The more he talked, the more animated Lucifer became.
“The Promised Land!” Lucifer choked on the words, but continued. “He thinks he’s going to take his people into the Promised Land!”
Our assembly thundered with boos and jeers until Lucifer screamed for silence.
“Nobody,” he cried, “nobody will be going into any Promised Land unless we go in too! Look at these people! They are a ragtag bunch of habitual rebels. Very few on this planet aren’t.”
“God did get them this far,” I ventured, “what is your plan?”
“Watch and learn,” Lucifer countered. “I will make sure that all of the spies going into the land shudder with terror before the giants and impregnable cities. This will be easy, for few of them have any kind of faith in God. We will make Kadesh-Barnea a term synonymous with failure. But enough talk. We have work to do!”
For the next forty days we hounded the spies. We surrounded them with dark, faithless thoughts and selfishness. We crowded their lives with doubt and close calls. They returned to Kadesh-Barnea shell shocked and scared to death. It’s true that two of them wouldn’t play our game, but we easily sabotaged the whole project with the other ten and all hope of any Promised Land. We stood by and watched their return with leering grins.
“It is a desirable, fertile land,” the spies told the people, “yet massive walled cities protect it, and the giants there dwarfed us. We ran like grasshoppers before them. We’re lucky to even be talking to you. We barely escaped with our lives.”
The people shrank back. Our plan was working. We didn’t even need to worry about Caleb and Joshua. By the time they spoke, their cries fell on deaf ears.
“Let us go at once!” they said, “for in the might of God we are well able to overcome any obstacle in our way, and possess the land.”
A wail went up through the ranks of the people. Some wept, and others cursed Moses and Aaron for taking them out of Egypt.
“Death in Egypt or the wilderness would be better than having our women and children fall prey to the sword in this wicked land! Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt!”
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the congregation, and Caleb and Joshua rent their clothes and cried out before the people once more.
“The land is an exceedingly good land,” they said. “If God is pleased with us, He will give it to us. Don’t fear the people of the land for their protection is gone, and they will be our prey. The Lord is with us, and if He be with us, who can be against us? To enter this good land is His will. We must not rebel against Him!”
The host of the Israel swayed tempestuously.
“Stone them!” they cried.
They would have stoned them too, if God hadn’t intervened. Yet, predictably, he showed up in a grand display of power above the sanctuary, and no one dared to touch them.
The people never saw or heard Lucifer and I approach the sanctuary to confront God.
“Give it up!” cried Lucifer. “You have no right to rule these people, or the universe for that matter. The proof is that you have given a law that can’t be kept. Look! You just gave it to them, and they have broken every precept already. Face it: you are unfair and harsh to all of us.”
God stood before us in silence for a minute before He spoke. His countenance wore displeasure.
“Moses is waiting for me,” he said. “The Lord rebukes you!”
“No one can perfectly keep this law of yours,” Lucifer screamed, “and certainly not fallen man. Even your precious Moses is a murderer, and he has a temper almost as bad as mine.”
“I will prove you wrong Lucifer,” God said as he walked past us toward Moses.
“Well,” countered Lucifer, “I have to say, so far you are doing a pretty good job of it!”