But what if that destiny also put your child in mortal danger from the moment they were born?
That's exactly the predicament Terah, Abraham's father, found himself in. The story, as told in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, unfolds like this: A king, upon hearing of Abraham's birth and a strange, portentous sign in the heavens, summons Terah. He’s terrified! This new baby, the king believes, is a threat.
"Give me the boy," the king demands, "that we may slay him before evil comes upon us from him, and I will give thee thy house full of silver and gold in exchange for him."
Can you imagine that offer? Your son's life for a house overflowing with riches. Talk about a moral dilemma.
Terah's response is fascinating, a blend of shrewdness and defiance. He doesn't immediately refuse. Instead, he answers with a parable. "This thing which thou promisest unto me," he says, "is like the words which a man spoke to a mule, saying, 'I will give thee a great heap of barley, a houseful thereof, on condition that I cut off thy head!' The mule replied, 'Of what use will all the barley be to me, if thou cuttest off my head? Who will eat it when thou givest it to me?'"
What a brilliant retort! He's essentially saying, "What good is all the wealth in the world if my son is dead? Who will inherit it?" It's a moment of surprising wisdom from a figure often overlooked in the grand narrative of Abraham.
But here's where things get even more interesting. Terah, sensing the king's rising anger, quickly backtracks. "Whatever the king desireth to do unto his servant, that let him do, even my son is at the king's disposal, without value or exchange, he and his two older brethren."
Wait, what? He just compared the king to a murderer offering a useless bribe, and now he's offering up not just Abraham, but his other sons too? It's a puzzling shift. Is he trying to appease the king? Is he testing him? Or is there something else at play here that we don't see?
This moment in Legends of the Jews really makes you think. It's easy to focus on Abraham, the hero, the patriarch. But what about the people around him? What were their motivations, their fears, their hopes? Terah's actions, in this brief exchange, are complex and leave you pondering the difficult choices people face when caught between power, prophecy, and family. What would you have done?