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Private Notes
Intent on rescuing the zealot Daniel who is imprisoned nearby, Macky now arrives in Jerusalem disguised as a member of Portia’s entourage. Awed by the sight of the besieged city, Macky tells Portia how the young Jesus was briefly left behind in Jerusalem by Mary and Joseph. Then Macky has to run – literally. He’s been found out by Toadie and must hurry off to the safe house his father told him about.
On the way, he meets Lucius, a mysterious Roman soldier with an impressive (and unexpected) knowledge of the Old Testament. He tells Macky how David’s soldiers once entered Jerusalem through a narrow water tunnel. Dismissing the story as nothing more than legend, Macky hurries off to the safe house. There, he meets the owner, Isaac, who pretends to be senile when the Romans are around. No sooner does Macky arrive than he’s pressed into service bringing medicine into Jerusalem. Macky must brave the unpredictable currents of the (not-so-legendary) water tunnel, and then, the even less predictable reactions of the fiery zealots inside the city.
Macky is now a dependable courier between Jerusalem and the outside world. But he’s soon given a job that might be too much, even for him: taking an elderly man out of the city for medical care.
Unable to use the water tunnel because of its dangerous currents, Macky must find another way. Lucius tells him the ailing man might be taken over a certain part of the city wall, but Macky is suspicious; why should he trust Lucius, a Roman? Lucius tells him the story of Paul/Saul, and his conversion on the road to Damascus. Macky is convinced of Lucius’s desire to help and quickly conceives a plan. But when Macky offers the plan to Sarah, his new zealot friend, she rejects it. Like Macky, she sees no reason to trust a Roman. But unlike Macky, she goes even further: she’s leery of trusting anyone, and she uses the story of Esau and Jacob to back up her distrust.
Macky agrees to scrap Lucius’s plan, but that decision almost proves fatal. So it’s Lucius himself who must ride in to save Macky and Sarah. This gives Macky an opportunity to finish the Esau and Jacob story for Sarah, adding the part where the brothers finally reunite.
The Romans are bringing in an enormous battering ram to use against the walled city of Jerusalem. Waiting to fight it, the zealots liken the Romans to Ahab and Jezebel, who wanted Naboth’s land, had him killed, then took the land for themselves. The zealots draw strength from the remainder of story: Elijah’s accurate prediction that Ahab and his family would be brought very low.
Macky goes to Lucius for help. Lucius is at first unwilling; he thinks the zealots should simply surrender and avoid the slaughter. But he soon has a change of heart, inspired by the story of Paul helping the shipwrecked Roman soldiers, even though they were his enemies. Lucius gives Macky the key to defeating the giant battering ram, and Macky must then risk his life as well as those of two friends in order to send the ram to its spectacular reward.
Because of his success against the battering ram, Macky is now a little full of himself. Isaac tells him how strongly Paul and Barnabas objected to being treated as gods in Lystra, but the story doesn’t seem to make much of an impression on Macky. Later, when a stranger named Tamar urges him to attempt a risky rescue for the imprisoned zealot Daniel, Macky rashly takes on the task – even though some of Tamar’s information about Daniel is at odds with information Portia has given him.
Macky finds out almost too late that Tamar has taken advantage of him; she’s tricked him into rescuing not Daniel, but rather, a friend of hers – who happens to be a brutal killer. Only Portia can save Macky now, but she’s angry at him for rejecting her advice in favor of a stranger’s, and Isaac must recount for her the story of Michal’s rescue of David in order to galvanize Portia into action.
This time, Macky sets out to rescue the real Daniel, but his new plan is no less dangerous than his earlier plan. He’s going disguise himself as a young Roman noble and brazenly go right into the Roman camp. Isaac uses the story of Elymas, to underscore the danger of trying to be something you’re not, but Macky won’t give up, and soon, both he and Isaac are in disguise inside the Roman camp, sitting down for a huge banquet – catered by Toadie and Brutacus.
At this point, Macky is moved to contrast the Romans’ over-abundance and lack of gratitude with his own people’s tribulations, as mentioned in the story of the manna in the desert.
The banquet comes to sudden end when Toadie discovers Macky is not all that he seems, and he and Isaac must scramble to get Daniel out of the Roman camp, while also saving their own skins.
Stung by his humiliation at Macky’s hands, Toadie convinces General Tiberius to allow him to take hostages from the nearby villages. These hostages will be executed if Macky doesn’t turn himself in. One of the hostages is Macky’s friend Isaac.
Unsure what to do, Macky heads for Jerusalem, but on the way, he saves the life of Marcus, a thuggish Roman soldier. When Sarah asks him why he would do such a thing, Macky tells her how David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but chose not to.
Later, Marcus decides to return the favor by helping Isaac escape, but Isaac refuses to go; he knows that the Romans will retaliate against Marcus. He tells Marcus about the time Paul was in jail during an earthquake, and Paul refused to leave because it would have meant the end of his jailer’s life.
Macky eventually decides to turn himself over to the Romans, but before he can, Portia realizes that the perennially corrupt Toadie let bribes determine who he would and wouldn’t take as hostages. She tells Tiberius, and, seeking to avoid further enflaming the locals against the Romans, Tiberius releases the hostages.
Toadie gets very ill (sick, too) and only Macky can get the medicine that will save Toadie’s life. But will he? He decides to do it when Lucius tells him how Elisha helped Naaman, even though Naaman was an enemy soldier.
While Toadie hallucinates in his sickbed, Macky takes the medicine out of Jerusalem. As Macky makes the perilous trip to the Roman camp, the zealot Amikam follows him, suspicious. Is Macky trying to betray the zealots in some way?
Still grumbling about having to help his enemy, Macky arrives at Lucius’s tent and gets a surprise: Lucius’s young son Antonius is now ill, too. Macky overhears Lucius tell Antonius how Jesus cured the woman who was bleeding, then hands over the medicine – which will now be used to cure both Toadie and Antonius.
Just as Macky is leaving Lucius’s tent, Amikam confronts him. Overhearing this, Lucius thinks fast and comes running out after Macky, accusing him of trying to steal from him. Hearing this, Amikam’s suspicions of Macky fade and the two hurry back to Jerusalem together.
With the story of the Slaughter of the Innocents running through her mind, Portia hatches a plan that could force her uncle and the Romans to allow Jerusalem’s children to escape the besieged city.
She arranges for the zealots to kidnap her away from Toadie while he and she are riding outside the city. The zealots then offer to trade Portia back in exchange for safe passage for the children.
Fearful that Tiberius will punish him for losing Portia, Toadie tries to make Tiberius think that he is Portia, but he’s quickly exposed. And back in Jerusalem, Portia and Macky are having problems of their own: the children don’t want to leave the city.
As Tiberius and the Roman army prepare to attack, Macky tells the children how a very young Samuel heard the words of God and obeyed them.
The kids finally decide to leave, and the battle is averted. Portia returns to her uncle Tiberius, who never suspects that this was all her idea.
As the people in Jerusalem starve, Macky comes across several sacks of grain that Toadie has stolen for himself and hidden in the Roman camp. With the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand in mind, Macky decides to take the grain into the besieged city. But how?
Is he going to try to use the Romans’ own catapults to send the grain over the walls? That’s what the Romans believe, largely because a spy has told them that. But Macky has a trick or two up his sleeve, and just when it looks like all is lost and his plot is about to be exposed, Macky proves that he has become craftier with age.
As a befuddled Toadie realizes just how badly he has outsmarted himself, Macky and his friends hear the story of the widow whose oil increased beyond all expectation.
The Romans are tearing down homes outside Jerusalem and using them for building material. Isaac’s daughter, Rachel, worries what will happen to her when their house is torn down, so, to calm her, Isaac tells her of the kindness Jethro the Midianite showed to Moses, a stranger.
But Isaac’s problems are bigger than the loss of his home; if it is torn down, Toadie will see the secret tunnels underneath it – tunnels which will prove Isaac is a rebel sympathizer, and which will also lead directly to other rebels. Isaac must collapse the tunnels, but he needs time for that, so Macky offers to distract the Roman demolition crew... by tricking them into thinking that they are about to be attacked by a huge army. But Macky’s scheme unravels in mid-hoax, and Isaac is almost trapped in the collapsing tunnels.
Afterwards, Macky and his friends are reminded of the narrow escape Paul and Silas made with the help of Jason.
To gain leverage in negotiations, the zealots decide to kidnap General Tiberius. Macky isn’t sure if this is the right thing to do, and recalls the story of Solomon and the baby, envying Solomon’s great wisdom.
Ultimately, Macky decides to go along with the plot, but once he and the other zealots have sneaked into the Roman camp, he gets a nasty surprise: the zealots don’t want to kidnap Tiberius, they want to assassinate him. Macky refuses to go along with it; a fight starts, and in the resultant confusion, Macky is captured by the Romans.
When Portia hears about this, she goes to Lucius, who tells her how Paul, a Roman citizen, claimed his right to be tried in Rome.
Thinking that a trial in Rome would be preferable to a summary execution here in Jerusalem, Portia tries the same ploy with Macky – only to learn that Macky is not a Roman citizen.
After Macky fails in an attempt to escape from the Roman camp, Toadie accuses Portia of being a rebel sympathizer.
Meanwhile, Lucius tells his kids the story of Paul’s imprisonment in Rome and his subsequent disappearance. Then he hurries off to deliver food to Isaac and his family, who are now living in mountain caves. On the way, though, Lucius is severely injured in a landslide.
Just as Portia turns the tables on Toadie by insinuating that he is the real rebel sympathizer, news comes that Lucius has died – and with his last words, he has adopted Macky, thus making him a citizen at last.
Tiberius is uncertain about all this, though, and he rules that Macky should be sent to Rome so the matter can be properly adjudicated. Less uncertain about Toadie, Tiberius has him arrested on the spot, while Portia hurries off to take Lucius’s children to go live with Isaac and Devorah, where they soon hear the story of the Sabbath loaves.
As Tiberius launches the final assault on Jerusalem, a still-incarcerated Macky begs Portia to help his zealot friend, Sarah. Portia stages a daring rescue from the city, then learns from Sarah that she was never Portia’s rival; Macky has always been Portia’s.
As the city falls, Isaac’s children recall the story of Noah’s Ark, and are moved by its message of hope. Later, Isaac tells Portia about Paul’s appearance before King Agrippa and his retelling of what happened to him on the road to Damascus.
After that, it’s off to Rome for Portia, Tiberius, Macky and Toadie – the latter two in chains, headed for an uncertain future.
