Summary of Book One: The Satan and the Cherubim
A new kind of evil has come to Jerusalem. And it has a name.
Samuel, chief guard to a biblical king of prophecy, seems to get the best of every foe who comes along. Until a mysterious figure begins to stalk him. Known simply by the general term for “adversary”. The name, in ancient Hebrew, being Satan.
It is 609 BC, and not since days of lore has an Israelite kingdom had cause for such optimism. Galvanized by a rediscovered text. Their oppressors and enemies in retreat. Long-awaited prophecies being fulfilled. Especially in their king, Josiah. Foretold by name as the Redeemer who would one day establish God’s kingdom on earth.
The way in which Samuel continues to spare his life, often in miraculous fashion, only reinforces the people’s faith. But there are signs of trouble brewing in their budding paradise, and only Samuel seems willing to recognize them. His misgivings worsen when the black-cloaked Satan begins to make its ominous appearances.
As the contest for the king’s life heats up, and strange things start to occur, the name takes on a whole new meaning. Leaving Samuel to doubt not only himself, but the very nature of wrong versus right, and good versus evil.
In Book One, we follow Samuel as he continues to uncover clues that a new threat endangers the life of the king and the security of the kingdom. But he is unable to convince others that the danger is real.
There are suggestions that this threat goes under the name of Satan. But, as he discovers, this can take on various meanings. The deeper he dives in, the more ominous the implications become.
We are also introduced to several key players in the saga. There is Huldah, the prophetess, and her mysterious ability at clairvoyance. Her haunting eyes blind to the common properties of things, but seemingly uniquely attuned to their underlying essence. There is Hilkiah, the high priest, a key figure in the kingdom’s shift from trying to fit into the cosmopolitan order of the Assyrian empire, toward one strict in its interpretation of prophecy and law. He is a man who had always been willing to sacrifice personal popularity and even his own life in pushing for what he believed to be right.
We also get to know Samuel’s mother, at least what he can remember of her, and the profound, and even painful, ways she comes to bear in his present-day trials and relationships.
And, of course, there are the Amalekites. A nation at the brink of annihilation. Desperate to escape the extermination campaign being waged against them from their Israelite rivals. They are a people stripped of virtually all hope, until a new seer is anointed. And a new Satan, who will enter into the den of the wolves that ravage them, to lay his trap.