Joshua Valiant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (4 page)

The crowd
murmured in agreement.

Caleb’s soul was broken for his people. He yelled
in reply, “Trust in Yahweh! We are able to overcome these idolaters and occupy our inheritance!”

But a louder heckler yelled back, “We are able to find a leader to lead us back to Egypt!”

And the crowd went wild.

Moses and Aaron fell on their faces
and prayed to Yahweh. Joshua and Caleb began to tear their clothes in symbolic expression of their mourning for the people’s disloyalty to their god.

The decibel level was rising to a pitch of fevered excitement.

But then suddenly, the sound of a shofar horn penetrated the cacophony. Everyone quieted down.

Caleb lowered the horn he had grabbed from a priest. His
voice cut through the din with resounding clarity.

“PEOPLE OF ISRAEL!”

It was like Yahweh had amplified his voice.

The assembly
got even quieter.

He continued, “The land which we spied out is an exceedingly good land!
Yahweh will bring us into the land and give it to us just as he promised! Do not fear these Canaanite abominations! Yahweh is with us!”

Joshua was beaming with inspiration listening to his
fellow warrior. It impressed him that this Kenizzite, this outsider who was not even an Israelite of blood, had more faith than those who were.

Joshua joined in on Caleb’s
exhortation, “Do not rebel against Yahweh! We are a chosen people! We will break down their altars and dash into pieces their idols and burn their graven images! But if we rebel and do not obey his commandments, we will surely be destroyed!”

In response, those
without faith began to pick up stones.

Someone shouted,
“We are not rebels!”

Another shouted,
“Stone them!”

Moses was weeping on the ground.

And before anyone could make a move, the Shekinah glory, a pillar of fire embodying Yahweh’s presence, appeared before the Tent of Meeting.

The masses went silent
.

Moses quickly got up and
followed the glory into the holy place before the stunned crowd. Joshua followed him.

Caleb watched Joshua disappear into the tent with longing in his heart. Moses chose Joshua when he was very young to be his assistant. This meant he was privileged to see the inner beauty of the tabernacle in all its detail, and at times even find himself close to Moses’ and Yahweh’s presence.

Caleb longed for this kind of experience with all his being. The tabernacle was the garden of Yahweh’s presence among his people. The spirit-filled artist Bezalel and his craftsmen had built it according to Yahweh’s own pattern revealed from heaven. Caleb was fascinated by its symbolic beauty on every level, from the brazen altar and bronze laver outside to the Tent of Meeting inside, with its table of showbread and golden lampstand, to the unseen holy of holies, with statues of cherubim guarding the sacred Ark of the Covenant. It filled Caleb with sacred wonder and awe.

Of course only the Levite priests were allowed in the cordoned off area. But the tabernacle was a portable temple that
they brought with them on their long desert journey and set up at every encampment. So Caleb would take pains to be there when the priests were setting up, just so he could get glimpses of the beautiful tools and implements and adornments before they were all curtained off to the public.

The tabernacle was the focal point of the Israelite community an
d life. As such, it was placed in the center of their camp, with all the twelve tribes arranged around it like a protective shield. There they engaged in the multitude of sacrifices required by Yahweh to atone for the sins of the people as they found their way to the Promised Land.

It was a painful irony that now Caleb stood before that tabernacle with the people of Israel congregated like a mob in the aisles and among the tents on the eastern side. They were animated by resentful and ungrateful disbelief of their own god.

But it was
not the first time he had seen this kind of rebellion. And he suspected it would not be the last.

Inside the Tent of Meeting, Joshua laid prostrate near the entrance. He listened to the unveiled Moses arguing with Yahweh who spoke from the midst of the Shekinah cloud. He had envied Moses’ station and direct communication with Yahweh for so long. He even fantasized about what it would be like to engage in such face-to-face interaction with the Creator.

Even from his distance, Joshua could see enough of the Shekinah to tremble with awe.
It was a cloud, but it was more than a cloud. It was like a curtain hiding a glory so pure and bright that should it be seen in its fullness, no man could stand before it. One’s eyes would burn out of their sockets. When he saw the cloud, his knees would buckle, and he could not defeat the urge to fall on his face to the ground.

It was the very presence of the holy.

And that holiness was now amplified with anger.

“How long will this people despise me?” said Yahweh. “In spite of all the signs and wonders, they still refuse to believe me. I
will smite them with pestilence. I will disinherit them, and make you into an even greater nation.”

“
I pray you reconsider your wrath,” said Moses. “Would that not give you a poor reputation among the nations and their allotted gods? After all, Egypt will hear about it and that might lessen the impact of all you did to them.”

Joshua could not believe the bold
ness and audacity of Moses. Talk about iron loins.

“Moreover, if you destroy this people, then the
tribes of Canaan whom you seek to dispossess will tell themselves that all your glory is mere pompous bragging because you could not bring this nation into the land which you allotted to them as their inheritance.”

Joshua was wait
ing for the strike of lightning, for Moses to be burnt to a cinder crisp.

“Adonai my lord, you are longsuffering and merciful and just. I beg you do not treat this people as they deserve, b
ut forgive their sin and find another way to maintain the glory of your name among the peoples.”

There was a long moment of silence. Joshua looked up, thinking Moses may have been
stone-deaf or even stone dead. But he was not.

Yahweh finally spoke, “I have pardoned them according to your word.”

It was amazing to Joshua. The almighty God, El Shaddai, Most High possessor of the heavens and the earth, Yahweh Elohim, the great I Am, just listened to the words of a mere mortal and changed his mind. Was that even possible? Could the living God be so intimate with someone that he would change his course of action on their behalf?

And then he heard Yahweh’s decision and could not believe his ears.

When Moses and Joshua came out of the
Tent of Meeting, Caleb was waiting for them at the tabernacle entrance like a loyal dog at the threshold of his master. But he squinted in the brightness of his master’s shining who remained unveiled.

The rest of the seventy elders perked up. Many of the congregation had already given up and gone to bed for the evening.
The other ten spies awaited the decision as leaders of their tribes.

Moses looked sober as he stood before the congregation.
Caleb watched Joshua and he knew this was not good.

“Sons of Israel!” Moses spoke
with a strong voice. “Hear now the word of Yahweh! Tomorrow we will set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.”

The elders looked askance at one another. That did
not make any sense. Did Yahweh now agree with the spies? Were the giants of Canaan too mighty of warriors to try to take the land after all?

Moses continued,
“‘As I live,’ declares Yahweh, ‘I have heard the grumblings of my people, Israel, who have put me to the test ten times and have not obeyed my voice.’”

Caleb trembled. He did
not know what was coming, but he could tell it was not going to be good. Moses was particularly bright as a star now.

“‘
I have determined, that of all of you listed in the census of Israel, not one of you older than the age of twenty shall come into the land that I swore to your fathers. Except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.’”

Everyone in
the congregation began to stir and whisper among themselves in shock.

Caleb glanced at Joshua, who returned hi
s look with a knowing humility, as if to say, “Yes, my friend, you and I alone.”

Caleb was grateful that his younger brother Othniel was only
fifteen years old, and would escape the judgment.

Moses concluded, “
They alone shall live to see the fulfillment of my promise, along with your young ones. But as for you, your corpses shall fall in the wilderness. This nation will wander in the desert for forty years, and your children will suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your rotting carcasses shall fall in the dust of death.”

Funny, how at this moment, the thing that entered into Caleb’s mind was the beautiful symmetry of the punishment fitting th
e crime. One year for every day. Forty years of wilderness misery for the forty days they spied out the land in unbelief.

Even in judgment, Yahweh maintained a symbolic beauty.

The congregation and elders however did not consider it so beautiful a symbol. Some of them called out to Moses to reconsider as he turned and left them, veiling himself as if to close off the glory of God from them.

But Yahweh’s full conclusion was not yet realized until the next morning when it was discovered that, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, all of the spies who had given a bad report of the land to Moses had been stricken with a plague. They suffered excruciating pain, began to bleed from every orifice of their bodies until they vomited up blood, and died in piles of their own excrement and urine.

W
ithin a week, they would all be dead.

But the evening of jarring events was not yet over for Moses. Joshua had requested a private meeting with Moses and Caleb to share one piece of intelligence they had told no one else.

Joshua and Caleb arrived at Moses’ tent late in the evening
when everyone was asleep. Moses’ shining had died down and he was now unveiled. They gathered around a small fire outside the tent and spoke in hushed whispers.

As usual, Joshua led the discussion. “We
did not tell you that when we visited the burial cave of Abraham and Isaac, we were captured by a pack of ten Anakim from the hill country.”

Moses’ eyebrows arched with curiosity. “How did you escape
?”

“
I will explain that in a moment. But while we were in their grasp, we heard them recounting a narrative of their ancient descendants around the campfire. We could tell it was their sacred story that motivated them and gave meaning and purpose to their clan.”

Moses
did not know where this was leading. But by the looks on Joshua and Caleb’s faces, he knew it would not be pleasant.

Joshua continued, “
They spoke of their ancestor King Arba and our forefather Abraham.”

Moses interrupted, “Did they know you were sons of Abraham?”

“No,” said Caleb. “They were too busy contemplating whether to eat us or not than to inquire into our true identity.”

Moses said, “
What was their sacred story?”

“Well,” said Joshua, “they spoke about how King Arba and his queen had first met Abraham and Sarah, o
ur forebears over four hundred years ago.”

Moses knew about the time Abraham spent in Canaan from the sources he was using to write a history of Israel
and Yahweh’s interactions.

“They spoke about how Abraham had moved to the Oaks of Mamre just outside of
Kiriath-arba, and that when he first met King Arba, Abraham lusted after Arba’s queen. But when Arba would not give her to Abraham, Abraham raped the queen, and killed her and Arba and the entire tribe—and cannibalized them. But the queen was already pregnant with a child, so when she was buried in the ground, the child burst out of her body like a powerful cedar tree and grew to be the most powerful giant in the land. That child was named Anak. It is a legend of madness full of exaggerations, half-truths, and complete lies.”