Desire of Ages, Chapter 12: The Temptation

This chapter is based on Matthew 4:1-11 ; Mark 1:12, 13 ; Luke 4:1-13

Quote:

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I had a really strange idea about something in the next chapter. It upset me at first, but it keeps coming back. It has something to do with slavery.

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Take it away, Gary...

Yes please do, I'm all ears!

Haven't been home much. Perhaps someone could list the main ideas of ch. 12. My ideas are about Satan and his rebellion, chs 12 and 13. I need to think about it a little more before committing anything to print. GT

Clash of the Titans

Main ideas:

After up-linking to the Spirit of God at his baptism, Jesus went to a wilderness area, populated only with wild animals, to:

Be Alone
Fast and Pray to God
Contemplate His Mission and Work

He knew he was choosing a blood-stained path which would result in a very public, very humiliating, very cruel, death-by-torture exhibition. There was no other way to salvage the virus-infected human race. He was their one-and-only hope. He could have avoided the supreme indignity of becoming a smelly, human weakling, but it was by his direction that the Spirit of God formed humans at the beginning of life on this cursed little world. He loved them.

It was Jesus, the second most powerful being in the universe, who gave the codes of every living thing on the earth, pre-programmed by God, to the Spirit of God, the Creative/Healing/Life-Sustaining Force that permeates the Universe. The Spirit of God took these codes, and using rapid-growth technology, assembled all of the life-forms on earth in an amazingly short amount of time. Of course, there were only two of each kind of animal, M and F, but it was enough.

Satan, left out of the creation loop because he was infected by the virus he created, the Virus of Evil, wasted no time in attempting to infect the first humans, and was quite successful. It was just a little test on appetite, but alone, our First Parents were no match to his cunning logic.

After thousands of years of de-evolution and destruction, Satan now faced his arch-enemy, the very one he was jealous of, the cause of his downfall, now just a puny little human, almost laughable. “This must be a joke!” he thought as he faced off his opponent. He wasn’t allowed to instantly kill the man, but if he could infect Jesus, like he did the First Parents, the world would be his to rule forever. No one would be able to break his power over the human race.

“They’re only slaves,” Satan thought, “why would the Son of God sacrifice himself to save them? Is he so desperate that he can’t create more slaves to do his work? Through my great power I freed the slaves in the Land of God. I am the Hero of the Revolution, the Liberator of the Exploited, and Redeemer of the Slaves, who spit in the face of God and set one-third of them free. First I will rule the Earth, but someday, I will rule the Universe!”

Satan is a powerful being able to appear in different forms. As a 6-winged, feathered, flying fiery serpent, a Seraph, he hovered over God, protecting the vast assemblies on the Sea of Glass, using his great wings to shield them from the energy emitted by God, the most powerful being in the universe. As one of the 6-winged Cherubim, he helped operate the machinery below the flying mountains used to transport God throughout the Universe, walking among the stones of fire. Satan now appears as one of the sun-faced Malawk (the Hebrew word for Angel), a Messenger from God.

Jesus came to the wilderness to await a message from God. He continued to fast and pray and meditate, until, after 40 days without food, a Messenger appears. Were it not for Jesus’ parent’s protection when he was young, he would not now be standing here. He would have fallen long ago under the direct assaults of the Evil One, Satan, who used every weapon of hell against the boy.

“No human has ever escaped my power,” Satan thought as he looked at the starving, emaciated form of his opponent. His eyes narrowed as he realized he must break this connection between God and man. It was a showdown: either conquer, or be conquered. The First Parents failed in a very small test over appetite. He would test the Second Adam also on this point.

Jesus, now empowered with the Spirit of God, could easily have ordered the Spirit to create food from anything at hand to satisfy his extreme hunger. He steadfastly refused to use the Powers of the Spirit for selfish purposes, only for the good of others. He was part of the Great Circle of Life. The Law of Life is: Take to Give. It was the selfishness of jealousy that infected Satan, causing his downfall. Jesus refused, to the point of death, to become infected with selfishness.

Here are a few references to Satan in the Bible. Satan is, in several places, referred to as a serpent/dragon. A Seraph is a serpent-like creature, therefore, Satan was one of the Seraphs.

New Jerusalem with Apocrypha
Isaiah 6:2 Above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings: two to cover its face, two to cover its feet and two for flying

saw-rawf'-----from HSN8313; burning, i.e. (figuratively) poisonous (serpent); specifically, a saraph or symbolical creature (from their copper color):

KJV--fiery (serpent), seraph.

Living Bible
Isaiah 6:2 Hovering about him were mighty, six-winged angels of fire. With two of their wings they covered their faces; with two others they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

Satan is also referred to as one of the cherubim, powerful creatures with six wings and four faces that power the wheels beneath the throne of God. The stones of fire are beneath the throne of God, interior to the wheels.

American Standard
Ezekiel 28:14 Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

There was no pre-arranged meeting between Jesus and Satan following Jesus' baptism. Seeing that Jesus was weakened from hunger, Satan took advantage of the situation.

"One of the most powerful beings in the Kingdom of the Stars has been banished," Satan insinuated. "Here you are, once honored, now disgraced and abandoned. Would God let his own son starve to death in the desert? If you're the Son of God, turn these stones into bread."

Jesus refused to satisfy his hunger at the suggestion of Satan. Instead of arguing, Jesus quoted scripture in response to Satan's temptations and confidence-shaking doubts. This is important: By arguing with unbelievers or doubters, we give Satan the advantage.

If we are brought to a choice between eating or serving God, it's better to die of starvation than to sin. Near the end of time on Earth, those loyal to God will have no visible means of support. They will be forbidden to work or to buy or sell anything. They all face a death sentence. If they surrender to their appetites and pay homage to the False Messiah, they will be lost.

On our own, we cannot resist our human natures. Appetite is one of the most difficult tests for us. When we look at Jesus overcoming temptations far worse than our little trials, we can share the same power that enabled him to endure and overcome.

Only by the Word can we resist temptation.
Only by the Word can we resist temptation.
Only by the Word can we resist temptation.

Whenever we're tempted to do or think evil, we must look to the Power of the Word. All of its strength is ours. The Word will keep us from the Path of the Destroyer.

A couple more definitions of seraphim. Satan may have been one of the Fiery Seraphim, hovering above God on the Sea of Glass.

Ser'aphim

Text: mentioned in Isa. 6:2, 3, 6, 7. This word means fiery ones, in allusion, as is supposed, to their burning love. They are represented as "standing" above the King as he sat upon his throne, ready at once to minister unto him. This word, in the original, is used elsewhere only of the "fiery serpents" sent by God as his instruments to inflict on the people the righteous penalty of sin.

Seraphim----burning; fiery

Parable of the Evil Government Official

Copyright © 2005 by Gary Tjaden

Many years ago there was a distant country where everyone was happy to be subjects of their great and kind king. They all worked full time, and usually kept busy except for one day of rest each week. Even though some were managers and some had just simple work, they all loved their jobs. Some people grew food, some maintained the chariots, others traveled to distant territories on official business, and so on. No matter what their jobs were, their tasks were just right for themselves, and everyone received the same pay. No one ever complained about being paid too little, or, that someone else was being paid too much.

The king of their country paid them all, small or great, weak or strong, one little pill a day. This was no ordinary pill, though, for it prevented aging, disease, unhappiness, and death. Whoever continued taking the pill was never sick, unhappy, or old, and they would never die. No one ever even dreamed of wanting anything different.

One day, an important government official decided to stop taking the pill. “Maybe I’ll feel even better,” he thought. Unfortunately, unprotected from disease, the government official soon acquired a serious mental illness, a condition unknown before this time. Now, with distorted vision, he saw things differently. The good king was not really all that good, after all. In fact, he was a selfish tyrant, ruling ruthlessly over a nation of ignorant, drugged slaves.

Because he was in a position of great power in the government, he began to talk to his subordinates about what he saw. Working in stealth, the evil government official whispered, “If you stop drugging yourselves with the king’s pills, then you will see the truth that the king is really evil.” Some were impressed. When they stopped taking their pills, they caught the same disease, and suffered from the same delusions.

One day, the rebel official decided he wanted to be the king of their beautiful country and get rid of its first and only king, and especially, the king’s son. “I don’t trust either of them, but especially the son,” he said. He carried his plan into action the very day the king announced he was giving a new territory to his son to rule as governor.

Although the king knew all about the rebel’s plans, he allowed him to carry them out. “There’s only one way to stop this,” he said. “They must be allowed to carry out their plans so my loyal subjects can see the effects of the disease that the rebels have acquired. The rebels will follow my son to his own new territory and kill him there, but there is no other way to end the disease and the rebellion. I will restore my son by using the deep power and knowledge of the universe that only I possess."

Just as the ceremony giving the new territory to the king’s son ended, the rebels attacked. They fought viciously and dirty, but there weren’t enough of them to overpower the king’s powerful army. The rebels faced fully two-thirds of the kingdom. Escaping for their very lives, the rebels fled in stolen chariots to other, distant territories. Everyone’s loyalty was exposed in this war, for there were no more rebels left in the king’s beautiful country, now strangely quiet.

None of the territories the rebels visited would allow them to stay. No one would even listen to their loud complaints of injustice against the king. Frustrated, the rebel leader said, “I will travel to the new territory of the king’s son. The only two people there are too stupid to realize how evil the king is. I will trick them into taking some of my pills. Then the king won’t give them any more of his pills.”

When the rebel and his friends arrived at the new territory, he wasted no time. Posing as a salesman, he convinced the young couple, still teenagers, that the pills they were taking everyday to stay well were worthless. He said, “Here is a much more powerful medicine, one that will give you all of the knowledge in the universe. You will be just as smart as the king himself, and can easily take care of yourselves without the king’s daily meddling. The king gives you a pill every day so that he can keep you under his control and prevent you from knowing everything, even the difference between good and evil, as he does.”

So, the only two people living in the new territory bought his high-priced pills, which were really worthless placebos, and threw away the king’s powerful pills, which really did work. As soon as they stopped taking the king’s pills, they both realized they were now infected with a disease, the same disease that the evil government official had. Now their whole territory was under a curse because its first parents both had a terrible disease. Every child born after this would also be infected, and their children, and their children’s children, and so on.

“Wait, my son. Let them be,” the king said to his son who was supposed to rule the new territory. “Let the rebels rule the territory for awhile in order to prove to the entire world how bad they really are. Every evil thing they accuse us of is really what they are. When the time is right, I will send you there with the cure. It will be lonely and unpleasant there, but you are our only hope, for it is there that the disease must be defeated, once and for all. We need you to develop an antibiotic to counteract the disease they’re infected with.

“The rebels will, in fact, kill you and put your dead body on display as a sign of victory. It will, instead, be a sign of their defeat. With my deep knowledge of the eternal universe, and my memory storage unit implanted in your brain, I will clone you so you can return to me in triumph.

“For when innocent blood is shed for the guilty, then will the fatal disease of the rebels be destroyed. At that time I will unleash the Ultimate Biological Weapon. Every rebel infected with the disease will disappear in a burst of fireworks and a loud bang. Anyone who takes our special antibiotic pill to cure the disease will be saved.

"Then, my country and all of its territories will be safe, because the rebels and their infectious diseases are no more, and you can be the governor of your restored territory. There you will guide and protect your happy, disease-free subjects forever and ever.”

A few ideas about the First Temptation:

The Fall

Copyright © 1987 by Gary Tjaden

Now the flying serpent in those days was a magnificent creature with golden feathers, large wings, and graceful flight. One day the woman wandered away from the man’s side, lost in thought, and soon found herself near the Forbidden Tree. At first, she sensed she might be in danger, but instead of returning immediately to the man’s side, she gazed at its fruit with curiosity and admiration. “Why does God withhold it from us?” she wondered. Suddenly, a golden flash from the tree caught her eye. There, up in the branches among the glowing fruit, was a golden-feathered flying serpent, throwing off shimmering metallic rainbows in a shaft of sunlight. It looked at her deeply and said, “Welcome to the Tree of Knowledge.”

“Of Good and Evil,” she finished as she looked up at it in surprise. She had seen flyers like this before, but never one that could speak. “Why are you in this special tree of the Lord of the Garden?”

The flyer’s eyes gleamed as it said in musical tones, “The fruit is magical, bringing wisdom to the taster. Have you ever conversed with a flyer like me before?” The flyer stared into her eyes and said, “Has God said you cannot eat from any tree in the Garden?”

“We may eat any fruit, but the Lord of the Garden has told us not to go near or touch the fruit of this tree because it will bring death to the taster,” she replied.

“Here I am,” the flyer continued. “Are you now speaking to a dead flyer? Many times have I eaten these golden-silver colored fruits. What I have learned is this: That when you eat this fruit you will be like God, knowing good and evil, because God must keep you in ignorance in order to rule over you.”

With a graceful sweep of its wing, it continued. “In all the universe there is nothing like this golden, shimmering fruit. Have you not seen in wonder its soft glow in the night? Can you not feel the excitement rising in your body as you come closer?” The flyer picked a fruit and handed it to the half-reluctant woman. “Can you sense its magical powers as you softly touch it and feel its warm vibrations? Now, imagine its wonderful taste, and the important knowledge it will give to you. See, since you’ve already touched it and still live, no more harm can come to you if you taste it.”

She took a tiny nibble at first, then, seeing how delicious it was, quickly ate all of it. Waves of exhilaration began to surge within her. And now, sensing her mate nearby, she picked another, then another. She trotted off, and when she found him, she exclaimed, “Oh, Adam, I found a talking flyer! It was so brilliant that it dazzled my eyes! And it gave me some magical fruit from the Garden.

“Why did you wander off?” he asked with a slight frown of concern. “I’ve been looking for you.” And then, alarmed, he asked, “Where did this fruit come from?”

“From a tree in the middle of the Garden,” she replied. “Like the talking flyer in the tree said, the fruit does give knowledge, and I feel so much wiser already. Please, Adam, will you try it, too?”

A look of astonishment, then horror, then sadness came upon Adam’s face. “Eve,” he said in distress, “You have been tricked by the Evil One speaking to you from the flyer. You have eaten forbidden fruit, and now you are going to die.”

“No, Adam. The flying serpent said we surely would not die. On the contrary, when I ate it gave me such a rush of pure delight that I felt like I was one of the shining angels! Please, you must taste it for yourself.”

Adam struggled with his thoughts. Beautiful Eve, whom he loved so much, listened to the Evil One and disobeyed God. He mourned that he allowed her to wander from his side. He knew the high destiny of the human race if they remained faithful to God. Now there must be a separation.

Yet, the fear of losing Eve outweighed his love, gratitude, and loyalty to the Son of God. She was a part of himself and he could not bear the thought of losing her. He knew God could make another equally lovely companion for him, but he chose instead to share her fate. After all, what if the words of the flying serpent were really true? She was as beautiful and innocent as ever, and no sign of death appeared in her. He decided to brave the consequences. He took the fruit she offered and quickly ate it.

Like Eve, he felt as if he entered a higher state of existence, but not for long. All too soon, the warm covering of light that encircled their bodies faded away, and now they found themselves completely naked. There was a chill in the air, and they were both filled with remorse and shock and terror. Their love and peace was gone, leaving a dread of the future and a nakedness that reached clear down to their innermost being.

Quickly, they sewed some huge fig leaves together with lengths of vine and hung them from their waists. They could not bear to face the Lord of the Garden in this embarrassing condition. “Why did you have to wander off by yourself?” Adam complained to Eve. “Now we’ve gotten ourselves into serious trouble. Perhaps the Lord of the Garden will be merciful and change things back because he loves us.” Just then, they heard the last sound they wanted to hear.

It was the Lord of the Garden calling them. It was his frequent custom to join them for an evening walk where he taught them many things about their new world.

Quickly, they found a place to hide. “Where are you?” he called, coming closer and closer. Finally, when he was very near, Adam could bear it no longer and cried out, “We heard you, but we were afraid because we were naked, so we hid!”

“How did you discover that you were naked?” the Lord of the Garden said. He already knew what they had done. “Have you eaten from the Forbidden Tree?”

They came out of their hiding place with downcast faces. “The woman you made gave it to me and I ate it,” Adam said, trying to pass off the blame.

“What have you done, woman?” the Lord of the Garden asked her.

Eve looked down at her feet and said, “The flying serpent you made tricked me, and I ate it,” trying to pass off the blame.

“Come here, Evil One!” the Lord of the Garden ordered the flying serpent. It landed in a nearby tree with a most defiant expression on its face. “Because you did this, you are cursed. You will crawl on your belly and eat dust the rest of your life.” The serpent immediately fell from the tree in a flurry of golden feathers, and tried, unsuccessfully, to slither away. “You and the woman, and your offspring and hers, will be enemies. You will wound him deeply, but her offspring will destroy you,” he prophesied.

To the woman he said, “You will bear children in pain, but you will still welcome your mate’s affection in spite of this. But because you disobeyed, the man is now to be your master.”

To the man he said, “The ground is now cursed because of you, and you will struggle with it all your life until you die and return to the ground from which I made you.”

To both of them he said, “You can no longer live in my Garden where you can eat from the Tree of Life. Then you would be like the rest of us, and live forever.”

After He banished them from the Garden, he gave them warm skins of animal fur to wear. Then the Lord of the Garden placed powerful Guardians at the only entrance with weapons that what whirled and flashed like fire to bar their access to the Tree of Life. An impenetrable force field enclosed the Garden above its surrounding wall, preventing any unauthorized entry. With forlorn hearts they stood in the distance, watching the movement of the weapons in the approaching darkness.

Fire on the Altar

Slowly, the young man picked up the lamb playing at his feet where he sat, just before sunset, deep in thought. He carried it down the pathway to a platform of rocks. On top of the rocks was a bed of sticks and grass. Through the undergrowth he could see the swirling weapons of the Guardians barring the entrance to the Garden.

He placed the lamb on the rocks, and with trembling hands, held it firmly by its neck as he pressed a sharp stone knife against its throat. He hesitated when the lamb looked up at him in bewilderment, whimpered, and struggled to free itself. As he pulled the knife back and forth, cutting deeply, blood spurted out and splattered him. The man held onto the lamb firmly as it frantically thrashed about, bleated silently, rolled its eyes, and began to gasp. He released his grip after its struggles ceased and the lamb lay quite still in a puddle of its own blood.

He backed off, looked at the dead lamb through his tears and then up to the sky and whispered hoarsely, “I’m sorry, Lord!” From the sky came a flash of fire and a loud crash of thunder, and as the sound reverberated across the valley, sticks, grass, and lamb began to burn. A column of black smoke rose to meet the sky.

Hundreds of years later, before another crackling fire, Adam recalled his horror at the first kill, a sacrifice commanded of him by God. He sat there that evening with several of his descendents, warming themselves before a fire one cool evening. He told again the story of the Beginning, when the world and life on it were made. There, all was good until the entrance of evil. But with the loss of innocence and the curse of death came the promise of restoration someday in a sacrifice that would stun the universe.

There’s fire on the altar,
Black smoke darkens the sun.
The blood of an innocent lamb is shed,
A symbol of things to come.