Rising Darkness by D. Brian Shafer Read Free Book Online

a moment, returning his sword to its sheath. He scrutinized the magnificent soldier who stood before him. He didn’t look like a Canaanite soldier. His appearance was very different.
    Joshua walked over to the visitor, careful to keep one hand on his sword and to make sure that there were not others ready to spring upon him.
    “Are you for us? Or are you for our enemies?” he resolutely asked.
    “I represent nobody but the Lord God as commander of His Host. His Presence is quite near.”
    The voice was one of sharp authority that commanded immediate respect. Joshua’s heart rallied and he fell to the ground before the angel. He cried out to him, “What does the Lord wish for His servant to know?”
    “Joshua, the Lord Most High wants you to understand that you are on holy ground. Remove your sandals!”
    Joshua immediately obeyed, taking off his sandals but remaining low to the ground and not daring to look up. After a moment or two of silence, he slowly looked up. The angel was gone!
    Joshua started to get up when another Voice spoke to him. This one was unmistakable, penetrating the very core of Joshua’s being. He fell low to the ground again, and this time answered unhesitatingly, “Yes, Lord?”

    Michael stood at a distance as the Lord spoke with Joshua on the plain outside Jericho. He was still amazed at the relationship that a mere man could share with the greatest Person alive. The Most High wanted nothing to separate Himself from the one made in His image—even to the point of removing the man’s sandals so that his feet would touch the ground of His Presence—and so Michael had instructed Joshua in preparation for this encounter with his God.
    As Michael watched, Crispin sidled up next to him noticing Michael’s keen interest in the dialogue between the Most High and Joshua. Of course not one of the enemy was present.
    “Much like the Lord’s meeting with Moses on Sinai, hmm?” inquired Crispin. “What with the sandals being removed and all.”
    “Very much so, teacher,” said Michael. He then added with an unbelieving shake of his head, “The Most High and the humans who resist him. Such a paradox. Sometimes I wonder if Lucifer isn’t correct.”
    He read Crispin’s face and quickly moved to qualify the statement. “I’m not saying Lucifer and those who follow him are right in their position. They gambled and they have lost. But I mean the core of his opposition rests in the idea that, given the freedom to choose, humans will ultimately choose to oppose God. It is their nature.”
    “True, that image of God that rested in them so purely in Eden has been distorted beyond repair,” said Crispin. “And yet our Lord finds men irresistible to the point of giving them a faint hope in a hopeless world.”
    “The prophecy,” said Michael.
    “Just so,” said Crispin. “As we stand here, as the Lord speaks with Joshua, angels both holy and impure are contesting for the minds and hearts of men. All over this world, from east to west, humans are engaged in a war that most of them know absolutely nothing about. A small portion of these humans have been acquainted with our Lord, whose apparent plan through their father Abraham is to see the whole world ultimately blessed. We understand that to be somehow connected with the prophecy—the Seed of Eve.”
    Crispin looked at the archangel, captain of the Lord’s Host. He understood Michael to be a passionate warrior whose one impulse was to serve the Lord with all his might. Naturally there were times when the war seemed so pointless—that ultimately humans would turn on their Creator.
    “I understand your feelings in this, Michael,” continued Crispin. “But ultimately we must trust in the Lord’s wisdom despite human frivolity. Somehow this Seed of the woman promises something great.”
    He snickered a bit. “How Lucifer must tremble at the thought of what he unleashed in deceiving Eve!” He resumed his lecture to the archangel. “To be