17.
Satan is about to speak again when Jonathan raises his hand. ‘I need another bathroom break, please.’
‘Another one? Go quickly.’ Frustration fills Satan’s face as Jonathan bolts for the bathroom.
He is back in seconds ‘Can I continue?’ Sarcasm slid off Satan’s tongue. ‘Naturally over time, there are more cities established and of course with great thanks to me -anarchy. The people forged war upon one another and every time God’s people were victorious. God’s people rose above all, and there were some fierce wars. I thoroughly enjoyed them. Over time, I made the people want a real king. I implanted in their minds that a king will help them to rule, and they would have stability and all that nonsense. Boy, they were so stupid! So they got their king. The first king was Saul; he was weak and had no backbone, so it was easy to corrupt him. Then came his son-in-law David. What a great man, he was revered by everyone, especially after the Goliath episode. Honestly, there was not a single person who believed he would slay Goliath but God knew, and he made a fool out of me. I had to get Him back for that if nothing else. When David stated that he wanted to build a temple to honour God, I had to do something, to weaken him. I was quickly diminishing any stronghold I had in the world. Then I created the greatest love story of all time by default. I enticed Bathsheba to wash on the roof of her dwelling. She was beautiful to behold. Truly beautiful and carefully I whispered in David’s ears to lust for her. It worked. Of course, you know what transpired after that. I even convinced David to have Bathsheba’s husband killed.’ Satan let out a raucous laugh. ‘I felt for sure it was the end of him and God’s favour toward him. Ha! David, as correctly stated in the Bible, was a man after God’s own heart. God loved him. David repented oh shame the poor man did he repent. He would never build the temple to God as God promised that the sword would never leave David’s kingdom due to the blood that stuck to it. Once again I was convinced that it was all said and done. David would surely never regain any power or authority again. God’s punishment was that the child they bore out of deceit died, and I gave myself a high five as you say these days. I was so proud of myself. Sadly that was shortly lived as God forgave David and accepted his repentance and gave them another son. This one was the greatest king of all, besides God of course. Solomon was born and when the time was right all he requested from God was wisdom. I mean, come on, wisdom! He could’ve asked for wealth and power just as I tried to convince him to do, but he still went for wisdom. Naturally God was very chuffed with him and gave it to him. You think you are clever or that you have clever people in this world today. Think again. That Solomon was exceptionally wise. You get clever people, and then you get wise people that always know the right decision to make; well he was wiser than them. I tried in vain to create a war amongst Solomon’s kingdom, but God toyed with me. He kept all the other countries busy fighting each other that Solomon’s kingdom reigned in peace and tranquility for forty years, and Solomon built the temple during this period; well it was indescribable in its splendour. There has never existed its equal. I had to destroy this status quo. I then went to the leaders and whispered in their ears that the country should divide into a North and South. They agreed easily, and it was so. God allowed the North to keep fighting on and off, but He kept the South at peace, this He did so that God’s plan; the one and only Saviour would come from the house of David. It made me crazy. I had to wait for many, many years to finally get the South at war. The South eventually moved away from God through Solomon’s sons, sons.’
‘There was this one time I almost gave up my vengeful fight against God, and that was when God paused time so that Joshua was able to defeat the Amorites. He made the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the Moon stand still over Ajalon. A miraculous wonder I will never forget and be amazed by.’
‘The South was eventually destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. I man after my own heart I tell you.’ Satan laughed at his irony.
‘Nebuchadnezzar destroyed that temple. What a fantastic sight to see those walls crumble.’ Satan gloated.
‘The battle won but not my war against God. His people once again became slaves and removed from the country. A prophet Jeremiah prophesied that God’s people would be free after seventy years of captivity, exactly seventy years it was so. Cyrus, the Greek king, gave them everything they needed to rebuild the temple that of course they did. However, it never regained that same glory.