Jesus Triumphant (Chronicles of the Nephilim Book 8) (21 page)

Simon and Mary made their way up Mount Hermon. It got colder as they ascended. Mary pulled her cloak tighter around her. Simon saw her motion.

“Would you like my outer cloak?”

“No, Simon. You need it or you’ll freeze to death.”

He gestured up the hill to the four figures they were following at a safe distance. “Well, you can just call up to Jesus and he will thaw me out.”

Mary giggled. She couldn’t believe that she felt like a teenage girl around this scribe. He made her laugh. He was so smart. He could quote her Scriptures that fed her hunger for Yahweh’s Word.

“Wait,” he said.

She looked up to see the figures had stopped to enter a small wooded area. They were not yet past the tree line, thank Yahweh. That would be too barren of foliage to hide, and far too cold to survive. It had already begun to snow lightly on them.

They were following Jesus, Peter, James, and John on their way up the mountain on a mysterious mission. Jesus did not say what for. Only that he would take his three closest friends with him.

Simon and Mary longed to be in the inner circle. They had both come from backgrounds where they previously were in the inner circle. Their curiosity got the better of them. They conspired to sneak up after the four hikers and spy on them.

They moved around some boulders and stayed close to the brush, in case they needed to duck out of sight.

Simon continued to explain to Mary as they climbed. “David’s Psalm says that the principalities and powers of heaven and earth would take counsel together to stand against Yahweh and against his Messiah. But,

Yahweh will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,

“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy mountain.”

I will tell of the decree:
The
Lord
said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.

“When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by the prophet John, he was given the kingship of Yahweh’s holy mountain, Zion. Now, Mount Sinai was Yahweh’s first cosmic mountain of habitation. But with the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, it is now Mount Zion. But this mountain we climb, Hermon, is the cosmic mountain of the Watcher gods, the mountain of Bashan.”

She said, “Bashan is the place of the Serpent.” She knew more about this world around her than he realized.

“Yes,” he said. “It is like a battle between two cosmic mountains. That is why the Psalm says,

“O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!

Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain,
at the mount that Elohim desired for his abode,
yes, where Yahweh will dwell forever?

The chariots of Elohim are twice ten thousand,
thousands upon thousands…

Elohim will strike the heads of his enemies.”

Mary stopped walking. They were almost to the forested area. She looked fearful. “Do you mean that we are walking into the midst of a battle of gods and angels?”

“Well, it’s too late now. We’re here.”

Mary turned and began to tromp back down the mountain.

“Mary, wait.” Simon scurried to catch up to her. He held her arm to stop her.

“Listen. I didn’t tell you the next part of the Psalm. It prophesies, ‘You ascended on high, leading a host of captives, in your train.’’’

She said, “A triumphal procession.”

“Yes. The king parades his conquered foes behind him in victory. If Jesus is the Messiah as we believe, then yes, he will face off against the principalities and powers over the nations. But he will conquer them, and ascend to heaven with them bound behind him.”

“What if you are wrong?”

“Then we won’t be in the midst of a supernatural battle.”

She sighed. “That’s hardly comforting.”

They had already come too far. “Let’s go.”

He led her back to the forest and they tread softly through the brush to find where the four men had gone.

• • • • •

Deep in the heart of Mount Hermon, a desperate assembly of the gods met in council. The cavern was aflame with the fiery light of over sixty Shining Ones. Their bronze and beryl-like skin flashed with raging emotions of fear and anger. Huge stalagmites and stalactites filled the cave with millennia of their crystalized formations that reflected those flashing lights. It created a lighting spectacle not unlike a rapidly exploding nebulae of stars.

Molech, the underworld god, and infamous abomination of the Ammonites, squinted in the brightness. His eyes had become sensitive, along with his pale, calloused skin, from spending so much of his time underground. He led the major complaint with his scratchy, fearful voice. “Jesus is ascending the mountain at this very moment. This is it. This is Armageddon!”

Belial presided over the assembly. He kept judiciously silent, as he listened to the debate.

Zeus said, “He is coming with three of his weak and foolish disciples. It looks more like a diplomatic mission for cease fire than a declaration of war.”

“Declaration of war?” replied Molech. “Easy for you to say, gallivanting around on your distant decadent homeland of Greece. Jesus has been exorcising demons and diseases throughout Judea and Galilee, He has compromised the Gates of Hades, and he has taken out the gods Dagon, Asherah, Ba’al, Lilith, Pan, and even Gaia! I alone am left of the gods of Canaan!”

Resheph and Qeteb, the twin gods of pestilence and plague, protested. “You are not the only god left in the pantheon, Molech,” said Resheph. Qeteb added, “And Dagon was betrayed by Ba’al and Asherah long before Jesus arrived.”

“Is this a council of morons?” said Molech. “The Seed of Eve, the Seed of Abraham, is coming up
our holy mountain.
And I am listening to fools quibbling over petty details of insignificance! Don’t just sit there! Say something, Belial.”

Belial finally spoke up. “The mole god is correct. The Nazarene has been deliberately understated in order to fool us.”

Molech felt smugly vindicated, though simultaneously insulted by the derogatory mole reference. But it was classic Belial.

“I have sent some spirits to spy on Jesus. If they have an army of the heavenly host approaching, they will alert us. In the meantime, we must arm ourselves and prepare for battle.”

• • • • •

Simon and Mary found Jesus and the three disciples in a clearing. Peter, James and John were talking amongst themselves, while Jesus knelt and prayed a short space away.

Simon and Mary crouched, trying to get a good look from their hideaway in the brush. A twig snapped beneath Mary’s foot.

They froze.

The disciples looked their way.

Peter began to walk toward them.

Mary and Simon cringed in fear of discovery.

Before Peter could discover the little spies, Jesus stood where he was and lifted his hands to heaven.

A beam of intense light burst from heaven above and bathed him in its brightness.

Peter turned back around. He and the other two ran to Jesus.

They could not believe their eyes at the sight before them.

Jesus transformed. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Mary looked to Simon, whispering, “What is happening?”

“Shhh.”

She turned back to see the disciples on their knees.

Now two other figures appeared with Jesus. The two shone brightly like the sun and they conversed with Jesus.

Mary heard Peter say with excitement, “Lord, I am glad we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Mary whispered to Simon, “That is Moses and Elijah?”

“Shhhh.”

The disciples looked up into a bright cloud that had appeared over them. They heard a voice say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”

The disciples fell to their faces on the ground, terrified.

The brightness emanating from Jesus became so intense, Simon and Mary had to shield their eyes. It felt as if their very souls were exposed and naked.

When they looked again, Moses and Elijah were gone. Jesus was alone with the three. They saw him wave in the direction of the woods behind him. It was as if he were dismissing unseen visitors. Were there others spying on him?

Jesus helped the disciples up. He looked about again to make sure there were no more of the unseen visitors that he had dismissed. Simon and Mary could hear him say to his three companions, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, but he will be raised on the third day.”

The disciples were visibly shaken. Peter wept. Jesus led them out of the clearing. Simon and Mary heard him say, “Let us return to camp. Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

Suddenly, Jesus stopped, turned and faced the brush where Simon and Mary were hiding. They ducked down further. They heard him call out, “And that means you two as well! Tell no one.” He winked with a smile and turned back to the disciples.

Simon and Mary looked at each other astonished. How did he know?

The four men left the woods and two little spies behind.

Their breathing labored. Mary’s eyes were as big as the moon.

She said, “He knew we were here. Who were the other spies he dismissed? Watchers?”

Simon wasn’t listening. “This is amazing, Mary. Truly amazing.”

“What was it?”

• • • • •

The evil spirits returned to Belial inside the mountain. He stared with a dire face into the blackened ooze of the Abyss that filled the large lake inside their sanctuary. Small flames of fire flitted across the surface of it.

The sixty plus other gods gathered around their leader like a bodyguard of Watchers, swords drawn, javelins and maces held tight. Would they fight this day?

Belial said, still staring into the oblivion, “It is worse than I thought.”

Molech whined, “Are the heavenly host approaching?”

“No. He transfigured.”

“Glorification,” said Molech. “Is that not a call to battle?”

“He is not attacking us on our turf. He is challenging us to his.”

“It is almost upon us,” said Belial. “All gods, prepare for war.”

• • • • •

Simon explained to Mary as they made their way back down the mountain. He was breathless.

“Moses spent so much time face to face with Yahweh, that his own face began to transfigure and shine like the sun. He had to pull a cloak over himself because the Israelites could not stand before the brightness of holiness. The direct presence of Yahweh changes one’s very being from human to divine.”

“Moses was made into a god?”

“Like a Son of God.
Bene ha Elohim
. But it was only a foretaste, because it would fade with time.”

Mary was putting it together. “So, Sons of God are the holy ones who surround Yahweh Elohim’s throne chariot, and they are myriad.”

“Ten thousands upon ten thousands. They are the divine ones who administered the Law of Yahweh at Sinai. They are direct creations of Yahweh, and because they are in his presence, they shine with holiness.”

“So that is why they are called ‘Shining Ones’.”

“Yes.”

“So Jesus is both a Son of Man and a Son of God?”

“The unique Son of God. The only one of his kind. What we saw was a living apotheosis, the declaration of his divinity. Yahweh in the flesh, the second Power in heaven.”

Mary knew what apotheosis was from her understanding of how Augustus was supposedly divinized after his death.

He said, “Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.”

“Is that why Moses and Elijah were with him?”

“The giver of the Law, and the father of Prophets. But that is not all. Jesus told us to keep his secret.”

“That didn’t make sense to me. That he would die and raise from the dead in three days.”

“It is the Messianic secret, kept hidden from the principalities and the powers. And yet it was in plain sight all along.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jesus told us that no sign shall be given this generation of ours except the sign of Jonah. He said that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. I remember reading a revelation from the angel Gabriel that was recorded on stone and stored in the library at Qumran.”

“What did it say?”

He quoted it by heart. He could never forget it.

“By three days you shall know that, thus said Yahweh of Hosts, the god of Israel,
the evil has been broken by righteousness…

Behold, all the nations gather against Jerusalem…

In just a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth…