The Man and His Knife (Part 1)

Hello. Welcome to Kingdom Offerings. This is the podcast home for 100 Full Ministries. I'm Dave Scherrer, and for some years now, I've been writing children's stories, though I would guess that they're probably more for adults than kids. I've shared two of these with you all previously, and you can find these in earlier podcasts, and I'm going to go ahead and just get started in this one. I hope you enjoy it. I wrote this over 30 years ago. For today, this is going to be half. It's going to be part one of a story called A Man and His Knife. Enjoy. Donnell's wife was dying. He was setting out to find a cure, but his hopes were not high. In the hundreds of years that people had been searching, there had never been even the first sign of a cure that existed for this fatal condition commonly known as the vine. That's how everyone in the village referred to this deadly condition. That name actually serves as a pretty good description of the disease. At this time in the country, every living person that existed there showed signs of the presence of the vine, even babies at birth. The vine usually started small, but as time passed, as you grew older, the condition became a killer. It was called the vine because in the latter stages, sometimes even early on, you could see the trails of it growing just beneath the skin, long and thin, vine-like, vine-like strands, hard as iron. Sometimes, when it was least expected, it could grow tendrils almost overnight. They would crawl up the arms and make it so that you couldn't even take off your hat, or they would grip you about your throat and slowly strangle you. They would grow even deep inside you where you couldn't see them, but you knew they were there because they caused pain deep inside. It was a cruel way to die, and no one escaped the vine. Now, don't get me wrong. People died lots of ways in those days, just as they do now. A simple cold might turn to a fever and get you very sick and cause you to die. If you fell off a cliff, or maybe you get kicked by a horse, well, that could kill you the same as today. The one difference is that everyone had the vine, and it would eventually kill you. No one escaped the vine. Some died very young, and some lived long lives before the vine killed them. There didn't seem to be any known pattern to the disease except that it eventually took your life. That's why it seemed so hopeless for Donnell. His young wife, Astrid, the mother of their two small children, was so very sick. For the last six months or so, Astrid didn't look different, but he could tell that the vine was growing deep inside her, maybe around her heart. She could hardly move anymore, she was so sleepy and tired, not that she would complain. In fact, she was always found with a smile on her face, and she wanted to be helpful, but she was too tired to do even the slightest work without needing rest for several hours. So that's why Donnell, her husband, was packing for a long trip to the city of Ugarit. He had been to every city within a week's walk, including the very dangerous city of Nineveh, that was to the east. And he went to go look for certain goods not found in the village of Kala, the village where they lived. And that's not unusual. Everyone, families, businesses, they had to trade to make a living. But to make a trip this long to the city of Ugarit, you either had to join in with a large caravan, and that was really expensive and Donnell didn't have that kind of money, or even that kind of time. Or you would try and go with maybe only one or two others, hoping that the many bandits and armies on the way didn't discover your plans and kidnap you, or even kill you. So this was Donnell's plan, to leave his wife in the care of his mother and her sister and to travel the nearly 400 miles on foot to Ugarit. And he was going to travel with his friend Grippa. You should know a little bit more about the city of Ugarit. Ugarit is a port city. It's almost due west of Donnell's hometown of Kala, along the coast of the Great Sea, the area just north of Lebanon in the Levant. To get there, you had to pass either through vast deserts and somehow manage past the Assyrians to the west, or go to the north through the mountains and somehow avoid the Hittites. And just to be clear, so that you don't think Donnell is a stupid man, of course he knew that there was a port city in the opposite direction called Basar, but that trip was almost as far and only a little bit safer and besides, Donnell had been there 15 years ago as a teenager with his father. And the city of Basar to the east was infected with the vine as well. If he was going to take a dangerous trip, he wanted to go somewhere where there was some hope of finding a city without the vine, hoping that there might be a cure. Well, let's also get clear about Donnell's traveling partner, Grippa. To call Grippa Donnell's friend was a bit of a stretch. He was older and some would say quite a bit meaner, but his life had been hard. He had never married. He had worked in a mine for many years until that vine we've been talking about made it impossible for him to work. So he began begging in the streets, mostly staying to himself. But when he heard that Donnell was going to make the difficult trip to find care, Grippa wanted to go. He wanted a cure himself, and Donnell was one of the few people in town that treated Grippa with kindness and respect. So the unlikely team of the two of them set off for a hope against all hope, knowing that if somehow they could find a cure for the vine, they also needed to get home in time to save Astrid. Well, Donnell was smart enough, and he was filled with common sense. He knew that it didn't make sense to take great risks and thereby endanger getting home safely, but on the other hand, time was everything. It was a bit of a toss-up, travel by way of the desert. Long, but it was also known to travelers, and so it was much safer. Or he could take the dangerous, but quite a bit shorter, mountain pass. So they took the shortcut, hoping to travel mostly at night to avoid the robbers. And it was on this mountain pass that they got their first information that there might be a cure, a cure for the vine in an obscure village known for magic potions and secret spells. It was about a week's journey, maybe 75 miles out of their way, but they were desperate. So Donnell and Grippa came to this small village, and every eye was on them. It was clear that this town was suspicious of strangers. When Donnell began to ask around if there was a magician in town, everyone just shook their heads no. Hardly anyone even spoke a word. Then one, a teenager, approached them. So are you looking for Lodak? He's my uncle. He's not a magician really, but he has special potions and eastern plants that can make you strong and even young. Is that who you're looking for? Donnell answered, well I don't really know, but we just heard that that there was someone with magical powers perhaps. My wife is very sick with the vine, so is my friend here, Grippa. We're looking for a cure. My uncle can try, but he's very expensive. Do you have money? After arranging a price, they followed this young man to a small shack at the end of town. When they entered, they can see in the dark room a rather large man seated on a wooden chair in front of a very small table, and that table was covered in candles and laying beside him on the table was a dangerous looking eight-inch knife. He had a blanket over his lap and incense was burning in the corner by a small fireplace. It all looked like he had been expecting someone. It seemed strange and more than a little bit suspicious. The big man, Lodak was his name, started out in a whisper. If you're looking for a cure to the vine, you have found the answer to your journey. My nephew tells me your wife is ill. I have a potion. You will have to take it back to your home and add a food in it that your wife eats and that will set off a reaction to that particular food and the potion can save her. Perhaps some bread that she makes or some milk from your own cow or goat. This, this is your only hope. He told his nephew to go in back and get three small clay jars. This one, this is the one that you've already paid for for your wife. These two, these are for you, for you and your friend if you'd like. Why not buy these for yourself and him? He looked Don L. in the eye. Don L. answered, at your asking price, I can only afford this one jar. Well, well, how much money do you have? I can make you a deal. Remember, you have to add it to the food from your home. You cannot drink it here. How much money do you have? While Don L. was counting the money in his pouch that he kept in a bag across his shoulder, Grippa quietly moved around to the side. He was watching the so-called nephew closely, who seemed to be watching Don L. count his money very closely. In the darkness, it was hard to tell exactly what happened, but Grippa reached out quickly and grabbed the knife off the table and then knocked the table over in front of the man. Spilling the candles everywhere, he gripped the blanket and pulled it away, throwing it at the nephew. Don L. was caught completely off guard. He stepped back several paces and looked at Grippa with some anger in his eyes. What are you doing, Grippa? Grippa shouted back with a lot of anger in his eyes. Look at his legs. Look at his legs. Don L. looked down at Lodak's legs. He was still seated. And what are you talking about? His legs are normal. Grippa answered, yes, too normal. Look, he too has the vine. Look, his legs are covered just like your wife, filled with the vine. If his potion is so good, why are his legs covered in it? Why hasn't he been healed by his own magic? Grippa backed up. He was brandishing the knife. He grabbed the so-called nephew by the neck. We want our money back. We want it back right now and we're leaving. Well, after they'd gone a few miles at a near run, Don L. stopped. How did you know it was a scam? So I'm not so trusting as you, Don L. I've been begging on the street for five years. In my experience, people are even willing to steal from a beggar. You cannot trust anyone. I could tell when that so-called nephew came up to us. He was setting us up, trying to earn our trust. But I didn't say anything because, well, what if somehow it could be true that he might have the cure? Then I said to myself, why would someone who had the cure and made so much money selling it be so secretive and live way out here in the mountains? It didn't make any sense. Well, we're halfway through our story, the story of the man and his knife, and you've not even met the man with his knife yet. So tune in again in a couple of weeks and we will unpack a little bit more of the story of the man with his knife. And then we will spend one more week talking a little bit about the meaning behind the allegory of the man and his knife. So take care. I hope you enjoy the story. This is Dave Share. This is Kingdom Offerings. Peace.