Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: CHILL (10/27/16)
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TITLE: All Created Things | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jeremy Kirby
11/03/16 -
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Black, taunting, shadows appeared just within sight only to escape with the wind. His strength, nearly diminished, seeped out of his sinewy muscles. The demons, with insatiable appetite, murmured louder and louder within his thoughts. Through a ringing head, all he could hear was, “go home sinful man, go home!”
It was finally getting to him.
Coldness and shadow filled the canyon as a well-groomed man arrived in front of a small outcropping of rock. He paced back and forth waiting for the sleeping man to wake. The ominous atmosphere did nothing to pull the slumberer from his dreams.
Finally, he lifted his head, his dusty hair falling away, revealing the power in his eyes. He regarded the pale faced visitor.
“There you are, the Bright Morning Star,” Satan mocked.
Half-awake, and over a month without food, his belly let out a long, loud growl.
Satan used the opportunity, “If you are really the Son of God, then command these stones to become bread.”
As he said this, he kicked a pile of rocks in the face of Jesus.
He slowly climbed out from under the rock and stood tall, stretching his stiff back. Then he caught the devil off guard with a quick, fiery look from the corner of his eye.
“It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
Satan turned his nose as if avoiding a putrid smell, then swung back with an outstretched hand.
In a flash, the two were upon the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city, Jerusalem. They could see the city walls, the hill of Golgotha and the surrounding mountains. As Jesus took in the view, he found his opponent staring at a legion of angels, which surrounded the city. The glint of their swords and the glow of their metallic wings shone brightly in Satan’s eyes. He was fiercely outnumbered and nearly cowering, but still his haughtiness exceeded the very present danger he placed himself in.
“If you are really the Son of God, then throw yourself down, for it is written – They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest you dash thy foot against a stone.” He gestured dramatically, with outstretched arms, to the warring tribe of angels.
Jesus spoke softly, “Again, devil, it is written, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Satan turned to Jesus and rushed at him. Again, in a fraction of a moment, the two disappeared to a faraway place. This time they rested upon and mountain, great and high. There were no accompanying angels or entities of any kind, only the cold, blowing snow. The lips of Jesus were no longer parched and dry, his skin no longer blistered from the blazing sun. There was glory in his countenance.
From here, Jesus could see all the great kingdoms of the world, from the mighty tribes of the west to the ancient cultures of the east. He could see their young and their old. He could see their greatness. They were everything he created them to be. Their riches were before his eyes, he saw the meat of kings. Every longing that his flesh ever felt, was ripe on the vine.
Satan pleaded, “Just bow before me and all these things will be yours.”
The great holocaust of his people, the Jews, flashed through his mind – Vietnam, the world wars, ISIS. He could end so many horrid things before they ever began if he would just bow. What love I have, Jesus thought, what a ruler I would be.
He turned to the devil and resounded, “Get thee behind me Satan, for it is written, thou shall serve the Lord thy God, and worship Him alone!”
At this, Satan could no longer withstand the power that radiated from the presence of the Son of God, so he withered away into the dark recesses of the world.
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"Again" was a reminder to not give up. Satan comes, "again," and if Jesus had to repeat the Word of God, so do we. Great piece.