by Brian Godawa
“I asked you why I cannot go for a simple chaperoned walk with Jonathan.”
“I’ve told you a hundred times,” said Cassandra, “this is not the time to consider such things.”
“Mother, I’m fifteen years old. If I wait any longer, I’ll be an old maid. And what is wrong with Jonathan? He’s seventeen, strong, trained in battle, and respects you more than I do.”
“Watch your tongue, young lady.” Cassandra felt Samuel squirm in her arms. As she rocked him back to slumber, she eyed her adopted daughter. Rachel had matured into a beautiful young lady, a far change from when Cassandra had first met the young girl. Escaping her pillaged city, Rachel had pretended to be a boy to avoid being discovered by men and abused in the midst of war. It was a tragedy countless women had to suffer. Many could not endure it and killed themselves from the shame.
Cassandra had coaxed Rachel out of her shyness and distrust of men, but now she almost regretted it. Her daughter was clearly enamored with this young man Jonathan. And his father had already tried to speak with Cassandra about an arrangement for marriage. Cassandra had put him off under the pretense that she and Rachel’s father had to discuss it through long distance letters. That was only half true. She was avoiding that as well.
Jonathan was a good one. Cassandra had no complaints. Except one. And she voiced it to Rachel. “Rome is still at war with Judea. We are safe for now. But the final battle is coming upon Jerusalem.”
“But we’re not in Jerusalem,” Rachel argued. “We’re hidden in the mountains. And protected by the Kharabu.”
“Yes. For now. But there is more to come our way, and we must prepare to face greater danger.”
“Mother, you keep saying that, but what do you mean? How do you know more will come our way?”
Cassandra had been keeping it from Rachel and Noah. She didn’t want them overcome with fear. But the moment of frustration pulled it out of her. “Because the Apocalypse says it will.”
Rachel stopped, dumbfounded. She knew about the Apocalypse. Cassandra had told both siblings of her journey with Alexander to find the subversive letter that predicted the end of their world and the coming judgment. They had heard the letter read to the congregation by the lector. But not everything had been explained to the congregation’s children.
Still, as Rachel had pointed out, Cassandra’s adopted daughter was no longer a child but a young woman and had earned the right to hear the truth. So Cassandra answered by quoting the Apocalypse itself. “And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the land, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.”19
She stopped. She finally had Rachel’s attention. “I’ve explained to you that the dragon is the devil, the serpent, and the woman is the Remnant of true Israel that gave birth to Jesus the Messiah.”
“Yes,” said Rachel.
Cassandra continued quoting from memory. “‘But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.’ That’s three and a half years.”20
As Rachel nodded her comprehension, Cassandra continued, “When Rome surrounded Jerusalem, we fled the city, just as Jesus told us to do. That was three and a half years ago.”
Cassandra glanced down at her infant son, not wishing to continue. But she did. “‘The dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.’”21
Rachel was now dead silent. Only the distant sound of clacking swords could be heard in the wind. The girl watched the mock battle between Noah and Michael with an apparent new understanding. A frightful one.
“The devil is not done with us yet,” Cassandra said. “And what will you do if you start a family and your new husband is killed in the war with the dragon?”
Rachel’s expression turned from fearful to firm. “But you married father during the Great Tribulation.” She had picked up a lot of determination from her adoptive mother.
Cassandra answered, “I did so in order to help him in his ministry, fully expecting that we would both die.”
“But you’re both still alive.”
“Yes. And look at how difficult it is to raise a family without a father. Is that what you want—to raise a family alone?”
“Father is not dead.”
“No. But we must accept the inevitable, daughter. He has sacrificed himself for the Gospel, and we cannot be sure he will return. We know that Jerusalem will fall to the Romans, and they have not always been merciful.”
“Is that why you’re planning to leave us and go to Jerusalem? To die with him?”
Cassandra froze in shock, her eyes widening noticeably. After an awkward moment of silence, she demanded, “Where did you hear that?”
“I’m not a moron, mother. I told you, I’m fifteen. I listen. I hear your prayers when you think you are alone.”
Cassandra felt trapped by her own words. She had prayed about returning to Jerusalem. About God protecting her children and all the orphans of the city whose guardian she had become.
The Kharabu would surely protect them despite the danger.
Rachel’s eyes welled up with tears. “Do you not love us, mother?”
Cassandra stood immediately and reached out for her daughter with her free arm. “Rachel, of course I love you with all my heart.”
Little Samuel chose that moment to begin squirming again, and Cassandra tightened her one-armed grip on him as she whispered into Rachel’s ear, “I would never leave you without protection.”
Rachel pulled away from her. “But you would leave us?”
Cassandra’s lack of answer appeared to be all the answer Rachel needed. Spinning around, the young girl stormed downhill toward Noah and Michael, still practicing with swords.
Cassandra watched her with sadness. She could not deny her own conflicted feelings for the kingdom of God. Or that her love of family had brought upon her the very grief she’d feared when confronted with the call to sacrifice.
The apostle Paul had warned of this, and now she was experiencing it fully. She had indeed been talking to some of her most reliable friends in the city, preparing to have them watch over her children. They would also be in the protective custody of the Kharabu. But despite her certainty that Rachel, Noah, and little Samuel would be in safe hands, despite the fact that she truly did love her children more than life itself, she still felt guilty that she was willing to leave them in such a time of great peril. What kind of a mother would do such a thing?
Perhaps a mother who felt like a failure in everything she had tried to do for God’s kingdom. Or perhaps a wife who felt that she had betrayed her marriage covenant by fleeing to safety and leaving her husband to face life-threatening danger alone. But wasn’t leaving her children alone just as bad a betrayal? It seemed no matter what she did, she was leaving loved ones in danger.
Maybe her desire to walk back into the arena of death was her attempt to share the sufferings of Christ like her mentor, the apostle Paul.
Whatever the case, Cassandra felt terrible for not telling Alexander about her intentions to join him in Jerusalem. She knew he would not approve, so she planned to show up and deal with his disappointment at that time. It would be easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Down the hill, Rachel had stopped to watch the sparring. Samuel had gone back to sleep. Sinking back down to a crossed-legged position, Cassandra placed her son gently on her lap and pulled out a letter to read.
It was from Alexander. They had written each other regularly over the past year and a half of separation. She cherished every single communication she received from him as sacred. This one was the latest from a month ago. She had read it a dozen times.
Alexander, to my dear beloved Cassandra,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
&nb
sp; I always thank God when I pray for you and when I think of your love that he has allowed me to experience for a short time on this earth. Our two years of marriage before you left for Pella was the happiest I have ever been in my life. Though we faced the dangers of plague, sickness, and war, we had done so together. And I was never more content than facing it all with you by my side.
But God has seen fit to separate us for his purposes. If he chooses to preserve my life through this time of judgment, I will return to you with the most desperate of desire. But if he does not, please know that you have made my suffering more joyous to face.
Your love has helped me to understand the love of God in an earthly way. Your zeal for the kingdom has inspired me in times of weakness. I will die with thanks on my lips for the opportunity to have met you and to have enjoyed the privilege to love you. For without you in my life, I may never have found my Savior.
Pray for me as I labor in the city and for the work of the Two Witnesses. And pray for the Christians who are still suffering in the mines at the hands of Jacob.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Send my greetings to Michael and Gabriel and the others. And give my warmest of love to our children, Rachel, Noah, and little Samuel. How I long to meet my infant son for the first time. I love you and miss you with all my heart.
Your beloved husband and brother in Christ.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Cassandra noticed Noah and Michael were done with their practice. They headed uphill along with Rachel. By Noah’s untroubled expression, Rachel had not shared their recent discussion with her younger brother. She was acting with more maturity than Cassandra had given her credit.
Was Cassandra making the right choices in her parenting? Was she forcing her own convictions upon her daughter? What if she was wrong?
Just then Cassandra noticed Boaz, the church elder in charge of the Pella congregation, approaching. His elderly frame of over sixty years walked with an unsteady gait.
As he reached Cassandra, he sighed. “I need to take walks to keep my health so I can live to fight this blasphemous heresy of Symeon and his Ebionites.”
Michael and her children arrived in time to catch the church elder’s words. Cassandra shared a concerned glance with the Kharabu captain as Boaz continued, “I have called a council to deal with the trouble. We can no longer allow them to teach their damnable doctrines in Pella. They are growing dangerously large and upsetting the faith of many with their false Gospel. We must stop them. And I wanted you to be at the council because of your work with the apostle Paul. We need influential voices to counter their lies.”
The Ebionites were a contingent of Christians who had followed Boaz and the other Christian refugees from Jerusalem to Pella. At first, they’d been a minority residual voice of the Judaizers who’d remained behind. But they had grown to well over a thousand followers. Thank God none of them were elders in the congregation, but their influence was growing.
The Ebionites took their name from the Hebrew word for “poor” and gloried in their pride of poverty as if it were a sign of spirituality. They were vegetarians and pacifists who argued against Pella’s preparation for self-defense. Most egregious to Cassandra was their denial of the deity of Christ. This alone made them worthy of condemnation and expulsion from the congregation.22
Cassandra had despaired that such demonic influence was already plaguing the Christians of Pella. The body of Christ was trying to gather itself together after being almost wiped out by the Great Tribulation. Now they had this spreading cancer trying to wipe them out from within. Even worse, the Ebionites’ intent was to become a majority and seize control of the ekklesia, or church.
But then again, Jude had warned the church of this very thing. He had said that in the last days there would be scoffers who followed their own ungodly passions. Such worldly people were devoid of the Spirit, perverting the grace of God into sensuality, denying their only Master and Lord Jesus Christ, and causing divisions. That was why Jude had exhorted true believers to contend earnestly for the faith.23
Boaz was right. The Ebionites had to be countered. They had to be stopped. Such a battle would delay Cassandra’s intentions of getting to Jerusalem. But she owed it to Boaz and the congregation. She owed it to the people who had saved her life and given her a new home where she could raise her children in the Lord.
Cassandra looked down at her precious little Samuel. She owed it to her son, to protect his future. She had to fight for the souls of her people. She had to continue suffering separation from and longing for her beloved.
At least for now.
She returned home to write a letter to her husband.
CHAPTER 4
Jerusalem
Alexander Maccabaeus stood in a small crowd, listening to the Two Witnesses preaching near Golgotha, the “Place of the Skull.” It was the location where Jesus had been crucified a generation ago. It had been outside the city walls at the time but was now within the more recently built second and third walls that encompassed the New City as well. The crowd was several hundred people on the rocky terrain.
The prophetic Witnesses, Moshe and Elihu, had been preaching repentance and judgment to the people of Jerusalem for over three years now. The Apocalypse had foretold that their ministry would be 1,260 days, or three and a half years. The time of the end was near. The Lord was at the door.
Listening to them was one of the ways in which Alexander dealt with his lonely longing for his wife Cassandra. They had been separated for almost a year and a half now, and he missed her so deeply. She had fled the city with several hundred orphans of war they had taken under their wing. She had brought the children safely to Pella, where she now raised their own family of Rachel, Noah, and his year-old son Samuel, whom Alexander had never met. His eyes teared up just thinking of them.
Their only interaction was through letters, which he treasured like gold and even carried with him to re-read over and over until the next one came. Hearing the Word of God from the Witnesses at least took Alexander’s mind off his loneliness and kept it on God’s kingdom and his purpose for being here. He had been called as a doctor to minister to the sick and wounded Jews of the city with the intent of saving as many of them as possible from the wrath to come. Dozens had become followers of Jesus. Some of those had stayed to help him with his work while others had fled Jerusalem to the city of Pella in the Transjordan where his family was safely hidden. Eventually before the final battle, he would try to get all of God’s elect out of the city.
Alexander turned his attention back to the Witnesses. The city had grown weary of their message of judgment, so their audience would normally be a much smaller crowd. But Passover was upon them, bringing thousands of Jews from all over the empire to Jerusalem, most of them less familiar with the Witnesses and therefore more curious. These faithful pilgrims came even though Rome’s legions had devastated the land and would soon move on Jerusalem. They believed that they were safe behind the walls of God’s holy city. That Yahweh would protect them, especially during their holy feasts of obligation.
Alexander thought of them as captive objects of wrath, just as Jesus had foretold. He also knew that his ministry as a doctor to the sick and wounded was about to become overwhelming. He prayed God would provide help and resources.
As the crowd listened to the Witnesses, many scoffers mocked them saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” They shouted accusations and blasphemy, claiming that ever since the fathers had fallen asleep, everything continued on as it had since the creation of the covenant.
It had been forty years since Jesus pronounced the destruction of the city and temple. But the stones of the temple were still upon one another. Jesus was considered a false prophet. But forty years was not a long time from God’s perspective. Indeed, a thousand years to the Lord was like a single day. And the generation had not yet passed upon whom Jesus had said the wrath would come. No, the day of the Lord was near. And it would come like a thief upon thes
e unprepared fools.24
In the same way that the cosmos of Noah’s day was destroyed by water, so the present cosmos, the Mosaic covenant of heavens and earth, was being kept for the judgment of fire. The stoichea, the temple and its elements of the old covenant, were about to burned up and dissolved with that old covenant. The new heavens and earth of the new covenant were going to be consummated in its coming that had been inaugurated with the blood of Jesus on the cross—the blood of the Passover Lamb.25
That was the message the Witnesses were now preaching. The Feast of Passover prefigured the Messiah who led a new Exodus like that out of Egypt. Moshe, an elderly white-bearded man nearing seventy wearing only a sackcloth of mourning, had been retelling the story of the Passover from the Torah.
It had been the last of the ten plagues on Egypt. God had warned Pharaoh that he would kill all the firstborn in the land. But he’d given the Jews a way out of the judgment—the feast of Passover. Each family was instructed to kill an unblemished lamb and spread its blood over the doorposts of their homes. When the Destroyer came to kill the firstborn, he passed over the houses of the Jews marked by the Passover lamb’s blood. They were covered and protected from death.
Elihu, a handsome dark-skinned Egyptian half Moshe’s age and also dressed in sackcloth, now took over, proclaiming to the crowd, “Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover Feast. Jesus fulfills all the feasts of Israel, for he is Messiah. And Messiah is the final goal of Torah and all its elements.”26
A heckler in the crowd shouted out, “You speak against Torah! You deny its authority!”
“No,” replied Elihu. “The Torah is a shadow of authority. Its feasts and obligations are shadows. The very temple and its elements are shadows. Messiah is the reality. Messiah entered the true temple in heaven with his blood. Jesus was sacrificed on the fourteenth of Nisan at the exact time and exact hour of the Passover lamb.”27
