Faith of My Fathers by Lynn Austin Read Free Book Online

her tears. In the eternity before the world went black, Dinah knew she was going to die.

    “God of Abraham, what is going on? This can’t be happening.” Eliakim tried to pace, but the prison cell was too small. He could take only three steps before he had to turn and walk back again. The stone floor was rough and uneven beneath his feet.
    The jail was little more than a crude hole, carved in the bedrock beneath the palace, with an iron door bolted across the opening. It smelled damp and musty, like ancient tombs and decaying bones. With no windows and no lamps or torches, it was blacker than a moonless night. It reminded Eliakim of the Siloam tunnel, and he tried not to panic at the thought of being buried alive. He couldn’t see Isaiah, but he knew that the prophet sat on the floor, just a few feet away. The thought comforted him.
    “This can’t be happening,” he said again. He had repeated the phrase a dozen times in the long hour since Manasseh had imprisoned them.
    “Eliakim,” Isaiah said with a sigh, “why don’t you sit down. It’s going to be a while until morning.”
    “I’m sorry, Rabbi, but it’s all so crazy! What on earth is going on? What is King Manasseh thinking? How long is this temper fit of his going to last? He won’t keep us down here all night, will he?”
    “Are you asking me to tell the future, too?”
    Eliakim heard the irony in Isaiah’s voice and smiled in spite of himself. “Well, it would be nice to know what’s going to happen next, Rabbi.”
    “God alone knows. We’ll have to rest in Him. Come, Eliakim. Sit down.”
    He stumbled toward Isaiah’s voice, his hands outstretched in the darkness. He found the opposite wall and felt his way down to the floor, sitting for the first time since the soldiers put him in the cell.
    “Not very comfortable, is it?” Isaiah said.
    “No. Are you warm enough, Rabbi? It’s freezing in here.”
    “I’ll be fine.”
    Eliakim folded his arms and tucked his hands in his armpits to warm them. “Now what?”
    “Now we wait.”
    “I want to believe that this is all a terrible mistake. That Manasseh will listen to reason in the morning, but—” “I know. Uncertainty is the enemy of our faith.” Isaiah heaved a deep sigh. “ ‘In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. . . . He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. . . . I will drive him like a peg into a firm place.’ Do you remember when I told you that?”
    “How could I ever forget it?” Eliakim said softly.
    “There was more,” Isaiah said. “I never told you all of it. I’m sorry.”
    Eliakim waited for what seemed a very long time. He didn’t know why, but his heart had began to pound. When Isaiah finally spoke, his voice sounded hoarse.
    “ ‘ “In that day,” declares the Lord Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The Lord has spoken.’ ” Isaiah’s robes rustled, and Eliakim knew the rabbi was wiping away tears.
    Eliakim struggled to comprehend the words of the prophecy: they meant he would fall from power. Is that what was happening to him? Had Isaiah known this day would come? Eliakim groped in the darkness for Isaiah’s shoulder and rested his hand on it.
    “I’m glad you never told me, Rabbi, but thank you for telling me now.”
    “The Lord showed me so much for King Jotham, King Ahaz, King Hezekiah. But Yahweh has shown me nothing of King Manasseh’s reign, and I don’t know why.”
    “Can’t we do what Manasseh asked? Can’t we pray and ask God to give us something to appease him? Maybe He’ll show us His plan for Manasseh.”
    “I think this is His plan.”
    “You mean, to be falsely accused and imprisoned? But why?”
    “I don’t know. If it’s His will to save us, then God will show me what Manasseh wants to