Numbers 27
Our father left no sons 4 to carry on his family name. But why should his name die out for that reason? Give us some land like the rest of his relatives in our clan, so our father’s name can live on.
5 Moses asked the Lord what should be done, 6 and the Lord answered:
7 Zelophehad’s daughters are right. They should each be given part of the land their father would have received.
8 Tell the Israelites that when a man dies without a son, his daughter will inherit his land. 9 If he has no daughter, his brothers will inherit the land. 10 But if he has no brothers, his father’s brothers will inherit the land. 11 And if his father has no brothers, the land must be given to his nearest relative in the clan. This is my law, and the Israelites must obey it.
Proverbs 1
These are the proverbs
of King Solomon of Israel,
the son of David.
2 Proverbs will teach you
wisdom and self-control
and how to understand
sayings with deep meanings.
3 You will learn what is right
and honest and fair.
4 From these, an ordinary person
can learn to be smart,
and young people can gain
knowledge and good sense.
5 If you are already wise,
you will become even wiser.
And if you are smart,
you will learn to understand
6 proverbs and sayings,
as well as words of wisdom
and all kinds of riddles.
7 Respect and obey the Lord!
This is the beginning
of knowledge.[a]
Only a fool rejects wisdom
and good advice.
Longing for Eden
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
June 28, 1959
I would like to talk to you on the topic of “Longing for Eden.”
When we think of the original garden before the fall, the Garden of Eden, the first thing that comes to our mind is God. At the same time, Adam and Eve, whom God created on the sixth day and blessed, come to our mind. All things, which were not invaded by sin, come to mind, together with our sinless original ancestors centering on God.
All things should exist for human beings; human beings should exist for God. However, the reality is that the human beings did not center themselves upon God, and all things could not center themselves upon the human beings. This remains as the great sorrow, misery and lamentation which captures our minds and bodies even today. No one can deny this reality.
When we think seriously about our ancestors who lived in the original world and original garden and God, who acted centering only upon the goodness which governed our ancestors, we cannot deny that we are far away from that situation. The more we have an earnest heart to make a relationship with the highest goodness personified in You, the more we agonize over the gap between ourselves and that highest goodness. If there were indeed a person who set out to resolve that agony, he would inevitably feel intense anger and enmity toward the traces of the fall that blocked Adam and Eve from harmonizing with all things and the original world centered on and glorifying only goodness.
Our mind is surely following the path that can connect us with the heavenly heart without even being conscious of it, because we long for that true, original world of goodness. We have the destiny to make an eternal connection with that world and the heavenly heart, transcending the limitations of time. However, our lamentation is that we do not have the external environment or the internal situation which can connect us to that heart.
From this perspective, we cannot deny that we are in a position to resent the fallen Adam and Eve and the reality of our environment today. If I am overwhelmed in this environment, can my mind and body feel happiness? Impossible. We are in such a situation. Therefore, we still have an unavoidable course of difficulty left to overcome this impossible environment.
We should remind ourselves again that we have been struggling until now in search of something without knowing where it was. However, now the time has come. The more I long to purify my conscience, to develop an eternal relationship with God, the subject of conscience, and to establish the standard of eternal happiness, the more I should feel indignant toward this world in which I live. Moreover, we should realize once again that there is no greater pain nor any greater problem than this, because we cannot resolve this indignation within our reality.
If God exists, He would surely love us and visit us in our pain and misery. We can recognize the existence of God by having a relationship of respect and concern for each other. God has been toiling and following the footsteps of fallen humanity, restraining His sorrowful heart, from the day of the fall until now. You must feel this once again.
The title of this reading reminds me of these words of Father:
“There is no need for you to seek God. You need to seek love before seeking God. If you have love in you, God will automatically come to you. He will be drawn to you and bind Himself to you. That is why, if you want to seek God and love Him, you must think of human beings in this world as your brothers and sisters, and love them and relate to them as you would your parents, or even God. If you do so, God will come to you. This is why religion puts so much emphasis on love. However, until now, this has not been achieved, and so the Unification Church must conduct these activities in order to restore that. You receive the Blessing here, but if you expand centred on that union, the universe will become yours”. OCSG p. 1245 (91-235, 1977.2.20)
Again this is the reason why our movement has not been successful, because largely we didn’t practise the First Commandment as Father explained, “Love people first”:
“If you are one with God you must love Cain. If you stand in a position of receiving God’s love, just as you love God with all your heart, soul and mind you must love your tribe, people and nation. This is the first commandment on earth. It is a commandment not of Heaven but of God’s Kingdom on earth. The commandment of God’s Kingdom in Heaven is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. However the first commandment of His Kingdom on Earth is to love our nation and race with all our soul, heart and mind…” Cheon Seong Gyeong P.717 RHS 3.5 (1970/8/29)
We must establish a people centred world; not money, big business, technology, leaders, idols.
God’s Ideal was the family first and foremost. That is what God wants to see, true sinless families inhabiting this world, not the fallen humanity that currently infests the world.