Just Because: The Story of Salvation for Children (5 page)

and his sons died, people again forgot about the Lord

and the flood. And, yes, old Satan was working hard

again. These people decided to build a big tower up to

the sky so they could try to see into the future and do

magic. They wanted to start doing evil things again,

worshipping Satan and not the Lord. This would lead

them into terrible trouble again, so the Lord decided

to stop this before it became a big problem.

Everybody spoke the same language at this

time, so the Lord gave them different ways to speak.

He gave them languages like French, German and

Russian, and of course when they tried to speak to

each other they couldn’t understand. Only people

in the same family understood each other. So when

they were trying to build the tower there was a lot of

confusion. Someone would ask for a brick, and the

other person might have thought he was saying his

cow was fat and ugly. In the end people left that place

and spread around the whole world. The tower was

called the Tower of Babel because “babel” means

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to talk like a babbling baby. The tower was never

finished.

Now there was a man called Abram living in a

land called Ur. Yep, in those days there was a real

place called Ur, but it isn’t called Ur now because

someone decided to change it. Now the Lord had

decided long before this exactly how He was going

to teach people to know Him and get to heaven, and

Abram was a big part of His plan. Abram loved the

Lord, unlike most people who did not believe in

God. The Lord told Abram to leave the land of Ur

and travel to a new place He was going to give him

to live in. That place was called Canaan. Abram was

about seventy-five years old when the Lord called

him to go to Canaan, so he was no young fella. His

wife, Sarah, was also getting old, but she was still

very beautiful. Sarah had no children, and everyone

thought she was too old to be a mother now.

One night the Lord woke up Abram and told him

to look up at the stars in the sky. “How many stars do

you see, Abram?” asked the Lord.

“Thousands,” replied Abram.

“Soon you will have a son,” the Lord told him,

“and one day your descendants will be thousands

like the stars in the sky.”

Abram knew Sarah was past the time when a lady

can have a baby, but he believed the Lord because

he knew the Lord always kept His promises. Then

the Lord told him he was to have a new name and

changed his name to Abraham, which means the

father of nations. So Abraham moved to Canaan, and

he also took with him his brother-in-law Lot. He had

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a name which was good for him because Lot was a

greedy man who always wanted a lot. When they got

to Canaan Lot said he wanted the nice flat land near

the two cities and a nice river, so Abraham took the

rocky land which was not so nice. Lot became a lot

of trouble for Abraham later as we shall see.

One day Abraham decided to go on a journey

because there was no food left in Canaan. He and

Sarah and their friends went down to live in Egypt for

a while. Abraham was worried about going to Egypt

because he had heard the Egyptian king liked pretty

ladies; he thought the king of Egypt might want to

take Sarah from him.

So he said to Sarah, “When we get to Egypt tell

them you are my sister, because if they know you are

my wife they might kill me and take you.”

“But, Abraham,” Sarah replied, “that would be

telling a lie.”

“But you are my half-sister, Sarah,” said Abraham.

“So it is not really a big lie.”

When they got to Egypt the king, called Pharaoh,

saw Sarah and wanted her to live at his house, and

Abraham lied and told him she was his sister. He

did not tell the king that Sarah was his wife. Then

Pharaoh gave Abraham lots of sheep and cattle and

gold and stuff because he liked Sarah and thought

she was Abraham’s brother and not his wife. But the

Lord was angry about this so he sent a disease to the

king and all the people in his house except Sarah.

The Lord did this because Pharaoh was going to

marry Sarah, but she was already Abraham’s wife.

The Lord stopped the marriage.

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Then Pharaoh knew the Lord had done this to

him, and he was angry with Abraham for telling him

a lie. So he told Abraham to take his wife and every-

thing and get away from Egypt. The king did not kill

Abraham because he was afraid of the Lord. Abraham,

Sarah, Lot and their family helpers all moved back to

Canaan and settled there again. Lot took the land in

the valley near the lovely Jordan River, and Abraham

took the land in the hills. In the valley were two

terrible cities called Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot

went to live there. But that is another story.

Sarah and Abraham made many mistakes. Sarah

decided it would be a good idea if Abraham had

another wife, so she gave him her maid to be his wife.

Abraham agreed, and he married Hagar. They had a

baby boy and called him Ishmael, but he was not the

boy God had promised them. The Lord still blessed

Ishmael, and from him came many of the people who

live in the Middle East countries.

Satan was wondering if the child God had prom-

ised Abraham might be the kid who was gonna fight

and beat him. But he was too busy in the cities of

Sodom and Gomorrah to worry too much about it.

Meanwhile, Abraham had learned a good lesson in

Egypt, and that was this: Always tell the truth, even

if you are worried about what might happen, because

the Lord will always help you. The Lord helped Sarah

because she obeyed Him, and Abraham was rescued

by the Lord because Sarah did not disobey the Lord.

The Lord always forgives us when we make mistakes

and ask for His forgiveness, Just Because He is

wonderful, and He wants the best for us always.

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One day in the valley where Lot was living, there

was a big fight called a war. Some kings who

were living there started to fight against each other,

and Lot was right in the middle of it. Now Abraham

had some good fighting men who lived with him and

looked after his sheep and cattle, so they all went

down to the valley and rescued Lot and his family.

Some bad kings had come to Sodom and taken the

people captive along with lots of their gold and stuff.

So Abraham and 318 of his men chased them, had a

fight with them and beat them. Then those guys ran

away and went back to their own lands.

So Abraham took the people back to Sodom.

The king of Sodom told him to keep all the gold and

stuff because he and his men had rescued the people,

but Abraham didn’t take anything. He did not want

to take anything from such an evil city. That night

Abraham had a dream, and the Lord told him again

that he would have a son. Abraham believed the

Lord, and this pleased the Lord. Lot was a man who

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liked to live in the city so he went back to his house

in the city of Sodom. Sodom was a very bad place,

and in this city people did very evil things. Now the

Lord did not want the rest of the world to start doing

the same things people did in the cities of Sodom and

Gomorrah, so He decided to destroy the cities. The

people knew they were doing bad things, but they

didn’t want to stop.

One day when Abraham was at home he had

three special visitors: two angels and the Lord. All

three looked like normal people to Abraham. He

asked Sarah to prepare a meal for them, and then

the Lord told Abraham again that in one year Sarah

would have a son. Now Sarah heard the Lord say

this, and she thought, “How can I have a baby when

I am so old?” So she laughed to herself, and the Lord

heard her. When he asked why she laughed, Sarah

lied to him.

Then the Lord sent his two angels down to Sodom

and Gomorrah to check it out and to get Lot and his

family to leave. And the Lord told Abraham that the

evil in those cities was so bad that He must destroy

them forever. Abraham was upset about this, and he

asked the Lord, “Will you destroy the good people

and the bad as well, all of them together?”

Then he asked, “If there are fifty good people

in the cities, will you save the cities, for surely the

judge of all the earth will do what is right?”

So the Lord answered Abraham, “Yes, if there

are fifty good people in the cities I will not destroy

them.”

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Abraham asked the Lord, “If there are forty good

and righteous people in the cities, will you save the

cities?”

And the Lord answered him, “Yes, Abraham,

for the sake of forty righteous people I will save the

cities.”

“What about thirty?” Abraham was getting braver

to ask his questions.

“Yes, for only thirty,” said the Lord.

“And what about for twenty good people, Lord?”

asked Abraham.

“Of course, Abraham,” said the Lord.

Abraham wondered if he should ask for only ten.

He decided the Lord was always fair and right so he

asked Him, “If there are ten good people, will you

save the cities, Lord?” The Lord agreed.

Meanwhile, the two angels arrived at Lot’s house,

and he let them in. They told Lot and his family that

they must leave the city with them right then because

the Lord was going to destroy the cities. Yes, the Lord

knew there were not even ten good people living in

those two cities—only Lot and his family. And the

angels warned Lot and his family to run for their

lives and not look back. They told them that if they

stopped to look back at the cities they would die.

Now Lot’s wife enjoyed living in Sodom, and

she didn’t believe the angels of the Lord. Silly lady,

huh? The angels took them to the gates of the city and

told them to run. A storm had started. They started

running, but Lot’s wife was sad to be leaving. She

stopped and turned to look at the evil city she loved.

Immediately she became covered in salt. She died as

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she was standing there just as she had been warned.

She must have looked like the biggest salt shaker

ever. Some people just never listen.

Then there was an earthquake and fire, and tar

erupted from the ground and was thrown into the sky.

It started to rain down burning tar and fire onto the

cities, and everything began to burn and be destroyed.

All the people who were living there and doing evil

things were also destroyed.

Satan was angry! He had tried to spread the evil

from Sodom and Gomorrah throughout the world as

before the big flood, but the Lord had stopped his

plan. The beautiful valley of Sodom and Gomorrah

had become a burning, smelly hell. They had smoke

and fire and ashes, but when the smoke cleared the

evil had been burned up and was no more.

Just goes to show it pays to use your brains, which

Lot’s wife didn’t do, and it doesn’t pay to be greedy

as Lot was. Guess he had a name that suited him

well, because he always wanted a lot. And because

he wanted a lot, Abraham gave him a lot. But the lot

he got, got burned up, and that didn’t do Lot a lot of

good, did it? No way!

But Lot still had his daughters and his life, and

God loved him even if he had been greedy and

wanted to live in those cities. But his wife didn’t do

too well because she thought, “How can God burn up

two big cities?” So she didn’t believe.

God did burn the cities, and she turned into a

giant salt shaker Just Because she looked back at the

cities of evil instead of loving the Lord. Told you she

had no brains.

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One year after the Lord had promised, Sarah

had a son. You can imagine how happy she

and Abraham were. This baby was a miracle baby

because Sarah was an old lady when she had him.

Sarah laughed again, but this time she was laughing

because she was so happy to have a little baby boy.

They were both kind of old people, but now they had

a beautiful son of their own because the Lord always

keeps His promises. They decided to call him Isaac,

and he grew up to learn about God from his father.

Satan was also very busy, and the other people in

this place were worshipping him in a new way. Satan

had people listening to him and serving him, and

these people had told everyone that Satan was the true

God. He was very cunning though because he didn’t

tell them his real name. Perhaps this was because, if

you remember, his name means the “father of liars.”