| |
––––––––
THE GROUP OF SOLDIERS stood around the remains of the breakfast fire at their customary location inside camp, all paying rapt attention to their L'vim guest, Pinchas son of Eleazar.
"I don't get it," Zuar protested. "Why were they arguing over Moshe's body?"
Pinchas shrugged. "I don't know the answer to that. But it happened."
"And you say the Warrior who opposed Halal was Mikhayel?"
"I think so. Legend has it he's the Prince assigned to Yacov. He could have led us to worship him as a god, like the other Princes have done. But he remains faithful to El Elyon."
Othniel shook his head as if to jar cobwebs loose. "Wait, wait, wait!" He held up his hands, as if signaling an army column to halt. "That's...let's just forget about that for right now. You're saying Mikhayel...or whoever this gigantic being was...changed shape right in front of you up in the Aborim Mountains? He turned into animals?"
"No, that's not what I think happened," Pinchas said, shaking his head and biting his lip. "I think that, for whatever reason, I got a glimpse into different...worlds. Worlds we can't normally see with our eyes. Somehow, though, I perceived them that night, in that place."
Pinchas glanced about the circle of men who faced him. They were all either confused or skeptical. Mostly both. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I think there are many realms...worlds. And what we normally perceive is just one of them." Palms inward, his hands hovered over his shoulders, then swept down and back up his body. "And maybe our...image, I guess...is different in each world."
"Our appearance, you mean," Achan said, nodding as if he understood. "Like in one of the other worlds, the color we think of as blue is actually yellow. Or looks that way to somebody else."
"Yes," Pinchas said, remembering how the surroundings had seemingly changed around him up on the mountain. "But it's much deeper than that. Though if you're implying that the worlds overlap, I think you're right. They all overlap, but we can only perceive into this one. We can only interact with this one, normally. But the Messengers, the Watchers, the Guardians, the Warriors, the Princes...they have access to multiple overlapping worlds. And of course El Elyon sees into all of them."
"Why would you see into the different worlds up in the Abor Mountains, but not down here?" Abidan asked.
Pinchas shrugged again. "There must be something special about that location. That must be why Moshe chose to die up there. But I think this whole experience begs some more important questions."
"Like what? Zuar asked.
Pinchas pointed at Zuar. "You had questions about the way we pitch camp, right?"
Zuar nodded.
Pinchas pulled a stick toward him, which had escaped consumption in the fire. He used the stick to draw a square in the dirt.
"This square is where my tribe camps." He now drew lines extending straight from two parallel sides of the square, then closed it off, completing a long rectangle. "Here is the camp of Y'huda." He drew shorter rectangles extending out from the other sides of the square. "Here's the camp of Dan, Ruven, and Efrayim" The drawing now took the shape of a cross.
Zuar pointed to a triangular shape between two of the camps. "That's how we always camp...with all this wasted space, every time."
Ignoring Zuar's comment, Pinchas said, "So right at the center of the camp is my tribe, and in the center of my tribe's camp is the Temple. The Temple is where man meets with El Elyon. Now, the camp of Ruven includes Ruven, Gad and Shimon, but whose banner do they all rally to?"
"Ruven's," Yebdod answered.
"And what image is on the guidon?" Pinchas asked.
"A man," Daghai replied.
"The warrior who came for Moshe's body," Pinchas said, "in appearance, he resembled a man." He drew a man's face at the base of the southern rectangle representing Ruven's camp, then pointed to the northern rectangle. "In appearance his form was human. But both he and Halal had four different...aspects. What image is on the guidon for the camp of Dan?"
"An eagle," Achan said.
Pinchas nodded. "And in one of the worlds I glimpsed, the warrior's image was that of an eagle." He drew an eagle in the northern rectangle, then glanced around the circle of men. "Our god dwells in the heavens. An eagle soars in the heavens."
"What's your point?" Abidan asked.
"I think the eagle is a symbol for The God of Gods," Pinchas replied, then pointed to the western rectangle. "What image is on the guidon that the camp of Efrayim rallies to?"
"An ox," Othniel said.
"In one world, the warrior had the image of an ox." Pinchas drew an ox, then pointed to the eastern rectangle. "And the camp of Y'huda?"
"A lion!" everyone replied.
"In one realm, the warrior had the image of a lion." Pinchas drew a lion.
"I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say," Daghai admitted. A few others nodded. "So each...aspect...of the warrior corresponds to the four outer camps."
"Intriguing," Othniel said, "but what does it mean?"
"Is the warrior really a monster with four heads?" asked young Zuar.
"No, that's not it at all," Pinchas replied, shaking his head. "I mean, what my eyes saw looked like a man. But what I was able to perceive with more than just my two eyes...he was like an eagle. But he was also like an ox. And a lion."
"The beings you saw sound like some of the bizarre gods other nations worship," Daghai said.
"Yes. But they are not truly gods," Pinchas replied. "Living creatures. But the Fallen Ones allow themselves to be worshiped like gods. They were once Princes in good standing with El Elyon, before they rebelled. Obviously, they reveal themselves to the other nations, which is why the descriptions of those 'gods' sometimes sound similar to what I'm telling you."
"So what?" Avnur asked, with arms outstretched.
"So what?" Pinchas echoed, incredulous. "There's a meaning in this! The same exact four aspects of the Warrior who protected Moshe's body are the images surrounding the Temple...on the guidons of the four combined camps. More specifically: around the L'vim camp, which is the human shell around the Temple."
"Well, it's nothing for you to lose sleep over," Achan said.
"I'm telling you," Pinchas insisted, "there's something we can learn about our Creator in this. El Elyon made something like this visible for a reason. It's not a coincidence: the same god who created the other 'gods' also told Moshe to have us set up our camp the way we do."
Zuar rolled his eyes and deepened his voice, imitating his father. "'Don't camp over there...that's northeast of the L'vim. Don't camp over there...that's southeast.' Blah blah blah."
"It's not arbitrary that Hashem had Moshe direct us to camp this way," Pinchas said.
"Fine," Avnur said. "I'll bite. What's the reason?"
Pinchas sighed. "I don't know yet. I'm working on it. These four different aspects of the Warrior–even the ones we usually can't see–are the same ones he told us, through Moshe, to surround his Temple with."
Silence fell over the group as they pondered this information.
"Is there any more?" Othniel asked.
"What is the ox a symbol of?" Pinchas asked.
"Servitude," Achan answered. "The faithful servant."
Pinchas nodded. "Just like Y'hoshua, the chief of Efrayim" He used the stick to point between the eagle and man. "So you have god, and man. God, and man."
"And in the midst of the...cross...is where god meets man," Zuar remembered, aloud, pointing to where the Temple would be in the representation of the L'vim camp.
Pinchas changed directions of his waving stick. "God, man; and here you got faithful servant, and the lion of Y'huda. god and man; faithful servant and lion of Y'huda."
The blast of bugles echoed over the plains. Everyone's attention was drawn toward the direction of the L'vim camp. Thousands of arms lifted, fingers pointing at the Radiant Mist, which had begun to move.
Shouts of alarm and instruction from a multitude of voices blended together into a dull roar. All over the vast city of tents, people dropped what they were doing and hurried to strike camp. With well-rehearsed precision, the L'vim had already begun dismantling the portable temple before most of the Yacovim even knew it was time to move.
"This is it!" Achan said, slapping his comrades on the arms on the way to his tent. "We're crossing over. We're crossing today!"
