Man in White Page 18

  Saul watched them curiously for a long time. The plant had just a few limbs and leaves rising just above the ground. The root of the plant, however, was long and deep and as big around as the man’s leg.

  “What is that plant?” Saul finally asked the men. They ignored him and continued to work with the animal.

  “The barras root,” said Batu-Han. He had heard the commotion and stood beside Saul, watching the men.

  Then Saul remembered—the legendary, mysterious barras root. He had never seen one, since they, like the rue tree, grew only on the slopes of the mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, but he had heard many stories about it and the healing powers claimed by the people of this area. Proper application of the root was believed to cure all manner of disease. The plant was said to be dangerous, however, supposedly possessing powerful magical properties. The taproot of the plant was reputed to have a shocking power greater than the deadly eels in the Red Sea.

  An Egyptian magician had appeared at the circus in Jerusalem just a few years ago, and it was claimed that he had turned night into day. Saul, seeking an answer to this supposed miracle, had discovered that he had stood on a large box that evidently contained many barras roots. From the box ran thin strips of tin to a large tin bowl set facing the audience. With great ceremony and flamboyance, calling down the powers that magicians call upon, he touched two strips of tin together, and the bowl exploded in a flash that for an instant lit the stadium. The tin bowl smoked, then melted.

  The box was covered with great sheets of silk of various colors, and the magician was quite impressive as he stood upon the box and bowed repeatedly, twirling his magnificent cape. The audience stood and applauded. Even the Roman governor and his party were impressed by the miracle.

  Such were the powers attributed to the root these men were now attempting to pull out of the ground. A sharpened stick finally accomplished this. The donkey lurched and the rope pulled the plant out of the hole with such force that it flew through the air and fell on the animal’s back. When the roots struck the donkey, the animal bellowed, then leaped in agony. A great shock rippled through him, and he fell to the ground unconscious.

  The men wailed at the apparent loss of their animal. The root lay across his back. Batu-Han stood beside Saul and studied the strange situation. Then a stranger thing happened. The sun was setting, and as it did, sparks of fire and streaks of lightning began shooting from the horizontal root in the direction of the setting sun. Batu-Han’s eyes grew wide at this phenomenon, and the men took a step back.

  Saul seized the opportunity. “Do not worry,” he said, stepping forward. As everyone watched, he knelt and whispered, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, that men might believe.”With his right hand he grasped the leaves of the plant, and cradling the root in his left arm, he lifted it off the dead donkey.

  The men gasped, and Batu-Han stared speechlessly. Saul lay the root on the ground, then closed his eyes and prayed again. Meeting Batu-Han’s stare, he reached out and with one finger touched the donkey. Instantly, the animal opened his eyes and leaped to his feet, braying.

  Saul met Batu-Han’s stare. He stepped to face him but was distracted for a moment by the two men with the donkey. They had fallen to their knees, worshiping Saul. He raised them to their feet.

  “I am a man as you are,” he said. “The resurrection is by Jesus, the resurrected Son of the Most High.”

  “By what power did you do this?” Batu-Han asked.

  “As I said,” Saul replied evenly, “by the power of Jesus of Nazareth, by faith in him and his Word.”

  “What word?” asked Batu-Han.

  Saul turned away from the crowd and started walking slowly toward the tent. “He himself is the resurrected Word,” said Saul. “By the power of his Spirit in me was the dead animal quickened.”

  Batu-Han stopped and looked at Saul. “Was this done for my benefit?”

  “Yes,” said Saul. “The salvation of God has been revealed to you.”

  After leaving the caravan, Saul continued on the pilgrims’ trail as it wound its way alongside gullies, around salt flats, and across barren, scorching wilderness. Saul traveled along on foot alone. When the sun rose high, the heat was unbearable, and he sought refuge in the shade of clumps and bushes, “the burning bush,” a plant common to the Sinai Peninsula. It had red leaves and in a certain light appeared to be on fire. But the leaves afforded ample protection for Saul, as he spent his middays in the cool sand beneath the bushes. Even in the shade, it was too hot to sleep in midday, but to travel on foot across this desert with the sun bearing down overhead would be to invite death. He used his water sparingly and ate sparingly. Someone had once told him, “You need a slim horse for a long journey.” Slim and wiry he was, and his skin was darkened from many days in the sun.

  Here in the desert the strugglings and sufferings of his people were brought home to him. This was the wilderness where Moses and the children of Israel had lived for forty years after their release from Egyptian bondage. This was the land where Moses struck the rock and living water gushed forth. This was the land where the Law was handed down directly from God.

  The Law. A stern law from a jealous God for a stiff-necked people. The Law had to come to Israel that humankind might live with a conscience and know their shortcomings without God. To know the Law and their inability to live up to its order made humans know their great need.

  By the Law, men knew of their sinful nature. But now, as witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, and by Saul himself, the righteousness of God by the fulfillment of the Law is manifested through Jesus to all who believe. All are alike, Jew and Gentile. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus for all who believe, all can be justified by faith. Is the Law made void by faith? “No,” Saul said aloud. “By faith, the Law is established.”

  SIX

  REVELATION

  At last, one morning immediately following his prayers, he found himself at the foot of the holy mountain—Sinai. With other pilgrims he began the long ascent to the top; three thousand steps cut in stone wound their way around sheer cliffs and up the sides of the rugged peaks on the way to the summit. The summit was hardly ever in view, the going was so hazardous. Occasionally the steps would end, and Saul, leaving behind less hardy climbers, clawed his way up the rock to the bottom of yet another flight of steps.

  The original flight of stairs, “the Stairway to Heaven” as it was called, was ancient. No one knew just how many centuries ago the stairway had been cut into the sides of the series of peaks. It must have been many years, Saul thought, proceeding up another section of the stairway that was intact. Each step was bow-shaped, its center having been worn away by millions of bare feet and sandals of believers who had struggled to the top in order to be able to stand where Moses had stood when God talked to him.

  The morning sun reflecting off the surrounding mountains gave the world a strange violet, pink, gold, and azure glow. Unearthly looking, Saul thought, and how appropriate for the mountain of God.

  By midday, Saul was halfway to the top when he met two young men coming back down. Their faces, hands, and feet were bloody, and their clothing was torn. A hot wind blew off the desert; Saul stopped to rest and to let them pass. He took his prayer shawl from his sash and draped it across his shoulders. As he was kneeling, the boys passed and one of them said, laughing, “You should pray for deliverance from this miserable place.”

  Saul looked up into a dirty face half-covered with dried blood. The other boy stopped a couple of steps above Saul. They had either been in a terrible fight or fallen on the rocks somewhere along the way. Their skin was almost black, and they wore the headdress of the desert nomads.

  “I do not wish to be delivered from this place,” said Saul. “I am returning to the top of the rock from which I was hewn.”

  Suddenly he was kicked in the back and he felt his clothing being stripped away. He heard one of the boys say, �
�Another crazy Zealot from Jerusalem going to look for his God.”More blows fell upon his back and head. He was nearly naked now, wearing only a loincloth. They had taken his belt, his pouch and skin, his robe and sandals. He struggled once, and another blow struck his head. Then all was darkness.

  He was awakened by a bee buzzing in his face. The sun was burning down upon him, and he was in terrible pain. He realized just how badly he had been beaten when he tried to raise his hand to brush the bee off his face. His shoulders, arms, and back ached sharply from the beating the two boys had given him. He lay in a clump of bushes near the stairs where he had been thrown or kicked, but he couldn’t understand the terrible buzzing sound in his head. His eyes cleared, and suddenly he realized that the sound was not just his imagination; the air around him was thick with honey bees. Amazingly enough, he had not been stung. Rising slowly and painfully, he looked around. Honeycomb hung in clusters from the rocks by his head; it was a working hive with thousands of bees.

  He sat up and examined himself. Apparently there were no broken bones, but he was badly bruised. His attackers had abandoned him with a loincloth as his only worldly possession. He reached out and touched the honeycomb, gently brushing off the bees. He was not stung. He remembered that as a boy in Tarsus, he had gathered honey with his father and never had to wear a net or any kind of protection. He was one of those people whom bees didn’t sting for some reason.

  He puzzled over his condition. He had been brought down, beaten, and stripped of his garments, then immediately provided with food to sustain himself. He thought of Elijah, the prophet of old, and how the Lord had sent ravens to feed him as he lay dying near the brook Cherith. The honey was a rich golden color, and after offering thanks, he broke off a comb and slowly ate the golden nourishment. He chewed the wax, then spit it out and broke off another piece; he ate until he was satisfied.

  He arose and walked out of the cloud of bees and found his way painfully back to the stairs. Upon reaching the spot once again where he had knelt to pray, he surveyed his position.

  The desert of Sinai spread out endlessly before him. Out there, the first “Temple,” the wilderness tabernacle had been raised up by Moses’ brother, Aaron, the exact specifications of the portable building given by the mouth of the Lord himself. A miracle, thought Saul, that in this desert were made the marvelous golden vessels, the laver, the candelabra, and the holy ark of the covenant. Down from this mountain itself the cloud had come and covered the door of the tabernacle. Out of the cloud God had spoken to man.

  Wasn’t that the purpose of the centuries of pilgrimages by countless millions to the top of this mountain? That perhaps today might be the day that God would speak again to man? That possibly today’s dark destiny might again be enlightened and directed by the divine Voice?

  Why must I scale these heights? Saul asked himself. I know many of the reasons. Maybe some are selfish and others charitable, but there is a darkness in my vision that I feel will be removed once I scale the mountain.

  He looked up at the dizzying heights. The stairway disappeared in the thin clouds at the top. Perhaps I can reach the summit before nightfall, he thought and slowly began climbing again.

  He gave no thought to his body, that although the sun bore down upon him now, when darkness fell the air would be chilled. He did not consider that fact that he had no food and water, and he would be ending this day much farther away from any. He would not eat. He would not drink again until he prayed and fasted three days and nights at the summit.

  As he struggled upward, he lost himself in meditation. He surrendered his mind to the Lord and to the momentous events that had transpired here. Here the Lord had proclaimed and confirmed his omnipotence. “You shall have no other gods before me,” he had written in stone.

  Saul stopped to rest. He gazed out across the desert northward toward Jerusalem. Suddenly he was very lonely again. What of his sister? He knew that by now she had heard the news of his experiences in Damascus, as had Baanah ben David. He would certainly face arrest in Jerusalem at this time. So he would have to wait, to work. There were the other cities of the Decapolis that he must go to as well as Damascus again before returning to Jerusalem. There was restitution to make to those he had harmed; his friends and family needed and deserved an explanation—but not yet.

  He glanced toward the summit again. He felt drawn there; an eager feeling of anticipation filled him. “Like countless millions before me, I return to the rock of the Covenant, but this time I seek a deeper understanding of the new testament of God, a fuller understanding of the justification of the old with the new.”

  At the top of the three thousand steps, he walked under an ancient arch called “the Gateway to Heaven.” The massive stone arch was five times higher than his head and had withstood centuries of desert wind and sand. It was built in the Greco-Roman style popular in its time and made with massive blocks of black basalt, but hammers and chisels in the hands of pilgrims had defaced the stones with names, dates, and names of cities. Resting under the arch, Saul recognized dates carved before the time of Alexander the Great.

  Tracing with his finger along the letters of a name, he wondered if this was the kind of stone in which the finger of God carved the commandments. Probably not, he thought. The holy words would most likely have been written in a harder, cleaner stone than this rough volcanic rock. Then again, maybe this was the kind. It was brittle, and Moses had broken the tablets the first time. Yes, thought Saul, possibly this was the kind of stone God used—rough, dark, and pliable like the lives, deeds, and devotion of humankind. Into this texture, the finger of the Most High had written steeling, refining words to live by.

  Walking through the arch, Saul found himself in a broad, flat area, which according to tradition was the spot where God had come down to Moses. One side dropped off in a sheer cliff, and this side afforded a breathtaking view of the wilderness stretching out for many miles below. Above the flat area, giant bubblelike boulders of black volcanic rock gave the environment an unworldly appearance. Some of the boulders were hollow, and looking into a hole in one of them, Saul could see that there was room enough inside the boulder for a man to stand up. So this will be my home for this pilgrimage. “A shelter in the rock. Praised be the Most High,” he said aloud. “He has provided.”

  While there was still daylight, he set to work gathering armloads of the coarse brown grass that grew in bunches among the rocks. He found several of the bushes called “the burning bush” and brought their leaves as well to make his bed in the hollow boulder he had chosen. He broke off a few leafy branches he would lean against the hole from the inside when he was ready to retire for the night. After his “house” and bed were prepared for the night, he walked near the edge of the cliff and, facing in the direction of Jerusalem, knelt and began his evening prayers.

  He noticed again the soreness from his beating, but as he prayed he seemed to leave his pains behind and rise up to meet his Creator in his devotion. He prayed into the darkness.

  Late into the evening he lay his bruised body down upon his bed of leaves and grass, and leaving the opening above him uncovered, he stared out at the few stars that showed through. But immediately the stars disappeared as his eyelids came down and the afterimage of the Man in White appeared before his eyes. He trembled slightly in anticipation, and a warm, comforting feeling flooded over him. Then he seemed to hear, not with his ears, but in his mind, singing. He could recognize no words, but the hundreds, thousands of voices were shouting and singing in praise and adoration. He lay enthralled with the beauty and glory of the sound. Then he heard the rushing of wind and the roaring and churning of water. It poured and boiled. It pounded with the awesome sound of the rolling sea. It made sounds like that of water cascading upon rocks. Then softly he heard the Voice, faint at first, then closer and warm, personal yet authoritative. The Voice came whispering at first, out of the multitude of celestial voices and water. He recognized the Voice, of course, as that of the Master.


  “Saul,” said the Voice gently. It called him again commandingly, “Saul.”

  He finally managed to answer. “Yes, Lord.”

  “My new covenant,my testament, is to be confirmed by the hands of you, my chosen disciple,” said the Voice.

  “I am unworthy, Lord,” said Saul.

  “You shall make yourself an empty vessel to pour me out,” said the Voice. “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

  “Teach me,Master,” said Saul.

  “Beware of false teachers. Beware of polluters of my gospel. Beware of men-pleasers,” said the Voice.

  “Forgive my hesitation,” said Saul. “I have returned to Sinai for a fuller understanding of my calling.”

  “Your mission is not at Sinai,” said the Voice.“Revelation is through me.”

  Saul paused, then said quietly, “I suppose I am afraid. I would like to see beyond . . . beyond the veil.”

  “You will be shown the sphere of your mission and the scope of your work. My new testament is to be preached to the ends of the earth,” said the Voice. “The tabernacle was built with its Holy of Holies that the Most High might dwell among men.

  “Your body is to be the temple of the Most High. I am your High Priest under the new covenant. My Spirit in you brings you into oneness with the Father, for the Father and I are one. My people are dispersed over the earth. Through them you shall bear my covenant to the Gentiles. My servants in Jerusalem shall assemble for yet a little while only. God does not live in a temple made with hands, but in the hearts of men.”

  Saul lay quietly for a long while in peaceful communion with the presence. Though the revelations ended, as did the sound of the Voice, he felt a great inspiration. He seemed to be experiencing an inflowing of the channel of divine wisdom, for he began to clearly understand all that the Spirit was teaching him.