Hadassah's Sacrifice

CHAPTER 3

Adah was tired. In her seventy years on earth, never have she felt so tired of the world like she was now. Her heart tore for what has happened to her people. How has the Lord allowed them to be prisoners in their own land? How has He not fought for them and delivered them from the hands of Babylon? She missed how Jerusalem used to be. They used to be so happy. They had such rich culture and offered sacrifices to the Lord. Even the Lord's presence was with them .

Those were in the past, now the Lord has forgotten them. Her people were called "commoners", they who used to be "God's favourites". All she could do now was reminisce on the past. The time when the temple still stood and people went in to listen to the teachers read from the Torah and just enjoyed the presence of the Lord. That time was gone, forgotten, maybe forever. The temple now laid in shambles with everything in ruin. Adah missed how things used to be.

"Oh Lord! How did we get here? What happened to us?" Adah choked with tears in her throat. She didn't even know when the tears came rolling down. She was broken. Her heart was in pain. Maybe the tears should fall, it might do her heart some good.

At that moment, all she could do was weep.

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Nana knew her husband was going to return any time soon and she had to be ready. The maids were yet to be done with dinner and Gershom wasn't the kind of man you wanted to offend. As a special adviser to the king, he commanded respect from everyone, even the king respected him. How she got married to such a fearful man, she couldn't clearly recall. Just that, she was young, he was wealthy, her parents were wealthy and it just seemed right matching them together. Not like he didn't love her, she guessed he did, but he made her afraid. How can a wife not be able to express herself openly to her husband? Gershom made her feel that way.

Well, she wasn't in a mood for any of his anger eruptions. All Nana wanted was solace. Lately her mind has been troubled. There wasn't anything she lacked; on the contrary, she had it all - wealth, servants, plush foods, respect and nobility. Yet something appeared missing. Something she couldn't place, one that might change her life, she felt it deep within her. Perhaps a prayer to Baal was what she needed. After she finished attending to her husband, she would offer prayers to Baal.

Baal always answered. He wasn't anything like the god of the commoners who they didn't see and yet still trusted. Baal was different. He was her god. The commoners were strange beings, worshiping a god who couldn't protect them when their kingdom was under attack. But for Nana, it was Baal or no one.

             
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"How was Bible Study?" Gad asked Hadassah immediately he sat down on the small stool in the little house they shared together. His eyes weary from the day's stress.

"It was beautiful, Uncle. We talked on faith. I wish you were with me." Hadassah replied animatedly. Talking about the Lord excited her.

"I missed so much, didn't I?" Gad asked suddenly looking morose.

Seeing the look on her Uncle's face made her feel guilty. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't attend Bible Study with her, she knew he didn't like the work he did. It was forced on him by the Babylonian King.

"You can always make it another time." She tries cheering him, giving him a big smile in a bid to lift his downcast spirit. Even if they both knew that was far from their reality. Her Uncle may hardly ever attend Bible Study.

Hadassah knew how important Bible Study was to Gad. Being the King's guard didn't afford him enough time for other things, including being with her. She had to spend her time with Adah who taught her to weave.

Gad looked around the humble place which has served as home for himself and Hadassah after the inversion that had forced all their people out of their original homes into a part of the city that King Ardates made for them, rendering most of them homeless. Giving them a name that was never theirs - Commoners.

All that was left were two small stools, a rickety looking table and two wooden beds for each of them. Hadassah was all that he had left for a family. He was yet to have a wife, and maybe he never will. He smiles as he thought of her. Hadassah did this to him - she made him smile.

Wondering what made him smile mischievously when just minutes ago, he looked sad, Hadassah asked with a raise of her brows, "Uncle what is it?"

"Me?" He questions faking a look of confusion. "I don't know what you mean," he added.

Acting like he didn't know she was staring at him, and holding herself from bursting into laughter, he says, "I'm starving, Hadassah. Will you keep staring or just serve a hungry man his dinner."

"I made grains and there's some bread," she replied, struggling to keep herself from laughing out. Her uncle could be weird sometimes.