Angelic Wars- First Rebellion

by Rick E Norris

  Azarias closed his eyes and released his tension. He trusted, he believed. The Lord was in control. He opened his eyes to a new world, the Lord’s boundless creation. Even though he and Gabriel were flying at a blinding speed, the whole scene seemed to pass in slow motion for Azarias. The leaves, the beautiful multicolored leaves. They didn’t whiz by him but rotated and revolved in delicate pirouettes. Their colors blended, swirled, and exploded among the different tree levels. How they glorified God in His perfection—not even one color clashed with another, creating browns, grays, or blacks. God’s color palette harmonized into a living montage.

  Azarias heard singing. It seemed to come from Gabriel.

  http://ow.ly/yhxQ50wD5gI

  (Click link to hear Gabriel sing)

  Soaring, in the Spirit of Your love

  Guide me gently

  Life flows through my body with peace

  Calming deeply

  I say, is it You who once called me?

  Is it You who once claimed me?

  Is it You who I hear?

  Basking in the rhythm of Your voice

  Whispering softly40

  Searching for the joy of Your heart

  Loving freely

  Darkness, its fingers try to snare me

  And its siren tries to take me, break me, enchant me, and discard me41

  But You, You will never desert me

  You are always there to hold me, mend me, consume me, and commend me

  Is it You?

  Watching for the warmth of Your great light

  Glowing brightly

  Warm me, with the righteousness of truth

  Piercing boldly

  I say, I say, I say, I say, I say, Is it You?

  Azarias felt he was intruding on a special moment between Gabriel and God, but he couldn’t help being drawn into the Spirit. He accepted that the Tome would allow him to engage in such moments. The others knew he could be watching.

  The warmth of the Lord’s peace filled Azarias again. And for the first time during this mission, he could hear the music. Yes, his old friends, singing million-part harmonies at the Throne.

  The forest abruptly terminated. The trees, the vibrant leaves, and the music were gone.

  Gabriel landed. His feet perched inches from the edge of a bluff. The view opened into the emptiness of a large ravine. Earth-tone colors varnished the sheer walls in a mosaic masterpiece disappearing into the bottomless gorge.

  Azarias sat up. His complacency surrendered to concern. This gorge contrasted the vibrant and the desolate. This type of contrast has become too common in these times.

  Azarias couldn’t help thinking that the Lord seemed to be sending them in the wrong direction. Were they running from the enemy? The Lord could have just identified the renegades in Khasneh to Gabriel. The Septemviri would then interrogate them to find the others, and their mission would be complete. Why send Gabriel to the far reaches of Khasneh?

  These questions ate at Azarias.

  Gabriel stepped off the edge and plummeted headlong towards the bottom of the gorge. He accelerated to such a great speed that the vibrant orange foliage of the canyon wall blurred Azarias’s vision. It looked as though the canyon colors were flowing like a river. The foliage became sparse and then disappeared altogether as Gabriel accelerated deeper into the unknown. The barren canyon walls exposed its red, rust, and sandstone undercoating as if stripped off by the unseen hand of God.

  Azarias could see the bottom approach with alarming speed. Gabriel threw his wings forward and landed instantly and softly. No fanfare awaited him. The Spirit whispered high above and bellowed through the gorge with an eerie hollow like a thousand moaning angels.

  Azarias tried to imagine Heaven’s territories. Nothing resembled this.

  Gabriel looked up. Across the gorge, a massive carved impression rose up one of the canyon’s walls.

  Azarias placed his head in his hands. It wasn’t the isolation that worried him, but the apparent isolation—everything seemed too quiet, too alone, and too perfect for an ambush by Gabriel’s enemies that dwelled in the district.

  What next? Azarias understood Gabriel’s gift. His speed suited him as a messenger. The Lord didn’t equip him to seize other angels and bring them to justice. Gabriel seemed best at conveying information, not analyzing it. What if he was followed? Could these angels harm him? Interrogate him? Maybe persuade him to divulge the Septemviri whereabouts?

  * * *

  38 Psalm 38:1-10

  39 Psalm 51:1-3,8,10-12

  40 1 Kings 19:12

  41 Matthew 6:22-23

  Chapter 6

  A fleeting shadow prompted Squatinidale to open his eyes. A silhouette of a figure hovered high above him in the desolate region of Heaven. Squatinidale couldn’t focus, his eyes unwilling to forfeit their tears.

  “Who are you?” Squatinidale yelled at the large object hovering above. Maybe the visitor could direct him to the Siq, where he would cast his soul into the material world and banish himself, once and for all.

  The figure descended lower, expanding the six wings of a seraph, and landed just a few feet from him. Squatinidale sat up.

  Abaddon.

  He wore the grin of one who has found treasure.

  “Hello, my dear lost friend. We’d almost given up finding you. We have been searching for such a long time.”

  “We?” Squatinidale wanted to run, but where? How?

  A dozen other seraphim soared out of the gray haze. They landed on all sides of Squatinidale, trapping him.

  Abaddon retracted his wings and edged forward, kneeling. “Yes. We knew you just had a very slight attack of the Creator’s Spirit, but you soon will come to your senses.” He shook his head. “Look at you, my dear friend, you’re a spiritual mess. Where is your Creator now? He left you to rot in your guilt and decay in your misery. If your Creator really loved you, He would have heard your pleas.” Abaddon leaned forward and whispered, “You were pleading, weren’t you?”

  How did he know this? Abaddon stood and retraced his steps. He rounded and faced Squatinidale.

  “Please, my friend. We love you. We care for you so much more than your Creator does. We came looking for you. We felt that alone, you were dangerous to yourself. Weren’t we right? I imagined that you were suffering out here, asking the Creator to dispose of you, weren’t you?”

  This wasn’t possible. How did Abaddon know his most secret feelings?

  “I also assume that you wondered why the Creator created you and that all your insecurities erupted in your soul—poisoning it with guilt.”

  Squatinidale didn’t gratify Abaddon with a response. But his face must have betrayed his true feelings.

  Abaddon hissed into Squatinidale’s ear. “You see, we know how you feel. Many of our friends before you felt the same way. They felt abandoned by the Creator, just like you do.”

  He moved his face to the front, looking into Squatinidale’s eyes. He grinned. “But we won’t abandon you.”

  It sounded logical. But logic was not always the right process in Heaven, where an angel was not privy to the Lord’s design and perfect plan.

  Squatinidale stood, shakily, but could not look at Abaddon. “I cannot tell you why the Lord has not acted. But it is also true that my pleas should be ignored, considering my betrayal.”

  He looked away and then sucked up his courage. “I betrayed the Lord by going with you.” His jaw tightened.

  Abaddon didn’t flinch but dismissed Squatinidale with the flick of his hand. “Nonsense. We have already been through this. You are spiritually spent, unable to see things clearly. Come with us, and we will talk about it later.”

  “No, Abaddon.” Squatinidale raised his voice. “I have considered all options. Now please leave me.”

  The other seraphim snickered. />
  “I’m sorry, my friend, I cannot do that. You know too much about us. You must come with us. Please do not refuse. To force you against your will goes against everything we believe in. But…” He turned his hand over and tilted his head. “…we must take drastic measures because we have learned that the Creator has commissioned a few little angels to confront us, and you would be very valuable to them.”

  The words had barely left Abaddon’s mouth when hands grabbed Squatinidale’s arms. More hands pushed him to the surface, grinding his face into the single amborlite flower that encouraged him. Others slipped a golden ring over his head, around his shoulders, and down around his arms. This hoop restrained him. What was it? It reminded Squatinidale of a vision of antimatter in the material world. This spiritual energy that bound him seemed to have the opposite effect upon his energy, as if it were an anti-energy spirit. The assaulters drew the ring tighter and his guilt overwhelmed him.

  Could this be the Lord’s way of answering his request?

  Gabriel sat waiting, piling little orbs on the soft canyon floor outside the Khasneh multilayered forest. Azarias arrived with Raffaela and Malachy, but Azarias then stopped abruptly, holding his arms across the other two’s chests. “Ssh!” he whispered. “An artist is at work.”

  Gabriel’s concentration didn’t waver as he placed the last orb on top of the others. “Greetings, friends. I had a feeling the Lord would have you join me.”

  Gabriel stood and approached the wall. Turning around, he opened his arms. His eyes lit up with laughter. “Today is a day for rejoicing in the Lord. We are infiltrating the enemy…and have concerned them.”42

  Raffaela and Malachy looked between Gabriel and Azarias with confusion. Azarias shrugged and smiled. “The Lord told me to bring you here. What I didn’t tell you was that two of the enemy angels objected to Gabriel’s presence in Khasneh. Gabriel overheard them conspiring to challenge the Septemviri. We are now the hunted.”

  “So why are we here, then?” asked Malachy.

  “I observed Gabriel on the Tome as the Lord flew him here,” said Azarias. “We are to help him analyze this carving.”

  Azarias pointed to the edifice. “This carving, my friends, is relevant to our mission. Maybe if we pool our gifts, we can analyze it.”

  Azarias, approaching the rock face adjacent to the multi-level creation, ran his hand over the smooth canyon wall, trying to imagine how angels could change its appearance. Was God involved in this making if it was created against his Will? Azarias estimated that the carving reached about 130 feet high and ninety-two feet wide. The first story of the structure next to it jutted out on six broad, free-standing columns, each forty feet high.

  He stepped back from the wall and arched his head. The second story displayed a three-panel etching. Their meaning escaped his reasoning.

  He looked to the others with wanting eyes.

  Gabriel started. “You are probably wondering why I flew here?”

  Azarias actually did wonder just that. He nodded to Gabriel.

  “Well, I believe the Lord provided a clue at the Khasneh district center, I felt like I was being followed. Every move and every thought seemed compromised since I discovered the existence of enemy angels there. I couldn’t trust anyone. I asked the Lord to tell me what I should do, and my attention was drawn to a sign on one of the domiciles.”

  “What did it say?” asked Raffaela.

  “Past, present, and future.”

  Raffaela looked perplexed. “Why wouldn’t that just be identification?”

  “I thought that at first, but it kept wooing me.”

  He paused. “So, I decided to test the word and see if the Lord would take me somewhere. If His Spirit did not fill my wings, then it was just my imagination. But it did, and here I am.”

  Azarias nodded but still didn’t understand the connection.

  Raffaela rubbed her chin and then pointed to the second story. “If I understand Gabriel correctly, then I believe those three panels are a progression of substantial events.”

  Azarias gazed upwards at the three sectional reliefs carved into the second story. The first section illustrated a glowing spherical object. Radiating lines, apparently symbolizing energy, ejected smaller objects from the center.

  Malachy stepped out and turned slightly to the group. Her face lit up as she pointed to the structure. “I believe the first panel is the creation of the heavens and the earth. It may be the visual description of the Lord creating the universe through His Word. Through it, the Lord created all things by scattering the light into the dark regions of nothingness. That light was His Spirit, which hovered over all things.” 43

  Azarias lit up. “Then this panel must represent the past, or what was.”

  The others nodded.

  His gaze shifted to the second panel. It showed a cherub and the same lines as the first relief, but in this relief, these lines radiated from the cherub. More puzzling was a flame glowing below the base of the cherub. “The second panel shows a cherub. But this cherub is self-radiating without the Lord’s Spirit.”

  “How do you know that, Azarias?” Gabriel asked.

  “Because the Lord’s Spirit is symbolized by the flame at the bottom of the cherub’s feet.”44

  “Maybe the relief means that either this cherub does not need the Lord’s Spirit, or thinks he is superior to Him,” said Raffaela. She looked down with sadness. “I just don’t understand why.”

  Gabriel snapped his fingers. “This cherub must be this Great One referred to by the insurgents at the council chamber.”

  Azarias felt a surge of energy. “My friends, we are looking at the source of the rebellion, the enemy himself. This middle panel represents the present, or what is.”

  The third relief was the most puzzling to Azarias. It consisted of a tree-like structure similar to those in the Khasneh forest. But unlike those trees, this tree looked like it was bearing fruit. Azarias could not identify the two beings that looked up at the tree.

  “Well, it is obviously a panel that depicts what will be. However, will be according to whom?” Raffaela turned and walked behind the others, looking down. “Its nature is foreign to me. I don’t understand the strange tree. It is unlike any object in Heaven. Secondly, the beings standing next to it are not angels. It seems like they are concerned with the tree. See how one is reaching?”

  The angels stared at the relief in silence. Azarias threw up his hands. “Well, maybe the Lord is not allowing us to understand the future as of yet. Let’s move on.”

  The four angels approached the columns. They paused in front of one column and studied it. Azarias tried to touch the column, but his hand passed through it. His brow furrowed.

  Gabriel cautiously walked through it, emerging on the other side. “Have you ever seen anything like that? I passed through the column like it lacked energy. It didn’t even slow my progress.”

  Azarias passed through the column himself and then walked around it slowly. What made this spirit behave in such a way? As hosts of the living God, some spirits bowed in reverence to His Spirit, which dwelled within them. Dwellings and other obstacles slowed an angel’s progress as they passed through them, but not these.

  Malachy’s voice echoed from within the vast cavern. “Azarias, look at this.”

  Azarias turned and joined the others in a large vestibule. He estimated this room to measure about forty-six feet wide, nineteen feet deep and forty feet high, a normal size for a room. But the wall they faced was unusual. It displayed a large circle etching, extending ten feet in diameter. Within the circle was a large five-pointed star pointing downward. Within the star was another smaller circle.

  Azarias stepped in front of the others, staring at the diagram. “So, what is that supposed to be?”

  “It doesn’t appear to be like other works of the Lord,” responded Gabriel.

&nbs
p; Malachy placed her finger on her lower lip. After pausing a moment, she pointed toward the etching. “The circle in Heaven usually symbolizes the Spirit of God. He has no end and no beginning.”

  She looked at the others as if expecting a confirmation. None came.

  Malachy tilted her head and furrowed her brow, her golden-brown streaked eyebrows almost making an arrow pointing to the bridge of her nose. “But why is there the smaller circle in the five-pointed star?”

  The angels studied the symbol in silence.

  “Wait,” said Malachy. Her face glowed with anticipation. Azarias could tell she thrived on challenges regarding Heaven’s mysteries. “We are being too simple. Maybe we are looking at a two-dimensional object that represents a multidimensional world.”

  “Azarias, what do you have when you flatten a transparent globe onto a two-dimensional surface?”

  “A circle, I guess.”

  “Precisely.” Malachy’s face lit up and her speech hastened. “I think the larger circle is the Lord’s throne, a globe form that contains all of Heaven. We are only seeing a flat representation of it. The inner circle is the Siq that exists in the center of Heaven. It too is represented as a smaller global shape of the two intersecting spirals of Heaven, but when flattened, it is displayed as a circle or disk.”

  Azarias nodded with a slow deliberation. He folded his arms. “But I don’t understand the five-pointed star, each point pointing outward as if pointing to the Lord’s Throne, the outer circle.”

  Malachy placed her finger on her bottom lip. “If we are looking at a two-dimensional map of Heaven, the star must be part of that map.” She paused and crinkled her nose. “But what does it represent?”

  Raffaela stepped in front of the other three angels. As she turned, she shot a fearful glance. “Invasion.”

  * * *

  42 Psalm 118:24

  43 Genesis 1:1-5

  44 Acts 2:1-4