Sunday 23 June 2013

CALEB

The destroying angel
Was not a type to you -
The blood of the blameless lamb,
And its flesh,
Were a sober reality.

The congealed sea
Was close to you - the cloud
Was in your vision. So were
Living and dying pursuers.
The song was in
Your ears and mouth and heart.

Bitter water, sweet water,
Spring water and rock water:
You experienced them all.

You were there
As they worshipped Jehovah:
Where were you
When they worshipped the calf?
Guilty or not you must have learned
The heart of man.

Then that great journey
Up by the Negeb,
Up into the hill country,
To see the Land
What it is.

What is it?
Hebron, which anticipated Zoan;
And the Valley of the Bunch of Grapes.
Returning you bore substance -
This is the fruit of it -
As it was in your heart.

What was your disappointment
When you trudged on
Thirled to the doomed people,
A broken-hearted man,
Bonded to a fresh generation,
Who could tell them the Land’s terrain.

You did not evade
The serpent, the well,
The Jordan.
You would not have wished to.

Jehovah has kept me alive,
As He said...
Give me this mountain
Of which Jehovah spoke."

What joy for you to see in the land
The new generation;
To disappear from view
As a blesser.

2 comments:

I'm glad to hear how this strikes you!