Daughter of Deliverance by Gilbert Morris Read Free Book Online Page B

went up from the entire family, but Kadir, who had more discernment than the others, was watching Rahab. “What about you, Rahab?”
    â€œI will be a …” She tried to say the word, but it was hard. “I will have to remain in Shalmanezer’s house.”
    â€œIn a brothel?” Romar cried out. “You can’t do that!”
    â€œI have to—otherwise, all of us will be slaves.”
    Romar turned to her father and slapped him across the face with all her might. The blow drove him backward, and he stumbled. She came to stand over him and when he tried to get up, she struck him again. “This is all your doing, you old fool!” she screamed. “I don’t ever want to hear another word from you as long as I live. You sold your own daughter into harlotry!”
    The old man crept away, crawled into a corner, and pulled himself into a fetal position.
    Kadir came over and put his arm around Rahab. “Is there no other way, my sister?”
    â€œThere’s no other way.” Rahab knew she could not stand to be at home any longer. She went over and kissed Oman, holding on to him tightly, and then embraced Zayna. The two clung to her. They were both weeping, although Oman did not understand what was happening.
    She hugged her older sister, who clung to her, and then hugged her brother-in-law.
    â€œYou will see me again. I will see to it that you have no wants.” She whirled and left the house, and when she stepped outside, the night was dark, but not as dark as her heart.



Chapter 5
    From the top of a high ridge thrust up from the level plain, Joshua stood, taking in the wonderful sight of the tabernacle of God, amazed, as always, at the structure. He had, of course, been there when the tabernacle was constructed under the guidance of Moses, and he thought back to those early days of glory. He remembered crossing the Red Sea on dry land and seeing the armies of Pharaoh drown in the same sea. He thought of the many miracles God had done to bring the children of Israel through the desert. Bitterness gripped him when he remembered how he and Caleb and ten others had gone to scout out the land. When they returned, Israel had defied the word of God and refused to believe that the land could be conquered.
    â€œForty years of wandering in this forsaken desert!” Joshua muttered. He was not a tall man but was strongly built, and even in his eighties he still had the full strength of his young manhood. He felt the burden of leadership that Moses had thrust upon him. Joshua had tried desperately to avoid the task, but Moses had insisted that God had appointed him, and who could argue with God?
    Below him he saw the Israelite camp surrounding the tabernacle, which was itself surrounded by a wall of cloth held up by many pillars. The brazen altar was sending up a column of white smoke, almost like a pillar in the windless air, and between the altar and the tabernacle was the brass laver in which the priests washed their hands and bodies to purify themselves.
    Joshua’s eyes shifted then to the surrounding tents, and a smile of satisfaction spread across his face. They were camped exactly as God had instructed them from the very beginning. The twelve tribes were each divided into three smaller tribes, and within those divisions they were further separated. God had chosen to keep the identity of the tribes pure.
    Joshua’s eyes went to the north, where the tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali were set in order. To the south, the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad flanked the tabernacle. On the east stood the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and to the west were Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin.
    Joshua took pleasure in the order of the encampment, but then he lifted his eyes toward Canaan on the far side of the Jordan River and a cloud crossed his face. He was not a man of fear but of faith. Still, the commandment to conquer a land filled with strong kings, some of