Pearl in the Sand (11 page)

“The people of Jericho and the rest of Canaan speak of us in fear,” Ezra continued. “They expect defeat. They’re petrified of our people.”

“Ah! This news will reassure and strengthen our men. Now start from the beginning. You’ve been gone for days. Where did you stay?” Joshua prodded.

No cushions detectable in his immediate future. Hanani’s shoulders sagged. “We hid in the hills these last three days, because the king of Jericho sent a search party after us.” Thinking of the rest of his report, Hanani chewed on a bit of his beard. “We spent the first night in Jericho.”

“Really? Where in Jericho did you stay?”

“At an inn,” Ezra provided.

“An inn?” Joshua’s head snapped up, and Salmone’s neck jerked around so fast Hanani thought it a wonder it remained attached to his body. “You mean the house of a
zonah?”

“It wasn’t like that, Joshua. Rahab helped us. She saved our lives,” Hanani croaked.

Salmone rolled his eyes. “Just what we need. The guild of Canaanite prostitutes rushing to our aid.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Hanani repeated.

“So you keep saying. Yet, you call her by name as if well acquainted.” The mild manner in which Salmone spoke the words did not fool Hanani.

Taking an uncomfortable gulp, he rushed to explain, his words tumbling one over the other. “The guards spotted us the moment we tried to enter the gates. They have grown suspicious of strangers because of our victories. Anyone remotely resembling an Israelite attracts instant attention, and our accents gave us away. Then, just as things began to grow perilous, Rahab stepped in. She told the guard we were guests of her inn and bribed him with barley water. Then she hid us under the flax drying on her roof when the king’s soldiers came looking for us. I’m telling you, she saved our lives at the risk of her own.”

“Why would a woman of Jericho do such a thing? Why would she betray her people for the sake of two unimpressive strangers?” Salmone asked.

Hanani examined his friend with surprise. The handsome face, square of jaw, with a nose too straight for a soldier, had hardened with suspicion. His eyes appeared tense and accusing. Hanani jutted out his chin. “Pardon?”

“No offense, but you had little money and even less sophistication to recommend you to a city woman like that.”

“Quiet down, everyone,” Joshua interrupted. “You say this woman saved your life. Did she tell you why?”

“Joshua, she did it because of the Lord. She had more faith in God than our fathers and mothers. She spoke more like one of us than one of them. Ask Ezra.”

Ezra nodded, his head bobbing like an apple at the end of a thin branch on a windy day. “She said the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”

“That seems … extraordinary.”

“Exactly what we thought, Joshua. Neither of us wanted anything to do with her, but after the way she spoke of the Lord and saved our
lives, we had to, uh, I mean it only seemed right, don’t you agree, Ezra?”

“What
only seemed right?” Joshua prompted, an eyebrow arched.

“Well, uh, we made her a promise,” Hanani stammered. “She endangered her life to save us. First she took us into her inn. Then she lied to the soldiers after she had hidden us. She even lowered Ezra from her window. On a rope. Delicate thing she was, too.” Seeing the look in Salmone’s eyes, he rushed on, “This lumberjack Ezra must have broken her back.” Ezra nodded again, not offended. “And on the way out, she told us to hide in the hills for three days so the search party wouldn’t find us. So actually she saved our lives four times.”

“I see. You spoke of a promise. May we be privy to it?”

Hanani pulled on his ear. “We promised to spare her life and the lives of her family members if she helped us. She knows we’re going to conquer Jericho, you see. She believes God has given us the victory. So she has asked for mercy before the battle even begins. That kind of faith should be rewarded, don’t you think? Wouldn’t God Himself reward it?”

Salmone, who had remained silent through most of this soliloquy, bellowed, “Are you trying to be amusing?”

“This is no prank,” Joshua stated, his voice a mere whisper. Salmone stared at Joshua in disbelief. The older man merely nodded his head, as if privy to some information available to him alone. “I believe they have done well.”

“Joshua, they have promised a harlot and her entire family that we won’t touch them, even though God told us to destroy Jericho
in its entirety.”

“But don’t you see that it could only be the hand of the Lord that has led them to this woman’s house? If she hadn’t noticed them, they would have died. In all of Jericho, was there another who would have helped our men? Another who acknowledges the Lord? Others might fear Him now that His fame grows, but would they serve Him? And how was it that at precisely that moment this woman
noticed Hanani and Ezra? It is the hand of God and no other, Salmone. Who knows but that it was His plan from the beginning?” Joshua thought for a moment. “I will keep this promise.”

Salmone was stunned. He had had a hard time keeping up with the story the spies told. His emotions had soared and dipped like the outline of a camel’s back. First, he had been filled with elation at his friends’ safe return, then he had plunged into dismay when he heard that they had spent the night with a
zonah
. That was a serious infraction of the Law. Then with relief he had found that the men had not touched her. Now they were making her out to be some heroic figure of faith and granting her pardon from God’s command of total destruction.

He supposed he understood Joshua’s reasoning. Yet to spare the life of a Canaanite
zonah
seemed to take the mercy of God to a ridiculous extreme. Would God allow a whole nation to be put to death while sparing the life of one so unworthy? Salmone would never disobey Joshua. But that did not mean he would agree with him.

By morning the sprawling camp had heard the news that they were to prepare for departure. That same day they took the first step of their journey toward Jericho. In the evening they camped just by the bulging banks of the river Jordan. For two days, Joshua and the leaders of the tribes fasted and prayed to seek the will of God. On the third day they knew with certainty that God had a miracle in store for them. The people weren’t told what would happen, or that they would walk across the Jordan, only that they should follow the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred container that housed the original stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. Joshua didn’t want doubt to shake the people as they waited through these final hours, so he chose to withhold the more astounding details of the coming day until the last possible minute.

The next morning excitement rippled through the camp like bolts of silent lightning. Joshua called the members of the tribes together and told them to expect a most wondrous thing: “The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord will go into the Jordan ahead of you. As soon as the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off in a heap.”

A collective gasp rose up from the people. Salmone, who was standing next to Hanani and Ezra, saw their faces pale. He had heard the story of their river crossing and knew them to be less than enthusiastic about setting foot in that furious water again. He placed a reassuring hand on each back.

“God has a different treat in store for you this time, my friends. Your garments shall not even grow damp. Forget the idea of a swim. This time, you will stroll.”

The two men stared at him, a mixture of wonder and doubt coloring their faces. Salmone laughed. “Be strong, my courageous friends. You are about to witness a miracle like our fathers and mothers experienced during their escape from Egypt. God appears to have a particular purpose for choosing such an unlikely season for our crossing. He wants to teach us about His power and glory.” Salmone didn’t say that he believed God wanted this younger generation to have a firsthand experience that would prepare them for the hardships of conquest. He wanted to part the waters in order that He might part their hearts and make sufficient room for Himself.

Hanani scrunched his nose. “It would be easier if God’s lessons about His greatness didn’t include so much risk to our necks. I mean, walking into the middle of a raging river isn’t exactly normal behavior, is it?”

Salmone chewed on his lower lip in an effort not to smile. “I suppose we are incapable of truly learning to trust God without paying a cost. To see these waters part, we must be willing to step into them.”

Salmone gripped Hanani’s shoulder, trying to impart wordless reassurance to his younger friend. He then moved to take up his
position at the head of his people while they waited their turn. His eyes grew damp with tears as he felt the degree of his dependence on God. On ordinary days as he took on the busy work of shepherding thousands, it was easy to fall into a mindset of self-reliance. Subtly, his will took over, and he started depending on himself to a greater measure than he did on God. His gifting, his human strength, his solid, reliable fortitude carried him through many a harsh task. But on this day, the impossibility of such an attitude struck him hard. Stripped of every illusion of control, Salmone’s very being overflowed with a new sense of freedom, for comprehending that God alone must be the source of his strength liberated him from the burden of false responsibility.

As if waiting for Salmone to arrive at this precise moment of utter self-abandonment, the priests stepped on the water’s edge, carrying the ark. At that very instant, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam, while the water flowing down to the Salt Sea was completely cut off. The riverbed before them turned into a wide highway. So immense was the pathway that the people crossed the miraculous breach in great swathes, while the priests stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan. The whole nation of Israel walked over to the west of the Jordan into the Promised Land, stepping on the back of God’s miracle. They lingered long enough to collect twelve mighty stones from the middle of the Jordan to build a monument as a sign for the generations to come.

To Salmone, mighty was the sight of the Jordan returning to flood stage the moment the priests stepped up onto the west bank. No one could suspect coincidence after all this. No one could doubt the Lord’s intention and might.

That evening, Israel camped in the land that would become her new home. It became a season of firsts, Salmone reflected. The first time the sons of Israel were circumcised after generations of neglect. The first Passover they celebrated on the western banks, remembering their deliverance from Egypt, from slavery, from
death. Their first harvest of grain from farmlands they had not planted. And it became a season of lasts as well. The last time they tasted manna, the miraculous food that had sustained them for almost forty years. The last time they wandered like the homeless. Salmone realized that before long they would be learning to farm and plant like the rest of the world. The only thing standing between them and an ordinary settled life was war. His stomach knotted at the thought. He had weeks to reflect on such things as he, along with the rest of the young men who had been born in the wilderness, recuperated their strength after being circumcised with flint knives. There could be no battle on Jericho until they grew strong again. God, who had been in such a hurry to get them across the overflowing river, was content to make them wait on this side of the water.

Joshua could not sleep. The men of Israel had almost regained their full strength and were ready for war. He knew that Israel’s fate rested in the balance of the coming battle. And the knowledge weighed on him. How often the Lord had to rise up and encourage him. How often he needed God to strengthen his resolve.

With supple movements for a man of his age, Joshua silently rose from his bedroll and grabbed a coarse robe. Leaving his tent, he walked until his steps carried him outside the camp of Israel. The sun drenched the sky with light by the time Joshua neared Jericho. He was close enough to see the walls, which meant he was close enough to see that not even scaling ladders and battering rams, which Israel did not possess, would make a difference. The city was not conquerable. He dropped his eyes to the ground and tried to win an internal battle with discouragement.