Bahar: You guys from around here?
Igal: Not exactly.
Palti: It’s complicated. Who wants to know?
Bahar: Name’s Bahar. My family and I are on our way to Jericho and I think we made a wrong turn back there at the watering hole. I thought maybe you could give us some directions.
Igal: Well if you don’t mind me sayin’, it looks as though you brought the whole caravan with you.
Palti: This isn’t a trip to see the in-laws, is it?
Bahar: No, we’re looking for a new home. There are rumors of a foreign invasion and I hear that Jericho is the safest place in Canaan.
Igal: Oh it’s safe, all right.
Palti: Biggest walls I’ve ever seen.
Bahar: So you’ve been there?
Igal: Not exactly.
Palti: It’s complicated. We sorta saw it from a distance.
Bahar: So how do you get there from here?
Igal: I’d try a camel.
Palti: My friend thinks he’s a comedian. Jericho is west of here, on the other side of the Jordan. You’re going south and there’s nothing safe about the Dead Sea.
Bahar: Uh, boy. My wife told me to ask for directions. I’ll never hear the end of it.
Igal: Blame it on the camel.
Palti: He loves camels. He says he’d walk a mile for one.
Bahar: What’s a mile?
Igal: Never mind
Palti: It’s complicated.
Bahar: You fellas have been kind, in a strange sort of way. Do you know where we can get some food? We’re pretty famished.
Igal: Nothing here!
Palti: We’re not hiding anything.
Bahar: What’s that behind you on that pole? Great gods! Is that a cluster of grapes?
Igal: I don’t see any grapes.
Palti: Forget it, Igal. We’re busted.
Bahar: That has to be the biggest bunch of grapes I’ve ever seen. Did you grow those yourself?
Igal: Not exactly.
Palti: It’s complicated.
Bahar: Well did you buy them somewhere? I’d love to surprise my little girl. She loves grapes – especially red ones like these.
Igal: Well, not exactly.
Palti: It’s complicated. But you can find these in a little valley near Hebron that we named the Valley of Eschol.
Bahar: Well I can see why. “Eschol” means “cluster,” that that’s some cluster. Mind if I try one?
Igal: Be our guest.
Palti: Try some of the pomegranates and figs, too.
Bahar: So how did you find this place? Do you have family in the area?
Igal: Not exactly.
Palti: It’s complicated. Let’s just say we were checking the place out.
Bahar: The vineyard?
Igal: Oh no…
Palti: The country.
Bahar: So you guys are thinking about moving to Canaan too?
Igal: Well… not exactly.
Palti: It’s really complicated.
Bahar: So where exactly are you from?
Igal: Well our last permanent address was in Egypt.
Palti: But let’s just say they aren’t forwarding our mail. It’s…
Bahar: I know, I know… it’s complicated. Okay, so let me get this straight. You used to live in Egypt?
Igal: That’s right.
Palti: Until a few months ago.
Bahar: And then you left the country?
Igal: Right again.
Palti: Boy you catch on fast.
Bahar: Just you two and your families?
Igal: And a few of our closest friends other family members.
Palti: Somewhere around three million in all.
Bahar: Egads! I can’t imagine Mr. Pharoah being too happy about that.
Igal: Well, you might say that he came out to the coastline to get to the bottom of it.
Bahar: The bottom of why you were leaving?
Palti: No, the bottom of the sea.
Bahar: Oh Great gods! It’s you! You are the reason I am relocating my family. The rumors of your people have spread throughout the region, how your God is greater than all gods and goes before you. I am so sorry to have troubled you. I must be on my way with my family.
Igal: Oh relax, Bahar. We’re no threat to your family.
Palti: Yeah, have another grape.
Bahar: Well, I am hungry. Tell me again how you found these grapes?
Igal: Well, a few of us were sent on a reconnaissance mission to check out the “land of milk and honey” that was promised to our ancestors by our God.
Palti: We called it the Promised Land. Until we saw it. Now we call it the Land of the Giants.
Bahar: Oh you must have discovered the Anakites. I hear they’re really big.
Igal: Yeah, well, everything’s big in Canaan.
Palti: The people, the city walls, the grapes. Care for another grape?
Bahar: Thank you. But, my strange new friends, don’t you think the Canaanites would be just as frightened of you?
Igal: They didn’t seem too frightened when the twelve of us came through last week.
Palti: Yeah, they just kept going about their business.
Bahar: Maybe they just didn’t know who you are.
Igal: Maybe not, but we weren’t taking any chances.
Palti: Yeah, we decided to look for a new leader to take us back to Egypt.
Bahar: Back to the place you tried so hard to escape?
Igal: Exactly.
Palti: It’s complicated.
Bahar: But didn’t your God say that He had given you the land?
Igal: He did.
Palti: That He did.
Bahar: And didn’t He already deliver you through the Red Sea from Pharoah’s army?
Igal: Right again.
Palti: You’re on a roll.
Bahar: So what you’re saying is that you’d rather eat stolen grapes and live as a slave than to own the vineyards that your God has already provided for you?
Igal: Well, when you put it that way…
Palti: Complicated.
Bahar: Then, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you sitting here instead of going back to Egypt?
Igal: Well we might have had an appearance by our God. And the news might not have been so good.
Palti: He told us we’d wander here in the wilderness until our generation died – 40 years – and He’d give the land to our children. To people who didn’t think and act like slaves.
Bahar: I’ll bet that was painful to hear.
Igal: Not as painful as what happened next.
Palti: Yeah, some of us got the idea it wasn’t too late and we tried to invade the place on our own. It was a terrible mistake. Many men died.
Bahar: I am sorry to hear that my friends. What is to become of you?
Igal: Our God is a merciful God…
Palti: …but our task now is to teach our children and children’s children to know Him.
Bahar: And where will you go?
Igal: Our task is to follow a cloud pillar by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Palti: As long as we do that, we’ll be fine.
Bahar: And what will you do for food? There aren’t many grapes out here in this wilderness.
Igal: Our God provides us food every day, just for the gathering.
Palti: We call it manna.
Bahar: Amazing. The same God who delivered you from the Egyptians? And offered you a land of promise that you didn’t trust Him to enough take? And decreed that your generation would die in the wilderness?
Igal: Well, when you put it that way…
Palti: It’s a little complicated.
Bahar: What kind of God is this, who will continue to provide for people who don’t trust Him?
Igal: He’s a God who keeps covenants.
Palti: Even when we don’t.
Bahar: I must learn more of this God, my friends. And time is short. I fear I may not have long to live. This is the true reason I am moving my family to Jericho. And alas, I must be on my way.
Igal: Bahar, we’ve sort of lost our appetite for grapes. Please take what’s left of these as our gift to you and your family.
Palti: Yes, friend. I will tie them to your shoulder with this scarlet cord. Your daughter will love them.
Bahar: Thank you my friends for your kindness. I shall think of you often and hope to learn more of your God. Peace to you and your families.
Igal: And to you and yours.
Palti: By the way, Bahar. What is your daughter’s name?
Bahar: Funny story! We hoped for a boy we would name after me. So when our daughter was born, I reversed the letters. Her name is Rahab.
Igal: Rahab… what a lovely name.
Palti: We’ll have to remember that.