40 Days in the Wilderness (part 3)

Third Temptation

Damn it, I didn’t come here to get Scripture quoted at me! I can quote it chapter and verse too, you know. It says he will give his angels charge over you lest you dash your foot against a stone. But they always get dashed against the stones anyway, don’t they? And you’re surprised and hurt when they turn from you?

Look, there’s no point being anything but honest with you. You know what I really want. I want you to acknowledge that I know better than you. I’ve been right all along - you can’t make apes into things capable of love, or intelligence, or nobility, or any of the things you’d hoped to see in them. If you’ll admit that, then I’ll give them all back to you. I never wanted them anyway, I just took them to prove that you could never truly have them. But if you still want them, I’ll give them back. I’ll let you win the game, if you’ll just concede that I’m the better player.

Bow before me, just this once, and you can have them all, and all their kingdoms.

Bow, concede, even if you don’t mean it, even if you only do it out of this insane love you have for the dirty little things, I’ll accept that. You DO love them, don’t you? And you WOULD do anything to get them back, wouldn’t you? Look at them all. See their cities they’re so proud of, the dirty squalid holes they work so hard to build. That’s all they’re capable of, you know. This plan of yours, it’s very like you, very noble, and as always completely ignores the practicalities. They don’t follow gods who love them. They follow gods who terrify them. That’s why they follow me and not you. I win. Say it, and they’re yours, them and all the pitiful things they’ve made.

YOU WILL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND HIM ONLY WILL YOU SERVE.

(To be continued...)

© John M. Munzer