Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar

the knowledge weighed on him. How often the Lord had to rise up and encourage him. How often he needed God to strengthen his resolve.
    With supple movements for a man of his age, Joshua silently rose from his bedroll and grabbed a coarse robe. Leaving his tent, he walked until his steps carried him outside the camp of Israel. The sun drenched the sky with light by the time Joshua neared Jericho. He was close enough to see the walls, which meant he was close enough to see that not even scaling ladders and battering rams, which Israel did not possess, would make a difference. The city was not conquerable. He dropped his eyes to the ground and tried to win an internal battle with discouragement.
    As he raised his eyes, he gasped with shock. A few paces in front of him stood a man with a drawn sword in his hand. The man was tall and muscle-bound, a warrior born and bred by his look. Andhis sword was nothing ordinary; it shone like moonlight, jewel-encrusted at its base and sharpened to an impossibly fine edge. Part of Joshua wanted to run in the opposite direction, but he too was a warrior of courage and strength. Who was this man and what was he doing here? Joshua clenched his jaw and stepped forward.
    “Are you for us or for our enemies?” Joshua asked, his narrowed eyes searching the man’s expression.
    Close up, Joshua could see that the man’s face was stamped with an unearthly peace. It was impossible to guess his age. There were no lines, no sagging skin, no scars. And yet the eyes were set with an ancient wisdom. Joshua could not look away from his unblinking gaze.
    “Neither,” he replied.
    Joshua raised an eyebrow. Neither friend nor foe?
Who was he then?
The man’s next words wiped every thought from Joshua’s mind.
    “I am the commander of the army of the Lord, and as such I have now come.”
    Joshua fell facedown on the ground in reverence. This was no ordinary man. The thought of it overwhelmed him so that he could hardly move. Like Abraham, he was being honored by a heavenly visitation. “What message does my Lord have for His servant?” he asked.
    “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.”
    Hurriedly, Joshua did so. Around him a heavy silence settled. After a time, Joshua dared to look up only to find that the commander of the host of the Lord had vanished with as little flourish as he had appeared. Slowly, Joshua came to his knees. What did it mean? Why had God sent him this visitation? If God had sent him the commander of His own army, why had He not said that He was on the side of Israel?
    Then it dawned on Joshua that God was not on Israel’s side; He beckoned Israel to be on
His
side. Joshua couldn’t claim God for himselfor for his own interests the way the people around them used their idols. Rather the Lord claimed Joshua and His chosen people for Himself.
    As Joshua finally rose to his feet another thought occurred to him. He wasn’t military commander to Israel. He did not have the ultimate responsibility for this impossible task. God had assigned the commander of His own armies to fight the battle. Suddenly, Jericho’s walls did not seem so impossible. Not with the army of God coming against them.

Chapter
Seven

     
    J ericho waited in alarm like a pig sensing its own impending slaughter. Spies brought back petrifying reports of the Jordan parting and the Hebrews walking across the riverbed as if strolling through a field. They reported that their enemies were more numerous than ants. The king ordered the gates of the city sealed. No one went out and no one came in. Rahab wondered what he hoped to accomplish. If the burgeoning river could not hold them back, how would dressed stone?
    But the Hebrews did not attack immediately. After crossing the river at flood stage rather than waiting for its waters to abate as any normal nation might have done, they now seemed in no rush to attack. They rested. They feasted. They lounged about. Rahab puzzled over their