Seven Lambs Stories of Peace from the Old Testament Retold by Eric Burnett Timar Contents 3 Abraham Makes Peace with Abimelech 9 Joseph and His Brothers 17 Boaz and Ruth 23 Jonah on the Ship 27 The Vision of Peace in Micah Copyright 2011 by Eric Burnett Timar. All rights reserved. White Cedar Press New York - Miami - Auckland
Abraham Makes Peace with Abimelech! The Hebrews, in the days of the Old Testament in the Bible, had many different neighbors through the years; and I m afraid the Hebrews and the neighbors often did not get along.! One group of neighbors was called the Philistines. 3
These were the Philistines. Do they look like friendly neighbors to you?
The Hebrews and the Philistines often fought with each other, but at least one man managed to get along with them: Abraham. God had told Abraham to move to a land that was close to the Philistines. Abraham met with their king, Abimelech, and afterward they lived next to each other in peace.! 5
! How did Abraham and Abimelech do this? Well, they got together and talked. It started out as simply as that. They met at a place called Beersheba. 6
! Abimelech had already given Abraham some sheep and cattle. At Beersheba, Abraham gave Abimelech sheep and cattle, too, and also seven lambs. The two men then agreed that they would be kind to each other. This is called making a treaty, or a covenant.! It worked! Abraham lived close to the Philistines for a long time.
Joseph and His Brothers! Joseph was a young man who had eleven brothers. He spent time as a shepherd.! Joseph s father liked him the best out of his twelve sons. He gave Joseph a special present: A coat of many colors. 9
10! It may have been a soft, purple coat with shiny gold buttons, red cuffs, and a bright blue collar. The Bible does not say exactly what it looked like.
Joseph s brothers were jealous. So jealous that they stole his coat and threw him into a cistern in the ground.! A cistern is like a well. It s a big wide hole in the ground that holds water. This cistern was empty, when Joseph s brothers threw him into it, but he was not able to climb out because its sides were so steep. The bottom of an empty cistern is a dangerous and scary place to be.! 11
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But when his brothers finally pulled him out of the cistern, things got even worse for Joseph, because they sold him as a slave. Some traders were passing through the land in a camel caravan, and his brothers sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. The traders took Joseph to Egypt. 13
! Even though he was taken to Egypt as a slave, Joseph did well there. He worked for the Pharaoh the ruler of the Egyptians and was able to live in a nice house and have a happy family. The Pharoah liked Joseph and eventually put him in charge of all the food in Egypt.
! Then one day, years later, Joseph s brothers came to Egypt. There was a famine back where they lived that means there was no food and they journeyed to Egypt to buy some. They had to talk to Joseph, because he was in charge of the food! But his brothers did not recognize him, because years had passed and he looked different.!! He remembered them, though!! How do you think Joseph treated his brothers then? After all, they had thrown him into a cistern and sold him as a slave!! Do you think he was very angry? Would you have been angry?! (I think I would have been angry!) 15
! But Joseph was kind to his brothers. He gave them the food they needed and even put presents in their bags of grain! He forgave them. He brought the family back together, and they lived in peace.
Boaz and Ruth! Ruth was a woman from the land of Moab who moved to Israel. She did this because there was a famine in Moab. 17
18! Ruth worried that the Israelites would not be nice to her. She was a foreigner, which is what we call someone from a different country; and she was an immigrant, which means she was not just visiting the Israelites, but was going to live with them for good.
! Also, people from Moab fought against the Israelites in the times of the Old Testament.! At one time the King of Moab conquered the Israelites and ruled over them for eighteen years; later on it was Israel who attacked the Moabites.
!! But it turned out that an Israelite named Boaz was nice to Ruth. He let her work in fields gleaning, which means picking up any grain that the regular farmers had missed when they did the harvest. Even apart from the gleaning, Boaz made sure Ruth had enough food. Boaz the Israelite and Ruth the Moabite lived in peace with each other. 20
Jonah on the Ship! Jonah was a man who lived in Israel.! One day God told him to travel to the city of Nineveh.! Jonah then got on a boat and sailed somewhere else instead. 23
God really, really wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh. A storm arose around the boat. The storm was so bad that it was about to flip the boat over, and toss out all the men who were on it.!
! Jonah guessed he was causing the problem, so he told the crew they should just throw him overboard.! But do you know what the men did instead? They rowed hard to try to get away from the storm and keep Jonah on board. The Bible says this in the book of Jonah:!! The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So! the crew asked Jonah, What should we do to! make the sea calm down for us?!! Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he! replied, and it will become calm. I know that it is! my fault that this great storm has come upon! you.!! Instead, the men did their best to row back! to land. 25
!! Even though Jonah was a stranger to the men on the boat, the crew tried to save him.! I am afraid the rest of the boat trip did not go very well for Jonah. It was not the sort of boat trip that anyone enjoys. You can read about it in the Bible. But remember that the first thing the crew on the ship tried to do when the storm arose was to save their neighbor Jonah. 26
Micah s Vision of Peace! In the book of Micah in the Bible, we can read about the peace that God will bring one day:! God will judge between many peoples and settle their arguments.! They will melt their swords, and turn them into shovels and hoes;! and they will melt their guns, and turn them into gardening shears.! Countries will not fight each other, and they won t practice for war anymore either.! All the people will be able to work in their own gardens, and rest under their own shade trees, and no one will make them afraid.! No one will make them afraid, because God has spoken.
Notes The treaty of Abraham and Abimelech at Beersheba is in Genesis 21: 22-34. One example of the Israelites fighting against the Philistines is at 1 Samuel 31. The story of Joseph begins in Genesis 37. The story of Ruth is in the book of Ruth. Judges 3:12-14 mentions that the King of Moab ruled the Israelites for 18 years. The Israelites attack on Moab is mentioned at Judges 3:28-29. The section of the book of Jonah quoted is Chapter 1, verses 11, 12, and half of 13. The passage from Micah is from Chapter 4, verses 3-4. Illustrations: Page 4: The Death of Saul, Gustave Doré Page 5: Abraham's Journey, József Molnár Page 9: Landscape with a Herd, Charles-Emile Jacque Page 14: Joseph Is Sold By His Brothers, Gustave Doré Page 16: Joseph s Brothers, Alexander Ivanov Page 17: Ruth and Boaz, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld Page 18: Map by Larry Wood, Free Bible Maps, http://www.biblenews1.com/maps/maps.html Page 19: Death of Agag, Gustave Doré Page 21: Ruth and Boaz, Gustave Doré Page 23: Jonah Calling Nineveh to Repentance, Gustave Doré Page 24: Jonah Overboard, Caspar Luiken. Courtesy of the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University Paintings and engravings are public domain via Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise noted. Thank You! M. Patrick Graham, Ph.D.; Debra A. Madera; Margaret Peddle; Jeff and Carolyn Strong