Once upon a time – actually, even before time began – there was a King, a perfectly good and wise and just King. This good King created a kingdom and brought order to its lands, providing trees yielding delicious fruit, rivers to water the fertile garden, and all manner of other delights. To inhabit and rule over this small kingdom, He created a prince and princess and gave them freedom to enjoy the beautiful land He had prepared for them. Only one limit did He place on their liberty, so that by honoring this law they could express their love and loyalty to Him as their King. If they should disobey this one law, death would be the consequence.
Alas, a usurper had arisen among the King’s servants in another part of His realm. Knowing he could not destroy the King, he sought to destroy the kingdom. Taking the disguise of a serpent, this traitor persuaded the prince and princess to doubt the goodness of their King. They broke His one law and cast their allegiance with the adversary. Grieved over their disloyalty, the King cast them out of the little kingdom He had prepared for them.
Because He was a just King, He fulfilled His word and sentenced them to death, the penalty for traitors throughout the ages. However, because He still loved them even in their rebellion, He allowed the death of an innocent substitute in their places. Even better, He promised that one day a Deliverer would be born to a princess, and although this Deliverer himself would be wounded, he would crush, once and for all, the usurper who had tempted them.
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