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Through Timeless Mountains--Chapter 20, The Dawn of a New Day (final)

We spent the night with Gushgalu, and the next day we began our journey back to the village to give our report to Chief Hiamovi. Gushgalu, still excited by the revelations of the previous day, accompanied us on his horse. As we passed through the valley along the river, the Ephraim ring seemed to vibrate with the command, Be fruitful and multiply!

When we passed by the Rock of Destiny, with its inscription of the Ten Commandments in ancient Hebrew, the Judah ring on Sipporah’s finger pulsed with energy. “The law is spiritual,” she commented. “It was always meant to impart life, but for too long sin has not allowed the law to speak life, but only death to lawbreakers. I believe that is changing.”

“It seems that we have reached a great turning point, then,” I said. “Creation itself is being renewed. No longer will the law be viewed as the great enemy. No longer will men flee from its death sentence. No longer will men misunderstand it.”

“Some men have a little understanding of the law,” Gushgalu added, “but most misunderstand it, because their carnal minds are too full of fear to hear His word.”

“Yes,” I replied. “I believe, however, that the veil is being removed and that the hearts of men will now be open to hear the voice of the law and to know that the law has mercy built into it. Most have been told that the law is merciless and that we must look elsewhere for mercy and love. It is only when we are able to see how the law demands love and mercy, and that love triumphs even over justice, that men can truly understand that the law is an expression of the mind, will, and nature of the Creator Himself.”

As we rode steadily through the narrow gorge leading out of the valley, a silent mist rose up, quietly enveloping us in its soft blanket and hiding the clear sky above. Yet as we followed the gurgling stream on our left, we were guided unhindered along the dim path. “Do you feel anything strange?” Gushgalu asked. “This mist does not threaten us, but it is unusual.”

“Yes,” I replied. “I see no natural reason for the mist. I hope we come out of it soon.”

“Oh!” Sipporah said.

I looked at her and saw a surprised look on her face. “Look,” she said, pointing to the path ahead of us. Through the mist, barely visible, we saw a figure clothed in mist. He had taken the lead as our guide.

“I felt him come out of me,” Sipporah explained. “It is my angel, it is Harpazo.”

As we came out of the gorge, the mist lifted, and our new guide faded from our sight. We were surprised to see the Indian village not far ahead. “It seems that we have passed through another wrinkle of time,” I remarked. “Harpazo transported us from the valley to the village. We have arrived at our destination.”

The horses sniffed the clean air and broke into a trot, recognizing their home. “Are you anxious to get home, Pegasus, my friend?” I said, patting him on the neck. He did not answer, but nodded his whole neck and head broadly. “Then take us to Joseph’s house!” I exclaimed.

In a short time we arrived at Joseph’s house. As we dismounted, Joseph appeared at the door of the house and gave us a hearty welcome. “You have returned!” he said. “And it looks like my fine horses are in perfect condition as well! Welcome back, Anava! Welcome back Sipporah! And welcome to you, too, Gushgalu. How is your family? How is the Chief?”

“My family is doing well, and my grandfather was never happier,” he said enthusiastically.

“That is good to hear,” Joshua said cheerfully. “Actually, we have been expecting your arrival, and Chief Hiamovi has already gathered the Council together to hear your report.”

“How did you know we were coming?” I asked with surprise.

“An eagle saw you and told Atsa of your arrival,” he replied. “He informed us, so that we could be ready to hear your report as soon as you arrived.”

Someone attended to Pegasus and Pleiades and to Gushgalu’s horse as well, and we walked toward the Chief’s house where the Council members were waiting. “Did my horses serve you well?” Joseph asked with a knowing look behind his smile.

“We have become the best of friends,” Sipporah said with a smile. “They are certainly unique, especially when on a divine mission!”

“So you have discovered their special abilities!” he said with a short laugh.

“Yes, we did,” I said. “They participated in the revelation of this mission, and much would have remained hidden without them.”

“Be careful how much you tell the Council,” Joseph said, turning serious. “Not all secrets should be revealed at the same time.”

“We will remember that,” I said, looking at Sipporah, who nodded knowingly. “The need to know determines the time of revelation.”

We arrived at the Chief’s house, and we were all welcomed again. Besides the Chief and Joseph, Joshua was there, along with Atsa, who had been informed of our coming by the eagle. Toivo was also there, for he was anxious to hear the rest of the story and how his own mission had played its part in the larger mission.

We took our places around the long oak table and began our story as the others listened intently. We told how we met Gushgalu the first night of our journey and how he became our guide through the Timeless Mountains to the miner’s tunnel. We told them how the Stone of Destiny had begun to release the water of life to the valley up the river and how the quality of life was being changed even now.

We told them how the tunnel had come to a dead end, and how a passage had opened up to us, which led us to the opening of a cave in ancient Israel. We told them of Rephah and Rebekah, the godly family from Ephraim who provided us with excellent hospitality.

We told how we had arrived at the time when the Tribal Council of Chiefs had met to discuss a strategy in dealing with the Philistines. “Our mission,” I said, “was primarily to determine the nature of freedom. So we were able to give them counsel regarding the terms of freedom and how their violation of God’s laws—idolatry in particular—had caused them to lose their freedom.”

“We discovered the underlying cause of their Philistine captivity,” I continued. “It seems that the High Priest was married to a Levite woman who was from an idolatrous family living in the far-off city of Dan. Eli’s father arranged this ill-fated marriage to try to bring unity among the priests, but he only succeeded in bringing idolatry into the House of God at Shiloh. Eli and his wife had two sons, who were offspring of the spirit of idolatry residing in the Grotto of Pan at the city of Dan.”

“When the spirit of Pan was brought into the House of God, idolatry came to be rooted within the very heart of Israel. We discovered that this was the reason Yahweh decreed a forty-year captivity for the tribes of Israel. He was administering forty lashes of the divine whip upon them, as the law commands. So until Eli’s children, who are called “sons of Belial” by the prophets, were rooted out of Israel, the nation could not hope to be released from divine judgment.”

“We know,” the Chief interjected, “since we have a record of subsequent events, that the sons of Eli were killed just before the end of the Philistine captivity. Apparently, this was God’s way of rooting out the idolatry and corruption from the heart of Israel.”

“Precisely,” I said in agreement, “and Eli Himself died as well for refusing to correct his sons. But one of our side missions was to prepare the people’s hearts for their deliverance. We were able to prophesy to them of two deliverers that God was to give them. The first was to begin to deliver them, while the second would complete this deliverance. The spiritual character of the first deliverer, Samson, was to reflect the hearts of the Israelites as a whole—those who rely upon a mixture of carnal and spiritual strength.”

“Here is where I was privileged to participate in the mission,” Toivo said, speaking up for the first time. I let him speak.

“I had been on Revelation Mountain at one moment, and the next thing I knew, I had been transported to a place in ancient Israel near the town of Zorah. I arrived just as Anava and Sipporah were coming around the bend in the road. Nearby, in a small pasture, a woman was tending her sheep, and I was commissioned to tell her that she would bring forth this first deliverer.”

“She, of course, being childless up to that point—“ Sipporah began to say—“was ecstatic over the promise of a son,” Toivo finished. “She ran home, and we then continued our journey to the Philistine town of Timnah, which was located a few miles away in the plain below the Danite town of Zorah. Then we met—”

“—a giant named Goliath,” I said, interrupting Toivo with a look that suggested skipping the story of the talking lions.

“Yes, Goliath,” Toivo said. “We had an interesting exchange of words with the young giant. He guarded the gates of Timnah, and he took us into the presence of the Philistine Council, composed of a group of five older giants. No doubt they were all hundreds of years in age.”

“We laid down the terms for Israel’s captivity,” I continued, “so that they would understand that they were not allowed to oppress the Israelites beyond certain limits. They were not pleased to hear this, but a little demonstration of the light residing in us made them compliant.”

“We then returned the next day to Zorah,” Toivo said, “because it was ordained for me to speak a second time with Samson’s mother and also to affirm the prophecy to her husband. After giving them some basic instructions and prophecy, they offered up a burnt offering to God, and I was then taken away and found myself back on Revelation Mountain. I came immediately to give my own report to the Chief.”

“That is a very good report,” Hiamovi told him. “Thank-you for sharing it with us. “But let us continue hearing Anava’s story.”

“From Zorah, we returned to the cave being guarded by Rephah,” I said. “What I did not mention earlier is that the cave was the tomb of Joshua, who had led Israel into the land of Canaan some centuries earlier. Our tunnel through the Mountain of Destiny brought us into that tomb, and a strong earthquake rolled the stone away, allowing us to exit the cave. But Rephah was guarding it, because the cave also held a large store of treasure from Egypt that Joshua had brought with him to the land of Israel. That is how we had first met him.”

“Of course,” I added, “we took nothing, for it was not ours to take. But when we were about to return through the cave back to our present time, Rephah gave me a gold bracelet, saying it was one of a set of bracelets, but that he could not find the other one. So he gave me the single bracelet, on which was inscribed a design showing the High Priest’s ephod.”

“This we brought with us through the Mountain of Destiny. Then we were led to accept Gushgalu’s invitation to visit his village and his family. When we arrived at the village, we discovered that we had been gone only for about an hour in our time, though we spent four days on our mission in ancient Israel.”

“I brought them to my house,” Gushgalu said, “and sent for my grandfather as well, for he knew Anava’s father very well, whereas I was only a boy when I knew him. I knew that my grandfather would want to meet the son of Thomas. But I was not prepared for the next surprise!”

I smiled broadly, saying, “I saw the bracelet that he was wearing—the one with a lion on it—and it reminded me of the ephod-bracelet that Rephah had given to me. It was plain that the two were a matched set, so I was led to unite the two bracelets by giving the second one to the Chief. As it turned out, we discovered that this reunified the callings of King and Priest—the lion and the ephod—back under one head.”

“It recreated the Melchizedek King-Priest, prophesied long ago,” Gushgalu added. “The two callings had been split apart when Jacob blessed his sons, Levi and Judah, before his death. But now they have been reunited once again, and my grandfather is blessed to see this take place in his day.”

“Chief Tivdatsi told me,” I said, continuing my story, “that my father and Yaqui Joe had also found the passage through the Mountain of Destiny many years ago. They had entrusted their secret to him with instructions not to tell anyone about that mission until someone came to resolve the mystery of the bracelet. So that is why the Chief was able to share with us the story of my father’s mission.”

“He told how my father and Yaqui Joe had passed through the cave and found themselves under the temple in Jerusalem in an underground treasure storehouse. By following another passage away from the storehouse, they broke into the house of a guardian of the treasure, who was very surprised to see them coming through the secret door in their house. No doubt he was as surprised and frightened as Rephah was when we emerged out of Joshua’s tomb!”

“At any rate,” I said, “my father’s mission was to encourage and inform the prophet Jeremiah about his own mission to bring the king’s daughters to far-off lands, so that their royal lineage might be preserved and transferred to other locations after the destruction of Jerusalem. And before my father and Joe returned to our world and time, the prophet took them back to the storehouse and found the signet ring of Judah, which he gave to my father.”

“He understood that the ring of Judah signified the calling by which the Dominion Mandate must be fulfilled. King Nebuchadnezzar might receive the Dominion by a legal decree from the Creator, but the calling to exercise it properly was not to be given to him. For this reason, the prophet did not want the signet ring of Judah to be taken by the king of Babylon. He told my father to take it far away. He brought it here and gave it to Chief Tivdatsi, telling him the history of the ring.”

“So,” Chief Hiamovi said, “that is the ring of Judah which is similar to the ring of Ephraim which has been passed down to me from my own forefathers.”

“Yes,” I replied. “Tivdatsi gave me the ring of Judah, so that the two rings could be reunited, even as the two bracelets were reunited.”

Sipporah then took the ring of Judah from her hand, and gave it to me. Removing the ring of Ephraim from my own hand, I gave them both to Chief Hiamovi, saying, “Thank-you for letting me wear the ring of Ephraim during our journey. I am happy to give it back safely, and also to unite it with the ring of Judah in your hands.”

He took them carefully and examined them reverently, one with the inscription of the bull of Ephraim, and the other with the inscription of the lion of Judah.

“When Jacob blessed his children,” Hiamovi said, “he divided his calling into three main parts, each treasure being given to a different son. The Scepter he gave to Judah, the Priesthood to Levi, and the calling of Sonship to Joseph, the fruitful bough. This division has delayed the Kingdom of God for thousands of years. But perhaps it is more accurate to say that the separation of the bracelets and rings delayed the Kingdom of God until the appointed time.”

“First, the callings of Judah and Levi were reunited by the two bracelets. And now the calling of Joseph, or Ephraim, has been reunited as well. The hidden treasure has now been found. The callings are now synchronized. We now have the power and the mandate to bring forth the Kingdom in its fullness and to minister as priests of El Elyon so that all of creation may learn His ways.”

“This is none other than the dawn of the Day of Yahweh!”

THE END.