1 Kings 19
Ahab told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had killed the prophets. 2 She sent a message to Elijah: “You killed my prophets. Now I’m going to kill you! I pray that the gods will punish me even more severely if I don’t do it by this time tomorrow.”
Isaiah 60
17 I will bring bronze and iron
in place of wood and stone;
in place of bronze and iron,
I will bring gold and silver.
I will appoint peace and justice
as your rulers and leaders.
18 Violence, destruction, and ruin
will never again
be heard of
within your borders.
“Victory” will be the name
you give to your walls;
“Praise” will be the name
you give to your gates.
Let Us Not Weaken Our Determination Toward Heaven
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 23, 1958
God sent Jesus as the representative on the world level who could do all of this. Many of our ancestors walked the path of suffering to raise this one person. To restore the family Adam lost, God chose the one person who, in place of Adam, drove away the faithless tribe and people and made the determination of faith toward Heaven. This person was none other than Noah.
Noah maintained his unyielding determination even when Heaven dragged him around for 120 years. This is what made him greater than Adam. We know that Adam fell when he had not yet reached adulthood. Because Adam betrayed God, to make it possible for God to believe in us again, we must exert ourselves more than Adam. Even if we are to suffer through toils hundreds of times more harsh, we must be able to break through them.
We have to understand that Noah was not affected when his own self, his family, his relatives, his people and anything in the world put up opposition. Fixed on his determination, he clung to God and fought on for the 120 years of his life. This became the condition for him to be elevated before the humanity of that time, representing God.
The most important thing for Noah, who was inside the realm of the grace of God and escaped the flood judgment, was that he needed someone who could inherit his heart, which possessed the heart of God inside it. However, even Noah himself did not know this.
There was no son who could sympathize with the heart of Noah, who was deeply concerned with the heavenly principles, even while suffering through the 120 years of heartbreaking and distressful toils. No one could say to Noah, “Father, please give me any kind of order.”
If the eight members of Noah’s family had understood Noah’s determination to give all of his heart for God, then they should have stood in the position in which they could absolutely obey Noah, whether they lived or died. They should have obeyed to the extent that they would be willing to die if their father were to die. They should have liked things that their father liked. If they had done that, even if another insignificant bad condition was set, if they could have solidified their hearts centered on God, then they would not have had any problem. Ham should have listened to the words of his father, Noah. No matter what his brothers told him, if they were not in accord with the will of his father, he should not have listened to them. Because he did not listen to the words that he should have listened to and instead listened to words that he should have ignored, Noah’s 120 years of exertion were undermined.
It was the same for Abraham. It was not easy for Abraham to abandon his homeland and all of his belongings to embark upon the road toward the vast wilderness of Ur of the Chaldeans. After understanding the will of God, Abraham had to abandon all of his homeland’s mountains and rivers, as well as his relatives, because of a determination others did not know about. He had to embark upon the search for the land of Canaan.
If Abraham had maintained the same heart he had when he abandoned his homeland and had worried about the will of God, if he had kept to the altar with all his heart and energy, then he could not have made a mistake. While making the offerings, he should have understood that he was in an extraordinary position. By pouring out all of his faith and energy, he should have come forward with the determination to become one with God.
Abraham, who failed at making the sacrifice, needed the sacrifice of Isaac as a substitute for the offering in order to inherit the will of God again. In other words, he needed his son to unite with him and with Noah. This is the reason he searched for the place where his heart and his son’s heart could bear fruit in oneness.
Richard: Pastor Hyung Jin Moon has been a filial son toward his Father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and is victoriously doing the work of God’s Providence.