10/07/2017
As many of you know I wrote a book discussing healing a couple of years ago. Now I am thinking of writing a novel based on the story of Gideon.
The following is a writing exercise that I think went OK. What do you think?
The Wife of Heber.
She wasn't sure what it was that tipped her off to his approach. Was it the rhythmic pounding of his horse's hooves as he drove the poor animal on and on at an ever increasing speed?
Or was it the squawking of the birds rudely aroused from their mid afternoon perches, forcing them to scatter to the hot and humid skies in every direction?
It didn't take long however until she could see the dust cloud being kicked up and swirled by the frantic horse's approach.
"Invite him in." The idea seemed to just pop in to her mind from who knows where. Before she could even think how stupid that was, it appeared again, only this time even more forcibly, "Invite Him In!" When she looked back on these events, as she was sure to do, she never really knew how it happened but it did. There she was stood at the door of her tent, waiting, indeed hoping that the fast approaching stranger would stop so that she could invite him in.
Her uninvited wish was soon realised and the man bought his horse to a stand before her. As he dismounted, the horse just stood there, sweat running down its flanks, nostrils flared, chest heaving up and down as it tried to force much need air down its lungs.
"Yargh!!" he shouted at the horse without sparing it even one second's thought. "Get out of here and run some more," he shouted, whacking it across the rump with the flat of his sword. The horse took off. Again, running flat out. This time, however, through the shock and fear of being hit rather than because of the merciless driving that had caused the animal to near collapse. Now though, with every riderless step it took, that shock turned to relief as it fled through the long grass heading towards the river at the bottom of the small hill.
"Are you Jael, the wife of Heber?" The man asked turning his attention from the fleeing horse to the woman standing quietly before him. "Yes my Lord Sisera," she replied meekly. "May I welcome you to our humble tent? It is not much, but as it is, it is at your disposal my Lord."
"You do well to recognise me," Sisera told the woman brushing past her and into the tent. "Now bring me water for I thirst!" he ordered, and with a barely discernible nod, Jael went in to serve the commander of the army of Jabin, enemy of Israel and fugitive of The Lord.
**
"How far must we ride?" growled Barak to his companion as they rode their animals hard, following the dusty track that the flossing horse had carved into the dirt. "This dog must surely die yet I am bored and tired of this chase."
His companion smiled, "Have faith, oh son of Abinoam, has not the Lord promised to give him into your hands? Indeed, just as He promised, did we not utterly defeated Jabin? Why do you complain such that we have to pursue this one man? Before today is through we shall have his head. Has the Lord not spoken and shall it not be so?"
"Curses, but you are right, Deborah. The Lord has never let us down and nor have you. But I wish this chase to be over soon. A day in the saddle has left me sore!"
**
"My lord has asked for water. But would it be right for me to withhold milk. Is not all that my husband, Heber, owns at your service? And if it pleases my lord, may I lay some cushions and gather some rugs for you? Stay here and allow those who pursue you to overtake you, that you may escape in any direction that pleases you."
As she was saying this, Jael was placing cushions before Sisera and she had barely finished speaking before he slumped upon them, exhausted from his escape. "Let it be as you have said," he replied, closing his eyes, trying to block out the horror of the earlier defeat, and terror of the chase. Jael, left him alone, as she quietly moved aside to pour the resting man some milk.
"You know what you shall do!" The voice appeared in her imagination again. It was as if it was her voice but the words were not her own words and the thoughts were not her thoughts. "He is an enemy of your people Israel and a fugitive from Me!" Jael started as she realised that what she was hearing was the voice of the Lord. "May you do all that you have purposed to do, and more so," she muttered under her breath as she prepared the milk, and herself to do the will of the Lord.
**
"We are close, Barak. Stay your horse and wait while I enquire of the Lord," called Deborah as she reigned her mount in, first to a walk and then a complete stop. "At last," growled Barak, "A man needs to stretch his legs. Oh that is good," he sighed as he slid to the ground. Deborah simply walked off behind some rocks. Barak just stood, leaning on his horse, wondering what 'enquiring of the Lord' meant and how long it took. It was twenty minutes later when the tip of Deborah's boot, woke the now sleeping Barak.
"I don't know how you do it," Deborah teased, "but you are the only man I know who can sleep on his feet. Now, away to the east! The Lord is delivering us Sisera even as we stand here wasting time." With this, she sprung in one vault onto the back of her horse and spurred it off down the track leaving Barak to shake himself fully awake, clamber onto his mount, and chase off after her. It had been a long day.
**
Calmly and carefully Jael leant in towards the prostrate form of Sisera. "Your milk my lord," she purred as she handed him a large bowl to drink from. "They are coming" she whispered, "let me cover you with these rugs and then sit beside you so when they pull alongside the tent they may see me alone, resting in my tent. I shall say to them that I saw you fleeing on your horse towards the stream, and so direct them away from this place."
"Make it so," he said and lay there still as she tucked his arms in by his sides with the rugs before covering his head with one final rug. He could not have been aware of it as she reached across for a tent peg that she had placed beside the cushions. Had he been so, there would have been nothing that he could do for his arms were pinned firmly to his sides.
"For Israel and for the Lord!" she cried out, and with all her might she forced the tent peg down upon the rug covering his head, pushing as hard as she could as it pierced his temple and forced itself out from the opposite temple to which it had entered. As he breathed his last breath the last sound he heard was the sound of two horses pulling to a stop outside the tent.
"Is the this the man that you seek?" Jael called out to Barak and Deborah as they dismounted at the entrance of her tent. As the two walked in to speak with her, Jael pulled out the tent peg and removed the rug from the lifeless form of Sisera.
"Blessed are you Jael, wife of Heber, for today you have delivered Sisera into the hands of Israel," declared Deborah the judge before turning and walking out from the tent to give thanks and praise to her God, the God of Israel.
