I feel both extremely good and extremely bad today. The reason I feel good is that today is the day I finally get to properly test Jesus—the Son of God, or rather, the Son of Man who has come into this world. But the reason I feel bad is that this test is ultimately meaningless for me. I already know he will pass it. No matter how long he fasts in the wilderness—even for forty days—he is, by nature, the same as God. So, whatever test I give, he will judge everything by God’s standards, and that in itself makes it impossible for sin to be established. What’s the point of a test like this? I’ve already tried all kinds of methods over the past forty days, but the Son of God passed every single test with such ease.
For example, when I tried to attack him with wild beasts, Jesus befriended them. Seeing wild animals show affection, even exposing their bellies, was enough to drive me mad. Why should I bother with this test if it would always end like that?
Of course, there must be some meaning for God. In the past, when the Israelites spent forty days scouting Canaan and then complained, God counted each day as a year and made them wander in the wilderness for forty years. Now, God was turning their failure into success through this forty-day test, making His Son the true Israelite He intended. That must be the purpose. That’s why the Son of God was led by the Spirit into this desolate wilderness and was fasting, even though he didn’t need to. What an absurd situation.
What angered me most was having to cooperate with God’s plan. To be precise, it wasn’t cooperation but compulsion, but even admitting that made me angrier, so I preferred to call it “cooperation.” If I didn’t follow God’s command and He decided to judge me immediately, I would be in trouble. If I didn’t obey now, I might not survive until the final judgment. I had to endure as long as possible and find a way to deal with it. For now, I had no choice but to follow God’s command. The thought filled me with rage.
I recalled the past, when I tempted Adam and Eve and led them into sin. If that incident had never occurred, I wouldn’t be in this situation now. That thought filled me with anger again. I truly detest humans.
Those insignificant beings, relying solely on God’s love, were so arrogant. Adam, of all people, was less capable and inferior to me, yet God loved Adam instead. God didn’t create anything for me, but He created the Garden of Eden for Adam. He even created animals and brought them before Adam to name them. Sheep, goats, doves, dogs—how could anyone be content with such ordinary names? If it had been up to me, I would have given them names worthy of their Creator. Up until then, it was tolerable. But what truly infuriated me was the judgment after the temptation.
God had said, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” Yet God didn’t keep His word literally. Instead of immediate death, He made them mortal. That moment drove me mad. God didn’t strictly keep His word for those insignificant humans, but judged me without mercy. Even now, the thought fills me with rage.
I can understand God’s heart, of course. Since God created humans in His own image, perhaps He loved them like children. But did it make sense that God would send His own Son, who had been with Him from eternity, to die for humans? I hadn’t realized this plan at first, but when I saw the prophecies given to the prophets, I was shocked. How could God devise such an absurd plan? Maybe God had this in mind since Adam and Eve’s judgment. If not, I wouldn’t have been allowed to roam the world after my own rebellion.
From God’s perspective, I must be a necessary being. There are angels who do good, and there must be beings like me who do evil, so God can judge humans. If good is used to do evil, that good is no longer good, so God’s principle is to use evil to punish evil. Since there must be extreme evil for God to judge all evil, I would survive until the final day. Realizing this, I did my best to hinder God’s plan. Not only did I work with the wicked, but I also found fault with the righteous and reported them to God, exploiting God’s desire to save one more person and delaying judgment as much as possible. Of course, God must know my intentions. But since humans were already sinners, what could God do?
The truly amusing fact was that humans were unaware of God’s desire to save them. That’s why they committed evil and worshiped idols. It was understandable for those who didn’t know God, but even those who claimed to believe in Him were no different.
They said, “God is perfect, so everything He does is perfect.” That was true—God was perfect. But they overlooked that this perfection was under God’s will. Even if God was all-powerful, His will took precedence over His power. God was all-powerful only when He chose to be. God was free from all things, but people didn’t understand this. They kept saying, “God’s plan is perfect, and it will all be fulfilled perfectly.” Why didn’t they realize that God Himself was greater than His plan? God could change His plan at any time. They didn’t even acknowledge their own Bible, which clearly stated this. So, they spouted nonsense like “the offering is holier than the altar.”
It was the same with their view of the world. God created the world perfectly and created humans perfectly, but they were perfect only because God was with them, not because they were inherently perfect. If they were perfect on their own, it would mean God created another god, which He never did. When God was present, things were perfect; when He was not, they were not. That was the truth, but people couldn’t even think this way. They said, “If God is perfect, shouldn’t He naturally create perfect things?” But that was just their own thinking. God created the world and everything in it so that He could dwell with His creation from the beginning. These people claimed to believe in God but were ignorant of even this basic fact.
Humans always think they are right and others are wrong. The first resident of hell, Cain, was exactly that type. He could hear God’s voice, yet he disobeyed and followed his own will. When God did not accept his offering, instead of understanding and trying to do better, he became angry.
“Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain rejected God’s strong warning and killed his brother. What a madman! He deserved to be burned in hellfire forever.
Even King David, loved by God, was no exception. As a human, he became greedy when his kingdom prospered. His people were no different from him. To judge this evil, God gave a command, and I, Satan, tempted David. That’s why the same event is recorded in the Bible from two perspectives: one saying God incited David in His anger, another saying I incited him. Both are true, but people don’t understand the situation.
Anyway, for these reasons, most of the world had fallen into my hands. Those who truly served God were always a minority; those who did evil, whether they knew God or not, were always the majority. People whom God cherished were not to be touched until they fell into sin, which was frustrating. But as for the others, I could do whatever I wanted with them—until God intervened.
Taking advantage of this, I created many false gods and even showed them powers similar to divine authority. People were deceived and thought those gods were real. Repeating this process, numerous gods were created, and later people made up even more stories about them. Divination and prophecy were no different. Because I already knew the past, it was ridiculously easy to act as if I knew their hidden secrets. Prophecy was just a matter of saying something now and making it come true later. God also fulfilled prophecies this way, but I gave prophecies to those susceptible to my influence. When someone asked about the future, I just needed to tell them what to say and make it happen later. Events that wouldn’t have occurred if they hadn’t come to me ended up happening, and it was laughable how foolish they were.
I feel better the more people turn away from God. First, it is revenge against God; second, revenge against humans; and third, it delays my own judgment.
Anyway, the current problem is the test of Jesus. If this test is completed, Jesus will be one step closer to achieving the purpose for which He came. Once God’s plan is fulfilled, the final day of judgment will approach, and with it, my own eternal judgment. I cannot simply accept death, so when that time comes, I will use every method to resist God. But I know I can’t win. How could I possibly defeat God? It is impossible. Therefore, even if Jesus fulfills God’s plan, I continue to exploit God’s desire to save one more person, delaying judgment as much as possible. That is the only way to survive.
Today marks the beginning of this plan to delay judgment. Originally, it is impossible to tempt God’s Son and make Him fall. His divine nature is untouchable; sin cannot even be established. However, there is one aspect that can be manipulated: His human nature. Jesus is both fully God and fully human.
The method I used to corrupt Adam and Eve—who were created in God’s image and couldn’t sin—might work this time as well. They knew God’s standards but were not God themselves, so they were easy to manipulate. By making them act according to my perspective, I led them into sin, deviating from God’s standards.
This time, I will use the same method, focusing on the body that Jesus possesses. Since that body comes from Adam’s lineage, it is inherently weak. In essence, I will be tempting not God’s Son, but the Son of Man. If the Son of Man falls in this test, perhaps judgment can be delayed.
Satan decided to tempt Jesus, hoping for the impossible within the limits set for him—to make the Son of Man sin.
* * *
Jesus stood before Satan, his body emaciated from forty days of fasting, yet his eyes were clearer and stronger than anything in the world. Satan hesitated for a moment at Jesus’ direct gaze, then smiled cunningly and said,
“If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.’”
Satan nodded, unsurprised. He knew Jesus had recently turned water into wine, but that was a response to people’s prayers, not part of God’s original plan. Now, everything was within God’s plan, and Satan expected Jesus to overcome this temptation easily. He then took Jesus into Jerusalem, the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. There, Jesus stood alone, swaying in the fierce wind atop the temple.
“If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you;’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’”
“Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’”
Satan showed a hint of irritation but quickly regained his composure and smiled again. He took Jesus up to an exceedingly high mountain and, in a moment, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
“I will give you all this authority and all these things, with their glory, for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I want. If you will fall down and worship me, it will all be yours.”
“Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”
Satan tried until the end to make Jesus act according to his own standards and sin. He even quoted God’s words to make his argument seem legitimate, a tactic he often used to deceive people. But Jesus did not fall for Satan’s schemes. No matter how hungry, tired, or in pain he was, he would not falter. His Father trusted him, and he had come to fulfill His Father’s plan for humanity’s salvation. How could he succumb to such suffering? Even though he wore human flesh, his essence was that of the Son of God. Satan departed from him.
Jesus had passed the test allowed by God. Warm sunlight shone down on his exhausted body in the wilderness. God sent angels to serve him. The faces of the angels watching over the weary Jesus were filled with smiles.
The passages from Genesis 2:16-17, 4:6-7 quoted in this narrative are taken directly from the World English Bible (WEB) translation. The passage from Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-12 is adapted from the WEB translation for narrative context.
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