Johann Quisumbing

An Adventure Story of Yeshua bar Yosef by JQuisumbing

Yeshua was weak with hunger, but he carried on for another two hours covering the sandy ground with an aesthetic design of parallel lines made with his makeshift rake. Hungry as he was, he found the exercise soothing and even enjoyable. As he drew, he would sing some psalms, sometimes loudly just to hear the canyon echo his song back to him. After his allotted time was over, he surveyed his latest masterpiece and was quite satisfied. Shouldering his rake, he walked back toward his camp. As he turned at the bend, he smelled wood smoke. When he saw the camp, the fire was lit and there was meat roasting on several sticks. And of course, the tempter was there. This time, though, he was dressed as a bedouin. 

“Son of Adonai, come and eat. The meat is ready.”

The roasting meat smelled so good, that Yeshua’s stomach grumbled and he could not help but salivate. But he walked past the Tempter and roasting food until he reached the spring that was flowing out of the rock. He filled his waterskin and then splashed his face and the back of the neck. 

“Do you think that your Father will really punish you if you eat some food after fasting for 40 days?” the Tempter asked, leaning against the canyon wall. “It’s like the water incident in Rephidim¹ all over again.”

A memory image of a tall standing boulder, about as tall as four men, came to Yeshua’s mind. He also recalled a wielded staff striking the base of the rock and as a great gush of water under pressure sprung up, that massive rock split in two. That split rock was later named, Massah and Meribah, because it was there that people quarreled with Moses. He felt that same uncanny feeling of being there some fifteen hundred years ago.

“Your Father was being unfair to the people, after all, the wilderness of Sin was devoid of any moisture and whatever water they carried from the last oasis was all consumed by then. Why they were rebuked for being thirsty, is beyond me.”

Yeshua almost wanted to say that the people were not rebuked for being thirsty. They were rebuked by Moses because they actually believed that Adonai did not care. They could not even claim ignorance of Adonai in their midst, for Moses was walking with them. The same Moses whom they themselves praised that the Lord was with him; the same Moses who touched the Nile with his staff and it turned into blood; the same Moses, who just a few weeks before, turned a bitter lake into drinkable water. 

“Granted, they are just men and they are incapable of doing what is right because they are such flawed creatures. But you are the Son of Adonai. You can do no wrong. Allow me, Son of Adonai, to make my point.”

Yeshua’s vision blurred somewhat drastically to the point that wherever he turned there was no clarity in whether he was still in the canyon or not. Then, a flash of a very bright light caused him to shut his eyes tight. 

“Son of Adonai, behold!”

He startlingly blinked his eyes open and found himself precariously standing near the edge of a roof of an extremely tall structure. He cautiously stepped back from the edge. Below him was a city and he seemed to be standing on the highest point. The platform he was on was made of some kind of white stone. Lining the entire perimeter was a series of merlons and crenels about the height to his hips. They had the same white stone making them look like teeth. Then he noticed that the crenelated inner facades were gold plated. More than likely that the outer facades were gold plated too. This told him that the battlements were more for decoration than for military defense. This building he was on was probably a real sight to see from down below. And he knew of only one structure that would have such expensive decorations on its crown.

He goes close to the parapet to look at another building nearby which had four towers almost as tall. On each of the towers were banners that had the Roman eagle emblems. What he was looking at had to be the Fortress Antonias. It was built by the long dead king, Herod, to honor Mark Anthony. That means that the building he was on is the Temple spire itself. Right below his feet is the holiest room in all the world. He took a step closer to the edge and looked down. The first thing he sensed was a whiff of burning meat which, of course, was coming from the massive altar. He saw priests ascending and descending the nine steps to lay the animal carcasses on the mesh grill over the roaring fire. He was watching the priests going about their priestly duties in the courtyard below when the Tempter’s voice intruded into his reverie.

“It is such a view, is it not?”

Yeshua turned his head to find the Tempter casually lounging on his side right on the edge of the battlement. This time, he was dressed in the garb of the High Priest.

“If you are the Son of Adonai, throw yourself down,” he dared. “Is it not written that your Father in Heaven had commanded his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”²

Yes, it is thus written. But then why would he? For him to cast himself off the precipice just to prove that what was written will come true, is in actuality a type of faithlessness and a definite disrespect to the Father he loved. As he looked at the Tempter, the memory of Moses at Rephidim again came back to him and he knew the right words to put him at his place. He took a step closer. The Tempter sat up with a satisfying smile on his face. 

Then Yeshua faced him and said, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord… your Adonai to the test.’ ”

His smirk disappeared and with a flash of light, Yeshua found himself back in his canyon encampment. He looked up at the sky and was glad to see the waning light. Soon his fortieth day will be at an end. But he knew there was one more test to go.

Footnotes: [1] Exodus 17:1-7; [2] Psalm 91:11-12; [3] Matthew 4:7

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