Caleb Vigilant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (10 page)

You?
She thought.
I am already exploding
.

“Now comes the hard part,” he said: “Persuading Joshua.”

“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 exception, 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 wit
h 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.”

And the last one finished, “
The Seed of Promise shall issue forth who will crush the Seed of the Serpent.”

A strange peace came over Rahab. It was as if Yahweh
’s spirit rested upon her as well. It was as if he were comforting her, clearing away all her doubt, and all her years of pain and anguish in search of one true love. And now she had found it.

She kept clinging to Caleb.

The prophets then lost their breath and looked at one another. The Spirit that had come over them was now gone.

Caleb looked up at J
oshua, whose face was frozen stupefied. He said, “Commander, I never heard your answer to my question.”

•
• • • •

Caleb and Rahab had a small wedding for their two families
alone. The feast would only last one day instead of seven. Caleb did not want to draw too much attention to the affair out of respect for Joshua’s wishes to avoid controversy. It was a sad fact that even though Yahweh had clearly spoken through the prophets, many in Israel did not trust the prophets as they had Moses and would continue to cause problems if it was made public.

They kept the prophecy hidden.
They emphasized the levirate nature of the marriage in order to stress its legal side. It would be hard for the scribes to argue with the Torah, the revealed law of Yahweh.

The first order of business was business. Caleb signed
a contract, called a
ketubbah
, with Rahab’s father. This was the transfer of authority from father to husband and was the legal foundation of the marriage. Caleb then paid a dowry to her father of fifty shekels, according to their law. This was the customary money held in faith by the father should a wife’s husband forsake her through divorce or death.

The next order of business was for the
wife to give an inventory accounting of her assets that would be transferred to her husband’s estate. Since Rahab had left everything behind but her family when Jericho was destroyed, she had nothing. To Caleb that sacrifice was more than he could ever offer her.

The next stage in a normal wedding
with a virgin was not the celebration, but consummation. The husband and wife would go to the father’s home and consummate their union in the marriage bed. A white cloth would be placed beneath the virgin so that there would be a discharge of blood with her first carnal knowledge of a man. The cloth would then be taken to the celebration feast to prove her virginity and a priest would pronounce a benediction over them.

But this was not a normal wedding with a virgin.

Because of the shame of this lack of virginity, Rahab requested that they perform the ceremony and celebration before they would leave to consummate. This way, attention would not be drawn to her shame.

Caleb graciously agreed.

The families gathered in Caleb’s tent. Wine and oil were distributed among the participants, and nuts for the children. A small band of minstrels played on flutes and lyres.

Since Joshua had not followed through on Caleb’s demotion, Caleb was dressed in his military officer’
s garb. He wore a pure polished copper breastplate and shin greaves, and he carried a pure copper sword in his sheath. It was all ceremonial dress and weapons and it made him shine like the heavenly host. He had a royal purple cape made from the Philistine coast, and a fine cloth headpiece whose three corners lay down his back, reminiscent of their Egyptian past.

He walked around greeting people and making small talk with the several commanders who had been invited.

Caleb’s daughter Achsah accompanied him, dressed in a fine white linen celebration garment with flowers in her hair.

Othniel watched Achsah with longing. She had grown into a beautiful young woman of seventeen years old. He had
shriveled up into a coward who could not reveal his desires to her or to Caleb. But now was his brother’s day. He would not want to distract from that in any way.

At least that is what he told himself.

Caleb stepped up to Joshua, also dressed in military ceremonial garb like Caleb.

“General,” said Caleb. “I am honored with your presence.”

“You deserve it, Caleb,” said Joshua. “I do not want any of the men doubting my support—or Yahweh’s support—of this union.”

Caleb grabbed wrists with Joshua and gave him a look of solidarity.

At one point, Caleb looked at Achsah and leaned in to whisper to her, “You are as lovely as a bride, my child. One day, this will be your joy as well.”

“Thank you, father,” she said, hiding the painful resignation of her own despair.

Achsah was a bit afraid of this enigmatic exotic new stepmother and her Canaanite family. But she trusted her father because his wisdom and valor were impeccable. Ever since her mother had died, her father had always made decisions with a careful concern for how they affected her.

The crowd went hush. The bride was coming.

Rahab had walked along the pathways of the camp, accompanied by her companions carrying flowers and lamps. Others joined in the procession until she arrived at the bridegroom’s tent with her entourage.

When Rahab arrived at the tent opening, Caleb’s breath was taken away. The afternoon sun glared behind her, creating an angelic presence to her astounding beauty. Her hair had been growing back in, but it was still rather short, so she wore an elaborate headdress and translucent veil.

Her eyes were the most gorgeous intense and penetrating eyes Caleb had ever seen. The elaborate makeup accentuated them even more and hypnotized him.

She wore a
multi-colored gown covered with flowers. She was a Garden of Eden to him. White was reserved for virgins. But as far as Caleb was concerned, Rahab was a clean and pure soul.

She saw him and her own legs went weak. His
uniform and confidence made him so strong and dignified that she never saw his age. He was a tower of strength to her. He was a gallant, virtuous, and mighty man who would protect her from the monsters of her past and the monsters of the future. She never thought she would ever be worthy of such grace. She fought back the tears.

They met in the middle and were crowned with garland. He led her to the
priest who waited to make a benediction over them, and announce the celebration of their newfound life together.

As the people feasted, Caleb and Rahab
left their guests to go to her family’s tent for their consummation.

Everyone had been cleared out for them to be alone that night.

Caleb
and Rahab bathed themselves in separate tents. Caleb made his way to Rahab’s tent and found the marriage bed. He had a surprise for her. He had brought a bag of white rose petals picked by Achsah. He spread out the petals on the floor all around the bed as a symbolic gesture of her purity to him. He sat down on the bed to lay in wait for her to finish her preparations.

At his age, he was proud of how virile he still was. In fact he was getting uncomfortable waiting for his new queen.

When she appeared from behind her partition, he lost his breath a second time this day. Because of her past as a paramour, she knew exactly how to please a man. And she held nothing back.

He saw her eyes first. They were the most beautiful eyes in the heavens and earth and her dark eyeliner only accentuate
d their loveliness. Yahweh above, she knew how to use makeup. She had switched headdresses to a more exotic one than at the ceremony. This one was laden with gems and had strings hanging down, touching her body with temptation.

She wore a very expensive looking translucent garment that allowed him to see just enough to arouse him, but not enough to satisfy his hunger for more.

He could see she had tattoos on some of the more sensual areas of her body; her lower back just above her buttocks, down low near her vulva. They were marks of her past life that she would not be able to erase. But he was secretly glad for it. Although Yahweh had forbidden tattoos like those of the Canaanite prostitutes, those were marks from her past life. She was forgiven now, and would never display them to entice any other man than him.

She was a
sensuous woman of the flesh who was redeemed for Yahweh’s purposes. It was really the perfect combination that most men dreamed of: A woman of God who was a nymph in the marriage bed.

She began to writhe in performance for him. She knew how to move with sublime sensuality.

He was instantly alive and completely in her control.

But then she saw the white petals on the floor.

She knew what they meant.

And it was too much for her to handle.

She broke down weeping.

“I
cannot do this, I cannot do this,” she cried.

Caleb was up in a flash and was holding her, comforting her.

“What is wrong, my lovely bride?”

She would not answer.

He pulled her gently over to the bed and they sat down. He continued to hold her in his strong arms.

“I will not hurt you, Rahab. I will not treat you as other men have. I
will not let anything hurt you ever again.”

“I know. I know
you will not.”

“Then what is it?”

“I do not know how to be. I do not know how to love. I cannot separate the darkness I have experienced from the act. Please forgive me, Caleb. Please do not divorce me. I want to love you. I just do not know how.”