THE SWORD OF SIN

THE SWORD OF SIN

Was I a man made to ponder riddles? Was I not anointed to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before our God? As God lives, you men of Beket are too hard for me. You weary me. Why do you not speak as men speak? Why do you stand about my throne as beasts and not as men? Speak.

Your voice is deep. But I have a voice. And my voice is as deep as a well.

Consider diligently this king before you, Ra En, and recall to your mind that his favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him that causeth shame.

Thinkest thou that I arose in the morning, in the cool of the day, and thought in my heart to take the head of my beloved for naught?

You scornful men possessed of wrath and folly. Better it were for you to have put a knife to your throat than to have answered me thus.

They entered into our city in the night, and slew our women and our little ones.

So you took the heads off of your wives, and placed them at the foot of my throne? You and these men with you?

This I did to show my lord Beket the direness of-

You enter the seat of my dominion to disturb its repose with your wickedness, you and these with you, carrying the heads of your wives in the sight of God and men and brothers and friends to cause to put my city to an uproar?

My wickedness?

You are my servant, but you speak not as servants speak. What have you done, Ra En, Captain of the City of Rivers? What have you done to offend the Most High God, Possessor of Heaven and Earth, that He would deal thus with you?

What is my sin? DECLARE if thou knowest it! What has thou seen from thy observatory that I did help build?

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Do not His eyes run to and fro through the earth, beholding the evil and the good? Does He not see all of man’s ways, and ponder all of his goings to give him according to his deeds? Do you not yet know that He is a GOD OF KNOWLEDGE, AND BY HIM ACTIONS ARE WEIGHED?

What man am I to know the cause of a thing, that it would be appointed? Am I in God’s stead to know the mind of the Almighty? And if there be sin, am I to be brought to account for the sins of another? Do not the men, every one, that which is right in their own eyes? Why should my lord pervert judgment, and lay it to my account?

Nay. But it is you who doth pervert judgment. Are you not Ra En, Captain of the City of Rivers? Do not the men of the city follow you? Why ask ye me “Why should my lord pervert judgment?” Are you not your brother’s keeper? And shall I not hold it to your account? Nay. But I surely will hold it to your account, Ra En, Captain of the City of Rivers.

If it be upon my account, why should justice be denied these with me? Shall not I then find these men of murderous intent, that justice may be wrought of my hands, and the account rendered!

Do you yet speak of justice? Truly I perceive that thy intent is not justice, but vengeance. And vengeance belongs to the Almighty God.

M’Sharet Yah. My servant. My friend. Come now, and let us enter into judgment with our friend Ra En, and see whether it be of God or of men.

As my lord the king commands, that shall I do.

Speak, Ra En, and let truth be next, or I shall slay thee and all these with you.

Men of wolf skins dyed red, the red wolves of the mountains and the cold entered the city by night, with weapons beyond the reckoning of wood and stone, and so the walls of the city were as without gates. Thus my joy was slain in the night whiles I was about in the plains: her throat was cut, and her womb ripped up. Thus were all of our wives and women. Our children. They came into the city presumptuously to shed the blood of their neighbors with malice and guile, and so their blood must be shed.

What meaneth the heads of these women at the foot of Beket’s throne?

This was done to show you the matter. It’s urgency. That the more might be joined to our cause.

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What thinkest thou, M’Sharet Yah? Shall not I perform that which the LORD doth require of me? Shall I not judge righteous judgment? Only tell me the matter.

The man Ra En speaks right. He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. The Almighty God did stretch the plummet upon this land and did draw the lines of this sovereign Dominion of Beket, and hath charged you to be the executor of His will for this people according to His pleasure and His will. My lord Beket?

Speak, M’Sharet Yah.

Hast thou any desire to expand the boarder of this dominion beyond that which God hath graciously given you? Seekest thou occasion against these men or any of the principalities round about thy kingdom, to do thus: even to slay them and to possess their land?

No. I abide content in this good land that is given me.

Then you do not bare the sword in vain. Go, and bring death to these who have done this wickedness, that sin may be put away from the land. Only let me caution you on this wise, I pray thee.

Speak all that is in your heart.

Let not this man, Ra En, join thee to pollute thy cause before God in stealing that which is His. Neither him, nor any of the men of the river city.

Why doth it please the high lords of Beket’s Seat to subvert the cause of poor men in their way!

We will not speak to a cause to decline after many to wrest the judgment of a poor man, but neither will we countenance the cause of a poor when it is not just.

But I, even I, Ra En, Captain of the City of Rivers did swear, as the LORD liveth, to slay the men who have done this! The men, their women, and their children with them!

THEN YOU HAVE SWORN FOOLISHLY RA EN! Your mouth has caused your flesh to sin and God is ANGRY at your voice! Shall a man swear to do evil, and yet it is no evil? Behold thy friend and see thou that these Men of Beket are furious men!

I shall do as the LORD hath commanded. Surely I will not go out with these furious men, lest we learn their ways and be like unto them. Take them. Bind them. Put a watch over them until the matter be finished, lest they be tempted.

I shall have my vengeance.

Hear the rod and who hath appointed it.

I shall burn upon the plains until I have consumed them.

Lo: thy sword is sin, and thou shalt not fulfil thy boast.

It is decided.