Chapter 12
The Desert Tabernacle ~ continued from Chapter 12 | We Attack Here
He sprinted towards the line of soldiers with his sword held high.
“Kill and take. Kill and take,” was the resounding cry the Hebrews used all up and down the narrow valley.
The few charioteers that had made it down the mountain pass fled quickly as they could not maneuver in the thick mud.
Aron jumped onto one chariot and quickly cut the man’s throat. He looked back to see the last few chariots turning and heading west out of the valley.
“Buggers,” he whispered to himself.
He ran back to join David as he fought his way through the Philistine line.
“Rally to me,” David yelled. “Rally here.”
Shimea, Yazan and Aron came to his side while many others followed. The men stood around him with a pile of spears and swords lying in the blood-soaked field.
Abner and Saul looked at each other and then laughed as they viewed the carnage that surrounded them. Saul went over to David where he towered over the bow-legged, red-haired cherub who wore a savage smile.
Saul put both his hands on David’s shoulders in front of the men.
“A true warrior,” he said.
“My king,” said David as he bowed his head.
“Tonight we sup; join us at Gibeah,” Saul said. “We have a family of travelers who will entertain us.”
Saul turned with a smirk on his face and left the battlefield. Aron wiped the blood and sweat from his eyes.
“I don’t trust him.”
Shimea put his arm over David’s shoulder. Yazan stood with a big grin on his face surrounded by dead bodies, limbs and men groaning in pain.
“Just like Damascus in the back alleys.”
He put his long knife under his robe.
“I’d hate to meet you in Damascus,” David laughed.
The Scorpion stood a little way off from the rest his sword held high in the morning sun while the rays glistened off his bald head. His robe was covered in blood. He looked around at the swath of blood he had made while standing with one leg forward and the other back in a warrior’s stance.
“My stinger,” he breathed, “Made of the finest Damascus steel.”
He took his sword and wiped off the dripping blood with his robe.
The men trudged through the mud and moved on toward the rugged path that lay before them in the late afternoon.
“I’d hate to meet him in a Damascus alley,” Yazan said as he walked on.
The small company of men laughed at this and the heaviness of war left their shoulders.
The Scorpion walked slowly behind and looked up at a rocky, windswept cliff as the sun slowly retreated from the valley and highlands. He smiled and picked up a broken box that lay in the mud.
“It was in a place like this I can imagine,” he said catching up to David.
The Scorpion ripped three pieces of his robe and began to wrap them around the box.
“What?” David said as he shielded his eyes from the sun.
“With the wind blowing high up on a cliff. This is where he would want to talk with his people.”
He continued to wrap the box.
“Who?” said David.
“Yes, he would talk with his desert people on a rocky cliff and lift up their spirits.” He pointed to the ledge. “See, up in the hills.”
David and his small band of men stood in the valley and looked up as the sun dipped below the mountains.
“The desert tabernacle, the windswept meeting place.” “The Ark,” Shimea whispered.
“What do you know of The Ark?”
The Scorpion touched the broken box.
“If you are unqualified to touch or even look at the Chest of Testimony,” he said, “You will die.”
The men gathered around the Scorpion and sat down on the rocky desert floor. He began again:
“Those who bore the light box were forbidden to touch or look at it and it was covered with three layers; the first was a cover of flax, the second of goat hair and then a thick animal hide over this.”
The wind blew across the plains and blew sand off the cliff tops that swirled in the air before it disappeared.
“This is why he traveled with your people.” The Scorpion waved his arms at the desert.
“So that he could feel the desert wind and you would not forget your roots.”
“How do you know this?” David looked into the Scorpion’s eyes.
“A Moab priest many years ago.”
Yazan started to build a fire to keep the cold desert air at bay.
“Go on,” he said.
The Scorpion looked at David, “You will know what to do.”
“But how do you know so much?” Yazan said.
“I sat at the feet of a mad man,” The Scorpion said, “and was taught the deep ways: the ways of the Tabernacle and The Ark.”
As dusk fell around the men a scorpion appeared out of the broken box and then another and another.
Suddenly the box was on fire and the Scorpion dropped it while vipers and scorpions flowed from it like water in a stream. The box opened and its bright flames shot into the air. The men had to turn away from the brightness.
“Yes,” The Scorpion said. “I have no power here. It burns away all vipers and scorpions in its path; all evil and darkness are banished by its power.”
The men huddled together in fear but soon stopped and watched as the light disintegrated and it turned back to what it was, a broken box on a battlefield.
Continue reading… Chapter 13 | The Family Curse
[…] Chapter 13 Saul ~ continued from Chapter 12 | Chest of Testimony […]