Love’s Sacred Song by Mesu Andrews Read Free Book Online

closed, but its corner caught on the dirt floor and splintered. Arielah’s brothers rushed by, their belongings in sacks slung over their shoulders. Neither offered a word of farewell, nor did they look back.
    The little band in the courtyard watched in silence until the two silhouettes faded in the moonlight. Arielah felt the cool spring breeze and suddenly remembered her torn robe. Thankful that Ima Jehosheba stood beside her and blocked Reu’s view of her injuries, Arielah would allow Abba and his guest to enter the house first, while Ima brought a new robe and headpiece outside.
    Jehoshaphat offered a sad smile to their royal guest. “Reu, you have been more than patient. Now let me show you the hospitality of Shunem. My honorable wife is a fine cook, and my daughter plays beautifully on her shepherd’s flute.” Abba wrapped his arm around the messenger’s shoulders and guided him to the house, casting a backward glance at his wife and daughter. “Jehosheba and Arielah will be along in a little while.”
    Reu patted his ample middle. “I thought I remembered you promising food before we began our journey back to Jerusalem.”
    As the two men made their way into the house, Arielah whispered through tears, “Ima, why must Kemmuel and Igal continue to hurt themselves and others, when all we want to do is love them? How can we make them understand?”
    Jehosheba cupped Arielah’s cheek and wiped away her tears. “We are all given stones with which we build our lives, Arielah. Love is the cornerstone upon which your abba has chosen to build this family. When Kemmuel refused to make it his cornerstone, his life became unsteady, unstable—and his character unsound with it.” She gently kissed Arielah’s forehead. “Kemmuel must choose his cornerstone, my little lion of God. We cannot build his life for him.”
    Ima brushed her arm and then disappeared into the house, leaving Arielah to meditate on her words. Indeed, her parents’ love had been the bedrock of her life, that unshakable, sacred cornerstone upon which Arielah had grown in safety and confidence. Her brothers had been offered the same love but had rejected it. Why? How could anyone resist it?
    She suddenly remembered Solomon. He had just lost his abba. Was King David his unshakable cornerstone?
    Jehosheba reappeared with a fresh robe and head covering. Arielah exchanged her tattered garments and donned her clean woolen robe, wondering, On what cornerstone will Solomon build his life? His nation?

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    •  Genesis 49:1, 8  •
    [As Jacob lay dying, he] called for his sons and said: . . . “Judah, your brothers will praise you; . . . your father’s sons will bow down to you.”
    P rofessional mourners began wailing the moment King David’s eyes closed in death. But in the depths of the palace dungeon, screams melted into the incoherent mumblings of the tortured. It was here in this dark kingdom that Ahishar, the palace high steward, reigned supreme. After Prince Adonijah’s failed attempt to steal the throne, Ahishar was the highest-ranking palace official still undetected in the covert Sons of Judah. Fear was Ahishar’s greatest weapon, and he wielded it expertly in his underground kingdom.
    Holding a clean white cloth over his nose and mouth, he examined his most recent betrayer. “How long, Mahlon, have you been a scribe in my service?”
    The man reeked of blood and excrement, but the sweet smell of his fear seeped through Ahishar’s cloth. “Twenty . . . years, my . . . lord.” The scribe slumped between two guards, his face and lips swollen after long hours of torture.
    “And in those twenty years, how many times have you spoken to Elisheba the cook about matters of politics in Israel?”
    “Lord Ahishar,” Mahlon said, “truly, I . . . I spoke to Elisheba . . . of palace matters . . . very few times . . . hardly ever.”
    At Ahishar’s nod, one of the guards seized Mahlon’s hair and jerked his head back. “Tell