Matthew 5
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the side of a mountain and sat down.[a]
Blessings
Jesus’ disciples gathered around him, 2 and he taught them:
3 God blesses those people
who depend only on him.
They belong to the kingdom
of heaven!
4 God blesses those people
who grieve.
They will find comfort!
5 God blesses those people
who are humble.
The earth will belong
to them!
6 God blesses those people
who want to obey him
more than to eat or drink.
They will be given
what they want!
7 God blesses those people
who are merciful.
They will be treated
with mercy!
Job 16
12 Everything was going well,
until God grabbed my neck
and shook me to pieces.
God set me up as the target
13 for his arrows,
and without showing mercy,
he slashed my stomach open,
spilling out my insides.
14 God never stops attacking,
15 and so, in my sorrow
I dress in sackcloth[a]
and sit in the dust.
16 My face is red with tears,
and dark shadows
circle my eyes,
17 though I am not violent,
and my prayers are sincere.
Richard: No one has a “right” to complain about their situation. We can not definitively say whether a particular circumstance is good or bad, in the long run.
The Toil of God as He Tries to Raise up His Beloved Children
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 11, 1959
God’s goal is to raise up individuals and people and to send one embodiment whom He can love and do His work of liberation through. God has been guiding history toward that purpose.
After the Fall, even though human beings betrayed Him so many thousands of times, because God considered them His children, He did not hesitate to do any difficult work or face the risk of death for the sake of achieving His goals. A parent cannot abandon a child just because he is committing sins. Original human beings are the direct children of God who are connected to God’s heart. Even if human beings were to abandon God, God cannot cut off this relationship and abandon people. This is what you have to understand.
When we think about this, we see that we are descendants who deserve to be mistreated by the universe and labeled as violators of filial piety. The same is true for every single person in history, including our good ancestors. From the standpoint of a nation, God is the king. We should serve God as the king and become loyal ministers. Because we are unable to do so, we cannot protest, even if people label us traitors and expose our sins to the world. This is what we are.
If such a relationship existed between two people, they would surely be the bitterest of enemies. How can God overlook these facts? It is because God has a never-ending desire to see people as sons and daughters who will live with Him eternally. Thus, even if God were ostracized today and tomorrow, turned away from this place and that, He could not turn away from His pursuit of the true child.
I have thought about it like this and have cried, “People on the earth! Before you long for your children and cry, long for God and cry. Before you become indignant about something, you should look toward Heaven and feel its indignation. If there is someone who is crazy about something on the earth, he should forget the earth and become crazy about God.”
God is an infinitely sad person. These are not abstract words. With whom will God share His heart? To whom will God reveal His pain and bitterness? There is no such person. For this reason God yearns for sons and daughters to appear on the earth, sons and daughters who can cling to God’s sorrow and pain and comfort Him. This is the highest standard we should aspire to.
What kind of person is God? He is not a ruler but a Father whose relationship with you is inseparable. That Father struggled in relation to the earth with a heart as desperate as if He were going crazy for six thousand years. Nevertheless, people repeatedly caused that Father pain and betrayed Him. If there is someone who recognizes this sin and becomes crazy about God even now, God will not abandon him.