Lucifer ground his teeth in anger. Why did everyone keep
asking that?
“It’s a test, brother!” Lucifer repeated, almost shouting, a
half-mad light in his eyes making Raphael take another step
back. “It’s the ultimate test to see if they are worthy. And they
are not worthy - I was right! They chose to disobey!”
“It is not your place to make tests, Lucifer,” Michael
shouted back. “Listen to yourself - you are not the LORD.”
“HE does not know what he is doing!” Lucifer howled.
Most of the crowd gasped at his words. And everyone winced,
looking around at the walls of heaven as if they feared that they
would collapse around them like leaves spiraling down from the
branches of a dying tree. But, for a long moment, there was
silence.
Then a strange noise filled the air, similar to the sound of a
curtain being split in two but magnified a thousand times.
Gabriel flew into the room, out of breath and wide-eyed.
“How could you?” He gasped, his eyes locking with
Lucifer’s. “How. Could. You?”
“What happened?” Michael demanded.
Gabriel, the Messenger of the Lord, did not look away from
Lucifer as he said,
“The LORD God called to [Adam], ‘Where are you?’ He
answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid
because I was naked; so I hid.’ And HE said, ‘Who told
you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree
that I commanded you not to eat from?’ The man said,
‘The woman you put here with me—she gave me some
fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then the LORD God
said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The
woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”
GENESIS 3:9-13.
“But the serpent was not acting on its own behalf, was it,
Lucifer?” Gabriel finished quietly. It was completely silent in The
Throne room, you could hear the breeze ruffling the leaves on
the golden trees and feel the clouds shifting beneath them as a
storm began to brew on the earth below.
And Lucifer began to laugh. “Well, look at that,” he
chuckled darkly. “I didn’t even need to tempt that stupid man,
his wife did it all for him!” He shook his head with mirth, a wide
and frightening smile on his lips.
“How could you?” Raphael asked in horror. “How could
you after the LORD…?”
“HE made a mistake creating those weak beings!”
Lucifer roared, his laughter dissipating with the last vestiges
of sunlight down below. “I was only showing HIM how they
would disappoint HIM! How they were unworthy of living on the
perfect land we created!”
“CAST HIM OUT.” The command was loud and clear in Michael’s
ears. A glance at Gabriel confirmed that the Messenger had
heard the order as well.
“Get everyone out,” Michael muttered to Gabriel as
Raphael continued to plead for Lucifer to see the error in
his ways. Michael admired the youngest archangel’s good
intentions but, with a heavy heart, Michael knew that it was
already too late. Lucifer had sat on The Throne of the LORD,
and power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
For all of their glory, an angel could not sit on That Throne and
The first moments of
the battle when Lucifer–
in red–attacks Michael–
in royal purple. The
poison from Lucifer’s
sword can be seen
dripping to the floor.
Spring 2015
23