The Priest: Aaron by Francine Rivers Read Free Book Online

end to Israel’s misery.
    And revenge would come with freedom!
    Help me stand tall beside my brother tomorrow, Lord. Help me not to give in to my fear before Pharaoh. You have said Moses is the one to deliver our people. So be it. But please, Lord, don’t let him stammer like a fool before Pharaoh. Moses speaks Your words. Give him courage, Lord. Don’t let him tremble for all to see. Please give him strength and courage to show everyone that he is Your prophet, that he is the one You have chosen to bring Your people out of bondage .
    Aaron covered his face. Would the Lord hear his prayer?
    Moses turned to him. “We will sleep here tonight.” They were only a short distance from Pharaoh’s house on the river, only calling distance from the platform where the barge would dock and board Egypt’s ruler for a journey up the Nile to visit temples of lesser gods. “When Pharaoh comes out at first light to make his offerings to the Nile, you will speak to him again.” Moses repeated the words the Lord had given him for Aaron to say.
    Torn between fear and eagerness for morning, Aaron slept little that night. He listened to the crickets and frogs and the rustle of reeds. When he did finally sleep, he heard the dark voices of the river gods whispering threats.
    Moses shook him awake. “It will be sunrise soon.”
    Bones aching, Aaron stretched and stood. “Have you been up all night?”
    “I could not sleep.”
    They looked at one another and then went down to the river and drank their fill. Aaron walked shoulder to shoulder with his brother to the stone landing at the river’s edge. The moon and stars shone overhead, but the horizon was turning lapis. Before the first golden beams emerged, Pharaoh emerged from his house, his priests and servants in attendance, all in readiness to welcome Ra, father of the kings of Egypt, whose chariot ride across the sky brought the sunlight.
    Pharaoh paused when he saw them. “Why do you trouble your people, Aaron and Moses?” Pharaoh stood arms akimbo. “Why do you give them false hope? You must tell them all to go back to work.”
    Without his cape of gold and jewels and the double crown of Egypt, Pharaoh looked smaller, more like a man. Perhaps it was because he stood in the open rather than inside that huge chamber with its massive columns and vibrant paintings, surrounded by his finely dressed servants and sycophants.
    Aaron’s fear evaporated. “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say, ‘Let My people go, so they can worship Me in the wilderness.’ Until now, you have refused to listen to Him. Now the Lord says, ‘You are going to find out that I am the Lord.’ Look! I will hit the water of the Nile with this staff, and the river will turn to blood. The fish in it will die, and the river will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink any water from the Nile.”
    Aaron struck the water with his staff, and the Nile ran red and smelled of blood.
    “It is another trick, great Pharaoh!” A magician pressed his way forward. “I will show you.” He called for his assistant to bring a bowl of water. Uttering incantations, the magician sprinkled granules and turned water to blood. Aaron shook his head. A bowl of water was not the Nile River! But Pharaoh had already made up his mind. Turning his back on them, he walked up the steps and went into his house, leaving his magicians and sorcerers to deal with the problem.
    “We will return to Goshen.” Moses turned away.
    Aaron heard the priests making supplications to Hapi, calling on the god of the Nile to change the river back to water again. But the river continued to run blood and dead fish floated on the surface.
    Every water vessel of stone or wood was filled with blood! All Egypt suffered. Even the Hebrews had to dig pits around the Nile to find water fit to drink. Day after day, Pharaoh’s priests called to Hapi and then to Khnum, the giver of the Nile, to help them. They called to Sothis, god of the