Unhesitatingly, Avraham and his loyal, dedicated wife Sarah set out on the next step of their journey. They settled in Canaan. But Canaan would not be the wonderful, blessed land that God had promised, at least not at the outset. Avraham and his retinue were confronted with an intense famine, one that forced them down to Egypt in search of food. Sarah was taken captive by Pharaoh. Only through divine intervention did the couple emerge from the hostile land unscathed. At no time did Avraham or Sarah utter a single word of complaint.
Soon after their return to Canaan, a war broke out between the four most powerful kings of the time, led by Nimrod, and five vassal city-states in Canaan, which included Sodom and Gomorrah. In the conflict, Avraham’s nephew Lot, a resident of Sodom, was taken captive. Despite Lot’s recent estrangement from his family, Avraham sacrificed his own wellbeing in pursuing his nephew’s captors. Miraculously, he and his small band defeated the mighty armies, world superpowers at the time, and freed Lot. Yet Avraham refused to accept credit for the victory. Nor was he inclined to take the victor’s spoils (Bereishis 14:22-23.)
Such benevolence was extended to strangers as well, even in the most trying conditions. At the age of ninety-nine, Avraham was instructed by God to circumcise himself and all males in his household as a corporal covenant between him and his Maker.
The procedure was painful, particularly in the intense desert heat and without any of the benefits of modern medicine. Still, the Torah informs us that nary three days later, while experiencing a most acute level of pain, the Jewish patriarch sat by the entrance to his tent on the hottest day on record, anxiously awaiting any passersby who might come into his range of sight.
When some finally appeared – complete strangers who occupied society’s social lowest stratum – Avraham ran at full speed, despite his perilous condition, to feed and service them with the most exquisite delicacies he could offer.
After consuming their kingly portions, the visitors – angels sent by God – shared more information about their visit. They told Avraham that in one year he and Sarah would finally merit a long-awaited offspring, Isaac. They also told him of God’s intention to destroy Sodom, Gomorrah, and three neighboring city-states, due to their intense wickedness.
Most people, if informed that a large band of severely depraved individuals were slated for divinely-ordained annihilation, would be more than content to leave things as they were. After all, society would be far better off without renegades of such evil character. But Avraham was not so inclined, and fought vigorously for some form of clemency on their behalf – refusing to relent until he was told that less than a quorum of righteous people resided in all these municipalities combined.
Avraham was not unaware of their true natures. Still, he was deeply disturbed that God had decreed communal destruction upon them and he endeavored with all his heart to overturn the edict.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in Avraham’s life – and the greatest manifestation of his personal drive for truth and service – came at the advanced age of 137. Without warning, the patriarch was instructed by God to take Isaac, the son for whom he had waited for decades and through whom his future was fully bound, and raise him up as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah.
Avraham’s struggle ran even deeper than his strong paternalistic feelings and a longing for the perpetuation of his family line. It forced him to be the world’s first recorded theodicean, a defender of God’s goodness and omnipotence in the face of the apparent existence of evil. God’s demand flew in the face of Avraham’s core beliefs, and stood to negate a lifetime of preaching and practice.
