Unholy Empire: Chronicles of the Host, Vol 2: Chronicles of the Host, Book 2 (25 page)

Serus and Gabriel stood and watched from a distance as Abraham received instruction from the Lord. Though Serus knew in his heart that whatever the Most High did, He did with great wisdom and forethought, it perplexed him to watch this scene unfold. Here was the son of promise—the child in whom both men and angels had been hoping—about to be delivered unto death.

He looked to Gabriel for answers, but Gabriel could offer none that would satisfy Serus’s queries. Is the Lord going to bring back Ishmael after all? Is this not the son of promise? Surely the Lord is not going to have Sarah bear yet another child. All of these questions rang through Serus’s mind as he watched God and man in dialogue. He felt pity for Abraham. And he was very sad himself.

“
When you get to the mountains of Moriah, you are to sacrifice your son as a burnt offering
,” the Lord said.

“A burnt offering?” Abraham repeated the words. “My son?”

“
Yes
,” said the Lord. “
At a place that I shall disclose once you are in the region of Moriah
.”

“My Lord and God,” said Abraham. “For some 50 years I have walked with You. Always You have shown Yourself a true and faithful Lord. During times of great stress You were my relief; whenever I strayed from Your trust You brought me back; when You promised me a son, You delivered a son—even in my old age and even when my wife’s womb was barren.

“And now, O Lord, You ask me to give back to You in sacrifice the greatest love of my life—the very son You promised me years ago. You ask me to offer in sacrifice the person I cherish most on earth along with my wife. Lord I know that the vile nations around us offer their children to the devil god Molech. You are a righteous God and yet You ask for the life of my son. I don’t understand…”

Abraham looked down at the bits of sinew and shavings clinging to his feet—evidence of the bow he had just made with Isaac. Even now the boy was out hunting, totally unaware that his life had been claimed by the Most High. Abraham swallowed hard, looking now at Sarah’s tent. How could he explain this to her? She had finally come to the point of trusting the God who had called her from her family in Ur. Was she now to trust that the same God had called for her son’s death?

“Lord Most High, I don’t understand,” Abraham said, strangely feeling a surge of peace beginning to overtake his anxiety. “But this I know. If Isaac is indeed the son of promise, and if indeed You are calling me to do this, then I believe that Isaac’s destiny is assured.”

He pulled his knife out of his belt and held it high to the Lord, the flint blade shimmering toward the heavens. “And should it come to the killing of Isaac, if that is Your will, then I believe that the promise is assured—even should You raise the boy from the dead! Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

C
HAPTER
13

“As Isaac goes, so goes the promise.”

Serus trailed a short distance behind Abraham’s party, which was making its way toward Moriah. Along with the father and son were two servants, and a donkey on which was the kindling for the burnt offering. Abraham and Isaac had gathered the wood themselves the day before. Abraham’s mind drifted behind to Sarah. He had told her he was taking Isaac on a three-day journey to sacrifice to the Lord. She had cautioned him to be very careful of Isaac. Abraham looked at his son, who was enjoying the adventure of exploring a region he had never before visited.

Serus had gone on alone—Gabriel said that he must make this journey on his own. But other angels had picked up on the news and were beginning to show up at various points along the way. Many of the devils watched in disbelief as the boy of promise walked by on his way to execution. They mocked Serus as well.

“Some guardian!” shouted one. “Save him, if you are a true angel of God.”

“Perhaps the test is yours, Serus,” suggested another. “To see if you will be bold enough to rescue Isaac from his father’s blade!”

Serus ignored the jeering rebels and kept a watchful eye on Isaac. For three days they continued up the sloping hills toward Moriah. When they finally arrived in the region, Abraham ordered the men to make a camp. He then told them that he and the boy would go and sacrifice to the Lord, and that they would both be back.

“Both of them?” asked a puzzled Kara, who arrived at the last moment with Pellecus in order to watch the spectacle. “Abraham and Sarah will be sending for Ishmael within a week! You see, my plan worked after all!”

“It’s truly an amazing thing,” said Pellecus, very puzzled by it all. “I still wonder about this whole thing. I am suspicious of the Most High.”

“Such delicious irony,” noted Kara. “The poor boy is carrying the very wood on which he is to be sacrificed!”

“Seems a cruel joke, I must admit,” said Pellecus. “Carrying the instrument of his own execution.”

A crowd of devils jeered Isaac as he walked by them, carrying the bundle of wood on his shoulders. “Kill him!” they shouted, calling him all sorts of vile names.

“I believe the Most High can share the stage for only so long,” said Kara. “And then He must act to recapture it!”

Pellecus could only muster a “Kara, you’re a fool” look of disdain.

“It’s true. It happened in Heaven, too. I always knew that the Lord could not stand to lose face,” Kara continued. “Obviously, the fact that all eyes were upon Isaac got the better of Him. I tell you, the Lord is no more righteous than Lucifer. They both enjoy adoration and will go to any lengths to justify it. Once Isaac is dead Lucifer can press his case and end this war on those grounds alone!”

“Quiet,” said Pellecus. “They are beginning!”

Isaac dropped the bundle of wood that he was carrying exactly where his father instructed him to. Abraham then put down the knife and the firepot that he was carrying and looked at his son, tears in his eyes.

“Father, what is the matter?” asked Isaac.

“It is time to make sacrifice, my son,” Abraham responded.

Isaac looked about but didn’t see the usual animal.

“The Lord Himself shall provide the sacrifice, my son,” said Abraham. He then motioned Isaac over to him and hugged him for a long time. Isaac wasn’t sure why his father was acting like this, but he remained in the embrace. At length Abraham released him.

They began to build an altar and arrange the wood on it. Isaac was still looking about for the animal that was to be sacrificed. Abraham took a cord and began to tie up his son.

“Father, what does this mean? You’re not going to kill me?”

“The Lord has commanded it so,” said Abraham, beginning to weep.

Isaac also began to weep.

“But Father, I don’t understand!”

“It is not ours to understand, my son,” said Abraham. He picked up the boy and lay him on top of the wood. “I love you, my son.”

He picked the knife up and held it in his hand.

Serus could not bear to watch what was about to happen. He turned his face from the altar. He could see the leering faces of dark spirits who had come in to watch the killing of Isaac and, hopefully, the death of a promise.

“As Isaac goes, so goes the promise,” Kara said haughtily. “And then the prophecy will be nullified!”

Pellecus nodded in polite agreement, but secretly wondered if that was really true.

“There he goes!” said Kara, as Abraham raised the knife.

“
Abraham! Abraham!
”

All of the angels looked up and saw the Angel of the Lord streaking out of Heaven in a blazing light. It was the same angel who had appeared with the other two at Mamre. Abraham dropped the knife and fell to his knees. The Angel came and stood at the altar. Isaac was still trembling and wondering whom his father was talking to, since he could see and hear nobody else.

“
Do not touch the boy
,” said the Angel. “
For you have truly shown Me that you are a righteous man who loves Me. You did not withhold from Me your very own son!
”

Kara and Pellecus had vanished immediately upon the Angel’s arrival. Once more they were incredulous at the turn of events in this war. The other fallen angels likewise dispersed at the Angel’s presence. All who remained were Serus, Abraham, and Isaac. The two men were now weeping tears of relief. Then the Angel disappeared as well.

“Look, Father—over there!”

In a thicket was a fine ram, caught by its horns. Abraham untied Isaac, and together they sacrificed the ram in the name of the Lord on the very altar that had been intended for Isaac. Serus watched proudly as father and son worshiped together. He was also proud that his Lord had spared the boy of whom he had grown so fond.

A Voice called out from Heaven, “
I swear by Myself that because you have not withheld your own son, I will bless you with an uncountable heritage. You will possess great cities and all nations on earth will be blessed because you obeyed Me!
”

Serus followed the two back to the base of the hill where the servants had set up camp. He had seen a great thing today—how obedience proved greater than a sacrifice. He had seen how a man could please God by trusting Him enough to give up everything. And he had seen that the promise was alive and well—that all the world would be blessed through the seed of Abraham because he had obeyed at Moriah.