Joshua Valiant

Chronicles of the Nephilim
Book Five

By Brian Godawa

JOSHUA VALIANT

5th Edition +1b

Copyright © 2013, 2014, 2017, 2020, 2021 Brian Godawa

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.

Warrior Poet Publishing

www.warriorpoetpublishing.com

ISBN: 9798710835197 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-0-9859309-9-8 (paperback)

The Tabernacle and The Israelite Encampment. Logos Bible Software. www.logos.com

The image of the Ark of the Covenant recreated by Pastor Phillip Anthony Missick is used by permission from Dr. Stephen Andrew Missick, pastor of King of Saints Tabernacle, 2228 FM 1725, Cleveland, Texas 77328. www.kingofsaints.net.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001.

Prologue

It was four hundred years after Abraham was promised the land of Canaan that his descendants, the children of Abraham, the Seed of Eve, left their bondage in exodus from Egypt to claim their promised allotment from Yahweh.

• • • • •

After four hundred years in the land of Canaan, the giant descendants of the Nephilim, the Seed of the Serpent, had spread out upon that land. The Jordan River ran north and south, splitting the country in half. The Anakim dominated the Cisjordan, which included the desert hills and valleys west of the Jordan River. The Rephaim controlled the Transjordan, which included the fertile hills and valleys east of that same river. They were both called by the generic term Amorite, and they worshipped the pantheon of Canaanite gods led by Ba’al the most high, Ashtart, goddess of sex and war, Molech of the underworld, and other patron deities of the region.

The land of Canaan was filled with abomination. The iniquity of the Amorites was complete.

Chapter 1

A trickle of blood dribbled out of Joshua ben Nun’s nose. It did not flow down onto his chin, but rather up into his eyes and onto his forehead—because he was hanging upside down, along with his companion Caleb ben Jephunneh. Both of them had been beaten senseless and strung up in order to be skinned and eaten by a unit of ten giant Anakim warriors. The two had been ambushed when they were visiting the graves of their patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac, near the caves of Machpelah, just outside the oaks of Mamre in Canaan. Their horses had been taken from them.

And now they were arguing upside down.

“I told you we should not stop,” hissed Joshua. “But you had to visit our forefather’s resting place for your own sense of importance.”

Caleb coughed back, “You are my truest friend, Joshua, but sometimes your arrogance is unbecoming.”

“But I am right.”

“Shut up, you two worms!” shouted the gruff nine-foot tall Anakim with a filet knife. “I cannot think straight.”

“You never think straight,” complained another nine-footer with a bandaged arm. He had been wounded in the fight with the two small humans. “I say we eat them, and move on. We are already late. And you know how angry Abi gets when we are late.”

Abi was the shortened nickname for Abi-yamimu, their military general in the city of Kiriath-arba, just a few miles away. They were on first patrol for the evening, and they should have been back already.

Another one added, “He might sic Ahiman on us.”

Ahiman was the right hand of Abi and he was the tallest and most fearsome Anakite in the land, the largest and mightiest of the Sons of Anak. The Anakim were the dominant force in Southern Canaan. They were a mighty clan of red and blonde haired fair-skinned giants whose ancestors were the primeval Nephilim from before the Great Flood. The name Anak was thought to mean “necklace,” which was more a reference to their doubly long necks than the strings of gold and bones that they wore as attention-drawing jewelry. Because of their Nephilim ancestry they also had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot and grew to heights of eight to eleven feet tall. Ahiman was unusually large at fifteen feet. 

“I will make it quick,” said the one with the filet knife.

It would not take too long to skin and eat the captives. There were actually three of them. The third one was a mercenary from some unknown territory. He was unconscious. They would be a mere snack for a few of these towering warriors whose weight of four hundred to six hundred pounds required much daily meat to satisfy their hunger. 

Most of the patrol sat at the fire warming up in the cold desert night.

The one with the filet knife raised it to start on Joshua. 

But just as suddenly, a dagger flew through the air and lodged itself into the giant’s bicep. He dropped his blade with a curse and clutched his wounded arm.

All ten of the warriors jerked their heads to see where the knife had come from. 

Two Anakim warriors stepped into the firelight. The one that threw the knife was about ten feet tall and about seven hundred pounds. The other was a foot higher, heavier, and with a manicured beard. They both had the fair skin and blondish red hair of the Anakim, and the doubly long necks of bulging muscle. But these two were a higher caste. Their necklaces were more gold than bones. They were rulers.

“Lord Sheshai, lord Talmai!” blurted the captain of the unit. 

They all stood up and gave their militia salute of submission to their overlords. It was a fisted straight right arm thrust forward with a fisted left arm at a perpendicular angle jutting into the elbow of the straight arm. It was their salute to power, the only thing they held sacred as worshippers of Ba’al, the most high god of storm and power in the pantheon.

The filet Anakim whimpered and groaned as he pulled the knife from his arm and sought to wrap the wound with a bandage.

Sheshai and Talmai were commanders of the armed forces for the hill country region. And they were brothers of Ahiman, the fierce one. 

It was said of this mighty clan of Canaan, “Who can stand against the sons of Anak?” And of all these mighty giants, Ahiman was the most feared. He was twelve hundred pounds of brutal monstrosity. Because of this glorious reputation, the three brothers, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai were often called by the honored name, “Sons of Arba,” their original forefather.

The middle, Sheshai, was more of a politician, a cunning master of strategy and leadership. The youngest, Talmai, the one who threw the knife, was more aggressive and hot-tempered. He could explode with rage and everyone tried to avoid being the one to trigger it.

Sheshai walked up to the hanging captives. He leaned in close to look at Joshua, then Caleb. He sniffed them, and muttered in Akkadian, the shared language of the realm, “Egyptian clothing. But you are Semites. Habiru?”

Habiru was the Canaanite term used of wandering tribes of mercenaries and troublemaking nomads. Sheshai had heard that an entire nation of Habiru had escaped from slavery in Egypt last year. He and some of his Anakim brethren had joined a marauding party of Amalekites to invade Egypt and had encountered these Habiru in the desert. They seemed to use Egyptian magic that repelled the Amalekites, so Sheshai had never forgotten the incident. But it was a year ago and he had been in so many fights since then. These Habiru may have been the very ones that his own people were looking for. There was a blood feud between them that went back generations.

Sheshai noticed that Joshua was almost passed out because the blood had been rushing to his head. So he reached up and cut the rope hanging Joshua. He fell to the ground with a thud. 

Joshua came to his senses. He noticed he was not far away from their pile of confiscated belongings, including their weapons.

“Who are you, little rodent?” asked Sheshai in Akkadian again. “Where do you come from? What tribe or people?”

But Joshua did not respond, so Sheshai repeated himself in Egyptian. It was one of the two dominant languages that everyone had to have some comprehension of or suffer economic disadvantage.

Joshua feigned semi-consciousness, strategizing how he could get to his knife in his pack to cut himself free. But his lashed feet and tied hands behind his back would not offer much in the way of opportunity.

Thank Yahweh, he thought. The warrior did not recognize Joshua. But Joshua had recognized him. Sheshai was the Anakim leader with the Amalekite forces that attacked the wandering Hebrews at Rephidim in Midian. Joshua remembered that fight. He remembered this warrior pompously calling out his own name to Joshua before attempting to kill him. If it hadn’t been for Caleb stopping the giant, Joshua might not be here right now—ready to die again at the monster’s hands.

Sheshai looked at the unconscious mercenary. He said to the Captain, “Strange armor. I have not seen this before. What is this one?”

The Captain replied, “We caught him by the Oaks of Mamre shortly after the Habiru. A loner. He was not a very skilled fighter.” 

But Sheshai stared at the creature with curiosity and said, “He could be a Hurrian or Hittite scout from Syria. I wish these Egyptians and Syrians would stop using our land as a playground for their control.”

Sheshai lifted the mercenary’s head. He was a rather handsome dark haired muscular fellow. It seemed odd to Sheshai. But it did not matter because the mercenary was not breathing.

“You idiots,” grumbled Sheshai. “This one is dead.” 

He cut the rope and the dead mercenary dropped to the ground.

“You have let them hang too long.” 

He reached over and cut down Caleb’s rope as well. Caleb twisted and landed on his back on the ground with a grunt.

Talmai said, “Hurry up, Sheshai. I want to get back.”

Sheshai said, “Do not eat them. Bring them to King Hoham. I have a feeling these two Habiru may be what we have been looking for.”

Joshua gulped. He knew that these Sons of Anak were looking for the Sons of Abraham because he had heard their captors tell their story about Abraham and their own forefather, King Arba, the father of Anak. It was not a positive tale. He knew that if they were taken to King Hoham in Kiriath-arba, they would experience a fate worse than being eaten. Then these brutish monsters would attack the entire nation of Israel hiding out in the Negeb desert, just south of their city. 

They could not let that happen.

But it was about to.

Sheshai walked back to his brother and they prepared to leave. He barked to the captain, “Get your lazy rear ends up and back to the city. And keep the captives alive!”

“Yes, sir!” saluted the captain.

All the soldiers watched Sheshai and Talmai disappear into the darkness and gave one another looks of a close call with trouble.

“You heard the Commander! Get moving!” 

Joshua heard one the soldiers ask, “Where is Sheshai going?”

The captain answered, “He is gathering forces to invade Egypt.”

But when the captain looked back at where the prisoners were, he noticed that the dead one was no longer on the ground. And the other two Habiru were now standing, no longer tied up, but holding shield and sickle sword in hand. 

Someone had cut them loose when everyone’s attention had been turned.

That someone was the mercenary who had only been feigning death, looking for the right moment to pull his hidden knife and cut himself and the others free. He was not a chance encounter at Mamre. The only reason he “was not a very skilled fighter” when they captured him, as the soldier had said, was because he was pretending to be, in order to rescue the two Habiru. 

But the mercenary was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared.

And that was only the beginning of the surprises about to overwhelm this unit of Anakim.

The second surprise was two successive arrows piercing the captain and his closest commander. 

Joshua dropped his composite bow and drew his sword.

But before the bodies hit the ground, the mercenary came out of the side bushes, outside the visual focus of the giants, and cut a swath through the middle of the soldiers before they knew what was happening. 

He slashed, cut and thrust his way to the other side. He had dropped four of them before the others had their weapons up and ready to fight.

Joshua and Caleb gave each other a surprised glance. This fellow was impressive.

Six giants down, four to go, against the three humans. But with their skills, it was not good odds for the giants.

The mercenary picked up a fallen shield just in time to protect himself for the downswing of an Anakite’s battle axe. The hit sent a jarring shudder through his entire body and pushed him to his knees. This monster was big, maybe ten feet tall.

Still, the Anakite was no match for the mercenary with preternatural skills.

The mercenary dropped the shield and dove through the giant’s long legs. The soldier’s long neck strained to see where he landed. But it was too late, as his femur artery gushed the last of his life out onto the ground.

Joshua and Caleb engaged the enemy. Joshua’s bronze sickle sword was no match for the heavy giant swords made of a much stronger metal than he had ever seen before. He would have to get himself one of them.

Caleb’s sword however, was entirely adequate to the task. It was in fact a special heavenly weapon passed down through his tribe from ancient descendants. It was a whip-like sword, ten feet long. Its blade was made of an unknown heavenly metal that was both flexible like a whip, and razor sharp strong and unbreakable. It had been forged in angelic realms and used by his ancestor, Lamech ben Methuselah, the father of Noah. 

Lamech had named it “Rahab” because its serpentine nature reminded him of the sea dragon of chaos who went by the same name. And in the hands of Caleb, it was a very destructive sea dragon with extremely accurate aim. 

Gabriel the archangel had visited Caleb in the past and taught him how to use the sword in the special angelic fighting style called “Way of the Karabu.” Now at the age of 40, he did not so much fight as he did dance, moving in and out of his opponents, snapping Rahab like a dancer waving a long twirling ribbon—of death.

He cut off the head of a giant and the sword arm of another before they could even get within striking distance.

Joshua, on the other hand was Caleb’s opposite in style. He was brute force and fury wrapped up inside rage. Once his instincts kicked into survival mode, Joshua was a non-stop flurry of rapid strikes, slashes, and stabs that few warriors could keep up with, let alone the slow giant he pummeled with ferocity, who succumbed to exhaustion.

At age 20, Joshua had the strength and stamina of a giant wound tight into his six foot frame. Although tall for his own people, his deceptively small appearance to these giants was an added advantage of surprise. 

Unfortunately, Joshua was to receive the last surprise of the evening, as the one-armed Anakim, not yet dead, knelt up to land a deathblow on Joshua behind his back with his iron blade.

Actually, it was the next to last surprise, because before he could land it, a blur flew through the air and knocked the giant sideways to the ground with a last gasp. 

It was the mercenary, who promptly cut off the monster’s head from his long muscular neck.

“Whew,” said the mercenary. “That was close. I almost had a lot of explaining to do to Yahweh.”

The two Israelites stood catching their breaths, looking at their benefactor with astonishment. 

“Are you—mal’akim?” asked Caleb. It meant, “angel,” one of Yahweh’s heavenly host, and he knew their presence ever since his visits from Gabriel years ago.

“I am Mikael the archangel, prince of Israel, sent to watch over and protect Yahweh’s people.”

Joshua thought to himself that this must mean he was destined for a higher purpose in Yahweh’s plan if this guardian angel of Israel was watching over him. Joshua had hoped and prayed for such an honor. Being the assistant of Moses had fed that hope in his heart, handpicked by the ruler of Israel himself. And now that hope was growing stronger.

He had no idea just how wrong he was.

Mikael said, “You had better hurry and catch up with the other spies. They are almost back to the camp in the Negeb.”

Joshua bent down and picked up a sword and scabbard from one of the smaller warriors. He smiled and wrapped it onto his horse.

“What about these soldiers?” asked Caleb. “If those commanders, Seshai and Talmai, find them, they will know for sure that we are the ones whom they seek. They might chase us all the way back to our camp.”

“Do not worry,” said Mikael. “Be strong and courageous. I will bury them. You just get moving.”

Joshua said, “What about you?”

“Oh, do not worry about me,” said Mikael. “You will be seeing plenty of me in the future. Now, go.”

They went.

Chapter 2

Moses stood before the assembled congregation of Israel’s seventy elders at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He was well over eighty years old and was weary with the burden of this nation of ingrates. They had seen Yahweh crush the power of Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods beneath the might of his strong right arm. The ten plagues, the parting waters of Yam Suph, and the drowning of Pharaoh’s minions in those waters were still fresh in their memories. As was the thunder and lightning upon Mount Sinai. A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night had led them out of Egypt and through the desert, and they had had their bellies filled by heavenly manna and miraculous quail. 

Now, they stood poised on the edge of Canaan that Yahweh himself had promised to give them, and these spoiled selfish juveniles were grumbling and complaining about how much better things were in Egypt. Even Moses’ sister, the prophetess Miriam, and his brother, the high priest Aaron, had challenged his leadership of the nation in the recent past. 

They had always been bitter and jealous that Moses had married the Kushite woman Zipporah outside of the tribes of Israel. And they began a murmuring campaign, accusing Moses of being like Pharaoh in claiming God’s special authority. Did not Yahweh also speak through the prophetess and the high priest? 

The band of twelve prophets, of which Miriam was a part, had also supported her and Aaron. In the shadow of Moses, the prophets were not as elevated in their status, but they were conduits through which Yahweh sometimes spoke. 

In this case, he certainly did not.

For their rebellious spirit, Yahweh gave Miriam temporary leprosy and then healed it, which scared the sin out of them both and put them back in their place.

But that was not even the last of it. Being slaves for four hundred years in Egypt had corrupted the soul of the people. They had adopted many of the very gods that Yahweh had condemned and judged. They had even made a golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai, the very mountain of God! It would be a long and arduous task to purge the idols engraved on the hearts of this nation. He wondered if it was even possible to do so.

Moses loved his people, but they wore his patience down.

They were encamped in the desert of Kadesh just south of their Promised Land. They had a fighting force of about sixty thousand men for a nation of close to two hundred thousand people, and thousands of a mixed multitude. 

Moses had sent out an elite scouting force of twelve spies, one chief from each tribe, to search out the land and bring back a report. They had taken forty days to traverse the length of Canaan and reconnoiter any intelligence they could to help their military strategy. They were supposed to find out how many people were in the land, what their fighting strength was, and whether they dwelt in villages or strongholds, as well as the fertility and produce of the land itself.

The spies had returned.

They stood before Moses and the elders and judges to give their report—more accurately; ten of the twelve spies were there. Joshua and Caleb had not yet returned because they were making a pilgrimage visit to the tomb of Abraham their ancestor in Machpelah. They were supposed to catch up with the others, but for some reason had been delayed.

For some reason.

Moses wore a veil over his face, as he always did after talking with Yahweh face to face. This was because something had happened to Moses’ body when he was on Mount Sinai. When he came down from the mountain carrying the tablets of law, his skin shone with bronze light much like the Bene ha Elohim, or Sons of God. It was as if being so close to the presence of Yahweh had transfigured his body to that of a Shining One. It was not a complete transformation because it would fade with time. But whenever he re-entered the presence, his skin would glow again so bright that the Israelites could barely look at him and were frightened. So Moses put a veil over his face to calm their fears. Whenever he would go into the Tent of Meeting before Yahweh, he would remove the veil, and then he would stand before the congregation with shining face and tell all Israel what Yahweh had commanded, whereupon he would return the veil over his face. 

Whenever his emotions ran strong, from joy or anger, the brightness would increase in intensity. He was so angry with these wretched ingrates currently that he kept the veil on to protect them from the blinding brilliance.

Ammiel from the tribe of Dan was the spokesman for the group. He was sweating nervously under Moses’ expectant gaze.

Moses could see a frightened look on all their faces.

Ammiel’s words were hesitant. “We traveled the length of the land of Canaan, from Bashan in the north all the way down to the Negeb. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea.”

“What of the Girgashites, Perizzites, and Hivites?” said Moses. These were the rest of the Canaanite nations that Yahweh had promised he would drive out before the Israelites. They were to make no covenant with these pagan peoples, avoid intermarrying with them, and show them no mercy, devoting them to complete destruction, lest they turn away Israel from following Yahweh to serve evil gods.

Ammiel replied, “They are spread throughout the countryside in various territories.”

“And what of the fertility of the land?”

“It is true, as you told us, the land is rich and abundant, and flows with milk and honey.”

“So where is the sample of produce you were to bring back? The fruit of the land.”

Ammiel and the others looked at one another fearfully.

Moses snapped, “Speak up.”

Ammiel took a deep breath before confessing. “My lord, Moses, we were unable to procure any sample produce.” He paused again and swallowed. “Because we feared for our lives and could not afford the encumbrance.”

Now, the seventy elders looked at one another and whispered amongst themselves at the scandal.

Ammiel continued, “The people we saw who dwell in the land are stronger than we are. They live in fortified cities with walls that reach up to heaven.”

“Yahweh did not say it was going to be easy, Ammiel,” said Moses. “Our years of being Egypt’s sentry forces in Goshen has prepared us for just such a war.”

“Not for this kind of war, my lord,” Ammiel interjected. 

“We saw the Nephilim.”

A hush of silence swept over the entire congregation. 

Moses gulped.

The Israelites were familiar with the gossip and legends about the Nephilim. And they had already had one encounter with some of them as they had battled the Amalekites in the wilderness at Rephidim. But now they were hearing eyewitnesses confirm their greatest fears. It was worse.

The Nephilim were the legendary giant offspring of the fallen Watcher gods, also called Sons of God, who mated with the daughters of men before the great Flood. In the days of Jared, two hundred of these rebels from Yahweh’s heavenly host came to earth on Mount Hermon in Canaan. They revealed to mankind all kinds of sorceries and evil secrets. They sought to draw worship away from the Creator by posing as gods over the people. 

And they engaged in a nefarious plot to corrupt creation through the elimination of the distinctions of the created order—unholy cross-breeding. They violated the separation of kinds, by creating hybrids of male and female, man and animal, and the most vile of all: human and divine. These were the Nephilim, the unholy hybrid offspring of human and divine seed, the giant gibborim warriors of old. These were the seedline of the Serpent. The spies had seen the giant clans that were the descendants of those original Nephilim.

This violence of humanity and divinity brought down the waters of the Deluge in judgment. The Watchers, had been bound into the earth to await their judgment. 

But not all of them.

And their corruption was passed through one of the sons of Noah down through history until this very day.

Moses had heard that King Chedorlaomer and a coalition of Mesopotamian kings had wiped out most of the Nephilim descendants in the time of their father Abraham. But during his forty years in the Arabian desert with the Midianites, he learned that there was a surviving remnant of these giants thriving in Canaan, but he did not know just how many.

Ammiel’s throaty voice shattered Moses’ thoughtful optimism.

“Canaan is crawling with giants. They are of great height, and we were like grasshoppers before them. The land devours its inhabitants.”

Hushed whispering broke out again through the assembly.

Moses’ thoughtful pause made them uncomfortable. 

And then he said, “What is their organization?”

Ammiel nodded to Shammua from the tribe of Reuben. He stepped forward with Geuel from the tribe of Gad, and Gaddi from the half-tribe of Manasseh.

“My lord, we scouted the northernmost regions,” said Shammua. “We found the Transjordan ruled by King Og of Bashan. Og is the mightiest and last of the Rephaim, the most ancient of giant rulers.”

“Describe these Rephaim,” said Moses.

“They reach heights of ten and twelve feet, and they are heinous looking. Their bodies are without hair, their skin is pale grey, and they have large elongated skulls. They have two rows of teeth in their jaws, six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. It is said King Og sleeps on a bed of iron fourteen feet long and six feet wide.”

That would make Og ten to eleven feet tall.

A shiver went down Moses’ spine. A shiver went down everyone’s spine who was listening.

“Human sacrifice is ubiquitous,” he continued. “It is unthinkable that many parents make their children to pass through the fires of Molech, god of the underworld.”

Moses’ stomach turned. He felt nauseous. Groans of horror swept through the crowd.

“But that is not all,” added Gaddi. “Serpent worship is widespread. There is talk of snake clans that engage in unspeakable abominations between human and reptile. And I personally witnessed a tribe led by satyrs at Panias in the foothills of Mount Hermon. These goat demons lead the hairy descendants of Esau into depraved atrocities. Their tribe is called the Seirim.”

Satyrs were chimeric creatures said to have the upper torso of a human and the lower legs of a hairy goat. 

Just when Moses thought it could not get worse, three other spies, Palti, Gaddiel, and Igal, stepped forward. Palti spoke for them.

“We surveyed the hill country and there we found the Anakim, who come from the Nephilim. The sons of Anak.”

Moses had heard of the Anakim. He knew they had ties that went back to the Israelites’ forefather Abraham.

“What are they like?”

“They are the fiercest among the giants in the land. They reside mostly in the southern region. They have extra-long muscular necks with pale skin and blond or reddish hair. They also have the extra digits on their hands and feet. They worship Ba’al the storm god and they are cannibals. No one can stand before them. Three brothers called the Sons of Arba are famous in the region for their ferocity. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai. Ahiman is legendary. No one is larger or mightier than he. It is said he is twenty feet tall and two thousand pounds.” The exaggeration that gossip brought often added many feet to height and many pounds to weight. But how much, who could know? 

Moses noticed that word must have spread through the camp because common Israelites were assembling around the meeting place to listen in on the report. By the end of this exchange, their numbers were large—and they were restless. 

Ammiel stood forward again and announced, “It does not seem right to me that Yahweh would claim to lead us into such a lion’s den of fierce savagery.”

Just before the tension broke, Joshua’s voice boomed through the camp, “Sons of Israel, be strong and courageous!”

Joshua and Caleb materialized out of the darkness carrying a large pole between them. On the pole was a bunch of grapes so large it dwarfed the two of them. It looked like it was the fruit of the gods.

“I beg your indulgence to forgive our tardiness, lord Moses. But Caleb and I were a bit delayed.”

Moses nodded with curiosity.

Joshua added, “This bunch of grapes we were able to bring from the valley of Eshcol. As you can see, the fruit of the land is magnificent.”

Ammiel interrupted, “Yes, it is food of the Anakim, before whom no man can stand!”

And now the crowd was unruly. A heckler yelled out, “Why has Yahweh brought us into this land only to fall by the sword?”

Another added, “Our wives and children will become food for giants!”

The crowd murmured in agreement.

Caleb’s soul was broken for his people. He yelled in reply, “Trust in Yahweh! We are able to overcome these idolaters and occupy our inheritance!”

But a louder heckler yelled back, “We are able to find a leader to lead us back to Egypt!”

The crowd went wild.

Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and prayed to Yahweh. Joshua and Caleb began to tear their clothes in symbolic expression of their mourning for the people’s disloyalty to their god.

The decibel level rose to a pitch of fevered excitement. 

But then suddenly, the sound of a shofar horn penetrated the cacophony. Everyone quieted down.

Caleb lowered the horn he had grabbed from a priest. His voice cut through the din with resounding clarity. 

“PEOPLE OF ISRAEL!”

It was like Yahweh had amplified his voice.

The assembly got even quieter.

He continued, “The land which we spied out is an exceedingly good land! Yahweh will bring us into the land and give it to us just as he promised! Do not fear these Canaanite abominations! Yahweh is with us!”

Joshua was beaming with inspiration listening to his fellow warrior. It impressed him that this Kenizzite, this outsider who was not even an Israelite of blood, had more faith than those who were natural born.

Joshua joined in on Caleb’s exhortation, “Do not rebel against Yahweh! We are a chosen people! We will break down their altars and dash into pieces their idols and burn their graven images! But if we rebel and do not obey his commandments, we will surely be destroyed!”

In response, those without faith began to pick up stones.

Someone shouted, “We are not rebels!”

Another shouted, “Stone them!”

Moses was weeping on the ground.

But before anyone could make a move, the Shekinah glory, a pillar of fire embodying Yahweh’s presence, appeared before the Tent of Meeting. Its twirling flames went up into the sky a hundred feet or more. It looked like a tight whirlwind of burning energy, with the sound of a low roar. It was frightening, awesome.

The masses went silent.

Moses quickly got up and followed the glory into the holy place before the stunned crowd. Joshua followed him…