Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: DISGUISE (08/12/21)
-
TITLE: Seeing Through the Gift | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
08/18/21 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
How could a good God allow trouble for the innocent? There were so many questions she’d stopped asking years before when her husband set down a path far from the faith of her ancestors. Her people in Tirzah hardly looked at her anymore, not daring to raise even a whisper against their sovereign.
It took a good beating, but the woolen vestment finally yielded its treasured possession of dust, thick enough to choke on. The hint of jasmine and charcoal lingered in the air as the material shared past secrets and delights. Two holes, left courtesy of moths, were left in place to add to the illusion of poverty.
Even being near the thing brought shivers up her spine. It had been her last reminder of life when she worked her garden, proud of the produce, proud of the name she had in the marketplace before she was elevated to being the wife of Jeroboam.
“Are you ready?” the king asked. “Whatever happens, he can’t know you’re my wife when you ask about the boy. The prophet anointed me king. Take some gifts and he’ll tell you all you need to know.”
The clouds tumbled across the sky in an ominous array of grays, warning of doom and gloom. She lifted the hood in place, wrapped the blue scarf across the lower half of her face and trudged out into the alley behind the palace. A covered carriage shielded her station and the four Friesian mounts charged out on their way to Shiloh where Ahijah the prophet lived in squalor.
She stopped the carriage a good distance away to avoid any betrayal of her disguise. Gifts of bread, cakes and honey filled her leather bag. It had been a long time since she’d had to lift any burden at all. The burden of her son, Abijah, weighed down her soul and made the dragging of her feet a legitimate trouble.
A young lad, not much older than her own son, showed her the way to the prophet’s home. She pushed her hair back under the hood and adjusted her scarf when he pointed the way. “The old man can’t see, you know,” the boy said. “He just sits in there in the dark all alone. The old woman who cooks for him is his sister. You can give that stuff to her.”
The king’s wife let out a sigh. A blind man in the dark. It would make everything easier to stay hidden. She took a deep breath and stepped into the hovel.
The gravelly voice that met her stopped her in her tracks. “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news.”
How could an old blind man in the dark know? Who had told him?
The words continued. “Tell Jeroboam what God says. ‘I raised you up and appointed you ruler… I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you…you have done more evil than all who lived before you…you have made for yourself other gods…I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. The LORD has spoken.’”
The gifts she brought from her husband for the man of God could not disguise the king’s misuse of the gifts which God had given him. There was no disguising what God desired or designed. The darkness closed in like a shroud around her. There was no escaping the truth. “What about the boy?”
The prophet breathed deeply and in a gentler voice announced. “When you set foot into the city your boy will die. He’ll be the only one who gets buried because he’s the only one in whom God has seen anything good. God has already raised someone up to destroy the rest of Jeroboam’s legacy.”
The weight of the cloak grew heavy as she backed away. The truth gripped her throat and she dropped the disguise and fled. Her boy’s death disguised the mercy of God on the only good one left. How could she take that last step home? And yet she had to know. The boy’s last breath shook off all illusions as to who was true and right.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
