Reluctant Demon (8 page)

There was no warning whatsoever. W h e n the pillars started shaking and collapsing and the floor shifted under us, we still did not get it. Then there came a loud rushing sound that almost deafened us and sent us tumbling until I thought we were falling out of heaven all over again.

When the tossing and rumbling finally subsided, I wasn't sure where we were. It seemed as though we were still in second heaven, but something was drastically different. We might never have really figured it out on our own had Satan not whirled to face us with wrath and rage and fear spilling from his eyes and his mouth.

"We have been sucked into time," he growled.

And that is exactly what happened. God set a clock for us. He introduced time into eternity. Seconds, minutes, hours, and days passing and not returning and not repeating. It was undeniable that we were being pulled forward in time, but toward what?

How can I describe it so that you can understand?

Consider how you and everything upon Earth are subject to a law, a force that you know as gravity. It is a consistent and unchanging law that God ordained. You do not think about it because it has always been there.

It is everywhere, and all things on Earth or coming near Earth are subject to the law of gravity and will obey it—except for us.

We angels cannot see the force per se, although we can easily observe what it does, but we ourselves are not subject to its effect. There is no up or down for us; we just "are." If we were suddenly made subject to gravita-tional pull, it would be an unnatural shift in our sense of being. It would mean that we were part of Earth's destiny. It would mean that we had become anchored to its purpose. We would be forced to adjust to a new reality. For one thing, we would have to learn the limitations of direction.

Time had begun for us. Time was moving forward, and it was pulling us along. If it had "begun," did that mean it would also "end"? I had a million questions and no one to ask. What was the purpose of time where we were concerned? What could it possibly mean?

The others staggered about, each trying to find his equilibrium in this strange new reality, so no one was interested in discussing the philosophy of it with me.

Perhaps it is because we now had a reference point in time that what happened next seemed so startling. If it had occurred in heaven, third heaven where God lived, it would have been ordinary. No one would have noticed.

After all, they were always together in paradise.

The three of Them—Yahweh, Adonai, and Ruah Ha Kadosh—the Godhead. But suddenly, there They were on Earth. I was sure we had never known them to leave heaven.

"What is happening?" the demon voices murmured to each other.

"Look, there!" another voice shouted.

We looked up and saw Michael's warring angels gathered at the perimeter of this new expanse called

"sky." I just knew they were there to hunt us down and finish us off.

"Run, run, run," I stammered pulling on the wings of the demons, trying to make them see the good sense of getting away. One brushed me away so hard that I lost my balance and fell, where I decided to stay. Looking through the group of standing demons, I could see the mighty guards of heaven with their fiery swords drawn and at the ready, but for what purpose if not to wipe us out?

Suddenly, everything and everyone became eerily still. A reverent silence descended around us. It was as if everything in heaven and Earth had stopped for a moment—even time. The winds pulled back in complete stillness. No sound interrupted the unmistakable sanctity of the moment. Something unprecedented was about to happen on Earth. I myself had chills.

Satan knew it also, and he paced back and forth fever-ishly trying to anticipate what the Holy Trinity was about to do. I had to see what was going on, so I convinced myself the warring angels weren't interested in me, and I slowly stood and joined the others. I could see the Holy Trinity clearly as they moved together as in a dance over the surface of the newly restored planet. In such perfect harmony, it was difficult to be sure who was doing what, but I dared not go any closer. Ruah Ha Kadosh hovered as Yahweh (or was it Adonai? I cannot be certain—it was just God) stood upon the face of Earth.

Then God said, "Let Us make mankind exactly in our image, male and female. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

It was impossible to distinguish among them as the Trinity. God touched the earth, scooped mud into His hands, and spat into it, forming a kind of clay. Right there in front of us He made a human being and named him Adam. Then, Yahweh or Adonai or both—what does it matter anyway—kissed Adam, and Ruah Ha Kadosh entered his nostrils, and Adam came to life.

 CHAPTER 9

I WILL CONFESS TO
being stunned by Adam's appearance. He was the spitting image of God, if you will pardon the pun. There was only one of him (we wouldn't figure out the male and female part until later), and beyond a doubt, he encompassed the essence of the triune God. I believe that may have been the moment when Satan slipped over the edge into complete madness.

There is no other explanation for his behavior. His wrath exploded into bleating howls that he bawled and growled into the expanse above as he threw aside every demon unfortunate enough to be near him.

At the time, I could not think of any reason for such unrestrained rage. "No, God!" Satan spewed the words as he burst out from the edge of second heaven. "This creature will not have You."

Satan was behaving like a scorned lover who was bent on destroying not only a rival but also himself in the process.

With nary a thought to the consequences, and fueled with passion and jealousy, Satan flew with force toward Adam to destroy him. In less time than a flash can occur, Michael and the warring angels descended around Adam with their swords drawn for battle and the certainty of victory on their faces. I was scared half to death, but I don't think Adam had a clue as to the danger he was in. He stood there not appreciating the scale of warfare about to breakout over him.

Of course Satan could not pass the angelic line of defense.

As he drew near them and saw their flaming swords, he came to his senses and realized they would destroy him with pleasure. They only needed an excuse. The bruised archdemon regained his sense of self-preservation and whimpered back out of their reach. We dropped our gaze to the ground and pretended not to have seen anything.

He should have known Michael would stop him.

Maybe his jealous fit had short-circuited his thought-processing ability. That might explain some of his faulty reasoning. Because he had once held a position of authority in heaven, perhaps he thought he still had influence where the angelic guard was concerned.

Of course, it was not remotely true. Although he ruled over us, fallen as we were, he retained nothing of the majesty and power of the faithful angels. Compared to them, Satan had become, well,
wimpy
is a good word (although, please, don't attribute it to me). The heavenly host could have destroyed him easily. I wondered why they didn't just go ahead and get it over with.

Humiliated to his core, Satan limped back to the precipice of our domain and glared at those of us who had witnessed his meltdown. We stretched our wings, shuffled our hooves, hummed a little tune, and pretended like we hadn't seen a thing. We absolutely had not seen Satan rebuked and mortified by the warring legion of the heavenly army. As far as we were concerned, it never happened.

Like a child in a temper tantrum, Satan did everything but hold his breath and turn blue. With his claws clenched tightly together, he continued to watch what was happening upon Earth. Some of the other demons and myself moved away from where he stood, hoping his preoccupation with Earth would prevent him from hearing us.

"Did you see what happened back there?" the first demon ventured.

"Did you see how he reacted to that clay man God made?"

"Why couldn't we have seen this earlier?" another asked.

"If we had, none of us would be here now. It was embarrassing. He acted more like a spurned lover than the prince of power he calls himself," another voice interjected.

"It was a lie," another whispered. "God was never jealous of Satan. Satan was and is jealous of God's affection toward anyone else."

"I knew it all along," a voice came from the side.

"Knew what?" asked a chorus of voices.

"I knew about his jealousy for God. That's why he hated Adonai."

Gaping mouths and wide eyes is about all we could muster in response.

"What do you mean he hated Adonai?" several asked at once.

"Couldn't you see it when we were in heaven? No one was closer to the Father than Lucifer—Satan—except for the Son. Lucifer never wanted to be the Father; he wanted to be the Son. How could you not have seen it?

It's always been about his jealousy of Adonai."

"But he said he would raise his throne above God's.

We heard him say it," another demon reminded us.

"No. You assumed he meant Yahweh's throne. That was never the case. He wanted Adonai's throne."

I covered my ears with my wings and refused to listen to anything more. I knew I would never be good under Satan's intense questioning, and I didn't want him to pull such gossip out of me. I couldn't tell what I hadn't heard, and I'd already heard far more than I wanted to.

I knew it was dangerous, but I ventured back toward the edge of second heaven to get a closer look at how things were coming on Earth. What was this "mankind"

that God had made? It probably meant something terrible for us; at least Satan thought so. Otherwise he wouldn't have had such a public fit about it.

Satan saw me as I started to slink away, but he insisted I stay on guard with him to hear and record every word God might speak to Adam. Of course, I obeyed, although most of what was going on with Adam was not that interesting. God had to tell him every little thing to do. This new life form couldn't figure out a thing for himself. It was boring for both of us, but then think about our frame of reference. Once a person has stood in heaven and watched God create universes and solar systems from nothing, watching a clay imitation of God name animals was not that exciting. But it wasn't long before things got a lot more intriguing.

God said to Adam, "Multiply and subdue Earth, and take dominion over every living thing upon it."

"Multiply?" I said aloud. "What does God mean by that?"

I puzzled over what God could have meant by such a strange command. Adam was not like the animals. He was much more like God Himself. They, the Trinity, do not multiply. They just
are.
I was very confused and wondered if Satan knew what He meant. Before I could ask the question, he grabbed me by my tail and swung me around till I was facing him. He yelled into my face so that I had to close my eyes at the heat from his words.

"Adam will not rule over anything. Earth is mine."

He seethed at me as if daring me to disagree, which was the absolute last thing I intended to do. Oddly, Satan did not seem at all fascinated by the "multiply" idea but latched right on to the "rule over everything" part.

"This will not stand." He threatened, cursed, and paced, but he also knew the truth. As long as the warring angels stood guard around the sky's perimeter, watching over this new creation, Satan would not be able to come near Adam to see what he was about. It would be his certain destruction.

Bored with it all by now, Satan turned and trudged back toward his throne in the center of second heaven, and I tried to follow. Before he could get comfortable on his seat, the sound of a great rushing wind and a pillar of white fire appeared before him and split the darkness that had been his refuge. Satan grasped the arms of his throne and sat frozen in place.

I jumped backwards and wrapped myself around my perch and held on for all I was worth. I knew what was happening and who was making it happen, although I could not look upon Him. Ruah Ha Kadosh had opened the heavens, and there before us stood God, the Ancient of Days. He was magnificent. His hair was like wool, His eyes flame, and He roared over the heavens, the earth, and everything that was or would be. All of us except Satan collapsed before His splendor, unable to move and hoping to die quickly rather than face His wrath. The wrath of Satan cannot be spoken in the same language used to describe the wrath of the Ancient of Days.

"Where can I hide?" I cried before I got hold of myself and realized that there was nowhere to go to be out of His sight. Surely it would be over very soon. He would destroy us. I knew it.

Still wrapped around my perch, I tucked my tail under, shut my eyes, and waited to die. And still I waited. (This new time thing must not be working properly Obviously it had stopped.) What was happening? Nothing.

I chewed on my tail to relieve the stress. Still nothing.

I opened one eye. Yes, I was still present. My tail would never look the same, but I was still alive, which meant that Satan and the others must still be alive too. I dared not try to open my other eye because I could feel that the glory of God was still somewhere about.

Then the Ancient of Days spoke to Satan. "Do you see what I have made on Earth?" Satan did not respond.

The voice of God continued, "I have created Adam to redeem and restore what you have attempted to destroy.

They will reign with Us in the place that you coveted and lost by your rebellion."

Why did God keep referring to Adam as "they"? I wanted to ask someone, but I decided then was not a good time to bring it up.

Heaven and Earth hung suspended together as if in a fragile balance altogether, all at once and all at the same time. Physics would have to explain it; I could not. At first there was silence as Satan glared past God directly at Adam, who, in my opinion wasn't coming close to grasping the seriousness of this situation.

Satan found his voice and managed to growl out what I thought was a very good question. "What is this man that you are mindful of him? What has he done either good or bad that You would make him ruler over Earth?"