Stacey, Sarah and I wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Numbers 8
This ceremony will show that the Levites are different from the other Israelites and belong to me in a special way. 15 After they have been made acceptable and have been dedicated, they will be allowed to work at my sacred tent. 16 They are mine and will take the place of the first-born Israelite sons.
Song of Solomon
My dearest, the cities of Tirzah
and Jerusalem
are not as lovely as you.
Your charms are more powerful
than all of the stars
in the heavens.[a]
5 Turn away your eyes—
they make me melt.
Your hair tosses about
as gracefully as goats
coming down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are whiter
than sheep freshly washed;
they match perfectly,
not one is missing.
7 Behind your veil are hidden
beautiful rosy cheeks.[b]
Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance
Sun Myung Moon
May 18, 1958
God had no choice but to hold onto Adam and Eve and start the providence of restoration. For that reason, God chose Cain and Abel and Noah. By electing and establishing many other families, God has unfolded the work of the providence of restoration. The heart of God as He led the dispensation of this providential history was fretful beyond description. Nevertheless, controlling His feelings, God has endured with great patience.
Yet how many people on this earth today feel the fretful heart of the enduring God and seize God and shed tears? If there was a man on this earth who knew God’s heart like this and shed tears, he would be able to understand that while God rejoiced at the time of the creation of all things in Heaven and earth, God’s grief due to man’s fall encompassed all of the creation in heaven and earth.
If a man were to appear on this earth who represented God’s heart, who endured with patience, a man who could cry with God in sorrow, God would shed copious tears, forgetting all about His dignity as the Creator. He would forget all His glory and power. You must know the heart of God, who was pierced with such a situation as this.
God could not help but unfold the providence after raising the betraying Adam. He raised Noah and Abraham with such a distressed heart. You must understand the heart of God who was unable to desert the enslaved Israelites as they moaned in tribulation and adversities. He led them into the blessed land of Canaan by having raised Moses.
God has developed the history of the providence by electing many prophets and sages and letting them go through a sorrowful course. When 4,000 years of history had elapsed, having developed a new history, God sent Jesus Christ to this earth to work off the grief and the resentful grudge of the 4,000 years. Yet even then Jesus was captured and killed on the cross by the chosen people. Where was the person who knew of God’s sorrow when He had to work out a providence, unable to leave the chosen people? Where were such a church and a race? God wishes for such an individual, such a church and such a race to come forth.
One may seek and step onto the path to Heaven, expecting it to be good. Yet the more he penetrates the heart of God, the more he will find a hill of tears. You may have thought that God’s mind is deep in glory and that God is a being of influence and authority. Rather, God is a being with elements of sadness. You must know that God is in a situation like this.
We today must become Heaven’s sons and daughters who grieve in God’s place. Even if you have some difficulty, are pursued by the surroundings, and receive the rejection of those around you, you must be able to comfort God’s sorrowful heart. Forgetting our feelings of impatience and taking after the will of God, who has come forth enduring with patience until this time, we must now march forward bearing God’s sorrow and pain.
God has endured for our sake, for the benefit of the church and for the good of the betraying nation and the betraying world. The faithful believers in the last days today must emulate God’s heart with tears in their eyes and comfort the mind of God. You must become true sons and daughters in this fashion.
The reason Heaven endured with patience for 4,000 years was that God wished the chosen people to believe in Jesus Christ when he was sent. When the chosen people crucified Jesus on the cross, God’s hope went up in smoke. The people could fulfill the will for which God wished. They were in a position where they could pledge to uphold the heavenly principles. Yet they captured and killed God’s most beloved, only begotten son.
You must now understand that the God whom we call “Father” is the one who has come forth enduring a sad and grievous course with patience for 6,000 years. Moreover, the Father who endured with patience for 6,000 years is not a Father in name only.