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  JOB 2.0

  GOD AND LUCIFER BATTLE AGAIN FOR A SINGLE SOUL

  JOB 2.0

  GOD AND LUCIFER BATTLE AGAIN FOR A SINGLE SOUL

  Del Staecker

  © 2019 Del Staecker

  JOB 2.0

  God and Lucifer battle again for a single soul

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Elm Hill, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Elm Hill and Thomas Nelson are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

  Elm Hill titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2019932363

  ISBN 978-0-310107583 (Paperback)

  ISBN 978-0-310107590 (eBook)

  Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

  Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

  “For it’s money they have and peace they lack.”

  —FIELD OF DREAMS

  CONTENTS

  The Visit

  The Target

  The Game

  The Events That Tested Jake

  The Conversations

  After The Break

  Author’s Comments

  THE VISIT

  One day in heaven, while hanging out with his angelic council, God received an unexpected visitor. Actually, the visitor was expected and God knew who was coming. God also knew what was about to happen, which was cool. Surprises were fun, but being the All-Knowing Infinite One, the Creator of Everything Material, Spiritual, and Conscious, could have some drawbacks. You see, for God there were no surprises. God knew everything. It’s in his job description.

  A second before the visitor knocked at his door, God commanded, “Come in!” Immediately, God said, “Oops!” With a knowing grin, he admitted, “At times I do get ahead of myself.” Quickly God focused on the closed door, reversed time, and said, “Now, you may come in.”

  The visitor entered, gazed about Heaven, and cheerfully greeted God with, “Hey, Boss! What’s shakin’? Have you created anything new lately?”

  It was Lucifer, God’s former Number Two.

  Lucifer had been out on his own for some time, yet every so often he would drop in for a chat with his former chief. Previously, when he was the highest-ranked member of God’s team, Lucifer thought he could run things better than God. In fact, Lucifer believed it so firmly that he even convinced some of his disgruntled teammates to leave Heaven to help him run his own venture—Earth. That was what God had named the spot where he allowed his errant assistant to do “his own thing.” As a name, Earth was acceptable for some of its inhabitants, but Lucifer preferred how the Amish so simply and aptly labeled his realm: the Devil’s Playground.

  When asked to explain his decision to quit God’s team and open his own shop, Lucifer would cheekily describe his previous situation in Heaven as “a good position with regular hours and no heavy lifting.” If pressed about his departure, Lucifer would share his opinion that “promotion and upward mobility was limited.” Always aware of position and status, Lucifer liked to point out his premier leadership position in his new situation. He liked to crow, “Earth is perfect. Here, things are done my way!” If seriously pressed about his regular visits to Heaven, Lucifer would slyly admit, “I’d go back permanently, but only if I were the Boss.”

  Running Earth was indeed a good move for Lucifer. Under his direction it had become “a rockin’ place,” where promoting and inventing new sins (the stuff not aligned with God) was his primary goal and activity. In the Sin Department, Lucifer was very adept. His motto was: “I’m Good at Being Bad.”

  On Earth rules were lax and situational ethics prevailed. Most people liked it that way. After Lucifer’s involvement in, as he described, “that small incident involving Adam and Eve, which resulted in their departure from Eden,” most of humankind gladly accepted his gifts and guidance as the norm. “People love me!” he liked to recount. Yet the fact of the matter was that Lucifer’s influence produced much pain and suffering on Earth, and an even greater amount of sadness in Heaven.

  Occasionally some thoughtful person on Earth asked why God allowed Evil to go on so freely. God’s answer was that it was mankind’s choice to listen to and follow Lucifer or not. “People are responsible for their own decisions,” he said. Of the few that heard him, they did not like the message. And even fewer chose God’s ways over Lucifer’s. As noted, God was not happy with the situation. “So many bad choices,” he said, aching, “but I love mankind, nonetheless.”

  Misdirecting people in the daily to and fro of their lives kept Lucifer occupied, but as said, on occasion he would take a break from his mischief and drop in to see his former boss. Lucifer claimed it was for old times’ sake, but it was really to keep tabs on his adversary. He pretended to yuck it up with the Boss as a means of gathering useful information to support his various evil doings, and ultimately plot his return. Replacing God was ever in his thoughts. Of course, God was never fooled. You could not fool God.

  “How’s business?” Lucifer probed with more than a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

  God replied casually, “Same old, same old, you know—infinity in action. Just the usual stuff, I guess.”

  “Yeah—you guess! Like you don’t know?” quipped Lucifer. He liked to needle God about being the Infinite, All-Knowing, and Eternal Creator.

  God grinned just a little at Lucifer’s little joke.

  “Ha! Gotcha—made you smile!” Lucifer exclaimed as he flashed his trademark luminous smile at the Boss and performed a brief victory dance. Well, it was really just a cute little shuffle step sort of thing.

  God grinned a little bit more, holding back his own full smile, which would completely illuminate the Universe. God really liked Lucifer, despite the bad jokes, the rancorous departure, all the efforts to misdirect humankind, and even his plan to take over Heaven. But God did not want to encourage Lucifer’s bad behavior. God still had hopes for Lucifer. Even though he was a rotten, evil, duplicitous thief and liar, God still loved Lucifer. God was like that—full of love. In fact, God is love—bright, smiling, total love.

  “I have to admit, Lucifer, things were always hopping when you were around,” God told his former minion.

  “Yes, indeed,” Lucifer boasted. “You have to admit that I was the key player during my time up here!”

  Rumor had it that a lot of the creation thing was Lucifer’s idea—that’s if you believe Lucifer. And in fact, a lot of people did believe Lucifer. People believed because Lucifer gave them what they wanted—a life of doing as they pleased. Like Lucifer, they sought to be gods of their own world even though, also like Lucifer, they did not create their world. The people of Earth had all types of wants and desires. They also had very large egos—and short memories. Lucifer liked it that way.

  God summed up Lucifer like this: great idea guy, lousy administrator, extremely ambitious, but has potential. “I would have given him the Universe, but he just needed a little more ‘playing time’ to get seasoned,” God observed. “He was so impatient—ran off with a third of my team—got ahead of his skill set as a leader.” With a hint of sadness God concluded, �
��Oh well, that’s what ego does when coupled with free will.”

  Unaware of God’s critique, Lucifer remained wrapped up in himself. “I have no idea how you do anything without me.”

  “I manage,” God demurred. God already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask, but in politeness to his visitor he proceeded. Being polite was good. God was always good. All good, all love—that’s God. He asked, “So, Lucifer, what have you been up to?”

  “Marketing and promoting,” Lucifer relied. He repeated, “Marketing and promoting, marketing and promoting—you know me—always looking ahead.”

  “New territory?” asked God, again being polite. Remember, he already knew the truth.

  “Nope, working the same old territory—Earth. But the difference is that I’m seeking greater penetration. Fools say, ‘Less is more.’ But, no, no, no! I say more is more!”

  God liked persistence. Lucifer had a lot of it. Lucifer wouldn’t let the Earth go. His goal was one hundred percent domination. With Earth as his base Lucifer would then assault and claim Heaven. God knew all about Lucifer’s desires and feared not.

  To change the direction of their conversation God made another inquiry. “How’s my favorite servant on Earth? Ah…umm…ah…” God paused for effect. “You know…”

  “Ha! You forgot!” Lucifer said with glee. “You forgot Job? Gotcha!”

  Whenever possible, Lucifer loved to zing God. But you could not really zing God. You could deny his existence, ignore him, or, like Lucifer, fight against him, but you could not zing God.

  “Job—yes, Job,” replied God, ignoring the intended slight. “Well, how is he?”

  “Dead!” Lucifer answered with relish.

  “Oh, my Me!” exclaimed God.

  God loved using that phrase to replace Oh, my God! It was a divine self- reference joke. God described it as “the best inside joke—ever!” Laughing and slapping his knee, he said with joy, “Oh, my God… Oh, my Me! I love it!”

  “That’s funny, Boss, really funny,” muttered Lucifer. “But it doesn’t change the fact that Job is gone—kaput—dead as can be.” With a hint of sarcasm, he added, “Maybe you missed it while you were busy running all of creation.”

  God furrowed his brow. “So…you’re saying I made a mistake?”

  Lucifer backed off a bit. “Well—I—er—I guess it’s understandable that you forgot him. It’s been a while, and like I said, you must have been busy running the universe.”

  Of course God really did know about Job. He just liked to use such intentional mistakes as teaching points. A mistake was a faux pas. A divine faux pas was God faking a mistake. Eternity had more than a couple divine faux pas in it—just to add spice. God’s favorite was that the spelling for the plural of faux pas is faux pas. God used divine faux pas to move everything forward. (This last sentence made God smile. At times his sense of humor was oh so subtle.)

  “I have not forgotten,” God said. “As I recall, our little contest concerning Job placed him in a very difficult spot, but he never abandoned his faith in me. I also recall our contest has been a useful tool to teach people about life’s goodness.”

  Lucifer hated being wrong as much as losing. Those things reminded him that he was not God. Chafed over losing that contest, Lucifer defensively shrugged and said, “I suppose.”

  God brought the conversation back on point by mentioning the book that had been written about Job’s trials in life. “What’s your view of the book? You got a fair amount of coverage in it.”

  “It was okay…in its day,” Lucifer observed with a touch of disappointment. “It’s been a long time. People forget. I had hopes for it boosting my image, but there has been no lasting buzz. It’s too cerebral. The story has enough death and destruction, but not the steamy sex that sells so easily today.”

  “Things change,” God observed.

  Lucifer brightened up noticeably. “Yes—yes, they sure do. For example, our contest over Job took place more than three millennia ago. It’s time for new interests and new methods. A time for new times!” he exclaimed.

  “Time—time—time. I guess time really does fly,” God said. “How’d that happen?”

  “One of your many titles is Father Time—you must have given it wings. Either that or you aimed at a bird and hit a clock!” joshed Lucifer.

  God roared out with laughter. “Only you would joke about me messing up time. Lucifer, you slay me!”

  Lucifer bent over laughing. “Boss, gimme a chance—just gimme a chance!” He quickly caught his declaration of honesty and covered it up with a disclaimer. “Boss, you don’t want to go there—trust me!”

  “Trust you—trust you? Ha! That’s a good one!” God laughed and slapped his knee with joy. It was awesome. A couple of lightning bolts shot out, headed for who knows where. “Sorry ‘bout that!” God said as he wiggled a pinky and the lightning bolts hit somewhere far off in the Universe without causing damage or alarm. Awesome events were God’s specialty. Beautiful, magnificent, awe, and wonder were words to describe stuff associated with God.

  After a moment of silence Lucifer asked, “Want another go at it?”

  “What?” asked God. Of course, he again was faking not knowing. “A go? At what?” God liked to kid Lucifer.

  “Come on—you know! How about another match like the one we did with Job?”

  “If that’s what you want…sure,” God said with as much detachment as possible, which was a lot. He was baiting the hook, so to speak, a big God-sized hook—one not to be ignored.

  “Great!” Lucifer exclaimed. Then he caught himself. The Boss is up to something. Quickly he said, “Sure, I’m in, but this time we gotta change the rules.”

  “How?” God was all ears—literally. All ears, all eyes, all…well, you get the picture—infinite variety all the time, all at once. That’s God. All love, all knowing, all good—all everything!

  “This time, I get to pick the new target,” Lucifer offered.

  “Suits me. But why?”

  “Why? Why?” sputtered Lucifer. “I’ll tell you why! Like you don’t know that Job was a ringer!”

  “A ringer?”

  “Yes, a ringer—a setup. The fix was in. I know it.”

  “Explain…”

  (Silence)

  Lucifer pouted.

  God let him stew for a while. Then dripping with heavenly sweetness, God said, “Okay—please explain.” God did not need to ask for anything, but sometimes he bent the rules for Lucifer. It made God feel good. You know—hope for reconciliation, happiness all around, heavenly bliss.

  And after being asked so nicely Lucifer could not help but think, I guess the Boss really still likes me. “Last time,” he told God, “when we started out—Job was the richest guy on all the Earth. We, or more correctly I, upended his life. I took it all away. The intent was to get him to dis you and come over to my side. Getting your man—the most blessed one of all—to join in with me would be the beginning of the end for you.”

  “Lucifer, the thought of taking over from me has become an obsession. It’s not healthy, you know.”

  “I know—I keep failing. It’s good for you, unhealthy for me.”

  God changed the subject, knowing that it did no good to dwell upon it. “I seem to recall a lot of dialogue taking place around Job,” He said offhandedly.

  “Yeah, Job’s wife and friends arrived and they wouldn’t shut up.” Lucifer looked miffed.

  “People do that. They think they are helping.”

  “Some help! Talk is cheap, you know—real cheap. Me? I don’t mince words. I’m a ‘do it’ kind of guy,” Lucifer bragged. He really liked to brag.

  “I know—how do I know,” confirmed God. Sternly he went on. “Lucifer, you do nothing that gets past me—all of your evil deeds are known. And just because I have not ended your time on Earth does not mean I condone what you do in any way. Do not let my jovial good nature fool you. I am deeply vexed.”

  As usual, Lucifer ignored wha
t God said. He went on as if his thoughts had not been touched in any way. “Well, what all those useless do-gooders did was talk, and talk, and talk some more…and…and…and…and…”

  “…and then?” God helped Lucifer out of his rut with a nudge. God was like that—helpful.

  “Thanks!” acknowledged Lucifer. “Back to my point—all that yacking, yacking, yacking—not to mention a wagonload of angst being slathered around. I got sick of all the eternal truths, half-assed ideas, some of your teaching points, and even some of my shtick. It was yadah, yadah, yadah, and it went on forever, or at least it seemed so.”

  “And your point is…?”

  “After all my hard work, and after listening to all their silliness, you just stepped in, wrapped it up with your divine goodness, and made it ‘all better’ for that miserable schmuck!

  “What was wrong with that?”

  “After I failed to turn him against you, you made him even richer than before. In fact, you made him filthy rich—and happy to boot! Dealing with that is a task for me!”

  God enjoyed seeing Lucifer so worked up. He’s so misguided, but I love his tenacious spirit, God thought. Then he poked at Lucifer by simply saying, “So?”

  “So? So! How can I compete with the stuff in the BOOK OF JOB? It shows Job’s life as two great peaks of wonderfulness between one long, deep, dark valley of dog doo. You, the Almighty Creator and Bountiful Provider, are associated with your favorite boy being on top of those peaks—first when he is rich, and second, when you made it even better; he’s richer. Me! Just look at me. What am I? I’m associated with the middle part—when all the stinky stuff happens. I’m stuck being the valley guy.”

  “It’s better than being a Valley Girl!” God laughed heartily at his own joke.

  “Ugh.” Lucifer sighed at God’s humor. “And you wonder why I left?” He sighed longer and heavier than before.

  Lucifer never appreciated God’s humor; to Lucifer it was lame. Occasionally God would crack a good joke—but it was always squeaky clean. After all, he was God.