Free Till Shiloh Comes by Gilbert Morris Page B

he watched the admiring stares of others, he decided his father had been wrong to deny him this pleasure.
    â€œMy father would be proud of me,” he said as he caught the admiring glance of a passing family. He greeted them cheerfully and smiled regally as they all stopped to watch him pass by.
    He would be pleased to see how the coat draws such admiration even from strangers, he thought, utterly convinced that he had been wise to wear it.
    Thus Joseph made his way across the country. He traveled steadily that morning with a light wind caressing his face. He stopped at noon for a meal, then went on his way along roads and mountain paths. From time to time he would pass through a small village and draw the admiration of all, especially the women.
    That night he chose to stay in a village where he could stable his donkeys safely. He paid to have them fed out of the money his father had given him, and afterward he had dinner with the chief of the village, who was very impressed with Joseph’s finery.
    The oldest daughter of the house, a lively brown-eyed girl with a womanly form and a sensuous mouth, made herself conspicuous to Joseph. After he went to bed, she slipped into the room reserved for guests. Seeing her enter, Joseph sat up at once. She wore a dress of fine-spun material that clung to her enticingly. “I came to see if there was anything you wished, master.”
    Joseph took a deep breath, for the words could have many meanings. The girl did not drop her head and hide her eyes as many young women would do. There was a boldness in her looks as she stood waiting, and Joseph struggled with the temptation being put before him.
    â€œTh-there is nothing,” he finally managed to say. “Thank you, mistress.”
    She stepped closer to Joseph, and his head spun as he smelled her pungent perfume. “If there’s anything at all you’d like, I am here to serve you.”
    The words seemed innocent enough, but the curve of the full lips, the sultry look around the eyes, the heady scent said something else entirely.
    Joseph was a spoiled and headstrong young man, but when it came to women, he had kept himself pure. There had been countless opportunities for misbehavior with the younger girls of the tribe, all who thought him quite the handsomest man they had ever seen. But Joseph had a strong sense of his calling from God to someday be in a place of authority, and he knew this was one line he could not cross without losing his father’s approval. He remembered Jacob’s reaction to the transgressions of his brothers in this area, and his head argued against the urges this young woman was arousing in him. She stared at him with an open invitation in her eyes, and everything in him cried out to take her up on her offer. Father would never know, he reasoned. Who would tell him?
    One word from him, and she would be his. But he could not speak that word. Instead he curtly muttered, “Thank you,” and lay back down. He winced at the scornful glare the girl gave him as she whirled and left the room. A mocking voice in his head kept saying, You fool! You could have had her. What’s wrong with you?
    Joseph closed his eyes and breathed deeply, forcing himself to think instead of the pleasure of the journey and the excitement of meeting his brothers. It was not an easy thing to do, but he controlled the urges of his flesh and drifted off into sleep.
    ****
    After three days of hard travel Jacob reached his goal, the narrow Valley of Shechem. But he quickly discovered that his brothers were no longer there, and he began to ask the inhabitants of the place about their whereabouts.
    â€œYes, there were ten men here with large herds and flocks.” The speaker was a short, squatty man with one eye missing and gaps in his teeth. He was chewing on some tough meat as he sat in the shade of a tree.
    â€œWhere have they gone? Do you know?”
    â€œAs it happens I do, but information comes