Caleb Vigilant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (3 page)

Mastema strode pompously before the divine council of holy ones. In the heavenly court he was called the
satan
, which meant “adversary.” It was his duty to prosecute legal accusations against Yahweh Elohim and his people. He would go to and fro amidst the earth seeking ways to challenge the Law of God or manipulate it to unjust ends.

One of those unjust ends
was currently in process. The satan had filed a temporary restraining order against Israel to keep them from entering the land of Canaan. And he was following through on a class action lawsuit on behalf of the people and gods of Canaan. He now stood before the court presenting his evidence that Yahweh had made an illegitimate claim of eminent domain on Canaan, and that Israel was engaged in war crimes against humanity.

Behind him were the
divine claimants, the gods of Canaan, represented by Ba’al, Chemosh, Molech, Dagon, and Asherah. Of course, in the divine council, their real names would be used: The Watchers Gadreel, Zaqiel, Neqael, Kestarel, and Turiel. Ashtart, or Azazel the Watcher, would not be involved in this covenant lawsuit as she was currently indisposed—had her hands tied—in the depths of Tartarus under the watch of the Rephaim of Sheol.

Ten
thousands of the heavenly host surrounded the throne chariot of Yahweh Elohim with the burning brilliance of ten million lamps. The sphinxlike Cherubim held his chariot below and the serpentine Seraphim guarded his holiness from above. A flame of fire was at his right hand, and a stream of fire poured out before his throne.

The defense
team included the Son of Man and Enoch ben Methuselah, who stood by the other defendant Mikael, the representative prince of Israel. Enoch was the righteous one who had been translated in antediluvian days before he could see death. He too shined with the luminescence of his heavenly habitation.

Enoch had been here before. In the days leading up to the Deluge, the satan had filed a
nother class action lawsuit against Yahweh Elohim in order to distract his heavenly host from being available to defend against a surprise attack on the Garden of Eden. He had charged Yahweh Elohim with breach of covenant against Adam and Eve and the human race. Enoch had become one of the defense lawyers but did not have the experience to face his adversary, as he would have preferred. Yahweh liked to use weak vessels. Yahweh liked irony.

However, the Son of Man
was primary counsel and would determine who would present what and when. He was an enigmatic presence whose identity Enoch could not quite get his mind wrapped around. He was not particularly striking, had no form or majesty that anyone would give him a second look, and no handsomeness that anyone would desire. He was extraordinarily plain looking, considering the position he held before the presence of Yahweh Elohim. And yet, he exuded the very presence of Yahweh Elohim. He was an embodiment of Yahweh himself, a second power in heaven.

Mikael was angered at having to be present at this circus trial. The satan loved class action lawsuits because they were a way of exploiting a multitude of others for his own
despicable purposes. As if he cared one whit for the lives of these Canaanites he enslaved to demons. The Israelites were on the threshold of entering the Promised Land to take possession, and this slippery little serpent could derail it all with his diabolical mastery of legal loopholes and technicalities.

It was forensic protocol for the two disputants to stand before the Judge and present their cases, whereupon the Judge would render his declaration of righteousness unto one of the disputants. This was called justification.

Enoch stood in the bar and listened to the satan, that master of theatrical oration, pace back and forth delivering his scathing legal attack on the Creator. His lanky features and less than impressive voice hid his intellectual brilliance—and his spiritual malevolence. He was a seraph with bright burnished bronze skin of subtle scales, and serpentine eyes.

“Regarding my first charge against Yahweh Elohim, I consider his command for this—this moral atrocity he calls “dispossession” of the Canaanites—to be the most wanton act of tyranny and imperialism in the history of the creation.”

The satan huffed and continued. “I bring into evidence,
Yahweh Elohim’s own covenant, agreed to by him, under blood oath, with the Bene Elohim, his own Sons of God. And I quote, ‘El Elyon the Most High gives to the nations their inheritance, at the division of mankind with the confusion of tongues. He fixes the borders of the peoples according to the number of the Sons of God. But Yahweh’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.’”

He paused.
“Is there any need for cross examination or for this trial to even continue? It is right there—in blood. And we were all there, all of us, at the Tower of Babel division. And we were all called as witnesses to the covenant of inheritance.”

He pointed to the tens of thousands around the throne
who were those very witnesses.

“
Yahweh has allotted the seventy nations and their land under the authority of those of us on earth.” He pointed to the Watchers on his side. “And now he seeks to take it away as if he has the right. That is not eminent domain, that is colonialism! All these poor innocent Canaanites will be slaughtered in mass ethnic cleansing, and their cities burned to the ground in a holocaust of flames to make room for the expansionist policies of a greedy land-grabbing god who claims ‘divine exceptionalism’ as justification for genocide.”

The satan then
raised his hands in mocking worship.

“‘
The incomparability of Yahweh.’ Well, let me just say right now,
all
the gods consider themselves exceptional. He is not the only one. But I would say, he is surely the most angry, bitter, and wrathful one that I have ever seen. What kind of a loving god would be so cruel as to kill non-combatants and cast them into Sheol? Not only that, but also every last woman and child, as they are declared as
herem
, or devoted to destruction. I ask, who would want to worship a god like that, a god who gets his jollies punishing innocent human beings forever with eternal torture?”

Enoch rolled his eyes.
Here he went again with his “what kind of a god” hateful ad hominem attacks. He made plenty of them back in the Eden lawsuit, and he would never stop reaching for an opportunity to unfairly impugn Yahweh’s character.

Enoch burst out, “I object. These are ad hominem attacks without
material force.”

“I beg to differ, counsel,” said the satan. “
They are quite material as to the credibility of the accused to fulfill his covenants.”

“
Overruled,” said Yahweh Elohim to Enoch.

The satan grinned with
pride. “May I also remind the court that this is exactly what I predicted in the Eden trial. And now I say the chickens are coming home to roost.”

Enoch thought the satan looked like a chicken strutting around with his chin thrust out and his nose in the air.

“Now, regarding those innocent and peaceful indigenous peoples, the Canaanites—who were in the land first—long before Israel ever got here. I would also like to charge the Israelites as well as Yahweh with racial discrimination against a protected minority. They are singling out Canaanites from all the races on the earth as the victims of their hate crimes. These racists and their xenophobic religion foster an ‘Us versus Them’ mentality that lashes out in fear and violence against ‘the Other.’ Why should these innocent Canaanites be targeted with such violence and wrath? They were simply victims of their birth and geography. They were born and raised in Canaan, and they were taught the religion of Canaan. If they were born in Babylon, they would believe Babylonian religion, if in Egypt, Egyptian religion. What kind of a god would punish and destroy a people for an accident of birth? And why should these foreign Habiru be considered ‘chosen ones’ when they are no better than the Canaanites? You have seen for yourself how they played the harlot with Ba’al, Chemosh, and Molech when they got the chance.”

Those three named
Watcher gods felt offended by the reference, but they knew it was all just rhetoric to try to use Yahweh’s own religious morals against him.

The satan wound it up, “
The Israelites are simply not a righteous people and therefore have no right to ‘dispossess’ the Canaanites from their land just because they are the putzes of Yahweh.”

He used the word
putz as a blasphemous slur against the covenant of circumcision Yahweh had with his people. He wasted no opportunity to attack his human enemies with verbal arson. The fact was, the satan would like to burn all of the Israelites in the flaming ovens of Molech if he got the chance.

He gave his concluding statement, “I warn you, if you follow through with these Yahweh Wars, as you call them, you will be giving permission to every religion known to man, from now until the end of history, to do the same thing in the name of their god. And all the innocent blood of those hundreds of millions of victims will be on your hands. I rest my case.”

Caleb was having a difficult time reading Rahab’s treaty because he could not get the image of her out of his mind. He had tried not to look at her because of his desire to be pure in his heart before Yahweh. But the few looks that he did get of her were burned into his mind like a branding iron.

And it
was not just her looks either. When she was close to him, he could smell her scent, and when she turned, her hair brushed over him. He felt a shudder go through his body at the touch of her hand returning the pouch. She was like a heavenly vision that made all his senses come alive. And it had been some time since that had happened. He had been committed to never uniting with a woman again since his wife had died so many years ago.

As he read over
Rahab’s scrupulously detailed and enumerated rights, he smiled at her industriousness. But he also felt himself strongly attracted to her like a moth to a flaming torch and he felt stupid for it—weak. Was he just like every other man in that establishment, drooling in complete vulnerability to an immoral unclean prostitute? Was he too, just a prisoner to his senses?

Yet
there was something different about her. Something strangely pure. He could not put his finger on it because it seemed so counter-intuitive. But when she had looked into his eyes, he saw a passionate soul like his own. A zest for life and a strong will in submission to Yahweh. He considered himself unclean for thinking of it but he almost felt that she had released herself in submission to him at that very moment.

He shook it out of his head. It was probably because she was used to being a tool of men’s desires and no longer had an identity of her own. A destroyed soul.

He was interrupted in his thoughts by Rahab’s arrival in his room.

“Caleb, come quickly.”

He followed her into her room where he found a strangely relaxed and smiling Salmon. Suddenly a jealousy swept over Caleb.

But h
e could not bother with such silliness in this moment.

S
he rushed them over to the balcony.

“The Commander’s men are on their way here.
They are looking for you.”

“How did they know?” asked Caleb.

She said, “They have spies in the tavern looking out for spies.”

Salmon said with a smirk, “Did they spy
us spies?”

Caleb shot him a dirty look. “Now is not the time
for frivolity.”

“Sorry.”

Then, Caleb added with a glance at Rahab, “or to gloat in your sin.”

Rahab looked
back at Caleb with anger. She had a lot to figure out about these Habiru and their peculiar ways.

She led them up to the roof where she had stored a pile of flax
for cloth making.

“Here,” she said. “Hide under these. I will tell the men you have already gone.”

Caleb grabbed her arm. “How can we trust you will not give us up?”

She returned, “How can
I
trust that you will not give
me
up?”

He pulled out her treaty and handed it to her. She looked
at it. It was signed. She grinned.

Salmon was still watching her with
ogling eyes.

“Now hide yourselves. There
is not much time.”

She left them and rushed downstairs to settle herself in the tavern as if she had been there all along.

Salmon watched her go.

Caleb said, “Hurry up, Salmon.”

He turned to Caleb. “Is she not amazing? Oh, Caleb, wait until I tell you what she did to me. I cannot beli—”

Caleb interrupted him, “
Salmon, I would prefer you did not.”

When Jebir had left Rahab’s tavern, he had intended to make his way directly to the Commander Alyun’s quarters and alert him to the presence of spies. But because of his lust for Rahab, he was conflicted, so he walked through the streets of the city reevaluating his options. It was the law that an innkeeper who harbored or aided spies would be executed. It happened too often in these lands.

But h
e could not bring himself to be the messenger of death for the most arrestingly beautiful woman on the face of the earth. He desired her with much pain.

Until he realized that he would lose his own head if the Commander ever found out.

So self-preservation won out over self-gratification and Jebir found himself just before dark giving Alyun the news.

When Jebir arrived at the tavern with his company of ten soldiers, he found Rahab cleaning up at the counter where she poured the beer and wine.

“Rahab,
where are the travelers with whom you spoke earlier this evening? Bring them out to me.”

“Whi
ch travelers?” she asked with an impatient look. “I have had twenty new travelers today, as I do every day from all over the land.”

“
The Habiru,” he said. And then with jealous grit, he added, “The ones you brought up to your own room.”

“So those were Habiru?” she said with feigned shock. “They never told me. They were very private.
Would not tell me anything, though I tried to—suck it out of them.”

She was taunting him.

“Which rooms are they in?”

“Oh,
they have already left through the city gate before it closed at dark. I do not know where they went. But I can tell you one thing I know about them. They knew how to pleasure a woman.”

She threw in that last line just to
distract Jebir with more anger. She knew he had a crush on her and she knew she could use that to her advantage one day.

That day had finally arrived.

“It was not but an hour ago. If you hurry, you might catch them. If they are Habiru as you say, then would they not be going to cross the Jordan?”

Jebir looked hard into Rahab’s eyes. He wanted to see if she was lying, but he could not tell.

He turned to his men. “Check all the rooms before we leave.” And then added as an afterthought, “And the roof.”

A pang of fear rushed over Rahab. She tried to hide it.

The men checked the rooms. Jebir ended up with two of them on the roof of Rahab’s inn.

There was nothing there but a big pile of flax.

Jebir looked at the stalks lying in order. It was too orderly.

He nodded to the two soldiers.

They pulled their swords and walked over to the stalks.

And then both of them thrust their swords into the piles to seek out anyone hiding underneath. They jabbed around the whole stacks to make sure they did not miss any possible fugitive hiding out.

But there was no one there.

“
Let us go,” said Jebir. We will follow the path to the Jordan.”

And they left.

In their focus on the flax stalks, they had failed to consider checking the edge of the roof, where Caleb and Salmon hung by their fingertips over the edge fifty feet up in the air.

They
had originally been hiding under the flax. But Caleb made a last second change of plans and they slid over the side of the building.

They pulled themselves up.

They met Rahab back in her room.

“Thank Yahweh they
did not find you,” she said.

Caleb said, “Can we go through the gate?”

She said, “No, It is closed for the evening. Besides, everyone would see you. I have a better idea.”

She moved over to a basket by her window and opened it. She pulled out a long rope died scarlet red.

“What is that for?” asked Caleb.

She said, “Well, as you now know, I am always well prepared for contingencies.
I have had to be in my life.”

She took the rope and
hung it outside the window against the wall.

“Why is it red?” asked Salmon.

“To throw off suspicion. If anyone should come upon it for any reason, they would consider it some kind of decoration, similar to the red banner that marks this inn as a house of pleasure.”

“You are cunning,” said Caleb.

“If you only knew what I have been through,” she said.

Caleb said, “When we arrive at the city, tie this cord outside your window so the troops will know where you
are and will pass over your household.”

“
You are cunning yourself,” she replied.

He said,
“But if any of your household venture out of this building, their blood will be on their own heads.”

She countered, “
And if any of your men lay a hand on any of my household within this building, our blood will be on
your
heads.”

“Fair enough,” he said. But
he would not be outdone. “But if you reveal our plans to anyone, then we are released from this treaty on all counts.”

She deferred,
“According to your words, so be it. Now make sure you go into the hills for three days until they return before you set off for the Jordan.”

Salmon said, “
I will be back for you, Rahab.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “
That is what they all say, Salmon. Now get going.”