by Brian Godawa
He called upon the high priest and used the Urim and Thummim to discern Yahweh’s response to his strategy. The unearthly glow of the Lights and Perfections fell upon Joshua’s form like lightning.
Yahweh approved.
In the dark of night, an advance force of thirty units of warriors, several thousand strong, were sent ahead to lie in wait at the rear of the city of Ai in a wooded valley. Another five troop units were sent in between Bethel and Ai in case more forces would arrive from that city.
The morning of the attack, Othniel led about a thousand warriors out onto the open plain before the elevated city on the hill. It drew the Commander of Ai out from the protection of the ruins. He had a few thousand soldiers and led two thousand of them out onto the field to smite the Israelites.
Seemingly overwhelmed, the Israelites retreated and the Bethelites chased after them, followed by the thousand other soldiers from the ruins. They had seen this as the opportunity to end the Israelite invasion of their land with one swift tidal wave.
But it had all been a ruse, because when Othniel had drawn them far enough away, Joshua signaled from a hilltop with his javelin to the ambush forces behind the city Ai. They entered the city and torched it to the ground.
The flames and smoke rose high enough for the Bethelites to see that they had been fooled. But it was too late, for they were already in the steep gorge of a wadi before they realized that Joshua had the rest of his forces waiting there.
Othniel’s forces turned around, joined by their fellow warriors in wait, and fought the Bethelites. They pushed them back toward the other Israelite forces that had burned the city and were now attacking them from the rear.
The Bethelites were surrounded on both sides by the Israelites and were crushed by the ambush.
They struck everyone in Ai with the edge of the sword and hung the Commander of Ai on a tree until morning because of Yahweh’s own words that anyone who was hung on a tree was cursed. Joshua took his body from the tree and threw it at the entrance gate of the city, another defilement by not burying the body properly. Then he piled a great heap of stones upon it as a memorial sign of its devoted destruction.
The Israelites returned to their home base in Gilgal.
Chapter 43
The funeral of Salmon ben Nahshon was a somber affair. Salmon had been a positive beacon of faith in his family, and a faithful warrior of Israel who had fought heroically beside Caleb ben Jephunneh, the Right Hand of Joshua.
He had many mourners for his ceremony in the desert, more than all the others who had been killed in the fight against Ai. Joshua and Caleb even showed up to pay their respects and honor to this fallen warrior.
Rahab wore sackcloth and covered herself with ashes. For seven days she mourned. According to custom, Caleb paid some female mourners to accompany her grief with wailing and their own sackcloth.
Because the Israelites were not settled in the land and could not engage in proper burial, they improvised by digging simple shafts in the ground to bury the individual soldiers near the cities where they died in battle. It was a way to honor them and to plant their hope as a seed of victory in the land. Their deaths were not in vain.
But at this moment, Rahab could not see it that way. It was the seventh day, the end of her grieving process, and she could not but fear what her future would be with Israel, now that her covering was gone. Salmon was her redemption. His marriage to her would have legitimized her as an Israelite according to their laws. Her days of isolation from the camp would soon be over, but she would no longer have that hope for inclusion. Would she remain forever at the periphery of the very people with whom she had chosen to identify? She had finally found the first real man who would have taken care of her instead of using her, and he too had abandoned her. She had finally found the god she could trust and worship, and he too would keep her at arm’s length like a leper.
It was too much to face. She began to contemplate her options of running away yet again. It was her way of avoiding the pain of a life of rejection and abuse at the hands of others. She wondered if she should find a sorceress to get rid of the life in her womb through forced miscarriage. She had done it before plenty of times. Why not again to protect herself? It was a battle of confusing voices within her heart and soul.
She decided instead to end it all. She would stop her endless wandering of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. She would stop the pain that she could not seem to escape in every moment of her existence. Despite all the suffering she had experienced, she had maintained the hope that there was a love that could redeem her, that could set her free. But she now gave up all hope of ever finding it.
She left her small mourning tent and entered her own tent to find her personal dagger within her belongings.
She grabbed it in her fist. She looked at her belly, just barely beginning to show. She had stopped her flow weeks ago. She felt bloated, and was having morning sickness.
She put the point of the dagger to her belly.
She said goodbye to her child within her.
She started to cry.
But she could not do it.
She dropped the knife.
And she left the tent with a new plan.
There was a ridge not far from her location outside the camp, with a deep ravine of about fifty feet that she had often visited to be alone. She would spend hours there looking out onto the Israelite camp below and wondering about this god Yahweh who had changed her life.
When she found herself looking down at the rocks below, she felt dizzy. Her breathing got shallow. She was going to cast herself to her death, but it was harder than she thought it would be. She had lived with such hunger for life. It was almost impossible to deny that zeal right now.
But she had to. There was no other option left to her.
And then a voice interrupted her thoughts. “Rahab.”
It was such a shock that she slipped a bit on the rocks but caught herself.
Was that the voice of Yahweh?
No, she knew exactly whose voice it was. She turned to face Caleb, standing a mere ten feet away with Donatiya by his side.
“Donatiya saw you leave and led me to find you. Are you praying out here or are you just getting away?”
Of course he meant it innocently as in getting away from everyone to have some time alone. But it had so much more meaning to her right now.
“What do you want, Caleb?” she said. She sounded almost scolding to him.
“I want to talk to you.”
Donatiya began her descent back to the camp to leave them alone.
He approached her. But she noticed him looking away. It annoyed her.
“Caleb, why can you not look me in the eye?”
He gestured to her chest.
She looked down and noticed that one of her breasts had been showing through the torn sackcloth. She had not realized it. She covered herself up.
But the thought had struck her that this man had such integrity. Any other man she had ever known would have stared until she discovered what they were gawking at and covered up. But not Caleb. He treated her with such honor. Honor she did not deserve.
“What do you want to talk about?” she said, softening.
“I am sorry for your loss, Rahab. Salmon was an honorable man and a mighty warrior of Yahweh.”
“Yes. Yes, he was. But not anymore. And my family must suffer.”
“No,” he said. “You do not have to suffer.”
“What do you mean?”
“You were going to marry him. You carry his child.”
“Yes. So?”
“Well, in our law, we have what is called ‘levirate marriage.’”
“What is that?”
“When a woman’s husband dies, if she has not borne him children, his next of kin is obligated to marry her so as to provide for her the safety of the tribe, that she would not suffer exclusion from the community.”
“What are you saying?” she asked.
“Salm
on has brothers,” he said.
“So you are saying that I could marry one of them because of this ‘levirate’ rule?”
“Yes.”
“But I am already with Salmon’s child.”
“The Law has been interpreted not to include a situation like yours. And the first born would be considered the son of the deceased brother anyway.”
“I do not like any of his brothers.”
Caleb smiled. “Me neither. And the law is only a provision, not a requirement. The brothers can legally choose not to do so. And that is another complication.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I have spoken with his brothers, all three of them, and…” he paused sadly. “None of them wants to marry you.”
Her head swirled. She started to consider casting herself to her death right in front of this man mocking her very existence.
“But that is actually good news.” He continued.
“How can that be ‘good news’?”
“Because that allows anyone within his tribe to step up and take his place.”
“So? His whole tribe is going to reject me and exile me into the desert wilderness?”
“No. That is not what it means.”
“It might just as well,” she said, looking back down the cliff.
Caleb stepped forward closer to her. It was as if he began to understand her true intentions of being here.
“Rahab, his tribe is Judah.”
“So?”
“I am in the tribe of Judah.”
Her entire body flooded with a tingling shock. Her eyes filled instantly with wetness. She knew what he was going to say, but still it shocked her.
“Marry me, Rahab. I know I am an old man more than twice your age. But I am one of the mightiest of warriors in Israel. And I will love you. I will take care of you and be a husband to you. I will treat you as the precious treasure that you are. You deserve a lifetime of adoration because you…”
She interrupted him. “No! I cannot.”
She tried to get away from him. To leave his presence that burned in her soul like a bonfire.
He went after her.
“What do you mean, you cannot?” he said. “Am I unsightly?”
“No!” she yelled.
He grabbed her arm to stop her.
She pulled away and kept going.
“Am I undesirable to you? Am I too harsh?”
“No, no, no!” She collapsed and wept with deep sobbing that made Caleb’s heart melt with pain for her.
He held her. “Tell me Rahab. I want to know. I am not afraid. Am I undeserving of you?”
She stopped her sobbing, and looked up into his eyes. He was serious. She could not believe what she was hearing.
“Are you undeserving of me?” she said with incredulity. “No. A thousand times no.” And she broke into tears again.
She managed to get it out through her sobs. “It is I who am undeserving of you. I am an abomination.”
He said sternly, “No, you are not.”
“You do not know what I have done. You do not know the evil.”
“Rahab!” He gripped her tight in his hands.
She suddenly felt safe. It was strange to her. Like all her fears melted in his strong grasp of concern.
She looked into his eyes. She could see his heart was torn in two for her.
And finally, she told him.
“I was born in the caves of Banias at the foot of Mount Hermon.”
“I am familiar with the area,” he said.
“They are ruled by the goat demons of Azazel. Satyrs who took me when I was but a child and groomed me to be a nymph.”
She looked into his eyes for a sign of rejection that would justify her feelings. But she could see none.
“When I was of age, I was initiated.” She stopped. It was starting to rise up in her again. The pain that she had kept so suppressed. It was all coming back. But she kept on.
“My initiation was to be gang raped by satyrs and patrons of the shrine. One of them was a giant from the area.”
Caleb’s heart was stabbed with a giant’s dagger.
“As soon as I was well, I ran away and never went back. But I discovered I was pregnant. I stumbled upon Gilgal Rephaim and I was taken in and cared for. But eventually I had to do something about the fruit of the crime that was growing in my womb. The sorcerers of Gilgal Rephaim gave me herbal potions to drink and I aborted the baby.”
Caleb would still not show an ounce of rejection in his look.
“When it came out, I saw that it was large and had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. It was a son of Anak.”
Caleb closed his eyes tight and held her with all his strength. He pulled her away to look at her again.
He said, “Is this why you think you are unworthy? Is this why you were considering ending your life and your baby’s life?”
So he had figured out why she was there. This man was in tune with her like no one had ever been before.
“How can you marry someone so unclean, so stained by such—evil? Yahweh is a holy god who detests abominations.”
“Yahweh is a god who atones,” he replied. “Whatever was done to you is not your sin. And whatever you have done can be removed from you as far as the east is from the west. If righteousness were based on our own goodness, none of us would stand. None of us are worthy of his presence. We are all stained by evil. We are made clean by blood atonement.”
She protested, “But I am not of Abraham’s seed. I was born under the cursed flesh of Edom.”
“So am I. I was born a Kenizzite, a descendant of Edom as well. But Yahweh accepts those of any nation who turn from their idols to the living God of all flesh. It is faith that Yahweh wants, Rahab, not flesh.”
A sudden silence penetrated their conversation. Rahab felt as if a great weight had lifted from her soul. The dark cloud that had followed her ever since she became a follower of Yahweh was dissolved in the cleansing of a spring rain.
She smiled and said softly, tenderly, “Yes, I will marry you, Caleb ben Jephunneh.”
He smiled broadly and kissed her.
Her heart came alive. It had taken her by surprise. She had only known Caleb to be prudish and judgmental of her sexuality. Even moments earlier, he had avoided a look at her naked breast. How could this passionate sensual kiss come from such a being?
He released her. She almost fainted at his gallantry.
“You are surprised?” he said. “Woman, there is a lot more passion where that came from. I suggest we get married immediately or I might explode.”
You? She thought. I am already exploding.
“Now comes the hard part,” he said: “Persuading Joshua.”
Chapter 44
“Absolutely not!” yelled Joshua. He was in his war tent surrounded by the three prophets counseling on spiritual matters. Caleb and Rahab stood before him with Othniel, Achsah, and Rahab’s father and mother and maidservant Donatiya, behind them. Caleb had just asked Joshua for his blessing in marrying Rahab.
“Commander,” said Caleb, “It fulfills the levirate marriage. She was betrothed to Salmon. I am in the line of Judah.”
“She is a Canaanite,” said Joshua. “Her family is Canaanite. I already caused endless debates with the scribes and elders when I accepted her marriage to Salmon. If you do this, and I support it publically, we could do more damage to the faith of this congregation than the defeat at Ai.”
Caleb countered, “But is it not faith that accepts me, a Kenizzite, into the congregation? Is it not faith that accepted Judah’s Canaanite wife into the congregation, or our patriarch Joseph’s Egyptian wife Asenath into the congregation, or Moses’ Midianite wife Zipporah, and Cushite wife Neferhetep into the congregation?”
“Okay, okay.” Joshua turned away.
“We have gone over this before, Caleb. You are my Right Hand. If you do this, if you marry this Canaanite, no matter how ‘acceptable’ it is as an excep
tion, it may jeopardize the solidarity of my forces to engage in their campaign of herem. For Yahweh’s sake, you just burned Achan and his family, born Israelites every one of them, out of our midst for violating herem.”
“Then burn me with Rahab and her entire family if it is the same thing,” said Caleb.
Rahab and her parents looked at him with shock. But they remained wisely silent.
“It is not the same thing,” admitted Joshua, “But you are pushing me into a corner, Caleb. I must reinforce holiness in Israel.”
Caleb would not back down. “And is holiness a matter of flesh or faith?”
Joshua would not back down. “Are you going to marry this Canaanite, Caleb?”
“I am going to marry this convert to the Israelite faith,” he said.
“Then I have no other choice but to demote you in rank to a commander of fifty and pull you from service for an indeterminate amount of time.”
“What would it take, my commander, to get you to change your mind?”
In the course of their heated debate, the two men did not notice the three prophets had slowly stepped forward, staring at Rahab. As they approached her, she felt a chill go down her spine and she drew near to Caleb, holding his arm for protection.
Donatiya and her parents stepped back in fear.
Achsah was more courageous like her father. She stood her ground. Othniel stayed beside her like a loyal guard dog.
Caleb and Joshua stopped and watched the prophets.
The three of them were staring at Rahab as if they saw something in her that they did not quite understand.
Then a shudder and a gasp of breath seemed to flow from one to the other. Everyone in the room saw it. It was like a rushing wind that penetrated their bodies, but only their bodies, no one else’s.
It was the Spirit of the living god.
One of the prophets spoke up, “Thus saith Yahweh, behold this woman before you will bear a child in the line of Judah.”
The second spoke as if continuing the sentence like they were all three connected in spirit.
“It will be a royal bloodline from which a king of Israel shall arise. A gibborim warrior.”