Rising Darkness (26 page)

“Elijah. Get up and eat!”

Elijah lifted his head and saw a figure towering over him. It was Serus, dressed in a flowing white cloak. Serus touched the prophet on the shoulder to encourage him to rise up. Elijah jumped up, startled, and Serus indicated food and water that he had provided.

Elijah kept an eye on the angel as he ate, relaxing more and more as he understood that this was a messenger from the Lord. When he had finished, he lay back down and waited for this angel to fulfill his prayer. Instead Serus awakened him again with the words: “You must eat once more, because the journey you are about to take will be too great for you.”

“Journey?” Elijah said disappointedly. “I thought you were here to take me with you to be with the Lord!”

Serus restrained a smile and only repeated his words: “You must eat again so you will have strength for the journey.”

Elijah got up reluctantly and ate and drank. Then, scanning the horizon around Beersheba, he took off for the south.

“Whether I die here in Beersheba or someplace else is of no consequence,” he muttered to Serus, as he began his journey once more.

Bethlehem, 4 B.C.

Michael was touching Mary, trying to comfort her as the donkey walked the last couple of miles to the city. Joseph could now see the light of lamps and watchmen’s torches in Bethlehem, and he pointed this out to his wife.

“It won’t be much longer, love,” he told her, gripping her hand.

Mary said nothing, but she smiled down at her husband of whom she was so proud. He had trusted the Lord’s angel in a very delicate matter, and she would always treasure that in her heart.

Michael also could see the lights of Bethlehem—but not from the torches. Above the city were thousands of angels, gathered for the momentous event for which they had been waiting. He smiled proudly at the warriors encircling the city, and thought of the long and bloody trail that had brought God’s people to this point. Preserving the prophecy had not been without great cost to Israel—in fact it had cost them their nation.

“Now Ahab was a cruel and indifferent ruler,” Eli said. “And to be sure he married a wicked wife in Jezebel. But he was a great commander in the field and very successful in his wars against the Arameans.”

The shepherds were enjoying their second evening meal—some fruit and goat milk cheese—and the fire roared cheerily. Some of the men had gone home for the evening, their time of watch having been completed.

“Daniel!” Eli called out. “Come join us!”

Daniel, who had been sullen for most of the night, came over.

“Thank you,” he said. “I think I shall.”

He sat down among the men, who were puzzled by his change in attitude. Jarod handed Daniel a piece of bread, which he took gratefully. As he chewed he looked at the old man whose storytelling had dominated the evening.

“My father wanted to be a priest,” he said.

All the men looked at him.

“Really, Daniel,” said Eli. “Is that so? You are a Levite?”

“Yes,” he said. “But many generations back my people became shepherds rather than priests. Now of course we are not acceptable. And with Herod as king, the priesthood is far less pure.”

The other men were still in shock that Daniel had so suddenly opened up to them. The boys, too, did not understand the change that had overtaken him.

“Daniel?” asked Joshua.

“Yes,” he responded.

“Why were you so cross earlier?”

Elron, Joshua’s father, shook his head vigorously, indicating that the boy should be quiet. But Daniel smiled a half smile.

“It’s alright, Elron,” he said. “The boy was not asking anything that the rest of you were not thinking.”

He turned to Eli.

“You have been speaking of our nation, our heritage,” Daniel began. “As I was looking over Bethlehem, I began thinking of my fathers and their commitment to the priesthood. How God had selected my family to serve Him and how my family broke away from that service.”

He leaned back from the fire and continued.

“Eli, I must know…is the promise still alive? Because if it is, I wish to rejoin my brothers in the temple and fulfill my family duty.”

“Yes,” said Eli. “I would not believe otherwise. Someday the Messiah will arrive and save His people. But your question is understandable, Daniel. For even after Elijah’s ministry passed to Elisha, the kingdom of Israel was in great peril.”

“Yes,” Daniel said. “You mentioned the series of wars with the Arameans.”

“Not just war with nations, Daniel,” Eli said somberly. “War within Israel itself. Elijah’s ministry came to a close shortly after Ahab was killed in battle. Elisha, his disciple, took the old prophet’s mantle when Israel’s enemies were pressing in both from without and within…and he continued the work of the Lord in Israel’s last days…”

Jordan River near Jericho, 868 B.C.

Elisha, who had been with Elijah for some 11 years, watched as his mentor took his mantle and beat the surface of the Jordan River with it. He had seen many bizarre things over the years, so nothing much really surprised him—not even the splitting of the river that allowed them to cross over! As they crossed the river bed together to the other side, Elisha thought back over his life with the greatest living prophet in Israel.

Elisha had been Elijah’s loyal attendant. Together they had faced hostile foreign kings, attempts upon Elijah’s life, and the tricky intrigue of the Aramean wars, in which Ahab had finally been killed. Elisha had also been with the old prophet when an angel appeared and told him to speak against Ahaziah, the king who succeeded Ahab, for consulting with Baal diviners. Twice, Elisha had witnessed Elijah call down fire from Heaven that consumed two companies of Ahaziah’s men and their officers! It had been quite an adventure so far.

Now the end of Elijah’s ministry was near. Prophet and disciple arrived on the other side of the Jordan, neither one speaking a word. Elisha looked with deep feelings at his mentor, dressed in his shaggy mantle and the leather belt around his waist. The old holy man turned to Elisha and spoke.

“What can I do for you before I am taken away from you?” he asked.

“I have seen the Lord work through your life,” said Elisha. “And I know that if I am to succeed, it must be by the Lord’s anointing. Therefore give me a double portion of your spirit.”

Elijah considered this request for a moment or two, the sun beating down upon his wrinkled face. He then looked at Elisha.

“You are asking something very hard,” he finally said. “But if when I am taken away, you see me depart, then the anointing is yours. Otherwise, it is not.”

Elisha continued walking with the prophet, chatting with him and recalling some of their experiences together. He wanted to glean whatever wisdom he could from Elijah before he was taken away.

Suddenly they both stopped. In front of them a strange apparition appeared—horses and a chariot that appeared to be made of flames! There was nobody in the chariot, and Elijah walked toward it. Suddenly the wind picked up around them. A great whirlwind swirled in from the north and enveloped Elijah, picking him up and disappearing into the sky.

“Master! Master!” Elisha screamed. “I see the chariots! I see the horsemen!”

Elisha watched until his teacher disappeared completely. He knew that he would not see his mentor again until he saw him one day before the Lord. He also knew something else: that the mantle left behind was now his and that the double portion he had asked for was also his. He picked up the old coat and put it on. It was heavy indeed.

From a distance, several demons who had been assigned to Elisha watched as the new prophet of Israel made his way back toward the Jordan. They had not dared come near the men while Elijah was still around—especially when the chariot of fire had arrived to escort Elijah to Heaven.

One of the demons, a particularly hateful assistant to Rugio by the name of Grolius, had a particular vendetta against Elisha. Having lost a great companion and mentor in Shawa at Mount Carmel, he had sworn vengeance upon Elijah and Elisha. Rugio determined to give Grolius a chance and dispatched him with several warriors to find an opportune time to kill the prophet.

“Elisha is never without escort, is he?” said Sar, whose last important task was during the fight against Moses in Goshen. “Always an angel around.”

“And not just an angel,” said Grolius. “Several warriors—and usually an archangel somewhere about. They always seem to accompany the humans who have the greatest anointing.”

“He took the mantle, my lord,” said Corell. “It is his now.”

Grolius watched as the prophet, now wearing Elijah’s mantle, disappeared down the bank of the Jordan. He smirked and said, “The prophet told him that it was a burdensome mantle. Let us therefore oblige him!”

Chronicles of the Host