Reluctant Demon (17 page)

Why, sometimes a tail or a wing was cut right off. When intercession started, we couldn't get out off the way fast enough.

Then it got worse yet for Satan. When God cleaned up the seas at the restoration of Earth, the spirits who had been confined in the dank waters were evicted and had nowhere to go, so they floated aimlessly about the planet until the Fall of man in the garden. After that, if a human gave one an opening, the spirit could set up a habitation with the soul of the human. For example, Ham opened the door of his soul to a perverse spirit as a result of his preoccupation with the Nephilim. That's why a spirit of perversion plagued Ham and his descendants forever.

By Abram's time, it was commonplace for spirits to be clustered and deeply embedded in human souls. But once intercession started, the spirits could not be depended upon to hold their position. When the first prayer assault launched, the terrified spirits started flying out of the human bodies they inhabited. Like a buzzing cloud of bees, they came swarming toward second heaven, where Satan and the demons swatted madly at them, trying to shoo them back to Earth and hurling threats to destroy them if they did not return. Although the spirits knew Satan would make good on his threat for having left their human hosts, faced with a choice between the wrath of Satan and the wrath of God, the evil spirits took their chances against Satan.

Well, you can imagine the problems this meant for Satan when humans were suddenly freed from the spirits who had controlled their behavior. It became almost impossible to manipulate the people through the weakness in their natures any longer. I tell you, it was a mess.

From that day till this, Satan will do almost anything to keep intercession from beginning. I would never want to be quoted, but I can tell you that I have personally known high-ranking demons to cut and run before facing a fight with intercessors.

Not trusting me to handle it myself, Satan assigned an entire contingent of demons to stand watch over Abram's progress. We kept watching and hoping for an opportunity to intervene in Abram's journey and distract him from praying. When we found none, I was the one—as was always the case when there was bad news—who had to report it to Satan.

"Solve this problem," Satan snarled at me. "Stop him."

"Sir," I stammered, "you know the rules. We cannot do it if we cannot find a human to be our agent."

I knew he didn't want me to remind him, but it was the rules of engagement thing; Satan had to get things done on Earth through human beings, just like God. If he could not enlist one, he could not interfere with the events of Earth.

"Abram must have enemies," Satan retorted.

"He does, sir, but God has made them afraid of him.

He's golden. They won't challenge him."

Satan ordered me back, ignoring the problem and demanding results.

We kept watching, hoping someone would be willing to move against Abram. We thought we had a few good candidates along the way, like the time Pharaoh lusted after Sarai. Now that right there convinced me Sarai probably lied about her age. But then who can explain the chemistry of attraction? Maybe it was the older-woman thing that attracted Pharaoh; whatever, but he really seemed intent on seducing her.

It looked like this might be the human agent we needed to get to Abram, but just when we thought we had him at the crucial point, Pharaoh was like the others who had backed off in fear of Abram. Maybe it wasn't Abram himself that struck them with fear. In fact, I doubt it was. It was the holy armor God had placed around Abram in response to all that altar building. No one else could see it except for us, but it worked really well. The curses and arrows the demons shot at him simply fell to the ground. I cannot tell you how much ammunition was wasted trying to take Abram out.

Satan summoned us back to his throne room to berate us for our failure to stop Abram's advance.

"His enemies won't touch him," one of the others spoke.

"Then work through his friends," Satan snapped back.

"I tell you, there's no opening," one demon blurted out before he thought about the consequences of challenging Satan's orders. Just as Satan was about to lash out at the demon who had unwisely spoken, I had an idea.

"Wait, maybe there is someone else."

"Who?" Satan asked.

"His nephew. Remember that spat with Cain and Abel and how much trouble it created for generations? Family feuds are simply wicked. What if Lot could be stirred against his uncle? Abram would never see it coming."

"Lot is the weak link," Satan said, beginning to take credit for my idea. "We'll stir up jealousy and resentment in Lot. Abram won't see it coming."

"Isn't that what I just said?" I coughed as I swallowed the words.

Satan knew timing was everything in making this work, so he restrained himself and the demons until he decided Lot was ripe. I thought he had waited too long. He should have moved earlier, before things got so good for them. But Satan seemed to think there was an advantage to letting Abram and his nephew get richer and richer.

"Why would Lot challenge Abram now, when everything in the world is going his way and he is in need of nothing?" I asked one of the others.

I tell you, Satan is a strategist. He anticipated that Abram would be able to take wealth in stride, but Lot would not. He waited until Lot was puffed up to the max and then dispatched the demon most skilled in planting resentment right to Lot's tent. When Lot went to sleep, the demon spoke into his dreams.

"You know what they're saying about you, Lot. How you can't hold your own. You'd never make it without your uncle watching your every step. He doesn't respect you either. He let's you think you're his partner, but he doesn't trust you with one sheep. Show him what you're made of. Demand your half now. Go your own way. Show them all."

It worked like the proverbial charm. It was just a few days until I heard Lot complain to one of the camel drivers about how his flocks didn't have enough grazing room because they were crowded by Abram's animals.

Lot didn't seem to notice the quizzical look on the camel driver's face because, as everyone knew, all the flocks were Abram's.

With the demon's encouragement, Lot finally worked himself into full-blown resentment toward the man who was his benefactor. He was belligerent and rude as he approached Abram and demanded half of the herds.

"Lot is trying to negotiate a departure settlement with Abram," I breathlessly reported to Satan. "You were right. He wants to go out on his own, so he's trying to broker a deal between the animals he acquired versus the ones belonging to Abram. Can you stand it?" I was so excited.

Satan laughed at the easy target Lot had been.

Satan's hordes as well as Abram's army knew Lot had no legitimate claim to anything Abram owned. Lot was a hanger-on, a wannabe who never was. His sole redeeming feature was his blood link to Abram.

In the end, Abram told Lot that he could choose the land he wanted for his flocks and herds and that Abram would take what was left. Satan was especially perplexed by Abram's actions. There was no way he could process the concept of generosity.

"Why is he doing it?" Satan asked.

"Lot has always been a drag on the family business,"

I offered. "Maybe it's worth it to Abram to be rid of him."

The two men parted company, and Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot chose to live among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. More good news for Satan. I couldn't wait to tell him.

"Sodom? Near Gomorrah?" he couldn't believe it.

"You're kidding. Abram's nephew is moving into our backyard?"

I nodded, thrilled that now twice in a row I had reported something to Satan that didn't end with me being blamed for it. Not since the heyday of the Nephilim had there been a pit of unrestrained degradation as there was in Sodom. It was a playground for the worst of us.

Under different circumstances, the demons might have turned their attention immediately to Lot and made quick sport of him. It would have been laugh-able to suppose for a moment that Lot might have had the moral character to withstand what Satan had going on down in Sodom and Gomorrah. It would only be a matter of time until one way or the other Lot would be swept up into the perversion.

"Let's do it," one of the demons sneered, licking his lips at the prospect. "Let's go for Lot."

Lot would have been so easy, but Satan wouldn't give it the time of day. He wasn't interested in Lot. Lot was not worth his time, but Abram was. Only Abram had the potential to bring forth the promise God made to Satan in the garden—the one about the offspring of the woman crushing Satan's head. I couldn't imagine why Satan was still worried about that happening. Now Abram was over eighty years old, and Sarah was over seventy if she was a day. Their biological clocks stopped ticking decades ago, and surely they were too old to adopt.

Satan had a renewed interest in Lot when he figured out how to use him to lure Abram into a snare. Satan stirred up a battle between the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other four kings in that region. Sodom was overrun by the invading kings who ransacked the city and carried off all the assets, including the people, who included Lot.

One of the survivors of this battle reported to Abram what had occurred, so, naturally, Abram gathered his men together and went after Lot. Abram caught up with the raiding kings, and a fierce battle ensued. If numbers meant anything at all, Abram should have lost the battle.

Satan counted on it. But Abram did not lose. In fact, he won it smashingly. It was the halo effect of all that altar building, I was sure of it.

Satan stomped and grumbled at his failed plan. I tried to explain to him why Abram was never going to lose in battle, but he didn't care to hear nor did he care to stay around for Abram's victory party, so he went back to his lair to pout. I went back to my perch and continued to watch Abram. It was a good thing I did.

CHAPTER 21

IF
I
HAD
gotten there ten seconds later, I would never have seen the stranger come from nowhere to right in front of Abram.
Poof!

Suddenly, he was gone, I think. But where did he go?

I saw him; then I could not see him.

"I know he was a man," I reasoned to myself. "But a man cannot step in and out of reality like that, can he?

Of course not; but he had to be a man. What else could he have been?"

Then he was back again—a strange, mysterious sort, different from anyone I had seen on Earth before. I heard him say his name was Melchizedek and that he was the king of Salem. Then he brought out bread and wine and shared it with Abram. He told Abram he was a priest and then said, "God the Most High Creator of heaven and Earth has blessed you, Abram, and defeated your enemies by your hand."

Abram was overcome by the moment and pledged to give him a tenth of everything he owned.

"Priest of God Most High?" I asked myself as I started winging it back toward Satan's den to tell him about it. "I don't think so. No way could there be a priest of God on Earth who somehow escaped our notice. King of Salem?

Where is that, and, for that matter, what is a priest?"

I no more than got the words "king of Salem" out of my mouth before Satan ran right over the top of me and raced toward the rim to take a look. I dusted myself off and went after him, but by the time we got there, this priest or king, whatever he was, had disappeared.

Satan glared at me, "What did he say to Abram?"

"Really, sir, not all that much." I tried to calm him down. "He gave Abram some bread and wine. Then he left. Nothing more to it."

"You are certain?" He moved in closer to me, causing me to shrivel up a little bit.

"No, nothing," I said before I remembered the 10 percent item. I modified my response. "Nothing of importance."

Satan continued to glare at me with those awful eyes until I blabbed out the whole story.

"He blessed Abram and gave him bread and the wine, like I said." I sucked in my breath and spoke quickly.

"Then Abram promised to give him one-tenth of everything he owned, and that was it. End of story." I ducked just in case.

I certainly did not expect such insignificant information to send the prince of darkness into such a fit, but it did. He rambled and bellowed incoherently about an illegal visit from Adonai, then he shook his clawed fist toward God's heaven and raged about economics.

"Do you understand what this means, imbecile?" He yelled at me as I tried to crawl out of his way. I knew he didn't want an answer, so I cowered there in front of him, waiting until he got over himself. He grabbed me by the wing and stood me up in front of his distorted face.

"It means Abram will get richer and more powerful," he growled.

I nodded in agreement, though I couldn't make the connection in anything he was saying. To me, it didn't seem quite the same as when Adam and Eve gave some of their produce to God as an offering. How was giving a tenth of his wealth away to another human going to make Abram richer and more powerful? If anything, it meant he would have less, but I was not about to imply that Satan didn't know basic math. When I said nothing, he threw me down and strode into the darkness.

I continued to watch Abram and his family, but unless something really noteworthy occurred, I kept the day-to-day matters to myself. Wouldn't you know something noteworthy was right around the corner?

Abram was on a twilight stroll around the camp-ground when God showed up again. "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your very great reward."

Unlike their other encounters in which Abram's part was to nod and build altars, this time Abram had apparently been giving some thought to what God had promised Him so long ago.

"It's about time," I thought. "Abram has a few questions."

"O sovereign Lord," he began, "what can You give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" Abram glanced up to see if God was listening, then he continued. "You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir."