Jerusalem's Hope (47 page)

All time seemed to stop. Zadok, like a blind man who had just received his sight, raised his fingers to touch the cheek of Yeshua. Hands shook with emotion. He kissed the Master on one cheek and then the other. “So,” he said. And then again, “So . . . it is true!” He dropped to his knees, bowed his head, and cried loudly, “Blessed is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world! Lord, I am not worthy to receive you! I am a man of unclean lips and a doubting heart!”

Yeshua placed both hands on Zadok's grizzled head. “Get up. Stand up, friend.” Another touch on the old man's shoulder. “You are released from your vow.”

“All these years? Released?” Zadok struggled to rise. He led Yeshua to the table and showed him the place where he could sit. But Zadok could not speak. Emotion stopped his voice. Each time he opened his mouth to say a word, tears of happiness broke loose.

Emet, giddy with relief at Yeshua's arrival, crowded into the space between Ha-or Tov and Avel.

Then Yeshua began to explain the story of Zadok. “For nearly thirty-two years you haven't spoken of it, Zadok. Now should I tell these three what a friend you are?”

Zadok nodded, blinked in wonder at the pierced bread on Yeshua's plate, and wiped his eyes with his hand.

Yeshua gazed only at Zadok as he told the story. “You were a young shepherd of the Temple flock in Beth-lehem, in the year of the census of Rome. Crowds flooded in, packing every room and inn. There came late a young woman from Nazareth and her betrothed. No place to stay. No room. She was great with child and there was no place for her to deliver. So you cleaned a stall in the lambing barn and gave her fresh straw. You hung curtains for her privacy and your wife sent soup. You knew what was coming . . . a lamb.

“You, with others who are now gone, were standing watch over the sheep that night. Suddenly a blinding light surrounded you as you looked at the stars. Then you heard singing . . . and saw the angels of heaven! To you the glory of heaven was revealed! With rejoicing you believed what was announced to you! Peace on earth to men of goodwill, they sang. For unto you a child is born . . .
HaShem
was revealed to you, the shepherds of the Temple flock. Immanu'el. God-with-us. Then you came running to the stable to see for yourself ! And you were first to welcome him in the hour of his coming. You fed his family from your own table. It was you who carried news of all the wonders that had happened here in Beth-lehem to the Temple courts when you brought the lambs for sacrifice. You sought out old Simeon and told him that the One he had been waiting for had finally come. And when the baby was brought into the Temple for dedication you stood nearby. You and your dear wife, Rachel, brought the baby and his mother and Joseph into this very house to live for a time with your three small boys.” Yeshua swept his hand around the room. “This house. And here they stayed on in joy and safety until the warning came . . . the terrible warning. And on the night they fled away from Beth-lehem you made a blood covenant that you would not tell where they had taken the baby. Or what message you heard from the angels until Messiah came to you.” At this, Yeshua turned his eyes on Emet, Avel, and Ha-or Tov. “This is what a true and faithful heart beats within this shepherd! He gave everything he loved so that the Redeemer might live and someday give his life as a ransom for the world. Remember what price one shepherd paid for remaining steadfast!”

“What price?” Emet asked, seeing the pain on Zadok's old face.

“Tell them, friend,” Yeshua urged Zadok.

After a long moment Zadok began. “Kings and princes from far-off lands followed the baby's star here to Israel. We all had seen the star and wondered about it. Sure. But when we heard the angels and knew . . . what rejoicing! Then old Herod inquired of the priests where Messiah should be born. Beth-lehem, they said, was the city declared by the prophet Micah. And we all knew that too. After all, Messiah is the son of David. Where else would it be? And so that jackal Herod sent his soldiers here among our flock. Here. To Beth-lehem. Among those of us who wanted nothing more than to raise our children in peace. But old Herod, he wanted to be unchallenged as king. He didn't know the meaning of the Scriptures. . . . So he gave the order to his butcher soldiers. . . . The command was to kill all baby boys two years old and younger who had been born here within the circle of Migdal Eder. This, then, was the price evil exacted from the families of Beth-lehem. . . . Our sons were slaughtered like lambs.” Zadok added hoarsely, “Only one . . . little lamb escaped.”

Just as Moses had escaped the sword of Pharaoh, Emet mused.

Zadok touched the leather patch over his eye. He rubbed his thumb across the scar. “I fought them. But there were so many, y' see. She, Rachel, I mean, tried to hide the boys. But my littlest son cried, poor thing, and so the boys were all found and murdered.”

Stunned silence. The empty house echoed with the grief of that night.

“And what happened,” Avel asked, “to the one who got away?”

Yeshua smiled and held them with a look, as though he knew some great secret yet to be revealed. Retrieving the pierced fragment
matzah
from the napkin, he held it up before the light. “Blessed are you,
Adonai,
who from the beginning has declared your provision, love, and mercy to all the world!” And then to Zadok he added this benediction, “Blessed are you who mourn, for you shall be comforted!”

In that moment the fleece of God's love so covered the three boys—Avel, Ha-or Tov, and Emet—that Zadok saw them as his own.

And so the Passover was eaten. At the last, Yeshua raised the cup to his lips and proclaimed, “Now we are here. . . . Next year in Jerusalem!”

EPILOGUE

Are these not revealed in the writings of Moses and the prophets, and in the scrolls we call the
Antiquities of Israel
? Yeshua often spoke of what the prophet Isaiah wrote about him: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. . . .”

Our stories are recorded in the scrolls of the
Anno Domini Chronicles
and preserved beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem until the end of days. We proclaim to all the world the year of the Lord's favor.

I declare to you,
Anno Domini
. . .

 

With a whisper Moshe completed the reading and raised his head to meet Alfie's intense gaze.

It was quiet in the great hall, yet for an instant Moshe thought he heard the stirring of the flocks of Migdal Eder. Was that a wisp of smoke from the watch fires?

At last Alfie asked, “What did he mean,
Anno Domini
?”

“A.D. It's Latin. Unusual he would use it here. A.D. is a common marker for time . . . for the centuries that followed the birth of Christ.
Anno Domini.
It means ‘the year of the Lord' . . . and yet Emet did not record the exact year he was writing. I don't understand.”

Moshe scanned Grandfather's list of books. There, beneath the entry for Emet's scroll, were these instructions written in the rabbi's trembling hand:

Did the
A.D. Chronicles
compose a separate shelf in the library? Perhaps a chamber that contained personal accounts documenting the events of Yeshua's time on earth and after?

“Emet gives us no date,” Moshe mused aloud. “No year. No time frame. But why?”

Alfie rubbed the stubble on his chin and answered slowly, “I think, you know . . . because here, in the heart of Jerusalem, there aren't years. Only . . . what's it called?
Anno Domini?
One year. His year. The year of the Lord's favor. Not time as we know it. Not as on a clock. See? No time at all. Backwards. Forwards. Jesus in the middle of all time. See? Already written. Written before it happened.”

Moshe nodded, remembering what the old rabbi had said when he first revealed the hidden chamber to Moshe:
“You'll have to learn to tell time. . . .”

Was this what the old man had meant? That all of history was centered on the coming of Messiah to redeem the human heart? A.D.!
The year of the Lord's favor!

Moses, King David, and the ancient prophets of Israel had all looked forward to the year when Israel's Redeemer would come. Since that moment mankind had looked back to the hour, day, and year when Yeshua stretched out his arms and cried in triumph,
“IT IS FINISHED!”

Alfie held up his fingers to form a cross. “The old ones looked for him to come. We look back. And there in the middle is the Lamb of God. Jerusalem's Hope. Here. Here he is. Jesus! Here in Jerusalem! Jesus . . . coming again. A king this time. Just when everyone thought God had forgotten about Jerusalem.”

Amos 3:7

 

 

Zechariah 4:6

Bodie and Brock Thoene are the authors of
Jerusalem Vigil, Thunder from Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Heart, The Jerusalem Scrolls,
and
Stones of Jerusalem
—the first five volumes of the Zion Legacy series. Their thirty-two other novels include the best-selling series The Zion Chronicles and The Zion Covenant. Together they have won eight Evangelical Christian Publishers Gold Medallion awards. They live in Nevada and London, England. In spring 2003, the
A.D. Chronicles
series will continue the compelling story of Yeshua of Nazareth.