All the
time he was troubled by the thought of the heavenly foe who he had been
told would one day appear on earth to crush him and his rebel angels.
Now John had come out of the wilderness, proclaiming his mission, and
among those who came to him to be baptized was one who was deemed the son
of Joseph of Nazareth. John recognized in the obscure carpenter's son the
one "mightier than he" whose coming he was to proclaim, and this fact was
further made clear to the multitude and the observant Satan by the opening
of the Heavens and the descent therefrom on Christ's head of the Dove,
while a voice was heard declaring, "This is my beloved Son."
Satan, enraged, fled to the council of the fiends to announce to them the
presence on earth of their long-dreaded enemy. He was empowered by them to
attempt his overthrow, and they were the more confident because of his
success with Adam and Eve.
Satan's purpose was known to the Eternal Father, who smiled to see him
unwittingly fulfilling the plan so long foreordained for his destruction.
After his baptism, the Father had sent his Son into the wilderness to gain
strength for his struggle with Sin and Death, and there Satan, in the
guise of an old, poorly clad rustic, found him. Although the Son of God
had wandered through the rock-bound, pathless desert, among wild beasts,
without food for forty days, he had no fear, believing that some impulse
from above had guided him thither before he should go out among men to do
his divinely appointed task.
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