Exodus 7
10 Moses and Aaron went to the king and his officials and did exactly as the Lord had commanded—Aaron threw the stick down, and it turned into a snake. 11 Then the king called in the wise men and the magicians, who used their secret powers to do the same thing— 12 they threw down sticks that turned into snakes. But Aaron’s snake swallowed theirs. 13 The king behaved just as the Lord had said and stubbornly refused to listen.
Psalm 125
Everyone who trusts the Lord
is like Mount Zion
that cannot be shaken
and will stand forever.
2 Just as Jerusalem is protected
by mountains on every side,
the Lord protects his people
by holding them in his arms
now and forever.
3 He won’t let the wicked
rule his people
or lead them to do wrong.
4 Let’s ask the Lord to be kind
to everyone
who is good
and completely obeys him.
Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 1959
Adam fell because he believed everything that someone told him from the side. If we accept conventional trends of thought, then we may also perish. Therefore, we must re-examine them before we receive them. If you stand in the position of a master who can analyze trends through the philosophy connected to your mind, life and emotions, which philosophy can rescue you? No school of thought can rescue you. Had such fundamental problems been solved, peace would have settled in the realm of heart within you, and there would have been joy in your living environment. You would have enjoyed freedom and equality. No matter how many doctrines are promoting their ideals, we know that there has been no doctrine which has liberated our hearts, emotions and ideologies.
When we hope for the one day when we look up and wake from sleep, when we do away with our present environment and look to Heaven, we will find our Lord there. Human beings have not understood this until now.
What kind of people pursued the will of God during the course of history? They are those who transcended their era and clung to Heaven, those who abandoned earth and yearned for Heaven. They were not tolerated by their era. Rejected by their era, they led a pitiful life. They were extremely miserable people. In this world, where other people have places to rely on and live comfortably, they had nowhere they could depend on, no friend with which to share their heart, no people of similar mind who could give their lives and fight for them. In this sad state, they all faded away.
The young man who came 4,000 years after the fall, the young Jesus, discredited his era, his environment, and the religions up to his time to save all people. What did this young man promote? He promoted the will of God, about which humankind was ignorant.
Jesus cherished the will of God, and knew that what he experienced in reality could be the reference for the comprehensive ideology. Hence, even when the world betrayed him, Jesus overcame it and looked at his new self, his new family, society, nation and world with a new attitude. He was able to look confidently at the new ideology. Moreover, because he understood that its value was higher and more precious than anything else in his world, he was not affected at all by the betrayal of Israel and Judaism. Even when society, his family, a famous scholar, a chief priest or scribe opposed him, no matter what kinds of difficulties and tribulations confronted him from all sides, Jesus remained immutable. He only lifted his gaze again and said, “God!” This was the principle by which he led his life.
Jesus felt infinite sorrow over the environment around him, which denied him. Realizing that God was also grieving over his situation, he felt deeply sorry. Jesus felt blocked by a wall of sorrow toward the people who had repeatedly betrayed God and who had ostracized the many prophets and sages God had sent to establish him.
Therefore, Jesus felt that his death was nothing compared to the grief of God, who had lamented and fought for the sake of humanity. This is why Jesus was able to deny himself and bow down before the heart of God.
This is where a new awakening of humanity and a new beginning of the second selves came about. Humanity was able to meet the spring of life through Jesus. Humanity had been sleeping in sorrow and darkness for 4,000 years. Had they believed in Jesus, they would have been able to greet the new spring and revive their lives.