The Warrior: Caleb Read Online Free PDF Page B

Hur on the other.
    Caleb peered through the crowd to the man in its center. Joshua looked so young and nervous. The men around him were tense, shifting, uncertain. Caleb felt uneasy. What did he know about fighting against a trained enemy?
    He remembered what God had done for them already. The Lord, He would protect them. The Lord, He would give them victory. I will believe that. I will set my mind upon Him. I will proclaim my faith before these men loud enough that they will all hear and know I am for the Lord!
    “Let me through!” Lowering his head, Caleb shoved his way through the crowd until he stood before Joshua. “We are God’s to command, Joshua. And the Lord has designated you to lead.” Caleb looked around and raised his voice. “God will fight for us! He did not bring us out into this desert to be picked off by cowardly marauders who kill the weak and helpless, nor by any who bow down to false gods!” Baring his teeth in a grin, Caleb stared Joshua in the eye. “Command us as God commands you. The battle is the Lord’s!”
    Joshua’s eyes shone with sudden fierceness. He let out a shout and the others joined with him.
    And so they went out into battle armed with farm implements and threshing tools, while three old men stood on the mountain praying.
    And God gave them victory.
    After the triumph came the lingering stillness. Caleb waited along with thousands of others camped at the base of the mountain while Moses went up to meet with the Lord. Days passed, and long nights of quiet and question.
    Waiting proved a greater test than taking up arms against the enemy.

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TWO
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    Caleb sat in misery, staring up at the mountain. Here I sit, coward that I am, an outsider again. He hung his head.
    Washed, adorned in clean garments, consecrated, he had stood with the multitude, eager to hear the Lord. He had heard God blow the shofar blast. The sound of it, long and heavy, had rattled his chest. A consuming fire had flared from the mountaintop, along with a thunderous roar. He had fled in terror. Like stampeding sheep, thousands had run. And like the others, he had cowered at a distance. Let Moses listen to God and tell them what He said.
    Moses was on the mountain again, but this time he had taken the elders with him, including Zimri from the tribe of Judah. Joshua, too, had been summoned.
    Mortified by his own cowardice, Caleb spoke to no one. He knew he had missed his chance to be close to God. Covering his face, he wept.
    When Aaron and the elders returned, Caleb went to hear what Zimri had to tell the sons of Judah.
    “We saw the God of Israel; under His feet there was a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.” Zimri shook with excitement, his eyes shining. “And He did not stretch out His hand against us. We ate and drank in praise of Him. And then the Lord called Moses up the mountain. God will give him the laws we are to live by.”
    “Where is Joshua? What happened to him?”
    “Joshua went up the mountain with Moses. We could see them both as they went up. Then they stopped and waited for six days. On the seventh, the mountain caught fire and Moses went into the cloud and disappeared. Joshua is still up there waiting for him.”
    “Are Moses and Joshua alive?”
    “God only knows.”
    “Before Moses went up, he told us to wait, and we did wait.”
    “Did they take anything up with them? Food? Water?”
    “Nothing.”
    Days passed, then weeks. The people grew restless. Moses was surely dead. Why were they still camped in this desolate place? Why didn’t they return to Egypt? They need not fear going back now. Surely, after all the plagues, the Egyptians would be in fear of them?
    “Why should they fear us?” Caleb remonstrated with his family. “ We did not bring the plagues. God did!”
    “We should get out of here before he decides to kill us the way he’s killed Moses.”
    “We don’t know that Moses is dead.”
    Jerahmeel stood. “He’s been gone a month, Caleb!