“Why have you let all the women live?” Moses cried out against them. “These are the very ones who followed Balaam’s advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the Lord at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the Lord’s people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.”
Those who had fought in the battle were commanded to remain outside of camp. They were to wash themselves and their clothing and everything made of leather, goat hair, or wood. All gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead were to be put through the fire. Every idol and item bearing the emblems and symbols of pagan gods would be melted down. The spoils were divided among the soldiers who had taken part in the battle and with the rest of the community. One out of every five hundred persons, cattle, donkeys, goats, and sheep was given as tribute for the Lord and placed in the care of the Levites.
Caleb’s sons returned to their tents with their share of plunder. He stood as they approached, heat surging into his face, every muscle taut. Mesha and Mareshah stood before him with the confidence of soldiers who had returned from a great victory. And indeed it had been. Not one Israelite had fallen.
“We have brought you presents, Father.”
“I asked for nothing.” Nor did he want what they had brought back to him.
“You have not had the comfort of a woman since Jerioth and Ephrathah died.”
“And you think I will take a Midianite as my wife? I am the one who told you to have no commerce with them!”
“These girls are no longer Midianite. They belong to us now. If you will not have them as wives, take them as concubines.”
“They know nothing of who we are or what we’ve been through. Nor of the God we serve.”
“Then teach them as you taught us,” Mareshah said gravely.
Mesha stepped closer. “We must increase our numbers, Father. And you need women to accomplish that.” He grasped one of the girls by the arm and yanked her forward. “She is young, healthy, and gave us no trouble. Do with her what you will.” He pushed her forward.
The girl looked at Caleb with calf eyes. He could see nothing in her expression to give him any idea of what she was thinking. He thought of the young Midianite women laughing and beckoning to the men he had trained, leading them away like lambs to the slaughter. Twenty-four thousand had died because men had been easily seduced into Baal worship. The girl had slender curves and smooth olive skin. She would become a beautiful woman. He put his hand to his sword and drew it.
Though the girl’s lips parted, she didn’t speak. Closing her eyes, she knelt and bowed her head.
“It would be a waste to kill her, Father.” Mesha made no move to stop him.
“Do you mock me?” Caleb was eighty years old.
“All those who called you a dog are dead. You are respected by all who know you. And you are my father. You would have led us into battle if God had called you to do it!” Mesha said.
“Moses said we were to keep the virgins.” Mareshah spoke quietly.
Hur stretched out his hand and drew another comely young woman forward. “You deserve the best of our portion.” The second young woman knelt beside the first, trembling.
Mesha gripped Caleb’s sword arm. “They are yours, Father. Make good use of them for all our sakes.”
Left alone, Caleb stood over the two young women, sword in hand.
Judgment or mercy, Lord. What do I do?
He waited, longing for a word, a sign, from the Lord. He studied the two before him. One finally raised her head and looked at him. Her dark eyes shone with fear, but she did not beg for her life. The other girl, still trembling violently, began to sob.
Caleb thought of the countless times God had shown mercy to him and to the people. Was it only accident or circumstance that had plucked these two young women from their foul culture and placed them here in the midst of Israel? Or did God have a plan for them, too?
“I am Caleb.” He put his hand over his heart. “Caleb.”
The girl who was looking at him placed her hand over her heart. “Maacah.” She touched the bowed head of her sobbing companion. “Ephah.”
“Life and death are before you. If you learn the law of God and obey, you will live.”
Maacah frowned, perplexed. She spread her hands and shook her head.
Caleb scowled. Of course she could not understand his language. But she must learn the most important thing, language barrier or not. “The Lord.” He spoke firmly, with a nod of expectation. “The Lord!”
She understood. “The Lord.” She spoke hesitantly, then drew up the girl beside her. She spoke to her. Then they both spoke together. “The Lord.”
It was not enough to repeat what he said. They must understand he was not speaking of himself, but of the One they must learn to serve. Caleb stretched out his arm, pointing toward the Tabernacle, where the Ark of the Lord was hidden in the Holy of Holies. “The Lord. The Lord, He is God!”
Maacah’s beautiful dark eyes widened. “The Lord.” She spoke in awe. Her expression gave Caleb cause to hope. If these two young women learned that, they would have learned more than the people who had wandered and died in the wilderness.
“The Lord, He is God.”
The two young women repeated Caleb’s words.
Caleb sheathed his sword. He called to one of his granddaughters. He pointed at each of the young women his sons had given him and gave their names. “See that they learn our language. Then they will learn the law of God.”
He would not have anything to do with them until they did.
* * *
FOUR
* * *
“When you cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, you must drive out all the people living there.”
Caleb stood in front of the tribe of Judah, listening to Moses give the Lord’s instructions. This should be a day of exultation, but he felt weighed down. Forty years had passed. The wandering was over. And he was an eighty-year-old man. But it was not the years that burdened him. It was the responsibility for these people.
“You must destroy all their carved and molten images and demolish all their pagan shrines.” Moses’ voice carried. “Take possession of the land and settle in it, because I have given it to you to occupy. You must distribute the land among the clans.”
Caleb had been placed in charge of all of Judah.
“If you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. And then the Lord will do to you what He plans to do to them!”
Time passed quickly as Moses reminded them of the plagues of Egypt and their own sins. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commandments I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. They are life to you. Make no treaties with the people of the land and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them.”
Moses spread his hands as though he would embrace all of them. “I am now one hundred and twenty years old and am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has told me that I will not cross the Jordan River.”
The people wailed and cried out in protest. Caleb clenched his teeth, tears spilled into his beard, his throat was tight and on fire. He looked at Joshua, standing tall beside Moses, his face set.
Moses raised his voice and through it came the voice of God. The Lord your God Himself will cross over ahead of you!
The people grew quiet again, grieving, yet obedient.
“The Lord will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua is your new leader, and he will go with you, just
as the Lord promised.”
Eleazar the high priest anointed Joshua, after which Moses laid hands upon him and commissioned him to carry out the Lord’s commands. Then raising his hands to the cloud overshadowing them, Moses sang Israel’s history. He sang blessings upon them. And then he dismissed the congregation.
“He’s gone.” Joshua’s voice was thick, fear glistening in his dark eyes.
“Gone where?”
“Up Mount Nebo.” Joshua wept like a boy who had lost his father.
Caleb could not give in to tears, not if he was to be of any help to Joshua. “He will see the whole of the land God is giving us from there. He will see from Gilead to the Negev, from the Jordan Valley and Jericho as far as Zoar.”
“I had hoped.”
“We assumed Moses would be there, Joshua. We didn’t understand that you and I would be the only men from our generation to enter Canaan.”
“There will never be another prophet like Moses. No man will ever do the miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt!”
“Until the One Moses said would come, the One who will fulfill the Law.” But Caleb knew what lay beneath Joshua’s words. “The Lord has appointed you to lead His people Israel. And lead you shall!”
Joshua put his hands over his head as though to hide from God. “I tremble at the thought.”
“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, my friend.” Caleb sat down beside him. “When our time of grieving is over, God will tell you what to do. And whatever it is, I will stand with you.”
Caleb spent most of the day at the Tabernacle, close to Joshua, who was closeted in prayer. Lord, help him. Be with him as You were with Moses. Tell him what he needs to know to lead us into our inheritance.
They ate together in silence, pondering the days ahead, uncertain of how to proceed, where to start. For once, Caleb did not press his friend. He waited, knowing the day would come when the Lord would speak to Joshua as He had spoken to Moses.
Joshua rose and stood at the entrance of his tent. He stared out at Jericho looming on the other side of the Jordan, immense, fortified, a closed gate into Canaan. “Bring me two good men, Caleb.” He spoke with an assurance Caleb had not heard before. The Lord had spoken to him! “Men other than your own sons. I’m sending them in to look over the land, especially Jericho.”
“Done.”
When the young men had left on their errand, Caleb tilted his head. “What else did the Lord say to you?”
“Be strong and courageous.” Joshua smiled grimly. “He said that many times.”
“We all need to hear it.” No man was eager to be in the middle of a bloodbath.
“We must be very careful to obey all the laws Moses gave us, Caleb. We must follow everything the Lord says.”
Caleb knew Joshua meditated on the Law day and night. “Anything else?”
“The Lord promised to be with me wherever I go.”
Caleb’s spirit rose like an eagle, wings spread. “Where you are, there shall I be!”
“I need to speak with all the officers.”
Caleb sent messengers and the men came quickly, ready to do whatever Joshua told them. “Tell the people to get their supplies ready. The Lord has said that three days from now—” he pointed out the spot on the map Moses had prepared—“we cross the Jordan here. We will take possession of the land the Lord our God has given to us.”
Even the Reubenites and Gadites, who had asked to remain on the east side of the Jordan, prepared to go in and fight for their brothers. “Whatever you have commanded us, we will do, Joshua. Wherever you send us, we will go.”
Everyone worked and prepared with practiced precision. The years in the wilderness, of watching the cloud rise up, move, and settle, had trained the people to move quickly when so commanded. The defeat of the kings Sihon and Og encouraged them. Balak, king of Moab, had withdrawn now that Balaam and the five kings of Midian who had listened to his counsel were dead. Israel stood ready, eager to obey the Lord’s command to take the land.
The spies returned with good news. “The Lord will certainly give us the whole land! Rahab told us the heart of every man in Jericho is terrified of us.”
“Who is Rahab?”
“A prostitute.” She had brought them into her house and made them swear by the Lord their God that they would save her and her family from the coming destruction.
Caleb’s heart sank. Already, compromise. And then he thought of his two concubines and prayed, Let this woman, Rahab, worship and adore You, Lord, as Maacah and Ephah have.
“She protected us from the king’s men and told us the way of escape. We might not have made it out alive without her.”
Joshua asked no further questions. “Then you will see that you keep the vow you made in the name of the Lord. Gather the people tomorrow morning. I will give them the Lord’s instructions.”
As the men filed out of the tent, Caleb remained behind in case Joshua wanted to discuss plans and go over the maps again.
Joshua sat and beckoned him to do likewise. “We will cross the Jordan in two days. I didn’t want to say anything to the officers. Not yet.”
Caleb didn’t have to ask why. The river was at flood stage, and no one in Israel knew how to swim or build rafts or a bridge. “I’m sure the Lord told you how we’re to get across.”
“No, He didn’t. He only said the priests are to carry the Ark and the people are to follow a thousand feet behind.”
Feeling a quiver of alarm, Caleb wondered what they would do once they reached the floodwaters. And then he remembered and laughed. “Do not be afraid, my friend! Do not be discouraged.” He grinned. “A river is but a small matter to the God who opened a sea.”
“Gather around!” Caleb beckoned his sons and their wives and their children. They came eagerly. Ephah and Maacah were among his family members now, grafted in, warmly accepted, and held accountable to God. He told all of them of Egypt and slavery and how the Lord had sent Moses to deliver them. He told them of the plagues upon Egypt and about the miracles of protection God provided for His people. “You have heard your history from Moses’ own lips, and you have heard it from mine as well. And so you will hear it often for as long as I live. And you must tell your children and your grandchildren so they will not forget.”
Caleb reminded them of the sins committed that had brought God’s judgment upon his generation. “Sin crouches like a lion waiting to devour you. You must resist it. You must obey the Lord. Do whatever He asks of you, no matter how difficult.” He reminded them of the sins that had cost the lives of twenty-four thousand. “Your sins bring death to those you love. You must keep your eyes on the Lord. Not just tomorrow or until we have taken the land God has promised us, but always. Serve the Lord with gladness. Stand in His presence with thanksgiving! Our hope and our future are in Him.”
His sons leaned in closer, eyes ablaze, tense. They had spent their lives preparing for the day at hand.
“Tomorrow you will hear the Word of the Lord from His anointed. Joshua will tell us what we are to do. Obey him as you would obey the Lord.”
And thus they did.
The people consecrated themselves. They waited until the priests carrying the Ark were one thousand feet ahead of them and then followed. When the priests came to the Jordan River, they stepped down into it. A sound of wind came and the water rolled back, leaving dry land where water had rushed. The priests stood in the middle of the empty riverbed, holding the Ark, as men, women, children—over a million of them—crossed over. When the entire nation stood on the west bank of the Jordan, Joshua sent one man from each of the twelve tribes back, each for one river stone. He stacked them there at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.
“In the future, your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and He kept it dry until you were all across, just
as He did at the Red Sea when He dried it up until we had all crossed over. He did this so that all the nations of the earth might know the power of the Lord, and that you might fear the Lord your God forever.”
“Joshua cannot have heard right, Father.”
“The Lord commanded that we all be circumcised, and so we shall. I’m ashamed I did not think to do it years ago when you were boys.”
“No one has been circumcised, not in forty years! We should wait.”
“Wait?” Caleb glowered at his sons. “When God gives a command, we obey. We don’t wait.”
“Be reasonable, Father! We’re camped within sight of Jericho. If we submit to this mutilation now, we won’t be able to defend ourselves.”
“Mutilation? You call the sign of the covenant between God and us a mutilation?” He watched the color drain from his son’s face.
“I spoke rashly. Forgive me.”
“It is God’s forgiveness you need.” He fixed his eyes upon each of his sons and grandsons. “Are you afraid of a small knife in the hands of a priest?” They all shook their heads, denying any fear.
Shobab laughed, self-deprecatingly. “Yes. I’m afraid.”
“As am I,” Caleb said.
“You?”
“Let it be a comfort to know that your father will be in line for circumcision tomorrow.”
They all began talking at once. His words had not served to calm them, but caused even more agitation.
“Father . . .” Shobab pointed feebly. “Mesha is right. What is to keep the Canaanite warriors from coming out of Jericho and slaughtering us while we mend?”
“God has been with us every day, and you can ask such a question?” Restraining his anger, Caleb spoke slowly, quietly, empathically. “The Lord is our shield and strength. He will watch over and protect us. We have nothing to fear.”