Paradise Regained (Novel version)

Chapter 2 - The Plan

Thus Jesus was Baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, and thus truly His ministry began.

And John brought Jesus out of the water and the clouds separated in the sky above, and down came the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And a great voice came from Heaven, and surely it was the Lord, the Holy Father. And He said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!"

And as Jesus came out of the water, Satan watched all the while. The words of the Lord truly worried Satan, because for the first time in his spying upon the man Jesus, he had finally seen some form of power upon Him. He had not come to conquer, at least yet as far as Satan knew. But since God, Himself, said upon Jesus that He was well please with Him, Satan began to realize that He must be truly the Son of God.

And Satan called upon all the demons from Hell and gathered them all in the air, but away from the eyes of man. For, as it was written before, mankind willingly accepted them into the world through disobedience and sin. But their power was kept in check by the Lord, for they were not allowed to kill off humanity, but indeed they were allowed to tempt them, for mankind could choose whether to follow God or follow Satan. And as they were in the air, they began to plan.

Beelzebub, his second in command, settled the third and quieted them. "What is this gathering for, my liege?"

Satan spoke. "I surely am worried now. For the Word was spoken from His mouth that He was indeed the Son of God. Would this not truly mean that He was indeed the Son of God? If it truly is Him, the crushing of my head might be upon me. I can't let that happen. I WON'T let that happen!" And Satan pondered further. "If He is truly the Son of God then we can't simply fight Him. For His power in Heaven was so great that I surely fell and you fell after me! No. War with power cannot be done. If I am to bring Him down, then I shall bring Him down like I doomed humanity: temptation. If Jesus is where I once was when my name was the Archangel Lucifer, then He can fall to the same disobedience as I. For I assure you, we all crave infinite power, and thus I will present Him with such: wisdom and power. If I can make Him fall as I made Adam and Eve fall, I can make His pride become large and make Him think as we do. Then truly, we shall have our mark and we shall have our chance against Him and God. And thus, not only did I accomplish it with Adam, would it not be easier? I've done it once. I can do it again."

And the legions of Hell cheered at their leader's words. Satan found the hatred within his own heart and saw only darkness. And the words of the Lord only reminded him of his wound from his day of imprisonment. He could not allow Jesus to win. He couldn't.

And in Heaven, God saw all that was happening. Once again, He saw the enemy plan against His Creation, and this time Satan was brave and prideful enough to tempt the Lord Himself. God called Gabriel, the Archangel, to Him.

"Gabriel, Archangel!"

Gabriel came to God's throne and bowed. "What is your word, my loving Lord?"

God spoke. "Surely I tell you, and I know, that Satan shall surely try to tempt Jesus. But I tell you that it is truly fitting."

"Indeed?"

"Yes," He said. He looked down upon Him on Earth and smiled with love. "For what kind of sacrifice is fitting for humanity without the proving of it? What kind of representative for humanity would Jesus truly be without temptation?"

Gabriel nodded. "Your words are well, my loving Father. But what of Satan?"

God laughed. "The enemy believes this battle to be as it was with Adam and Eve. He believes that it will be as easy as one temptation and Jesus will give into pride. Has he forgotten what happened with my servant, Job? Job did not turn away from me even when Satan took everything from him. Satan should surely consider that my Son is more like Job than Adam. And thus I cannot interfere. For if I through the Son am to experience humanity through flesh, then He is to experience temptation just as everyone has. Sinlessness, I truly say, without the temptation of human desires is truly meaningless. Thus, if He is to take the throne, He must prove to humanity that He deserves it. He has already proved it to me."

And God once again looked upon His Son, and He had great favor and love.

And Jesus left the river in which He was Baptized and began to wander out into the wilderness. He looked into His divinity and felt the Holy Spirit lead Him to begin walking through the woods.

And as He walked, He thought about His desire to meditate on the holy scriptures. For now He knew if God was leading Him to do something now, then it must truly be for a good purpose.

For His knowledge was perfect. His wisdom was perfect. Everything about Him was perfect, but His perfection was indeed limited to the human form. He could feel human emotion of love, sadness, pain, and hunger. Thus He had experienced all humanity had to offer, He must be thrust into temptation as well.

And Jesus walked for days. One day turned into seven. And a week turned into two.

And He walked for a month, and He kept wandering.

And 40 days came upon Him.

And Jesus, as He meditated still, felt hungry.