Behind the Secrets in the Fall of Jerusalem: Book 1 in the Seeker Trilogy

By Jeff Gaura

JEFF GAURA retired from corporate America while he's still young and healthy and has decided to put his love of Christ into stories. Jeff joined the Peace Corps at age twenty-one, and he developed a relationship with the people of the Himalayan nation of Nepal, and his nonprofit has built many schools over the last thirty years.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Oct 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647735791

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Behind the Secrets in the Fall of Jerusalem

Book 1 in the Ancient Seekers Trilogy

Jeff Gaura

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2020 by Jeff Gaura

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

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Trilogy Christian Publishing/ TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-64773-578-4 (Print Book)

ISBN 978-1-64773-579-1 (ebook)

Contents

Foreword

Secrets

Speaking Out

In Need of a Companion

Colch

The Northerns

Katya’s Erusin

The Wedding

Running

Growing Up Roman

Obedience

Becoming a Soldier

Too Late to Go Back

Two Soldiers

A Man Who Speaks with Authority

Barnabas

Important Questions

An Old Woman

The Tunnel

Titus

Gaining Power

A Call to Service

A Growing Sorrow

Gesher

Elishar

A Message Home

Wise at a Young Age

A Home in Jerusalem

Temple Education

How to Change People’s Minds

Inside the Temple

Fatherly Advice

Rejecting the Call

Teachings from Barnabas

During the Siege

Hypocrisy

The Secret Room

Friends

Light of the Torch

Like Always

The Old Woman’s Story

Luke’s Message

The Fall of Jerusalem

Next

Bellai

Investigating The Way

A Conversation Over Wine

The Gathering Place

Putting It Down in Ink

The Work Must Be Done

The Plan

The Peace the Lord Intends

Going Home

Epilogue

Foreword

This book is fiction, and I am a Christian. Please allow those two thoughts to permeate all that you read, think, and feel over these next few hundred pages.

As a part of God’s creation, I am filled with contents that are not included in the Bible. You may call it my imagination or even the output of someone who loves playing the game called fill-in-the-blank.

Some see a duck swimming in a straight line as they drive by a pond. I don’t. I see his webbed feet moving in alternating patterns to propel him forward, even if my drive-by experience doesn’t reveal this level of detail. I saw it in my schoolbooks. I saw it on YouTube. I saw it canoeing in the Boundary Waters. The left foot goes one way, and the right foot opposes it, then they switch. I certainly can’t prove it today that this exact duck is swimming with two opposing motions—I didn’t stop to look. But it makes sense. And I can use that unseen motion to tell stories.

Every scene in the Bible includes things not described. There are colors, smells, and sights of the sort that we can only imagine. The author didn’t give the details to us, but that does not mean that they aren’t there. Both you and I see landscapes, imagine the activities of the times, and within moments, our mind has created a unique world from incomplete information. I see myself doing this every day.

I have ideas about what color clothing Jesus wore. I had an idea about how men grumbled when Jesus told them to cast their nets. I see the size and shape of the leaves in the tree that Zacchaeus occupied.

Adding to context is part of being human. Indeed, you will add context as you read this and my other books. Sometimes, we also add to the timeline events that may or may not have happened, and we will hypothesize the outcome. When I read the Bible, I ask questions like, What did the five thousand do the day after they were all fed? Which one of the disciples suggested that the disciples go back to fishing? What happened to Goliath’s sword after the battle was over?

At the end of the book of John, we receive a nugget that creates credibility for the existence of other stories. That line of Scripture turns my imagination on fire like no other verse in the Bible.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

Yet I am given boundaries in which to write. The Bible admonishes not to add to the words of the Bible (Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:6; Rev. 22:18.19).

Yet my brain proteins continue to create new memory structures. That is, after all, how I was made.

During the years that my occupation and pursuit of life were a high priority, many told me that my calling was that of a storyteller. I am a teacher at my core. I could add, subtract, multiply, and divide and, with this, create understandable nuggets that were trustworthy both in source and in outcome.

I have wondered what the farmland outside of Jerusalem looked like when Jesus was approaching on donkey. I imagine the kind of landscape that lined the roads that the Samaritan took when he traveled.

We don’t get details to fill our brains’ desire for a Hollywood set for every scene. All we get is what the Carpenter tells us. No, I don’t think that parts of the Bible have been removed from us, but the imagination of the human mind was also one of God’s gifts that can be intended for good. Or for evil.

This book is a result of a guarded imagination to tell stories of first-century AD people who were living in trying times, doing the best that they could to take care of one another and their families, while also trying to minimize what the government took from them. Yes, this is a familiar tale.

These are fictional accounts of people who struggled to live and be at peace with who they thought God was. They discovered that their idea of God was wrong.

Most of us don’t feel that God’s movement in our lives is the stuff of history books. We generally don’t see ourselves as a chapter in someone’s book of life. As long as the enemy is on this earth is a lie that will always live strong. In this book, dishonest and highly deceived people changed their minds and then changed all of history.

The act of leaving my old profession to embark on something new meant that my imagination would go to paper and not to spoken story for the first time. In the event that I have offended your view of the contents of the Bible, I apologize in advance. Please refer to the first four words of this introduction for additional information. Please refer to the next five words for insight into the heart of the author.

This book is for my children, who will always remain at different places in their walk with God.

This book would not have happened without the support of my wife, Linda, and positive affirmation from my followers on my blogs and videos. Linda allowed me freedom to ignore other priorities and even some needs to write this. Without her support, this book would not have happened.

I want to thank Scott, Chris, Marty, and Le for their companionship during our unscripted Thursday-morning gatherings. You created a place for me to safely ask questions like, I wonder why God picked that person to make His point.

I want to thank Zack, my editor, for holding my hand. As a trained physicist, I needed someone like a PhD in literary studies to referee my writing with no real concern about his opinion of my work. Good job.

I want to thank God for creating my life events such that the creation of this book was possible. I’m in Your vine, forever.

Lastly, I want to thank my readers, who agreed to consume this work and give me feedback before I sent it to be published. Courtney and Thomas, your sacrifice is duly noted.

How can one write a book and have a family without thanking the family? You guys know who you are. Peace.

Secrets

The small Jewish hamlet of Correae had a secret that was over fifty years old, and that secret looked like it might celebrate its fifty-first birthday. However, that morning, the secret meant nothing to Yael.

The views she saw were the stuff of King David and King Solomon’s poetry. The dew and cold air that struck her cheeks as she stepped outside of her family’s stone and wooden home each morning made her feel happy to be alive. Correae’s secret was hidden from the Roman Empire, and the Jews who called this place home lived with an economic freedom that few in ancient Israel enjoyed. Looking onto Yahweh’s creation in this moment made all those enslavement stories and imprisonment her people had faced seem irrelevant. The colors on the mountains always took her breath away. Yet her best efforts to get her cousins Despy and Nava to stop and look at God’s creation never seemed to work.

Wow, girls, look at that picture this morning. Look at that wonder! What a gift!

Giggles. She got nothing more. They didn’t listen and didn’t care.

Why don’t you two ever stop and look at this greatness? You are both idiots.

Yael, it looks just like it did yesterday was all she would get back.

She told herself that she was done trying to convince them. They were teenage girls, and they were too interested in their own conversations about people and things. She couldn’t figure out how to touch their souls. Shame on her for trying.

Her mother and sister had told her that changing of a person’s heart was a job for Yahweh to do and not her burden. He is the Creator, and we reflect that creation. We are made in His image, but we are not Him. He will present His glory to them when their hearts are ready, not when Yael thought they were ready.

Yael sighed. Their lack of connection or their desire to have a connection with someone else, about something else, other than stupid girl talk, frustrated her. After all, she was a teenage girl too.

Their failure to engage in the beauty around them made Yael into an explorer. She wanted to see more of what no one else seemed to care about. She wanted to explore those mountains and the lands beyond them. For Yael, these first few steps into the village each morning created sights like what a walk in heaven would be. Seeing snow on mountain peaks while listening to the sounds of rushing water gave her courage to hide the village’s secrets for another day.

The protocol of survival for everyone who called Correae home mandated that they be on the lookout for Roman soldiers during all waking hours. All residents knew that if the Roman soldiers discovered their secret, they would enslave many of the residents and begin extracting tariffs. In the worst-case scenario, they would simply kill everyone to make a point that secrets should not be kept from the Emperor. This threat loomed over all community activity.

Yael didn’t want to think about keeping secrets. But she had to. Her village must keep the secret of the source of their wealth. And Yael had a secret of her own. One day, she planned to leave this village and see the world outside of Correae.

It was now early fall, when the majesty of the land was perhaps the most spectacular. From the village square, snowstorms were visible on the summit of the nearby mountains both north and east of the city, and the cold would soon begin its winter descent into their valley. The Northerns, as the mountains were called, were rocky and steep, with few trails leading over them. The southern-facing slopes, less steep and more walkable, could not sustain enough grass to feed the flocks of goats and sheep that Correae’s residents relied upon. Not even the toughest of shepherds took their livestock into those mountains for more than a day.

Last fall, however, a shepherd had decided to venture north to graze their flocks. His family thought the distance would be shorter than that of a regular trip, and the shepherd that day was tired and looking for a way to do less work. His laziness had proved a costly decision. The family lost all six of their goats to lions, and the shepherd responsible for taking care of the animals returned to the village badly injured. His description to the village of the size of the lions convinced all of Correae’s residents that it wasn’t worth venturing into the Northerns anytime soon.

But despite the danger, Yael wanted to explore those beautiful mountains anyway.

The eastern border of Correae was a tributary of the Jabbok River. It had intermittent water flow, and the river’s unreliability represented a great blessing, as it protected the village’s secret wealth. During some years, water coming from the Northerns would create currents in the river so fast and deep that a boat placed in it could make it all the way to Jericho and other towns on the edge of the Dead Sea in half a day. Last year, it had been merely a trickle, and no boats could travel either up or down it. This year, there was enough water only for a few herds of livestock and the Correae residents. Since no one could depend on this part of the Jabbok, there was no trade route associated with it. Nearly every other river in Judea was a trade route, as moving goods over water was always easier than by camel or donkey. This river’s unreliability kept Roman officials from being interested in it. This year, there was hope for strong snows during the winter, which would boost the water supply and keep strangers from the north from discovering Correae’s precious secret.

The protection afforded this small village by this tributary came from not only the unreliability of the water but also the treacherous nature of the hills on the other side of the river. The sides of the valley leading down to the river were steep and covered in loose rock. It was impassable for all but the lightest and fittest of travelers. If a route ever was created, it would be washed away at the first rain or rockslide that hit that side of the mountain. Indeed, only mountain goats and marmots were seen on the sides of the valley, as it was too steep and rocky for anything bigger to live on. Between mountains, snow, unreliable water flow, and impassable routes in and out, Correae’s geography had played a large part in protecting it from Roman attention.

All the men who traveled knew that the attention of Caesar and the Roman filth that currently occupied the land of God’s chosen people. The traveling rabbis who came to Yael’s village to teach and educate would always tell them that Yahweh would send a Messiah one day to rid them of Roman oppression, just like He had done in the past. However, no matter what the rabbis said, the residents still kept their secrets. They treasured them more than their faith, and this hypocrisy made Yael uncomfortable.

The only commercially viable way into the village was a mountain pass to the south. Those hills were less ominous and were rarely covered in snow. They were also the hills the families in the village used most often to feed livestock in the spring and fall and to plant crops in the summer. They provided the cover story for anyone who did arrive into town who sought to investigate the economy of the village. In those rare moments when a traveler did pass through and stop in, they would usually ask how they survived in such an isolated place. The alibi that grains and legumes provided enough food to eat, when combined with meat from livestock, was short and credible.

To maintain this ruse, each morning one of the stronger grandfathers would take the village livestock into the hills, bringing with him a falcon or two. Anyone viewing the village from a random mountain pass would see signs of agricultural and livestock activity.

In addition, if someone was spotted coming up on the main road from Alexandrium or even as far south as Cyprus, the man tending the livestock would be able to see them long before they could see Correae. If someone was seen coming, a falcon was dispatched to carry the warning back to the village that strangers were en route, and that falcon’s arrival would signal that it was time to hide operations before there was any chance of discovery. The small contingent of slaves owned by residents of the village was moved indoors upon the arrival of a falcon, as nothing gave away the presence of wealth like the presence of slaves. Many of the families had a pair of slaves from either Gaul or Britannia, and they would never step outside while strangers were in the village.

Just a short walk south of Correae, on the steep section of cliffs, there was a vein of gold unmatched in all Israel. All who lived in Correae knew that if outsiders learned of the gold, even if they were other Jews, someone would turn this information over to the Romans in exchange for something of much lesser value, and all living in Correae would be enslaved or destroyed. The Romans viewed Israel as an economy waiting to be commanded to suit the Emperor’s needs. All Correaen residents committed to making sure that no one outside of the village would know the source of their great wealth.

Years of debate had always led to the same conclusion. The wealth that came from mining the gold was contingent upon their ability to sell it without attracting any attention. As such, the village always took the least-conspicuous approach to liquidating gold in exchange for goods and services.

The village had rules that they all agreed would be best to follow. To begin, none of the gold would ever be sold or traded in Correae. Any gold that was extracted and made into useful items would always be carried away from the village at least one night’s distance before it was offered for sale on any market.

Second, the gold would always be carried by at least one older and one younger male from the village. Any one person carrying great wealth would draw attention. Any large group of men would also gather attention. A father-and-son or uncle-and-nephew team would be of the least interest to passersby. So far, no Roman soldier had searched any Correaen travelers who had been sent out in this tactical arrangement. Romans were predictable. Jews were clever. That was their advantage.

Third, these teams would exchange the gold for Roman currency and use that currency to buy what they needed, even if the net transaction cost more. The less of a connection back to Correae, the better, as trading gold for goods in an open market always caught the eye of someone. Money changers were used to taking gold in exchange for gold and silver coin.

Lastly, every traveling family would have to leave the market as soon as trading was complete. There would be no loitering and listening to stories. No family would stay back and indulge in the enticement of brothels, wine, or dice. Items must be purchased first thing in the morning. Everyone agreed that once the trading was complete, nothing could be wiser than to put as much distance as possible between the teams and the town.

The village didn’t measure the amount of gold a family took when it left the village, but everyone agreed that the amount of gold carried and sold should be based on the village’s present needs. During wedding season, when more goods were needed, more gold was sold for Roman coin. During periods when everyone had their needs met, yearly pilgrimages that the men of the village would make to Jerusalem to seek forgiveness of sins must always include a tithe for the contingent working at the Temple of King Solomon. Since the beginning of recorded history, Jews had given of their first fruits, and Correae’s leadership was committed to keeping that tradition alive.

At any given moment, Correae had enough grains, spices, legumes, and dried meats to last an entire year, in addition to iron for tools and silver for ceremonial use. The village also owned several hundred scrolls that they kept in an underground storehouse near the buildings that held the meats and grains.

True to Jewish custom, the greatest investment Correae’s leadership made was in their children. All children, not just the boys, would learn how to read, write, speak from the sacred scrolls, and do arithmetic. Jews had learned long ago that invaders could take their lands, their wealth, and even their lives, but they could not take their faith or their education. Correaen leadership also saw the dividends associated with the mother in a family having book knowledge equal to that of the husband, and Jewish girls from Correae had perhaps more education than any other sect of Jews, including even the Sadducees.

Yael knew that a day would come when the outside world would discover the gold, and when that day came, they would have to ask God to save them, just as he saved the Jews leaving Egypt and just as He saved Daniel from the lion’s den. She imagined some of them having to plead with Roman soldiers for mercy. She imagined some of them being enslaved or executed. She hated this idea.

She hated secrets.

Speaking Out

There was no shortage of communication between village leadership and residents. The village’s way of existence was in jeopardy if even one family got their instructions wrong. When the village elder stepped into a home before sunrise and spoke, his mention of their duties for the day was a reiteration of what they had been told the night before. Some mornings, a family was reminded that they were on shepherd duty, or perhaps they would be working transportation, digging for gold, removing the smelt, carrying in coal for melting gold, or cleaning up the residue of their mining efforts.

Yael and her sister Katya were in the house when a village elder entered the home early in the morning, before first meal. The elder was wrapped in a colorful blanket made from wool, and his sandals were new. Today, it is this family’s responsibility to take ownership of the midday meal. Have extra water and salt, as this afternoon will be hot. Yael’s father had already been told this the night before, but he had been too drunk to relay the message to anyone else.

As a community, the village had decided that there was one luxury that everyone who lived in Correae would receive a midday meal. Most Jews ate twice a day, once after morning chores were done, and again at the end of the day. The village council decided to invest in the future by spending part of their wealth to add additional nutrition to each day. This additional allotment of food was shared with their slaves as well. All residents knew that a slave’s longevity and usefulness depended on their health. Healthy slaves weren’t the result of blessings from the Roman gods, as they were told when they purchased them in nearby markets. Health came from ongoing proper care.

The fragility of the village’s economy was also brought up on a typical elder visit. The visiting elder’s stay would end with something like, We are blessed to be part of Yahweh’s plan, and we are especially blessed by His abundance. If anyone of you exposes how we get our abundance, all of us and our future families, even those not yet born, will suffer. Do your job and don’t let your choices bring ruin to this village. Reminders didn’t hurt, and everyone in leadership was in the reminder business.

Yael and her sister loved it when her family’s turn to cook the midday meal came up. Making others feel at home was her gift, and she never minded sharing it. She could lose herself in preparing nourishing food for others. She and her sister both loved how they could provide food that tasted good and brought strength to exhausted bodies. Many of the families loved it when they heard that it was the girls’ turn to prepare the meal, as they knew it would exceed expectations and that everyone would be greeted with a cool towel and perhaps even a foot washing if time allowed for it. Even though the work that the girls put into preparing the meal was often greater than the work they would otherwise do when working gold, they got much greater satisfaction from their labor. A good meal brings joy to the heart, and the girls loved seeing that their work made a difference.

Yael and her sister had two slaves who were a part of their household. Babelle, the female, and Shree, the male, were two of the smartest investments Yael’s family had ever made. Babelle was from Gaul, and Shree was a dark-skinned Egyptian. Both were purchased two seasons ago at a market in Jerusalem. Babelle was an older woman who had lots of hair that she wore in a wrap. Anyone from Correae could pick out Babelle from a distance, even when she was miles away, tending to flocks in the distant southern hills.

Shree was strong and taller than nearly all the men in the village. He had been quite expensive, as he was purchased at the onset of puberty. Yael’s father spent perhaps more of the village gold than he otherwise would. However, he knew that they would have great need of a strong man in the years to come as his two daughters were married off and taken away. Shree also had keen sight, and he was a natural hunter. Both of the slaves already knew Greek and