by Brian Godawa
It was the midnight hour. Dark clouds obscured the moon. David stood with his leaders of Three and Thirty gathered around him. He looked troubled and weary. David had left Abigail at her residence to keep her safe until the day that he could return and bring her with him. He was lonely for her. It showed on his countenance. But then a resolve replaced that sadness.
He spoke to his men, “Who will go with me into the camp to Saul?”
The commanders were confused. Joab spoke up first, “What do you mean ‘go to Saul?’ Do you mean to make a treaty?”
“No,” said David.
“Do you mean to assassinate him?” said Joab. “If so, you should leave that to us.”
“No, I do not mean assassinate,” said David. “We have been on the run from Saul for years. I want to prove to him that I am not his enemy. I will sneak in and take something personal of his and return to our camp. Then on the morrow, I will show him that I could have killed him, but did not. Perhaps then he will finally believe me.”
“But you have already done that before,” complained Joab. Joab referred to a previous time where they had been hiding out in a cave in the wilderness of Engedi. Saul had happened upon their hiding place without knowing it. He went into the cave to relieve himself. When he did, David cut off the corner of his robe in secret. When Saul left the cave, David followed him and showed Saul the piece of robe, proving his innocence and lack of hostility toward the king.
Joab completed his argument, “Saul bellowed with the tears of a crocodile until you turned your back. Then he sought you out again in the wilderness of Maon. He is a madman, my lord, and you know full well he is not to be trusted.”
Abishai piped in. “I will go with you, David. I can pin him to the ground with my javelin. I will not need more than one thrust.”
“No,” said David. “No man can put his hand against Yahweh’s anointed and be guiltless. We will enter his camp while everyone is asleep, and we will silently take his spear and the water jug at his head. We will return to our camp without waking them up. The next morning, Saul will surely see that I intend him no harm.”
Joab would not shut up. “My lord, David. I must speak up. Your plan is a crazy one.” The others nodded, but none were willing to use those frank words. “You are Yahweh’s anointed messiah. Of all people, you should not be the one to endanger yourself with such outrageous plans. If you think you can sneak into the enemy camp and make your way to the center where Saul is and just slip out without waking a soul, I have to say that maybe you have gone as crazy as Saul.”
David chuckled. “Joab, once again, I appreciate your candidness. And you are right. What I seek to do is crazy. But I am in a desperate situation that only faith can answer. I must do something that so clearly shows Yahweh’s favor and defines my innocence, that even the most hard-hearted would have to accept it. If you really want to help out, Joab, then I suggest you get on your knees and pray that Saul’s camp would be cast into a deep sleep.”
David slapped Abishai on the back. “My mind is made up. Let us go, you and I, Abishai, and show these warriors who they are tangling with.”
David and Abishai left the conference of the leaders. They slipped into Saul’s camp while everyone slept, and took Saul’s spear and jug of water from beside his head. Everyone was indeed in a deep sleep from Yahweh that allowed the two thieves to return to their own camp undiscovered.
The next morning, David assembled his men on the mountain opposite Hachilah, with a valley in between them. David shouted out to Saul’s general of his forces, “Abner, wake up, you sluggard!”
From across the valley, he heard in response, “Who is this who calls my name?”
David yelled, “Who are you, Abner, son of Ner, that you have not kept watch over your king! For behold, last night, I was in your camp, and could have killed your king, but you did nothing to stop me!”
“Show yourself, villain!” yelled Abner.
David shouted, “Let me ask you a question, mighty Abner. Where is your lord’s spear and jar of water that was at his head?”
There was no response from Saul’s hill. David let him have time to discover it was gone. Then he shouted out, “Behold, my servant in the valley, returning the spear and jug of water that I took while you snored!”
David watched one of his men jogging across the valley to place the spear and jug halfway between the forces before returning. One of Saul’s men ran to retrieve them.
Then Saul’s voice bellowed across the valley. “Is this the voice of David, son of Jesse that I hear?”
David shouted, “It is my voice, my lord the king. Why do you pursue me? What evil is in my hands? The king of Israel has sought out a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains! If it is Yahweh who has stirred you against me, then may he accept my sacrifice. But if it is men or worse who have stirred you, then may they be cursed before Yahweh! My lord, the anointed king, I will never raise my hand against you!”
David stopped. There was silence for a moment.
Then Saul’s cracking voice came across the valley. “I have sinned! Please forgive me, my son, David. I have acted foolishly in regard to you. Blessed be you, my son David! Please return, and I will return to you no more harm!”
Benaiah, Joab, and Abishai looked at David’s face. The commanders awaited orders.
David looked at the ground painfully. “Joab, you were right. He cannot be trusted.”
Joab felt vindicated, but he did not feel any better. Their prospects were still not hopeful.
David added, “And I am done running.”
Now they were all confused. Was he going to turn himself in after all?
“What do you mean?” said Benaiah.
David continued without answering his question, “If I do not do this, I will perish one day by the hand of Saul.”
Do what? they all thought.
“Gather the men. We are going to go to the one place that Saul will never follow me.”
Joab blurted out, “Where is that, Sheol?”
Chapter 54
A few miles outside the city of Gath in a secret location in the hills, a band of fifty Gittite citizens and warriors congregated around a speaker. What marked these people out was not readily observable. They appeared to be normal Philistines from different sectors of life and did not stand out in any external way.
But they were rebels and subversives. They had been carefully sought out and vetted by the leader over years of careful covert deliberations. Some were regular citizens of Gath, more were disillusioned warriors. But they were all united in one commitment: they were secretly devoted to Yahweh, the god of Israel. If any of their neighbors found out about their beliefs, they would be handed over to the authorities, imprisoned, tortured, and executed. Apostasy was considered the highest treason against Dagon and his Philistine pentapolis.
Their leader was Ittai the Gittite. He had just explained to them how he had accomplished his sabotage against the Philistine armies. Ittai had been commissioned to forge some weapons for the previous united effort of the five cities in their battle at Gibeah against Israel. There are always a certain number of weapons that break or fail in battles. It was a normal statistic of fortune. But Ittai had deliberately smithed his weapons with a greater weakness so that a higher percentage of them would fail in battle, thus placing the soldiers at the mercy of their enemies and Ittai’s secret allies, the Israelites. But he had to carefully plan it all out without getting caught. If too many weapons failed, word would get around and eventually lead back to him. So he tried to decrease the quality of his weapons just enough so that it would not be noticeable.
Evidently, it had not been noticed. One of the rebels, a member of the government, explained that the palace officials had still not become aware of his subterfuge. Ittai was safe for the time being.
They moved on to discuss their next issue on the agenda: a secret envoy.
One of them voiced the concern, “What you are asking of us, It
tai, is the highest risk we have taken yet.”
“But necessary,” he countered.
A warrior jumped in, “Whoever is in this envoy, if Israel does not believe them, they will execute them.”
Another added, “Or worse, hand them back over to Achish, and we would be discovered. All of us, killed.”
Ittai said, “We have counted that cost long ago.”
“And what exactly are we to ask the Israelite army of rebels?”
Ittai said, “If their leader David is a messiah king. If he will bring redemption to the whole world, not merely Israel.”
One of two new visitors to the group asked from behind his hooded cloak, “Do you mean for us to leave Gath and join the Israelites?”
“Exactly.”
The other hooded visitor said, “But you do not know where this David and his men are hidden.”
“We will seek them and we will find them,” said Ittai with confidence. But he added for good measure, “We will pray for Yahweh to lead us to them.”
“It is too late for that,” said the first hooded visitor.
Ittai looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
The visitor gave a whistle call.
Suddenly, soldiers rose up, surrounding them entirely above the ridge. There were hundreds of them.
Some of the rebels gasped. A few women fainted. Warriors grabbed their weapons.
So this is it, thought Ittai. We are finally found out. Now, we all die. The two visitors had been brought by the government official. He had told Ittai they were safe. But they were plants of Achish, whose army now surrounded the rebels with arrows pointed at them from above.
The visitor barked out, “Hold your weapons, rebels! You do not stand a chance.”
They circled around close to each other, looking up at the dark warriors above them, ready to rain down death.
The two visitors approached Ittai, who stood without concern. He was resigned to death anyway.
The lead visitor said with a casual calmness, “Ittai the Gittite. I was not aware you had done so much damage.”
As the visitor came closer, Ittai planned what he would do. He would grab his dagger and leap upon the spy, and kill at least one of them before dying in a rainstorm of arrows. But he would get at least one of them.
The visitor was almost within jumping range. He continued, “Your prayers to find David are of no avail. And do you know why, Ittai the Gittite?”
“No,” said Ittai snidely, “Tell me why.” He was ready to pounce.
“Because David has found you.”
Ittai paused. What did he mean David has found me?
The visitors pulled down their hoods for a better view.
The leader said, “I am David son of Jesse, and this is the captain of my guard, Benaiah from Kabzeel. These warriors you see about you on the ridge, they are my trusted gibborim.”
Ittai’s knees went weak.
David smiled. “And apparently, I have fifty more loyal followers to add to my forces.”
Ittai fell to his knees. “My lord and king. We are but Philistines.”
David lifted up Ittai’s face. “Yahweh accepts any who repent and worship him from all tribes and nations.”
The other rebels followed suit and bowed to the ground before their savior.
Ittai said, “We are servants of my lord. Command us and we will obey.”
David turned and said to them all, “I want you all to return to your lives in Gath and the other cities.”
“What will you do? We want to help you.” said Ittai.
“I will come and join you.”
“You will come to Gath?”
“Yes. I have been running from King Saul for too long, and I am weary. The only place he will not follow me is into Philistia. So into Gath I must go. You can help me by hiding me.”
Ittai said, “I do not mean to be insolent, my lord, but Gath is the city of Goliath, the champion you defeated.”
“Many years ago,” said David.
“Gittites have never forgotten. They would hand you over to the king upon sight—if they did not tear you apart first. Achish is obsessed with conquering Israel. And there is a squad of assassins in Gath who are sworn to hunt you down. Gath is the one place you must not go.”
“That is why I want to go there. I have a plan that may actually draw the interest of your king away from hanging me and onto harboring me.”
Ittai could not possibly figure out what madness David was planning. He prayed that this Chosen Seed was indeed the messiah of life and not the angel of death.
Chapter 55
The city of Gath was the earliest Philistine settlement in Canaan. It had a large urban populace on one hundred and twenty-five square miles of land. As the furthest inland stronghold, nearest the Valley of the Terebinth, it maintained a strong siege system that made it impregnable to hostile forces. The walls were thirty feet high, surrounded by a man-made siege trench and an earthen embankment called a “berm” that made approach to the walls by besiegers extremely difficult. It was guarded by a threefold entrance gate to the city, watched over by a regiment of Gittite warriors.
All this fortification would be useless against the six figures who rode their horses to the city entrance. They would not be besieging the walls, and they would not be fighting the army of Gittites. They were simply nomadic travelers on a personal quest. They did not hide themselves, because they were not recognizable to any human inhabitants.
They were archangels.
Uriel, Gabriel, Raphael, Saraqael, Raguel, and Remiel walked their horses through the large Phoenician carved gates and into the city. They made no attempt to disguise themselves from the gods of the Philistines because they wanted the gods to know they had arrived.
They wanted a showdown.
They quartered their horses and found a tavern in which to gather, eat, and spread some gossip.
• • • • •
“What are we going to do?” cried Molech. He trembled with fear and wished he was back in the Hinnom Valley playing with his children.
“Shut your disgusting mouth, mole,” spit Asherah. They stood in the large secret cavern carved out of the rock fifty feet beneath the temple of Dagon. Dagon and Ba’alzebul watched Asherah walk up to the rock wall where they had fastened Mikael’s body. Or rather, where they had fastened the parts of Mikael’s body.
When they had ambushed Mikael in the Valley of Hinnom, Ba’alzebul had fallen with him some two hundred feet to the valley floor where all Mikael’s bones had been shattered. Ba’alzebul was also incapacitated in the fall, but because he used Mikael’s body as a cushion, and because he had a much stronger bodily structure, he had healed more quickly and was ready for action.
But before Mikael could heal to move at all, they had him drawn and quartered. All four of his limbs were severed from his body, and he was beheaded. As an angel, he could not die, but this was surely a living hell as they pinned all his body parts spread out on the wall so he could look helplessly down upon them and their mockery.
Asherah looked into Mikael’s eyes.
He could not respond verbally because his head was severed from his voice box and lungs, which were separated from each other by about six feet, like a sick spread-out puzzle. But he could watch her and hear their discussion.
Ba’alzebul said, “The only time all of them came together like this was to take back the body of Moses from Mastema.”
Molech said, “I think they plan much more than retrieving the prince of Israel here. I think they came to bind us into the earth.”
“Of course, you idiot,” said Asherah.
“But why do they not hide themselves?” said Dagon.
Ba’alzebul said, “They want us to stand and fight.”
“And why not?” said Asherah. “We are in our stronghold, we are empowered by the Philistines.”
“We are confident,” added Ba’alzebul. “Presumptuous. So we will be reckless.”
“E
xactly,” said Asherah. “If they can deliver this blow to us now, they will control all of Canaan. Which we cannot allow. So we will run.”
“Like cowards?” worried Dagon.
“Like insurgents,” said Asherah. “Look at the Amalekites. They were almost wiped out. But their few roaming hordes have become a terror to the Israelites, because they cannot be targeted in a specific location. They hit and they run, and Israel has nowhere to respond or retaliate. In our fortified Philistine cities, the archangels know exactly where we are, and what we are doing in our temples. And they can come get us whenever they want. Because they know where we are. As they do this very moment.”
The other gods nodded with understanding.
Asherah added, “It is time we become more mobile.”
• • • • •
The cloudy, starless night hid well the six shadows that descended upon the temple of Dagon. The four guards were taken out easily and the six archangels slipped inside the large stone edifice of idolatry.
They made their way through the pillared hall with swords and battle axes drawn.
Within moments, they were through the sanctuary tunnel way and headed down into the cavern below the altar.
But the gods were gone.
“Deplorable,” said Uriel, gazing upon the dismembered body parts of his brother archangel on the wall.
They carefully took down the arms, legs, torso and head of Mikael and reattached them like a human anatomy puzzle.
Uriel said, “Why would they have left all of him here for us to find and heal?” Uriel remembered all too terribly when he had been decapitated by Anu in the primeval city of Uruk. Anu had kept Uriel’s head separated from his body so that the angel could not heal and fight them.
Gabriel said, “They must have wanted us to find him.”
Raphael said, “But they did not want us to follow them, as we would have, had they taken part of his body.” The angels had done so in the past when Ishtar had cut Gabriel in half and threw his legs into the Abyss.
“Which means we should follow them,” said Uriel. “But where?”