Thursday, November 27, 2008

Road Trip to Canaan (sort of)



Happy Thanksgiving Master Cohen, did you have a fine day?

<= = = I did sir, I ate too much and took a nap, but I feel great now.

That seems to be the consensus in America on how to celebrate, eat too much and take a nap. Do you know you can spot a group of Americans visiting the Holy Land from a hundred yards away, most of the group will be overweight, even the kids. Anyway, today we have a journey in the direction of Canaan to talk about.

Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his grandson Lot (his son Haran's child) and left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. After traveling 600 miles of dusty desert listening to Nahor's kids ask, "Are we there yet"! They decided to stop at the village of Haran, a caravan town and settled there. All and all the entourage was about twenty people with the usual Middle Eastern nomadic collection of sheep, goats and camels, but there was plenty of space to pitch tents and water from the river Belik.

If Terah Wild Goat, the Wanderer had read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he would have known the importance of begin with the end in mind. But he was kind of in it for the journey, the experience and never actually accomplished much, so he never made it to Canaan and frankly, never cared.

Terah lived to be 205, in his last hundred years or some other large number, no one knows exactly how long he lived in Harron ( yes, in the three thousand years that have passed they added an extra r), he still sat by the path in a comfortable chair, but he no longer carved idols. Harran, if you want to sharpen your Biblical geography, was southeast Turkey, home of the mudbrick beehive house and most famous for being a global supplier of Stobrum gum, a sleep disorder treatment.

Abram thoroughly enjoyed being out of the city, his herds were prospering and Lot wasn't a bad shepherd either. Sarai seemed perfectly happy to go camping with him when they took their flocks to pasture and even though they still did not have children, they were a close couple. Abram was glad his dad was out of the idol business, that seemed a bit cheesy, kind of like selling used chariots.

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