Rising Darkness Page 4

  “Encourage his heart,” continued Gabriel. “And never forget that every assignment by the Lord is an important one. Daniel has a great opportunity tonight to learn something of eternal importance.”

  He glanced sternly at Bakka. “As do you!”

  Chronicles of the Host

  Jordan Breached

  True to her word, the harlot Rahab kept the location of the spies a secret. And despite all of Khasis’s attempts to rouse the soldiers’ suspicions through their clouded minds, the Lord, in answer to Joshua’s fervent prayers, and in deference to Rahab’s assistance, prevented the soldiers from finding the men hidden on Rahab’s rooftop.

  So it was that the children of Israel once more entered the land of their fathers, the land they had departed over four hundred years earlier. Having left before in search of security in Egypt, they reentered Canaan ready for war….

  Jhara, a warrior under Khasis’s command, and some of the angels in his troop watched from the opposite side of the Jordan as the trumpets were sounded. The people, who had been waiting 40 years for this moment, watched as the Levites lined up and carried the Ark of the Lord in solemn procession toward the banks of the Jordan. The other tribes watched and waited for their turn to cross.

  Never mind that it was flood season, and that the Jordan was swollen in its annual deluge. Of course nothing was too difficult for the Lord, and from Joshua they had heard of the great crossing of the Red Sea. But the Levites were headed straight for the banks as if there was a bridge for them to casually stroll across. Joshua had given the order that as soon as the Levites began to move, the people were to follow—but not too closely to the Ark. They kept a distance of about one thousand yards between themselves and the sacred box.

  All around the nation, and in great numbers, groups of holy angels created a whitish canopy that grew in intensity near the Ark. Following God’s directions in the law, the Levites carefully carried the Ark, and set out in step, slowly moving to the water. Some of the people looked to Joshua, who stood on a slope watching the proceedings, and then back to the commotion of the Ark.

  Devils had been moving in as well, hoping to throw confusion into the ranks of the people. But the Ark’s proximity kept most of them at bay. Much as they would have liked to tear into the Ark and destroy it, the Presence of God—which they knew was resident within the golden container—was too much of a risk for even the strongest of the rebel angels to contend with. They would have to await another day to take the Ark as a trophy.

  The Levites proceeded to the edge of the river and stopped, awaiting Joshua’s final instructions. Joshua and his aides then came to the river to address the Levites and the rest of the people who could hear him.

  “The Lord was with Moses and now He is with me. He has delivered us from Egypt and brought us to the land promised to us through our father Abraham. Therefore, we shall drive the enemies of our God from the land and claim it in His name. Only watch and be faithful!”

  “But how are we to cross?” came a voice from somewhere in the area where the leaders of the tribe of Dan stood. A few other voices grunted in affirmation.

  Joshua raised his hands to quell any further such questions.

  “Hear me! When the priests reach the water with the Ark of the Testimony, the river will stop flowing and we shall cross over. This is the word of the Lord!” He glanced toward the Danites. “This will prove that our God will be with us both on this side of the Jordan and beyond!”

  “What are they doing down there?” demanded Khasis. He began laughing. “He brings them to the river’s edge and only then realizes that he cannot get across?”

  The devils with him began laughing.

  Khasis noted some spies sent from the king of Jericho were observing the movement of the Israelites from a bluff on their side of the river.

  “Make sure that the king’s men see this ridiculous display,” he said. “I want all of Jericho to hear about this day!”

  One of Khasis’s aides vanished immediately and stood among the spies from Jericho. The men were puzzled by the commotion on the other side.

  “What does this mean?” asked Jarez, one of the men from Jericho. He was peeking over the top of a red stone and looking down upon the river at the great cloud of people on the other side facing them. “Why have they stopped?”

  “Perhaps the God of Israel cannot cross the gods of Canaan,” came a voice—Khasis’s devil whispering into the mind of the other spy, Zogor.

  “Our priests have called upon the gods to stop the invaders,” said Zogor. “Perhaps our gods are mightier than their gods!”

  Jarez nodded back in nervous hope.

  “We should report this to the king,” continued the voice. “Perhaps they will even turn on Joshua. Perhaps…”

  “Look there!” came the astonished voice of Jarez. He pointed to where the priests had begun moving toward the water. “What do they think they are doing?”

  “Perhaps our gods are luring them to their deaths in our sacred river,” offered Zogor, who felt for his weapon. “They carry the magic with them in that box. Let them and their sorcery drown in the Jordan!”

  The devil with them looked up to where Khasis had stationed himself, indicating that he was completely puzzled by the Israelites. Khasis remained fixed on the movement of the humans. More urgently, he observed the great cloud of holy angels beginning to move along with them toward his domain.

  The priests got closer and closer to the water’s edge. Jarez and Zogor were now both watching from their perch in the rocks. This would be a great day for them! The king always awarded the bearer of good news with some bestowment or another. They would become great men in Jericho.

  “I tell you our gods are the greatest in the universe!” boasted Zogor, who was now preparing his mount for the quick return to Jericho. “They have chosen to smile upon us this day.”

  “Then pray to them, Zogor,” said Jarez, grimly surveying the scene. “For the river is opening up for the enemy to cross!”

  Chronicles of the Host

  First Conquest

  What a delightful day when God’s people set foot on God’s holy land after such a long time! The Host sang praises of joyous celebration to the Lord, while the enemy scattered like frightened sheep as the Ark of God, carried by the Levites, was carried into Canaan. Khasis tried to rally the host that was with him, and they regrouped at Jericho where, like the humans, they waited behind the strong walls for the coming battle. As for Joshua, the burden of leadership drove him to his knees and he sought the Most High God’s counsel in how best to besiege Jericho’s proud defense.

  It was a new day in Israel, a new strategy—a new deliverance, a new beginning. And nothing better illustrated this newness in all things than the cessation of the manna. After 40 years’ provision of manna raining down every day from Heaven, it suddenly stopped. It seemed that God’s provision in Canaan was to be something new…something different…something requiring a greater faith….

  Joshua commanded his men to stay behind. They had been scouting the city of Jericho for the last hour, discussing the best point of attack, trying to pinpoint possible weaknesses. One even suggested they could use Rahab to help them gain entry. However it was to happen, the city had to be taken. Jericho, though small, was a strategic point of conquest and could not simply be bypassed. It had to be destroyed. To leave an entrenched enemy behind was only inviting trouble later on.

  Joshua went on ahead of the men, and looked at the silhouette of the city against the sun setting in the western sky behind it. Proud and impregnable, its walls seemed to taunt Israel, daring the Hebrews to assail them and feel their sting. True, the reputation of Israel had preceded them in the land and cast a terror throughout the region. But Jericho was a formidable foe—and the first real test of Joshua’s leadership in engaging the enemy on his own soil.

  Joshua began to pray silently to the Lord. How was he to lead his untested people against this warlike, godless nation? How were the
y to breach the walls? He understood that God was with him, but how was he to orchestrate the attack? All of these thoughts exploded in Joshua’s head as he looked upon Jericho in the twilight evening. Then something else caught his eye. Standing right in front of him was a large man—a warrior—with a sword drawn!

  “How are we to conduct a war against humans if the Lord continues to step in and assist them?” asked Kara. “It is hardly fair!”

  Rugio, who along with Kara and Pellecus had been given the task of keeping Jericho intact, growled at Kara. “You sniveling fool,” he said. “The Lord has never been fair in this war. He always will side with the humans!”

  “That’s not entirely true,” piped in Pellecus. “Yes, the Lord interferes from time to time. But for the most part He respects only men who cry out to Him…who seek Him earnestly…men of faith like Joshua.”

  “Joshua,” muttered Rugio. “How I hate that man! First there was Moses, who humbled Kara’s pharaoh, and now Joshua, who is on the brink of shattering Jericho.” He added in great frustration, “When shall these Hebrews stop producing men of faith and become like the rest of the nations?”

  “Soon, I suspect,” said Pellecus. “When they have established themselves in the land, they will slip back into their old ways. It’s the nature of humans to be motivated at the beginning of a great endeavor and then to lose interest over time. I’m sure that in a few generations they will have forgotten Joshua and become another mediocre nation of humans who are enslaved to their passions and forgetful of their gods.”

  Kara looked up scornfully.

  “A wonderful summation, Pellecus,” he said. “Provided we were in a classroom and you were lecturing. But we have been ordered by Lucifer to stave off the attack. Khasis is proving himself of little worth.” He smirked at Khasis, who stood silently nearby. “So teacher, the question remains—how do we stop Joshua at Jericho?”

  “Perhaps we don’t,” came the voice of Lucifer.

  He motioned for everyone to remain seated at his appearance. They were meeting on the rooftop of the king’s great house in Jericho.

  “I sense fear in the king of Jericho,” said Lucifer. “Which means he is defeated already. Fear is a great weapon—a weapon which we have become very adept at using. Unfortunately it cuts both ways.”

  “Are you saying we simply give up Jericho?” asked Kara.

  “Not at all,” said Lucifer. “But it occurs to me that Jericho is only the beginning of a very long campaign, to be followed with the task of creating a new nation with no king and only the memory of Moses to guide them. I quite agree with Pellecus. Given time these people will disintegrate into the madness of the rest of humanity.”

  Rugio stood up, a bit angry at what he was hearing.

  “So we let them in?” he asked. “Surely we must resist!”

  Lucifer looked at his chief warrior.

  “Of course we must resist,” he said, speaking in comforting tones. “Wars are won in the long term, Rugio. If we must give ground here and there to win the war, then so be it. It is who is standing in the end that matters.”

  “May I speak, my prince?” asked Khasis cautiously.

  Kara snorted and was about to say something when Lucifer stopped him.

  “Of course, Khasis,” he said. “Jericho is, after all, your responsibility. I simply asked my three most important rulers to assist you in any way they might.”

  “I am of course grateful to you for their assistance,” Khasis said, bowing slightly to the others in humble recognition. “But I must add that the talk here seems to be drifting from how to stop Joshua to whether or not he is to be stopped.”

  Pellecus smiled at Khasis’s bold assertion.

  “Excellent observation,” said Pellecus. “But I believe what we are saying is that you should do all you can to stop the Hebrews—by all means!”

  Kara snickered at Khasis’s dilemma. Rugio grunted angrily under his breath and then exploded.

  “Khasis is right,” Rugio blustered. “We cannot simply give Jericho up without a fight. They must know we will resist them.”

  “Of course we shall oppose them,” said Lucifer finally, looking upwards toward the heavens. “The Most High has shown what He intends to do in this war—He was quite clear at the Jordan when He stopped the river for them. He will fight for them so long as they remain faithful to Him.”

  Rugio responded, “Then our course is…”

  “Our course, as always, is to defeat them at Jericho,” said Lucifer resignedly. “It shall be a long war, my brothers. And there shall be many battles. And perhaps the Seed shall even find its way to fruition in this miserable land.”

  At the mention of the Seed a chill went through all the angels. Lucifer looked down over the little city of Jericho and glanced at the walls around it. “But ultimately the outcome of the war will not be decided by walled cities. It shall be decided in the hearts of men. And so long as the war is dependent upon men remaining faithful, we shall have hope.”

  Joshua knew that the enemy had scouts all around him and prepared himself to fight, reaching for his sword. But the man simply stood there. Puzzled, Joshua remained still and silent for a moment, returning his sword to its sheath. He scrutinized the magnificent soldier who stood before him. He didn’t look like a Canaanite soldier. His appearance was very different.

  Joshua walked over to the visitor, careful to keep one hand on his sword and to make sure that there were not others ready to spring upon him.

  “Are you for us? Or are you for our enemies?” he resolutely asked.

  “I represent nobody but the Lord God as commander of His Host. His Presence is quite near.”

  The voice was one of sharp authority that commanded immediate respect. Joshua’s heart rallied and he fell to the ground before the angel. He cried out to him, “What does the Lord wish for His servant to know?”

  “Joshua, the Lord Most High wants you to understand that you are on holy ground. Remove your sandals!”

  Joshua immediately obeyed, taking off his sandals but remaining low to the ground and not daring to look up. After a moment or two of silence, he slowly looked up. The angel was gone!

  Joshua started to get up when another Voice spoke to him. This one was unmistakable, penetrating the very core of Joshua’s being. He fell low to the ground again, and this time answered unhesitatingly, “Yes, Lord?”

  Michael stood at a distance as the Lord spoke with Joshua on the plain outside Jericho. He was still amazed at the relationship that a mere man could share with the greatest Person alive. The Most High wanted nothing to separate Himself from the one made in His image—even to the point of removing the man’s sandals so that his feet would touch the ground of His Presence—and so Michael had instructed Joshua in preparation for this encounter with his God.

  As Michael watched, Crispin sidled up next to him noticing Michael’s keen interest in the dialogue between the Most High and Joshua. Of course not one of the enemy was present.

  “Much like the Lord’s meeting with Moses on Sinai, hmm?” inquired Crispin. “What with the sandals being removed and all.”

  “Very much so, teacher,” said Michael. He then added with an unbelieving shake of his head, “The Most High and the humans who resist him. Such a paradox. Sometimes I wonder if Lucifer isn’t correct.”

  He read Crispin’s face and quickly moved to qualify the statement. “I’m not saying Lucifer and those who follow him are right in their position. They gambled and they have lost. But I mean the core of his opposition rests in the idea that, given the freedom to choose, humans will ultimately choose to oppose God. It is their nature.”

  “True, that image of God that rested in them so purely in Eden has been distorted beyond repair,” said Crispin. “And yet our Lord finds men irresistible to the point of giving them a faint hope in a hopeless world.”

  “The prophecy,” said Michael.

  “Just so,” said Crispin. “As we stand here, as the Lord speaks with Joshua,
angels both holy and impure are contesting for the minds and hearts of men. All over this world, from east to west, humans are engaged in a war that most of them know absolutely nothing about. A small portion of these humans have been acquainted with our Lord, whose apparent plan through their father Abraham is to see the whole world ultimately blessed. We understand that to be somehow connected with the prophecy—the Seed of Eve.”

  Crispin looked at the archangel, captain of the Lord’s Host. He understood Michael to be a passionate warrior whose one impulse was to serve the Lord with all his might. Naturally there were times when the war seemed so pointless—that ultimately humans would turn on their Creator.

  “I understand your feelings in this, Michael,” continued Crispin. “But ultimately we must trust in the Lord’s wisdom despite human frivolity. Somehow this Seed of the woman promises something great.”

  He snickered a bit. “How Lucifer must tremble at the thought of what he unleashed in deceiving Eve!” He resumed his lecture to the archangel. “To be sure, Michael, our rebellious Lucifer’s mission is not merely to disable humans. It is to destroy the possibility of the prophecy rising up one day and biting him just as he struck at Eve. He is not concerned with people who die apart from the knowledge of God. They are of little contest to him. But he realizes he is vulnerable to humans like Joshua, and others who believe the Lord and are committed to Him. Thus he opposes not a man, nor a family, nor even a nation. He opposes a prophecy.”

  Michael always enjoyed the words of Crispin. He had a way of making sense of situations. He nodded his head in agreement.

  “And so Lucifer must contest such faith with fear,” mused Michael.

  “Exactly,” said Crispin. “Because his greatest fear is faith!”

  Chronicles of the Host

  Peculiar Strategy

  As one angel recalled, the lights coming from Jericho in the evening sky “danced above the imposing walls, creating a bizarre effect that made every shadow appear to be an enemy soldier, and every flicker a possible threat.” So it was that Joshua’s men had surrounded the city and had been encamped about it for six days—and still Jericho remained safely in the hands of the enemy. We watched and waited for the coming battle. But apart from the unorthodox strategy of marching around the walls for the past six days, not much that smacked of real fighting had actually happened. This was not lost on the men…nor on the angels of both sides who watched and waited….