Nomads
Thousands of years ago, there were tribes of people who moved around and didn’t settle in one place. These wandering people were called Nomads.
The nomads moved constantly through the lands in search of food. The women and children would gather the food by digging in the ground for roots, searching for nuts and berries from the bushes and trees, finding eggs in birds’ nests and reaching into beehives for the sweet-tasting honey.
The nomadic men provided the food by hunting. They would use spears or bows and arrows to hunt bison, deer, elk, wild horses, fish, lizards and snakes. Sometimes they would capture the animal by digging a hole in the ground and making a trap, where it could fall in and make an easy target for their arrows.
The nomads used animal hides over wooden poles for their shelters. Those in the colder rocky places used caves for their homes. Eventually, the food would run out at their location, and they would have to pick up and move on again. They were accustomed to moving often in search of areas with plentiful food.
On one of their journeys in search of food, the Nomads came to a place called the “Fertile Crescent”. The land is called the Fertile Crescent because of the rich soil and the plentiful water from the rivers that run through the area. Today, the Fertile Crescent, is between Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley. It is known as part of the lands including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and lower Egypt.
Unlike the desert areas they were accustomed to, the Nomads found that plants, trees, thick grass, wild barley and wild wheat grew abundantly in the fertile land. Roots, nuts, and berries, as well as herds of wild horses and small deer were everywhere.
The most exciting discovery were the huge rivers flowing through the land. The nomads were used to small pools of water, or tiny streams trickling through the rocks. Water was so scarce to them in the desert, that it was rationed for drinking. When they came to the Fertile Crescent, they were able to bathe for the first time in their lives.
As they explored the land, they met other tribes who had also discovered the rich land. Soon, they learned to put seeds into the ground, and grow their own crops, which allowed them to finally stay in one area and be able to provide and survive for themselves, their families and their tribes.
Some of the first nomads settled right in the middle of the Fertile Crescent in the land of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means “the land between two rivers.” It got its name because it was located right in the middle of two great rivers…the Tigris and the Euphrates.
The settled nomads learned that they needed to tend to their planted crops, and keep them watered to ensure their growth. That meant the farmers had to tend to their crops for months at a time, requiring a change in their nomadic lifestyle. They began to build houses that would stay in one place, with materials they could find in the area, like reeds near the river, or hardened mud bricks from the soil.
Soon they discovered that it was helpful to build their houses closer together, so they could help each other. That is how the first villages began. When the farmers learned that they could tame sheep and goats, they would put a central pen or field right in the middle of their villages. Eventually, the villages became successful raising sheep and goats, growing grain, making breads and pottery.
They began building boats so they could sail along the rivers and visit other villages. Soon the villages began to trade with each other the items plentiful within their own villages, like sheep’s wool, animal skins, metals, pottery and wood. When the villages began to grow rich, the inhabitants became fearful that they would be attacked and robbed by bandits. They built big stone walls around their villages, and became the first cities ever built.
One of the earliest cities was Jericho. Jericho had one of the strongest, thickest walls in the ancient world, which stood 13 feet tall and 10 feet thick, with a circular tower on one side so lookouts could see their enemies approaching.
Egyptians
The people who settled in the Nile River Valley experienced life differently than those who settled along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Nile River was different, because it was often low, with very little water in it, and then other times it was so full that it flooded over all the farmland.
The Nile River flows north from African Deserts to Egypt. The ground is dry and sandy. Ancient Egyptians built their houses next to the Nile because it was the only water they could find, and that water had to be drawn and scooped with buckets every day.
During the summer, the water from the Nile River was plentiful, but as summer turned to fall and winter, the water level would get lower and lower. By the middle of winter, there would be just a low, muddy stream running down the center of the river. The sun would dry the river more, and the ground would become dry and cracked. In the spring, it would start to rain in the distant mountains, far away from the Ancient Egypt, where rain seldom falls. But hundreds of miles away, rain would began pouring down, running down the mountains and straight into the Nile River. Soon, a huge flood of rushing water scooped up mud and rich soil from the bottom of the muddy Nile River Valley and tumbled it down the valley, straight to the Egyptian lands, which filled up the river and overflowed the banks on both sides.
Every spring that the Nile River flooded, made the Egyptians very happy. The water soaked into the dry ground, and prepared it for crops, as it left behind the rich soil from the bottom of the river. They found the flood placed silt grew excellent crops!
The Nile River Valley is also part of the Fertile Crescent, but it needed something besides sunlight and water. It depended on the flooding of the Nile. The Nile Delta, where the river splits into many different little rivers and runs into the Mediterranean Sea, was exceedingly fertile in the spring floods. to bring life to the land.
False gods of the Egyptians
The Ancient Egyptians did not understand that the floods were caused by rain in the faraway mountains. They attributed the blessings of the flood to false gods and goddesses, as they made stories up to explain the strange things that happened around
them that had no apparent explanation.
They thought that a whole family of gods ruled the world, and that some were good and some were wicked. Because the false gods were so unpredictable, the Egyptians spent a great deal of time praying to them. They also believed that these false gods would bring their Pharaohs to an afterlife. The Pharaohs were thought to be gods themselves, who would rise up and join the other gods after death. That is why they built the pyramids, pointed upward to the sky, and filled with all the treasures needed for the afterlife. The pyramids became monuments to honor their gods, and to announce to the world that their gods were stronger than all others.
False gods of Mesopotamia
The Mesopotamians also believed in false gods who lived in the sky. The ancient people worshipped the sky and the sun because they thought that the false gods controlled the weather. They built great temples that pointed to the sun.
These temples were called Ziggurats, and were made out of mud mixed with chopped-up hay, and then the bricks were baked in ovens. Unlike the Egyptian pyramids which had smooth sides, the ziggurats had steps on the sides so the priests could climb up and be closer to the sky false gods.
The Ziggurats were used to make offerings to the gods. The priests would offer loaves of bread, dates, sheep, lambs and cows to the sky false gods every day. Most of the large villages in Mesopotamia had their own ziggurats for the worship of their individual false gods.
A United Egypt
Ancient Egypt used to be divided into two parts, the Upper Egypt and the Lower Egypt. The two parts fought often with each other, until King Narmer conquered Lower Egypt and made Egypt into one country.
When Narmer became King of a united Egypt, he wore two crown of red and white to represent both the Upper and Lower Egypt combined. Soon, Egypt became rich and strong and focus was placed on farming and building instead of fighting wars.
Mesopotamia united by Sargon
The same division was happening in Mesopotamia between the Sumerians of the southern part of Mesopotamia. The villages of farmers became cities with walls and towers around them. Each city had its own king and its own army, and the city-states fought amongst themselves constantly. All of their energy was put into protecting themselves from their neighbors.
A man named Sargon wanted to be King of more than one city; he wanted to be king of the whole land of Mesopotamia. He ordered his army to attack the cities around them, and after 50 wars, conquered all of Sumer, the southern part of Mesopotamia.
Just as King Narmer had united Egypt into one country, Sargon made Mesopotamia joined into one country under his rule. The cities that he had conquered were not happy about following his laws and rules, and he used his army to force them to comply with wishes. Soldiers were sent to live in each conquered city, and if the people disobeyed their laws, they were punished in the military dictatorship.
Abraham and Judaism
In ancient Mesopotamia, there was a town called Ur. In Ur, there was a Ziggurat built by the ancient Mesopotamians to honor their false gods. And that’s where we come to the place that is so important to all faithful Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Our history begins with a man named Abraham and his wife Sarah, when the One True GOD, the LORD GOD JEHOVAH, spoke to him and told Abraham to leave Ur and go to the land of Canaan (now known as the Promised Land Israel). From that moment on, those chosen to know the LORD God were given the things that He Willed in His Way and His Time so His Works could be established as the history of the man of nature and the history of the Man of God unfolded!
Genesis 11:27-12:5
“Now these [are] the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife [was] Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she [had] no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.”
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
“So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” (Genesis 11:27-12:5 av)
