I couldn’t sleep that night. Samuel, my husband, must be defending the temple from the Romans. I prayed fervently that God would look after him. On several occasions during the night, I heard the sound of fighting from the direction of the temple and thought how frightening it must be to fight in the dark against an enemy you couldn’t see.
Dawn came eventually, and that day the Romans began to build a wall around the temple area so that no-one could enter or leave its precincts.
I spent the day trying to find out if there was any way I could help the defenders in the temple. Almost everybody told me that the best way to help was to keep out of trouble, but it soon became clear to me that some were concerned about a shortage of food in the temple. Those arranging for its defence had expected the Romans to be kept at bay outside the city for a time. When the attackers had been allowed to enter the city without resistance, the planned stores of food for
the defenders had not yet been completely ready.
Was there anything that I could do to help? I continued to ask – ignoring the answers in the negative, since they seemed to contradict the thoughtful looks with which some people answered me. Naturally, people were cautious, so none of my enquiries were made in the streets. Instead, I found myself in public buildings associated with the priests and Levites, but separated from the ordinary administration of Jerusalem. One such building provided accommodation for
non-resident priests who visited Jerusalem briefly when they were on duty – a sort of guest house for priests. After I had asked many questions there about what I could do, I was called quietly into a small room and assured that my Samuel was safe within the temple area and fighting bravely. It was good to hear news of him, but it just strengthened my determination to do something to help him and the defence of the temple of Yahweh. I wondered how they knew.
The Romans were in control of the city but frustrated by the fact that they did not control the temple. They were actively looking for anybody who might be working against them. They were also building their wall around the temple area very quickly indeed, providing themselves with good defensive positions, but also a place from which they could launch more substantial attacks. I feared for my Samuel and his colleagues who lay hidden in the temple, resisting the might of Rome
and Pompey the Great.
The next day, as I approached the priests’ guest house once again with my basket of food, I heard shouting before I could see the building itself. As I rounded the last corner, I saw a line of alert Roman soldiers spread across the open area in front of the building, while smoke poured out of the window nearest me. A few men lay, unmoving, on the ground near the cordon of soldiers. I was young and had never before seen anything like that, so I stood still and watched in
open-mouthed shock. The fire seemed to be spreading inside the building, and from time to time, men dashed outside to escape the flames, only to be struck down by the waiting soldiers.
It was horrible to watch, but I could not tear my eyes away until two men came quietly around the corner behind me.
“Don’t move, young lady. Stay just where you are – between us and the Romans,” said the first.
“Alright,” I said, “but why?”
“You’re Samuel’s wife, aren’t you?” asked the second man, looking at me closely. I nodded. “You were asking for some way to help our defence. Well, this is it. Jacob and I are going to wait for a time when as many of the Romans as possible are distracted, and then we are going to attack them and kill as many as we can before they kill us.”
It sounded a shocking thing to do, but how would I know what was best?
I turned back towards the priests’ guest house and for a few minutes I stood silently watching, acutely aware of the two men crouching behind me, terrified that at any moment they might make a dash from behind me and throw away their lives in a fruitless attack on alert and well-armed soldiers. Instead, on the other side of the guest house I saw three men suddenly appear from behind another building and run silently towards the cordon of Roman soldiers, most of whom were facing towards the
guest house at that moment. Knives were in the men’s hands and they moved with great speed.
“Behind!” shouted a Roman soldier standing near me who was facing the attackers.
Immediately, every soldier who wasn’t directly occupied with action in front of him turned around, weapons poised. The three brave Jews continued their attack, but now they were running towards a wall of swords and spears held by well-trained men who were not afraid to kill.
Within moments, it was over. Three Jews were dead and no Romans had even been hurt.
I heard an angry hiss from behind, “Let’s go ’n’ get ’em!”
Without thinking, I put my hand across in front of them and said quietly but urgently, “No, wait!”
Maybe it was just an accident of perfect timing, or maybe God was caring for those two men. Whatever the reason, the movement behind me stopped instantly. The Roman soldiers didn’t seem to be paying much attention to me, so I turned around and said fiercely to the two men behind me, “How many will you kill that way? None, from the look of it.”
“You could be right, lady,” said Jacob. “What do you think, Joseph?”
“I’m not afraid to die for God – but maybe this isn’t the best way.”
“If only you had been able to be inside the temple, then you could have helped with defending it,” I said. “That would have been much more useful, wouldn’t it?”
“I think you’re right,” said Joseph, putting his knife away under his tunic. He looked across at Jacob and continued, “And maybe it’s not too late to do just that. I’d like to pay them back for that.” He gestured past the building to where the three bodies now lay, with soldiers examining them.
That was the end of our conversation. The men walked calmly back around the corner and I never saw them again. But they had got me thinking. I had heard a few people now making guarded suggestions that it was possible to get in contact with the defenders in the temple, and now Jacob and Joseph had hinted that it might even be possible to join them.
How?
The Roman soldiers wouldn’t let anyone in – of that I was sure. Maybe an attack from outside was being planned. How could I find out? I didn’t want to join in the fighting, but I did want to do anything else that I could to help with the defence of God’s temple. In particular, I wanted to help Samuel.
It was another week before I got any further with my investigations. The Roman attack on the priests’ guest house had killed quite a few significant people in the resistance, and made those who remained more cautious.
Nevertheless, l persisted and finally met a man who confirmed my fears that the defenders were running short of some supplies. He also admitted, very carefully, that there were ways of communicating with the defenders, and that it might even be possible to get supplies to them.
This was the breakthrough I had been hoping for. Immediately I volunteered to collect the supplies he said were needed. I also dropped hints that if I could help with getting the supplies to the defenders, I was eager to do so. To be honest, I was hoping to find some way of meeting Samuel!
I started collecting provisions that would last: parched grain, dried fruit, dried fish, nuts and other things to sustain the defenders if the siege continued a long time. Collecting was not always easy, as Samuel and I had not been living in Jerusalem long, so I didn’t know many people. It wasn’t long, though, before everyone got to know me as the woman who went around pestering people for food! But I’m getting ahead of myself – my first efforts at collecting were limited
because I wasn’t very confident that what I collected would actually reach the defenders.
Once I had collected an amount that I thought would be a good test of what could be done, I made several trips and delivered it all to the building I had been instructed to visit. It was outside the new Roman wall, but still quite close to the temple. When I delivered the last of the provisions, I was led down into a large, mostly empty cellar to meet a group of men who looked as if they were probably all priests.
“Welcome, Anna, wife of Samuel,” said their leader, whom I recognised as a priest from the temple. “Thank you for your work in helping our brave defenders of God’s temple. We will do our best to get the food to them, but it is best if we don’t tell you how. All we can say is that there are… ways into the temple that few know about. We have already used them for delivering messages and suchlike, but now we need to see if we can use them to deliver much larger amounts –
enough food to stop thousands of our men from starving.
“If anyone asks you about this building or what you have been doing, try to hide as much as you can. If the Romans hear that we are bringing large amounts of food to a place near the temple, it won’t take them long to figure out why.”
I left and went to our home, and that night I spent a long time in prayer, asking for God’s blessing on our efforts. The next day, I returned to the building and was told that the food had been transferred to the temple area without any problems. Could I please continue to collect the food that our gallant soldiers needed? Larger amounts would be needed.
I was eager to do so, but how long would it be before the Romans noticed what I was doing?
[...to be continued]