Till Shiloh Comes (42 page)

“There's only one way to find out,” Benjamin said cheerfully. “Let's go meet with him.”

The brothers went to their father's tent to talk with him. Judah was glad to see that Jacob looked much better than when they first arrived. He was standing straight, and there was a glow in his eyes as he greeted them all. “Come in, my sons. I want to hear more about this wonderful news!”

“It would take a long time to tell it all, Father,” Judah said. “It's still hard to believe.”

They sat for a time, each sharing their thoughts, and finally Benjamin looked around and saw that his brothers were all watching him. He knew they were expecting him to bring up the subject of the move to Egypt.

“Father,” he said, “there's one more thing. One more bit of good news. Do you think you can take it?”

Jacob laughed heartily. “I can always take good news, but it could not be as good as that which you have already given me.”

“No, nothing could be better than that, but Joseph and the pharaoh have issued an invitation.”

“An invitation? To whom?”

“To you and to all of us and our families.”

Jacob blinked with surprise. “An invitation to visit?”

“No, it's even better than that,” Benjamin said with excitement. “You have seen our flocks and herds dying off, and this drought seems to be getting worse. Another year and we'll have nothing left.”

“I fear that's true,” Jacob said sadly.

“Yes, it is true, Father,” Benjamin said. “But the pharaoh has made us a wonderful offer. Tell him about it, Judah.”

Judah was surprised, but he had seen more of the fields of Goshen than any of the others. He began to tell his father about the richness of the land of Goshen, then said, “The pharaoh wants us to come live there.”

“You mean … permanently?”

“The ground is rich there,” Judah explained, “and the Egyptians don't care for shepherds. They'll be happy to have us take care of the pharaoh's flocks while we raise our own. Joseph's talked to me about it.”

“But this will mean leaving our home for good.”

“Yes, it will. There's no denying that,” Reuben put in. “But think of the advantages. We're going to starve if we stay here. There we'll have good ground, and we can increase our flocks.”

“I hate to think of leaving my home. It's where my people are buried.
Our
people, I should say.”

“We can always come back when the drought is over,” Dan said eagerly. “It's a marvelous opportunity.”

But Jacob was hard to convince, as they had all known he would be. After a long argument Benjamin finally found the key.

“You haven't thought of the best thing in of all this, Father.”

“What's that, my son?”

“If we lived in the land of Goshen, you could see Joseph anytime you wanted to. You could see his children and meet his wife. We would all be together, all twelve of us, a family again, and you know how wonderful it would be to have Joseph with us!”

Something changed in Jacob's face, and Benjamin instantly pursued his advantage. “I think God has put Joseph there as
our
provider, not just for the Egyptians.”

A silence reined over the group, and Jacob said, “I will have to think about it.”

“Of course you will,” Benjamin said at once. “There's no hurry.”

****

Actually, there was a need to hurry, for Joseph had urged them to move quickly, but the brothers waited for several days, allowing Jacob to mull over the idea. He was obviously troubled, and none of them dared mention it to him.

“We can't pressure him,” Reuben muttered. “He'll have to make up his own mind.”

It was Tamar who applied the final pressure. When she saw that he was resisting what seemed to her the wise thing to do, she came to him late one afternoon and sat with him for a long time. She began to talk about his family and how they needed his help. “You've always been able to provide for them,” she said.

“Well, I hope so. That's what I'm most interested in, of course.”

“Well, I know that you don't like the idea of moving to Egypt, but we can keep our people apart from the Egyptians, just as we have kept apart from the Hittites and other idolaters around here. And we can always come back,” she argued skillfully. Slowly she saw the old man begin to change his mind, and she ended up with Benjamin's argument. “I'm so anxious to meet Joseph. I've never met him, you know, and he seems like such a dear man.”

“You would love him, Tamar. Everybody did.” This was not precisely true, but in Jacob's memory it seemed to have been that way.

From that moment on Jacob began to speak about the journey, asking how long it would take, and interrogating Judah about the fields and the grazing for the flocks. They were all careful not to get too excited, at least in front of him, but Judah summed it up when he said, “I think it's going to be all right. He's going to make the sacrifice.”

Two days after Judah pronounced this, Jacob called his sons together and smiled at them. “Well, you're going to have your way. We will go to Egypt.”

Cries of joy went up from the brothers, and they all rushed to press into their father and tell him how wonderful it was going to be. He put his hands up and said, “Egypt will be for us what we make it. If we join in with the Egyptians and their awful idolatry, we will not survive. But we will be together, and all twelve of my sons will be alive.”

“It won't take long to get ready to leave,” Judah said eagerly.

“I must visit the family grave first, for I may never see it again.”

“I will take you there myself,” Judah said softly. “We will go tomorrow.”

****

The journey to Egypt began in the spring when all of their affairs were wound up. The long caravan left from Hebron, heading toward Beersheba. This was where Jacob and his father were born and where Rebekah had once obtained the birthright for Jacob by devious means.

They made an impressive sight as they moved along with their flocks and possessions and all the family members, young and old. There were at least seventy of Jacob's own family, but in addition there were shepherds, drovers, drivers, baggage men, and slaves, making over a hundred people in all. The train was like a noisy, slow-moving caterpillar, enveloped by clouds of dust raised by the flocks and the herds.

The members made the journey any way they could, some of them walking, some in the wagons, some of them riding. In addition to the wagons, there were two-wheeled oxcarts, which carried not only household goods but some of the women and children as well. The people themselves made a colorful sight in their woven garments dyed in various hues. The women had black braids hanging over their shoulders and wore silver and bronze bracelets on their wrists. Their foreheads were hung with headbands of gold coins, and their nails were reddened with henna.

Along the way they feasted on the rich foods the brothers had brought back from Egypt—roasted onions, sour bread and olives, honey-covered dates, and dried meats. They ate so well on their journey that by the time they reached Egypt, they were much healthier than when had they left.

They took the ridge road going down from the heights of Hebron to the deeper southland of the Negev. Jacob led the procession in the first wagon, staying well in front of the dust raised by the flocks. He made a dignified sight. The fine wool of his head-covering was fringed unevenly across his forehead and lay about his neck and shoulders, falling softly on his dark red tunic, which he wore open in the front to reveal the medallion he always wore on top of his embroidered undergarment. The breezes touched the strands of silver beads he also wore around his neck, and his eyes studied the land as they went.

Each night they stopped in plenty of time to set up a comfortable camp. This journey would not be completed as quickly as when the brothers had traveled, because Jacob's comfort was now their chief concern, along with the needs of the women and children.

Each afternoon the women prepared a feast, and at night before the blazing campfires, the people sang and danced.

When they were midway to their destination, Jacob sat with Tamar and her two boys. Benjamin had joined them, and he and his father had been talking for some time.

Finally Benjamin said, “You're not sorry about this, are you, Father?”

Jacob, the patriarch, looked at his youngest son. “No, I'm not. I feel almost young again at the thought of seeing the beloved child of my True Wife after all these years. It is God's miracle. I just regret that it takes so long to get there.”

Tamar stroked Perez's hair as he lay beside her deep in sleep. Zerah was also asleep with his head in her lap. Her eyes were dreamy as she said, “El Shaddai is working things out in His own way. One day out of this little band of people, Shiloh will come.”

Jacob smiled at her, reached out, and touched Perez's hair. “Yes, we must wait patiently until that great day comes,” he agreed.

Benjamin looked at the old man and thought ahead to the time when Joseph and he would meet.
That will be the greatest thing of all, and God has done it
.

Tamar saw that the old man was tired, and she hustled him off to bed like a mother putting her child to sleep.

****

Jacob awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. Seeing that the others were still asleep, he rose quietly and walked away from the camp into the darkness to look at the night sky. Something was unusual about this awakening. As he stared in wonder at the majesty of the starry sky, he had the strangest feeling that someone was watching him, but he knew that could not be.

They had camped that night at Beersheba, the very place that his grandfather Abraham had settled after God had rescued Isaac from being sacrificed. Jacob felt a strong connection to this place and sensed an urgency to offer a sacrifice here to God, thanking Him for His wonderful protection and provision for him and his entire family.

He gathered stones for an altar and wood for a fire. So as not to wake the others, he crept back into camp and quietly gathered a young lamb and a knife for the sacrifice, and made a torch to carry fire to the altar.

With tears of joy, he offered his lamb to the God of his fathers and lit the fire to consume the unblemished animal in thankfulness for God's great goodness.

And then he heard his name. He turned suddenly in all directions but saw no one.

The voice spoke again:
“Jacob! Jacob!”

And then Jacob knew.
It is the Lord!
he thought. Great joy flooded his soul, and he felt like the young man he had been when he had seen the ladder going all the way up to heaven.
Here I am, Lord,
he whispered in his spirit.

The voice spoke again, strong but gentle, seeming to be nowhere but everywhere.
“I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph's own hand will close your eyes.”

The voice faded, and Joseph fell to the ground and wept, calling out, “Thank you, Almighty One. Mighty Creator of all things. Thank you for your promise. I will never doubt you again!”

The tribe of Jacob left Beersheba and continued south toward Egypt, following the well-traveled trade route. On the earlier part of their journey from Hebron, they had frequently passed settlements, some of them large and some small. But now as they made their way through the southland, the desert here was virtually empty. They finally reached the border of Egypt, coming first to a fortress where strangers were stopped and interrogated. Jacob called Judah to him and said, “Son, go before us. Find your brother Joseph and tell him that we have arrived.”

Judah nodded eagerly. “I am sure he will come at once to see you, for he longs for that more than for anything else in the world.”

Judah quickly mounted the swiftest of the beasts and rode at full speed until he reached the palace in the capital. He got off the animal and was stopped at the front gate by a guard, but when Judah identified himself and the guard had gone back inside, it was Rashidi who came out smiling.

“Well, my friend,” he said. “You are back. The Provider will be happy.”

“Can I see him, sir?”

“Certainly. Come in. He has been waiting anxiously for your return.”

Judah followed Rashidi into the building, and when they went into the room where Joseph conducted most of his affairs, he found his brother smiling and happy indeed to greet him. When he came forward, Judah dropped to his knees, but Joseph took his arm and lifted him up. “We'll have none of that!” He embraced his brother and said, “I trust you had a safe journey. Where is the caravan?”

“It is at the border. Our father requests that you come and see him.”

“I will go at once. Come—you shall be my guide.”

****

The spot where Jacob waited was not close to the guard house, but a short distance away at a small oasis. The caravan had come to a halt, and they had unhitched the animals, allowing them to drink, but no one unpacked anything. Children were playing and shouting, and women were sitting in groups, caring for the younger ones and speaking among themselves.

Jacob was seated in the shade of a cluster of palm trees beside a small pool. His sons surrounded him, and for a while the old man half closed his eyes, enjoying the hum of their voices. From where he sat he could see white ibises, which fascinated him, but time and again his eyes went back to the road where they expected Joseph and Judah to appear.

Benjamin sat close to his father and said little. He was studying his father's face and wondering what was going on in his mind. Finally he asked, “Are you anxious, Father?”

Jacob turned and faced his youngest son. “I feel as if I am in a dream,” he said in a soft voice. “All the years I thought my son was gone forever, and now to see him—it's more than I can take in.”