Prophecy
Pekah wandered alone down a dark, moons-lit road bordered by many tall pines. Pungent scents of pitch and green needles mixed in his nostrils with the dust being kicked up from his boots. Each step he took sent pebbles skittering before him, bouncing and banging so loudly as they went that the sound reminded him of a rock-slide in the high wilderness areas of Gideon’s mountain ranges. Silence hung like a pall over the landscape, a stark contrast to the cacophony produced by the little rocks. Endless trees on an endless road blurred into what seemed like walls of a tunnel deep underground.
He trudged on for hours. The scene around him did not change. More trees, dark walls of them. No sound except his thunderous steps and the pebbles jumping before his toes. Despair slithered across his heart. He stopped.
At that moment his attention was drawn to a leather bag hanging from a strap around his neck. Pekah pulled the drawstring open. Inside, he found a cloth-wrapped cylindrical object, which he lifted from the bag. As he studied the roll of purple cloth, he recognized the head of a serpent embroidered upon it. Taking great care, he unfolded it to reveal a clear glass rod. Engraved white gold knobs capped each end of it, and the glass held a thin, gray object embedded at the very center.
Curious, he brought the rod closer for inspection. The scene around him instantly changed, startling him. No longer on the pine-bordered road, Pekah found himself in a well-lit chamber, with wood-paneled walls and candles burning atop multi-stemmed candlesticks in all corners of the room. To Pekah’s surprise, Eli stood next to him, smiling.
Pekah lowered the glass rod in order to take in his surroundings, and saw an ornately carved wooden chair at one end of the room, empty, but flanked by two armed Gideonite soldiers. They glared at him crossly, and pointed to the object in his hand as if they wanted him to explain it. Pekah could not identify what he held. He looked to Eli for help, but before Eli could speak, another man entered the room from a door behind the chair. He recognized the man at once.
Dressed in the finest green silk vestments Pekah had ever seen, the man reeked of luxury. An almost gaudy amount of white gold and other finery trimmed the silk, catching every candle-flame flicker. A thick silver chain stretched across his chest to clasp a shimmering gray robe, which flowed from his shoulders like a mist.
His short brown hair was intensely dark, though not quite black. A cleft chin and a sharp, long nose dominated his clean-shaven face. His lips were pursed, his demeanor very unhappy.
As Emperor Manasseh took his seat in the wooden chair, Eli nudged Pekah and told him to show the object in his hands to the Gideonite. Eli added three words to his request, in a most serious tone: “Holiness, Honor, Humility.”
Pekah reluctantly did as Eli asked by extending his arm forward, the glass rod resting atop the cloth in his outstretched palm.
The very action of moving his arm forward sparked a fire of warmth under his shoulder which traveled through his arm, across his chest, down his back, and deep within his heart. Every part of his body erupted into feeling, as if the hot blast from a smelting furnace bubbled up molten iron within him, causing the hair of his head to react with motion as if from an unseen wind. At that instant of intensity, a flash of blinding light emanated from the glass rod. The invisible power sent shock waves through the room.