Storytelling for Week 2: The Tower to Heaven

Long ago, after the flood that had cleansed the world of all evil, mankind began rebuilding itself. Mankind's first major accomplishment was a great and wonderful city called Nimrod.

When the city was new and small, the citizens still had the images of the devastating flood fresh in their minds. Those memories had made the people God fearing and they followed his teachings.

As the years went on, Nimrod continue to grow in size to the point that there were over half a million people who occupied the city. As the city expanded, so to did the thoughtlessness and evil within the people's hearts.  Eventually, the people of Nimrod cast aside the ways of God and decided to build a tower to the heavens. Their idea was that they could reach heaven and wage a war against God and his angels. In winning the war mankind would garner knowledge and immortality.

For decades the people of Nimrod worked on the tower. "So intent were they upon accomplishing their purpose that they would not permit a women to interrupt herself in her work of brick-making." The higher the tower got, the longer it took to bring bricks up to the top.

(Tower of Babel: Wikipedia)

As these people toiled endlessly on their tower, there were only a few families who still believed in the word of God. These families were forced to worship in secret and were only able to do it once or twice a week. There was a small boy named Hazel, who was a descendant of Noah through Shem. He had heard of all the atrocities the people of Nimrod were planning to do upon the towers completion. Hazel risked his life each and every day to worship God. He prayed each day to God about the horror and suffering the people were inflicting upon each other.

As time continued, Hazel sprouted into a strong young man. Unfortunately, Nimrod had started forcing every able-bodied man to work on the tower due mounting deaths, and thus, a diminished work force, which led to Hazel slaving away. When he showed up for his first day of work he was tasked with the grueling job of carrying the bricks up the tower. This wouldn't be such a terrible job, except for the fact that it took around a year for each trip up the tower.

Hazel's first three trips up the tower, totaled six years. However, each time that he reached the top, Hazel would kneel down and pause for thirty seconds. When he did this, he would say a small prayer letting God know of the treason that these men were prepared to do. He would also ask God for the strength to continue his trips.

After reaching the bottom of the tower on his third trip, he learned of his mother's death. Not only did sadness envelope him, but anger burst forth, as well.  In his rage he quickly grabbed the next sack of bricks and began his ascension. With each step up his thoughts of betrayal from God grew fiercer. For the first time of all of his trips he did not pause to pray at the top of of the tower.

After discarding his load he began his climb down. As he descended he heard a soothing voice in his head that froze him in place.

"Why did you not pause to pray?" God asked.

In his mind Hazel replied, "I have prayed to you each time I have reached the top of this tower, have I not?"

"You have, indeed." God answered.

"My family has been loyal to you my entire life, and yet my mother dies before her time..." he said back.

God spoke slowly and softly in his response, "Do not worry, my son. Your mother will be rewarded for her loyalty to me, as will you, come time. Everyone has their day, and I am aware of the situation at hand."

Hazel shrugged those words off as he continued climbing down the tower; trying not to think about the death of his mother. He didn't slow down until a couple hours later and dusk had begun to creep in. Days came and went as he continued his long trip down the tower.

When he was almost all of the way down the tower a strange storm raged for a day over the tower. Hazel looked towards the top of the tower and could see an aggressive fire, causing bricks to fall. As he reached the bottom he saw a massive battle between monstrous creatures and men. Thinking of the rest of his family, he began to weave through the city seeing man attack man. Hazel noticed that he could not understand what these people were yelling. God had confounded the peoples language, twisting their tongues into foreign shapes.

Once he reached his house he found only an old man siting in the middle of the floor. The old man told him that he was waiting for him to come. Visibly worried, the elderly man informed Hazel that those families that were loyal like his own were told by an angel to leave the city. The old man instructed Hazel to leave the city and that he would find his family in field not far from the edge of the city.

As Hazel left the city he looked back at all the destruction taking place. At that moment he paused for thirty seconds and thanked God for his family's salvation.

Authors Note: This story is based off of Noah: The Tower of Babel from the book The Legends of the Jews. I decided that I wanted to put forth a perspective of someone from inside the city. I couldn't believe that everyone in the city of Nimrod had given in to evil ambitions. I like to think that I am a glasses half full kind of person. The major story line is the same from the original story, I just added the part of Hazel and his experiences. I didn't a great amount of detail about the different things that God did to the bad people of Nimrod. God punished them based off of the different things that they wanted to do whenever they reached the heavens. Some got changed into apes/phantoms, some were pitted against each other in combat, and some were scattered across the earth. Gold als

Bibliography:

Book: The Legends of the Jews
Author: Rabbi Louis Ginzberg
Year Published: 1909
Web Source: Mythology and Folklore Un-Textbook: Noah: The Tower of Babel