Joshua Valiant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (13 page)

The way she found it was by chance.

She loved swimming in the waters as an opportunity to get away from the community and be alone. There were algae on the rocks that glowed with iridescent colors, creating quite a beautiful aura of an underwater world apart.

It was peaceful solitude for her to dive in deep water and exp
lore. She performed exercises to increase the amount of time she could hold her breath, and had gotten to the point where she could stay under water for a full ten to twelve minutes.

One day she stumbled upon a small crevice that opened up to a larger tunnel.
She could only make it part way down the tunnel and had to turn back. But when she looked up, she noticed bubbles at the ceiling of the cave. She learned that they were actually pockets of trapped oxygen where the water did not fill in. She then discovered she could suck the air out of those pockets which would enable her to go further.

That was when she discover
ed the underground river. And that underground river was where she had escaped her sacred marriage to the god Nachash.

Unfortunately, she had used up most of the air pockets on the ceiling and was no longer able to visit her secret river. But that night she did
not care. And she did not need enough air to get back, so she sucked the last of them and barely made it to the river of deliverance.

And that was why they never found her escape route. They had found the crevice and the long tunnel, but several had drowned trying to explore the cave’
s distance. They concluded there was no way that slender female could have gone further without additional air—the additional air they could never have found in the ceiling air pockets because she had used them all up.

Arisha
let the river current take her wherever it would. She did not care if she would come out alive or not. As far as she was concerned, it was much more desirable to drown alone and untouched in a vast underground cave than be violated by a deity she did not believe was benevolent.

As it happened, the underground river did not go deeper, but instead emptied out onto
one of their local rivers a couple miles away. She drifted all the way to the Sea of Chinnereth.

She found an old sailcloth along the shoreline and fashioned a primitive covering
for her nakedness. Then she trekked around the shore of the lake and followed the Jordan River south.

She wanted to get as far away from
Bashan as possible. And she decided she would cross the Jordan and find her way in the Cisjordan, hoping it might be a different world, maybe even the opposite of the Transjordan.

She eventually found a city not far from the Jordan that had huge protective stone walls that seemed to reach to heaven. It was completely different from anything she had ever seen. It looked like they were built to protect its citizens from the brutality of the world outside its walls. It was a fort. It made her feel safe.

She had found the city of Jericho.

She decided to find a way to melt into this new world and never be found by her past again.
She had yet another chance to start a new life with a new identity. Just how, she did not know.

But when the first person she met who asked her name awaited her answer, she realized she had not thought ahead and did not know what she should call herself.

She would not use Arisha for fear of being tracked down by her past. But she had to say something or she might be discovered as the fugitive that she was.

So she said the first name she could think of that came to her. It was the nickname she had been given by
one of the priests in the Nest of the Serpent Clan.

“My name is Rahab.”

Caleb strained to see inside the outer courtyard of the tabernacle. The drapes were pulled back for some of the congregation to see the ritual, but only those in front would really have a good sight on it all.

Providentially for Caleb, he was the
Right Hand of Joshua, so he had a front row seat with his daughter Achsah and his brother Othniel. He was transfixed with wonder as he watched this highest holy day of the year enacted by the Levites in their ordained duty.

Joshua
however had fallen asleep. He just did not value the beauty of what was taking place like Caleb did.

It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

It was one of the only feasts they performed before entering the land of Canaan because of its sacrificial link to the tabernacle. To Caleb, it was the most significant of the feasts because it represented propitiation, the cleansing and atonement of the entire nation. He had learned many of the details of the tabernacle by watching them assemble the mobile temple and from annoying Joshua to describe other details he had seen from his assistance to Moses.

Caleb would watch the ceremonies and become absorbed into the beauty of Yahweh’s holiness. It was much more than just intellectually understanding the symbolic meaning of it all. It was a sacramental entering into the spiritual truth through the physical ritual displayed before them. He understood that spiritual reality came into contact with their earthly existence through the physical cult.

Since Yahweh was an eternal invisible spirit, unlike the finite visible pagan gods and their graven images, he was transcendent from his people and set apart. But also unlike the pagan idols, he was a shepherd and loving father who was very near and imminent with his people and set within.

The tabernacle was the symbolic physical display of
that otherwise invisible presence. Thus it was both the physical center of the camp and the spiritual heart of the nation.

The outer courtyard was one hundred fifty feet long by
seventy-five feet wide. Wooden poles holding linen curtains over seven feet high sanctioned it off. The Tent of Meeting, or holy place was set at the back end and was fifteen feet wide, fifteen feet high, and forty five feet long. It was divided into two sections, the holy place and the most holy place, the inner sanctum.

Normally, Israelites would bring their sheep, goats,
turtle doves and other offerings to the gate to be sacrificed by the Levite priests for their various known and unknown sins as needed.

But today was
different.

Today was the day when the high priest, now Eleazer, Aaron’s son, would perform
special ceremonies on behalf of all of Israel. And the high priest was a most glorious display of the beauty of holiness to Caleb.

Achsah
leaned in and asked Caleb to speak to her of the meanings of the various elements. She knew how studious he was of every detail and loved to see his passionate interest come alive as it used to with her mother. Othniel listened in with shared interest.

Caleb
spoke like a running commentary as Achsah and Othniel watched the ritual before them.

Caleb
whispered, “The high priest’s white linen undergarments represent righteousness.” It was a righteousness not encountered in pagan high priests that were often naked or half-naked in a display of savage uncleanness.

He continued, “H
is robe is a seamless blue garment trimmed with multicolored pomegranates and golden bells to symbolize the fruitfulness and call to worship.”

Over the robe, Eleazer wore the ephod,
an apron. “The ephod,” said Caleb, “is made of golden wire and blue, purple, and scarlet thread; representing heaven, royalty and blood respectively.”

“
On that ephod is a ‘breastplate of righteousness’ that contains twelve different gems. Jasper, sapphire, emerald, onyx, and others.”

“Emerald is my favorite,” said Achsah.
She loved its bright green glow.

Caleb
continued, “The precious stones represent Yahweh’s heavenly city as well as the twelve tribes of Israel.”

“
But that breastplate is also called the ‘breastplate of judgment’ because it contains a pocket over the heart of the high priest, do you see it?”

“Yes,” said Achsah.

“In that pocket are the two mysterious elements called the Urim and Thummim.”

“Lights and perfections,
” translated Achsah.

“Exactly,” said
Caleb. These elements were used to seek divine counsel and guidance from Yahweh in special circumstances.

The headdress of the high priest was a thick linen
miter wrapped around his head like a turban.

“See the plate
of pure gold on his forehead? What is engraved on there?” He quizzed her.

“Holiness to Yahweh”
she said.

“Excellent.
You remembered what I told you.”

She gave a guilty glance at Othniel. “
Actually Othniel recently helped me to memorize some of the details.”

Caleb
gave Othniel a jealous look, “Well, did Othniel help you remember what purpose it serves?”

“To bear
the guilt of the people and remind us of the ongoing need of having Yahweh in our minds.”

He said,
“Now, if you could only remember your chores at home as well, we would have a better kept tent.”

“Father,” she complained.
He smiled back. He could not be too jealous of his younger brother. Othniel had been born to a concubine of their father many years after their mother had died. Life in Egypt and the desert brought a high mortality rate, and many men found themselves starting over with new families later in life. Othniel himself had lost his family to plague years earlier, so Caleb would always find more in common with his brother than what divided them.

These elements of the high priest’s garments, as well as the other Levites’ wardrobe were for the purpose of glory and beauty.

But on this Day of Atonement, there was yet more glory and beauty at work. Eleazer first washed himself at the brazen laver that stood before the Tent of Meeting to cleanse himself for the ritual.

Caleb
whispered, “Now comes the sacrifice.”

Eleazer
took a bull and killed it for his own sins, letting the blood drain into a bronze basin. He would then clean the animal and burn it on the brazen altar of sacrifice that stood before the bronze laver.

Caleb quizzed Achsah some more. “And what is the purpose of the high priest sacrificing for himself first?”

She said, “He too is in need of forgiveness of sins to be able to represent his people.”

And herein lay a tension of paradox. For a high priest to sufficiently mediate between god and man, he would have to be sinless. But only a god could have such perfection.
But a god could not represent man because he was wholly other, separate. Thus the repeated need for the high priest to be forgiven before he could perform his mediation. It was a weakness of the system that Caleb had thought could only be permanently overcome by a being of both deity and humanity, a kind of “god-man” that could become an eternal sacrifice. But he thought his imagination got away from him, for such a thing seemed impossible indeed.

Eleazer then took a censer full of coals from the altar and broug
ht it into the Tent of Meeting.

“Describe for me again what is inside the holy place,” she said.

“A seven-armed golden lampstand is perpetually aflame with holy oil to light the tent. It is shaped like a blossoming almond tree, a symbol of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden so long ago. But it is also considered the ‘light of the world’ that gives light to all men.”

She
and Othniel had closed their eyes now, imagining in their minds what they could not see with their eyes.

Caleb
continued, “Across from the lampstand is the table of showbread. It is three feet long and a half-foot wide and made of wood overlaid with ornately tooled gold. On it are twelve cakes of bread representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and they are replaced on the Sabbath. It is a meal for the priests to commune with the ‘bread of life’ of the presence of Yahweh.”

She could picture now the idea of eating bread and in their midst, the Shekinah glory cloud. It was stunning to her.

He interrupted her visualization. “Before the holy of holies, the most holy place, is the altar of incense, a gold-laden structure whose rising smoke represents the perpetual need of intercessory prayer on behalf of the people.” This was yet another need for the people that no human high priest could attain to.

Eleazer brought his censer from the sacrifice, whose smoke
mixed with the altar of incense to protect him from what he was about to do next: Enter the holy of holies, the very presence of Yahweh. This was the only time each year that this could be done. If approached on any other day by the high priest or anyone else, Yahweh himself would strike them dead.

Caleb continued his vivid description of the holy of holies.
“The veil encloses the most holy place, another colorful curtain made of the blue, purple, and scarlet of the high priest’s ephod. On it are artistically embroidered images of the cherubim, as symbols of the guardians of Eden.”

In fact,
It was a curtain of separation, a barrier that kept humanity ultimately at a distance from Yahweh. Achsah imagined the impressive chimeric cherubim and what they might look like before the throne of Yahweh.

As Caleb got caught up into his descriptions they turned more into a narrative as if they were right there in the tent watching it all. “
Eleazer opens that curtain with trembling hands, protected by his incense, to stand before the ark of the covenant. The ark is about three and a half feet long by two feet wide and high, and made of acacia wood overlaid with finely crafted gold.”

Now, his voice became more hushed with trembling. “
Inside the ark are the very tablets of the law carved by the hand of Yahweh; a golden jar of the ‘bread of heaven’ and Aaron’s rod.”

The bread of heaven was the
manna that never spoiled, and Aaron’s rod was his staff that blossomed miraculously, confirming Aaron’s Levitical priesthood.

Caleb
continued in his whisper as if he and Achsah were in the very presence. “The cover of the ark hosts two sculpted images of sphinx-like cherubim with their wings spread over the ‘mercy seat,’ the symbol of Yahweh’s heavenly throne.”

“Eleazer sprinkles
blood from his sacrifice onto the mercy seat, the final act that brings propitiation for the high priest. He then returns outside to act on behalf of the peoples’ interest.”

They saw Eleazer step outside of the tent. Caleb was recounting it exactly as it happened in
real time.

Eleazer
took two goats and threw lots.

Caleb
explained, “Now, he decides which goat will be sacrificed to Yahweh on behalf of Israel. He follows the same procedures as he did for himself with the blood of the chosen goat to propitiate for the sins of the people.”

Eleazer slew the goat at the
altar.