A day with Manual

 The seventh day was a blessed one as far as man was considered. Jehovah had arranged everything that man needed in the Garden of Eden.  Pure air, water, juicy fruits – everything was plentiful. The garden was devoid of wild beasts and deadly diseases.  Everything around was perfect and good. Evil didn’t tempt the man as he was not aware of it. What more, the Lord walked with them in the cool of the day. Man was complete in all respect except that he was naked. They didn’t feel shy as they were unaware of it.

It was an entirely different story with angels. The days of creation were over, and so there was little chance to create new things and thereby attract the attention of the Lord God. They longed to hear the word of appreciation ‘good’ from him. They felt that Jehovah was neglecting them for man. But Jehovah continued to love them as before and he was caring about them though angels didn’t know it. In their despair and worry they didn’t try to understand the love the Lord had for them.

And Jehovah informed the angels that he wished to bless the man with everlasting life and that the angels and man should live together in harmony.

‘Man is the one created to have dominion. I don’t like to live with him as a second rate citizen in the Kingdom of our Lord. How about you?’ so responded Satan to other angels when he heard about it. They also felt that man was given authority over everything that was created and so they would never be treated equal with man.

‘I can foresee a way.’ The other angels listened to Satan. He was slowly becoming a rebel leader.

‘Man and his Creator should be separated. Their relationship should be severed. Either man should be degraded or we, elevated, for us to be equal. I foresee only one way, that man should commit sins.  Will anyone long to hear the voice of a sinner?  Can anyone love him who disobeys and goes against his wishes?’  Everyone listened to Satan attentively. ‘From the beginning our Lord’s mind has an inclination towards man. The proof, the knowledge of good and evil and everlasting life were kept upon the fruits of trees. And where are those trees?  In the midst of the garden. Those fruits are there before the eyes of Adam always. Jehovah expects Adam to eat from those trees one day. He will pardon Adam on the pretext that Adam lacks the knowledge of good and evil and will justify him saying that he would have eaten the fruit in his ignorance. But Adam is obedient and till this moment he hasn’t eaten from those trees. Now Jehovah tells us that he wishes to bestow upon man all that was denied to him.  If he wishes so, let him do so. But before that his confidence in man should be shattered. We need volunteers to achieve that. Those who have courage to separate man and Jehovah, come forward!’

The others lowered their heads when they heard this. None was ready to invite the displeasure of the Lord in return to be in the limelight for a short while. ‘Cowards,’ Satan confined his response in that single word.

‘We have been warned not to appear before man.’ Senoy reminded him.

‘That’s not an issue.’ replied Satan, ‘Jehovah hasn’t restricted us from appearing before woman for there was no woman when he said that. Remember, he hasn’t put the mark on woman. There is a reason for that.’

Many angels left silently without waiting to hear his words. This was going to be a dangerous game if Jehovah hadn’t put the mark on woman intentionally, realized Gabriel, Michael and others and they decided to keep away from it.

‘Satan,’ said Sansenoy, ’we will have the same fate as that of the huge creatures if man is scared when we appear before him.’

‘We won’t appear before man and we won’t appear before the woman directly.  We will get the help of some creature whom the woman is not afraid of. I assure you that if man eats the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of the tree of everlasting life will be denied to him.’ Satan tried to impart them confidence.

‘If we try to tempt the woman, she will tell the man on that instant itself and Jehovah will surely know about it.  We all will fall in that everlasting fire of hell.’ Semanjelof was quivering when he said this.

‘We will proceed only after studying Adam and his mate well. We need to know whether the man shares his secrets with the woman. If not, she wouldn’t have known about Jehovah’s instruction. We need to know if she is ready to acknowledge his wishes or if she proceeds on her own without his consent and knowledge. Can she be tempted with flattery and praises?  Is her charm and beauty his weakness that can restrain him from taking right decisions?  Can her words stop him from discussing what he has in his mind with his Creator?  We need to conduct an in-depth study and will take our first step only after having thorough knowledge about them.’

Others couldn’t match Satan’s sharpness and intelligence and they bestowed upon him the responsibility to isolate the man from his Creator. But many came forward to assist him in gathering information. Thus they were also involved in the plot, though indirectly.

Woman’s beauty and charm lure man away from his duties and a woman can be enticed with flattery and deceit. She is ready to believe hearsays without counter checking its truth, and she is unable to ward off those deceitful and suspicious characters whom she should keep at bay, all these information they gathered.

What happened next is known to everyone. Satan, through the serpent talked to the woman. He said unto the woman, Yea, has god said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, god has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes  and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and ate and gave also to her husband with her and he also ate. And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

Thus man committed the first sin. Temptations overcame him. He acquired the knowledge of good and evil but he disobeyed his creator, the master.

Jehovah knew all that happened at the same instant itself. When he stays in me and I in him, whatever thoughts and wishes and feelings that arise in my mind will be known to him before it come out of my mouth as words, for his spirit is the basis of my life. Same is the case with everyone else. So, nothing was a secret for Jehovah.  He was hurt more by the viciousness of his beloved angels more than the sin committed by man. In a way wasn’t it his defeat? He was defeated by his dearest angels and by man whom he considered to be the perfect of all his creations. The Creator was ashamed of his creations.

The angels, Satan and the man won. They were defeated too, at the same time.  Satan won when the man disobeyed the God and committed sin.  What he had said became true! Jehovah had no other alternative but to punish the man, so the angels also won. Man had the knowledge of good and evil like his Creator and thus he also won.

But they were defeated too.

Man ate the forbidden fruit, but he had to hide from the Lord because of his guilty consciousness. In a sense his death had already occurred when he lost the right to be with his Lord. The angels lost when man became equivalent to the God in every aspect other than everlasting life. Satan lost because it was his Creator whom he had proven wrong. The feeling that it was the Lord God, the Master of everything, who was defeated added salt to their injury.

The angels, sick with remorse, came and stood before Jehovah when they felt that his anger abated a little. Satan and his friends stood on their knees before him. None dared to raise their heads and look at him. Jehovah ignored them and went out to the Garden of Eden to keep his routine of being with Adam in the cool of the day. The angels stood there itself without daring to move. Soon Jehovah returned, but a determination was seen on his saddened face. It was obvious that he had taken some hard decisions.

‘If there is anyone ignorant on what happened here today, he shall come forward,’ said Jehovah. But who would! None stirred from his place.

‘Isn’t there anyone who didn’t turn against me when faced with a little difficulty?  Will your faith, honesty, sincerity and integrity  disappear if I don’t make you happy with my presence always? Will you try to hide things from me, who knows and fulfills even the smallest wish of your mind? Don’t you know that I am not unaware of even the slightest thoughts of your mind?

All of you have taught me a lesson. If man had committed sin on his own, I would have found comfort.  Here are my angels, my first borns, beyond temptations and evilness, I could have consoled myself. But you! Where were my expectations! And where is reality?

I had gone to Adam to see how he was going to respond to his sin. I expected honesty and goodness from him as he had already acquired the knowledge of good and evil. I hoped to hear the words of repentance from him. I was ready to forgive him of his sin if he admitted that it was a sin. But he acted irresponsibly like a coward.  He pointed his finger at the woman and said that she, whom I had given to be with him, she gave him the fruit of the tree and so he ate it. Whom I had given him-this was what he said. Doesn’t he have any responsibility on his mate?  I was hurt. I realized that the man whom I had created with  much  expectations has weaknesses. He, who was created to have dominion over everything, doesn’t have self control. It came as a shock to me. The question is not whether he ate the forbidden fruit or not. I was ready to give him all that was withheld from him.

The question here is his disobedience.  His weaknesses like unfaithfulness, impatience,             intemperance, falling to temptations and fleeing from responsibility. Is an unfaithful person worthy of living in the Garden of Eden?  Can I hand him over the garden where he was appointed to dress and keep it when he failed to be faithful.

I hoped the woman whom I had created from him to be worthy. She said that the serpent beguiled her and so she ate.  What more can I expect from her! She was no better than her man.

I didn’t ask the serpent for explanation. For the serpent would have accused Satan and Satan, you all and all of you would have pointed your fingers at me. For it was I who tested you by creating a sense of forsakenness.

But can fleeing from responsibility save from punishments?  No.  Because the serpent has done that, it is cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon its belly shall it go and dust shall he eat all the days of his life. I will put enmity between it and the woman, between its seed and her seed; he shall bruise its head and it shall bruise his heel. And the woman, I will greatly multiply her sorrow and her conception; in sorrow shall she bring forth children and her desire shall be to her husband and he shall rule over her. And Adam, because he has hearkened unto the voice of his wife and has eaten of the tree, of which I had commanded him not to eat, cursed is the ground for his sake. In sorrow shall he eat of it all the days of his life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to him and he shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of his face shall be eat bread, till he return unto the ground; for out of it was he taken; for he is dust an unto dust shall he return.’

Then Jehovah turned to Satan and shed his wrath. ‘Satan, you and your friends, get on your feet; for you are to stand between me and the children that the man shall bring forth. It’s your duty to expose man’s inherent weaknesses. You shall not lay your hand on the seed of man till he is of age and be strengthened in his spirit.  If his mind is filled with evilness and unfaithfulness even after being strengthened in his soul, he shall not sit with me in the  Kingdom of Heaven. He shall not eat the fruit of the tree of everlasting life. I will shed his blood, I will destroy his flesh because his blood and his flesh and his life are not his own, but mine. If he be without weaknesses and he becomes worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, Satan, you and your friends will be condemned for the everlasting fire of hell for your words and deeds.’

That same instant itself a black mark appeared on Satan’s and all his companion’s hands, for them to be reminded of their judgement always. Then Jehovah turned to the other angels, and said, ‘You shall sow the seeds of good thoughts in man to counter the evil thoughts that Satan sows. I will know man from the happiness he derives from doing a good deed.  His goodness will give me happiness. His conscience will warn him when he thinks about evil. Still if he proceeds with it I will know him from his guilty consciousness. He will hide from me because it will gnaw at his soul. Even if he slips here and there I won’t forsake him if he shows courage to shoulder its responsibility and turn to a new leaf repenting for his sins.’

He bestowed upon the angels the duty to sow the seeds of new ideas in the minds of man and to lead him to light when he is lost in the darkness and to impart him the seeds of consolation and hope when he is lost in the deep sea of sorrow and despair.

He went away to Adam and Eve and made coats of skins for them and clothed them. When he returned he was still raging with anger but this time it was directed towards man.

‘Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever’, said the Lord God.  Therefore he sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.  So he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubins and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Manual was silent for quite sometime.  Then he said as if to himself. “Cain, of Adam’s children became a murderer.  Another victory for Satan. He turned away all people from the God. Atheists and Polytheists and idol worshippers multiplied manifold. Jehovah gave men the ten commandments through Moses so as to help them rule over sin, but it proved futile.  Man didn’t learn anything from even severe punishments. The moment the Lord turned his face away they murmured against him and turned to worship idols made of wood and stone. Every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil. His inclination was more toward the one trying to destroy both his soul and flesh.

It was when Satan was ruling as the Prince of this World Jehovah sent his son Jesus to this world, to save man from sins and to lead them to life by shedding his blood and flesh as ransom for them.  Anyone who believes in Jesus and shares the blood and flesh of the new testament that he shed are worthy of everlasting life.  This was a promise that all man can make use of. When the sinners of all kind make themselves worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven the judgement of Satan and his friends will be executed.  How can they escape from the everlasting fire of hell? Is it a wonder if they tried to take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence during the time of Jesus and John. He brings sorrow and hardships, suffering and tears to everyone who believes in the Christ.  Because whoever becomes worthy of everlasting life is his enemy.  He who follows the Christ carrying his daily cross on his shoulder confirms the fate of Satan for ever.”

“All these information are new to me.” Litha mumbled when he finished.

“There is nothing that remains secret that is not made manifest and there is nothing hidden that is not made known,” answered Manual.