were doing, confounded their language, so that one could not understand another.

Thus they left off building the tower, and that is why it is called Babel. Then G.o.d scattered them abroad to re-people the earth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUILDING THE TOWER OF BABEL.]

LOT'S FLIGHT FROM SODOM.

In Palestine, the land in which Jesus dwelt when He was upon earth, there is an inland sea, called the Dead Sea. Its waters are very salt, and no trees grow upon its sh.o.r.es. Many long years before the birth of Jesus Christ, two cities stood upon the plain which the waters of the Dead Sea now cover. These cities were named Sodom and Gomorrah. Their inhabitants were very wicked, so G.o.d destroyed their cities by raining brimstone and fire upon them.

Before G.o.d destroyed these cities, He sent two angels to Lot, Abraham's nephew, who dwelt in Sodom, commanding him to flee from it, taking his family with him. The angels hastened him, saying, "Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city." Then the angels took all four by the hand and led them out, and said to Lot, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."

Lot pleaded that he might take refuge in a little city, named Zoar, not very far distant; and having obtained the angels' permission to do so, he took his wife and daughters, and hastened away. In our picture we see him and his daughters entering Zoar, and Sodom burning in the distance--but what is that strange figure standing on the plain? Alas!

that is Lot's wife; the angel had commanded them that none were to look back, but she did so, and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot did wrong in dwelling in such a wicked city as Sodom, and lost all his property when he escaped for his life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOT ENTERING ZOAR.]

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.

Abraham feared G.o.d and obeyed His commandments; and G.o.d promised to bless Abraham very greatly. He gave him riches in cattle, and silver, and gold; and said that the land of Canaan should belong to him and his descendants. G.o.d also gave him a son in his old age, whom he loved, very dearly and named Isaac. But G.o.d intended to try Abraham, to see if he loved Him above all else.

One day G.o.d told Abraham to take his son Isaac, and to journey into the land of Moriah; there to build an altar and offer Isaac as a sacrifice upon it. It was a strange command, but Abraham knew that G.o.d would not bid him do what was wrong, and believed that even if he slew his son, G.o.d was able to raise him to life again. So he rose early in the morning, saddled his a.s.s, took two of his young men, and wood for the fire; and then, accompanied by Isaac, started on his journey. On the third day they came near the place G.o.d had pointed out, and Abraham left the young men with the a.s.s, while he and his son journeyed up the mountain alone. As they went along, Isaac--who carried the wood, while his father carried the knife and the fire, said: "My father." And Abraham replied, "Here am I, my son." Then Isaac said: "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham answered: "My son, G.o.d will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering."

The altar was built, Isaac was bound and laid upon it, and Abraham's arm was uplifted to strike the blow that was to take his son's life away. Then G.o.d called to Abraham, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest G.o.d, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me." Abraham looked up, and behind him saw a ram which was caught in a thicket by its horns; this he took and offered as a sacrifice to G.o.d.

So G.o.d tried Abraham; and also Himself provided the lamb for the burnt offering, as Abraham had said.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.]