Author: Richard Urban

God hearkened to Leah


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I would say that marriage is a ceremony to open and enter the gate of the palace of happiness. It is for this reason that marriage is a great event of human affairs. Love is the greatest thing in human affairs, for it transcends time and space, and marriage is a ceremony to reveal and confirm such love. (Blessed Family – 356)

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The 36, 72, and 120 Couples are a team; they cannot be separated. The 36 Couples refer to the successive generations of ancestors. The 72 Couples represent their children. The 120 Couples signify the high priests of nations in the world and represent the twelve tribes. They are the branches of these tribes that have spread out into the world. The matter at hand is to unite the ancestors Cain and Abel and the twelve tribes. That is the great work of restoration. (82-237, 1976.1.31)

Women of the Bible

3. Rachel and Leah

Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful and lovely. Jacob loved Rachel… more than Leah…
    When the lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, “Because the lord has looked upon my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also”; and she called his name Simeon. Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons”; therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the lord “; therefore she called his name Judah; then she ceased bearing.
    When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees, and even I may have children through her.” So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son”; therefore she called his name Dan. Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed.”…
    In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Give me, I pray, some of your son’s mandrakes.” But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.” When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. And God hearkened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband”; so she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she called his name Zebulun. Afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”; and she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the lord add to me another son!”
    Genesis 29.30-35; 30.1-24

A Woman, Eve, Fell by Uniting with the Archangel

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James 5

5 You rich people should cry and weep! Terrible things are going to happen to you. 2 Your treasures have already rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your money has rusted, and the rust will be evidence against you, as it burns your body like fire. Yet you keep on storing up wealth in these last days. 4 You refused to pay the people who worked in your fields, and now their unpaid wages are shouting out against you. The Lord All-Powerful has surely heard the cries of the workers who harvested your crops.

Psalm 37

38 But not a trace will be left
    of the wicked
    or their families.

Women of the Bible

2. Rebecca

Now Rebecca was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat it, and bless you before the lord before I die.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. Go to the flock, and fetch me two good kids, that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he loves; and you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” But Jacob said to Rebecca his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” His mother said to him, “Upon me be your curse, my son; only obey my word, and go, fetch them to me.”
Genesis 27.5-13

Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebecca; so she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran, and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away; until your brother’s anger turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send, and fetch you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
    Then Rebecca said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
    Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, “You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Paddanaram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take as wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. Genesis 27.41-28.2

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

From time to time in human history, a woman appears who initiates a great revolution to find the path of God’s love. She leads her people to offer their lives, possessions, attachments to cultural traditions and such, for God’s sake.
    Rebecca, Jacob’s mother, was one such woman. Due to her efforts, Jacob could be victorious and receive the name “Israel.” It was Rebecca who inspired him to claim the birthright of the elder son, and then guided him to receive the blessing from his father Isaac.
    What Rebecca did was to unite with her younger son Jacob. On his behalf, she deceived her husband and her eldest son, thus enabling him to fulfill the will of God. In doing this, she was an exceptional woman.
    Have you ever heard of someone trying to steal the birthright from his elder brother? From a conventional viewpoint, Jacob’s mother was a liar and Jacob was a swindler. The Bible records these things clearly, as well as the fact that God approved of them. This has been a puzzle for Bible students.
    This world belongs to Satan, therefore for God to bless His sons and daughters with the birthright of the elder son requires that they make a condition to restore the world from Satan’s realm. Do you think anyone can persuade Satan to surrender his rights by reasoned arguments? No. Satan originally stole this world through deceit… In restoration, God’s central figures can do to Satan exactly what he did to them; that is how God can take back all that Satan had stolen.
    A woman who unites with God should be the one to take the initiative. The Fall happened when a woman (Eve) united with Satan. Then together they took the man (Adam). Therefore, a woman should unite with God and bring the man back. Rebecca took on that role. First she should pull Jacob to God’s side; then together they should pull her husband and [eldest] son. From this perspective we can recognize the rightness of their actions. (105:118-20, October 4, 1979)
 
In Jacob’s family, as long as Esau continued to hold resentment against Jacob [for taking his father’s blessing], the family could not be united and stand before God. Therefore, Esau and his father had to be brought to a voluntary surrender. They should reach the point where they would genuinely praise Rebecca; until that day the family could not return to a position acceptable to God.
    Rebecca served them devotedly and apologized with tears, “I am sorry; it is my fault.” Yet even if Isaac and Esau forgave her, would even thousands of apologies be enough to calm their hearts towards Jacob when he appeared before them? They had to submit to Jacob freely, by their own will. There would be no restoration unless Esau (in the position of Cain) and Isaac (in the position of Satan) yield to Jacob (in the position of Abel), saying, “Jacob, you were right to claim the birthright. I will accept you.” 
    Jacob worked hard for that, of course, but his mother worked even harder—hundreds of times harder. She worked hard to change their attitudes, making sure they pledged repeatedly not to kill Jacob. How much rested upon Rebecca! She fulfilled a vital mission to make the restoration possible. (244:240-41, February 14, 1993)
 
A woman, Eve, fell by uniting with the archangel. She denied her father God and Adam her intended husband. Therefore women, be on your guard! You should expect to take the lead in the course of restoration; you will go first on this path ahead of the men. Woman must rise up who can face down opposition from their fathers and their husbands in the satanic world. Unless you can be steadfast, the men in your life cannot return to the original world.
   Religions have been developing through this formula; they are in the role of the bride. Hence, in general, women are more fervent in religious persuasion while men are more worldly. Whenever faithful women seek for God, they are bound to face opposition from both Satan and the men in their life. (89:208, November 22, 1976)
 
 

Noah Had Severed His Ties to Satan

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Since we have to work for the tong ban breakthrough, you must return to your homes. Adam and Eve started out as a man and woman, and became defiled as a son and daughter. So in order to get this situation under control, we must return to the family. You must seek out your tribe and relatives and wash them by investing your blood, sweet, and tears. Don’t wash them with water. Only when you wash them by investing your blood, sweat, and tears will you be successful. Unless you enter the house and invest your blood, sweet, and tears, restoration will not take place. That way is the way I must go. (208-172, 1990.11.17)

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What is most needed in the fallen world are the True Parents who have gone beyond the realm of the Fall. According to the Principle, they are the ones who have completed their portion of responsibility and have transcended that sphere. They have entered the realm of direct dominion, having left the realm of indirect dominion. What is the realm of direct dominion? It is a world united in love. At this stage, the other master cannot appear. This is absolute. If you are completely united in love you will not follow two masters. God Himself does not desire to see another master and neither does humankind. Achieving this stage establishes an eternal foundation. If this is extended to a family, a tribe, a people and a nation, then the heavenly fortune will rotate centered on that axis of love. (149-154, 1986.11.21)

Noah

2. The Sin of Ham

Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”
    Genesis 9.20-25

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Noah’s position right after the flood was much like that of Adam after the creation of heaven and earth. Adam and Eve before the Fall were close in heart and innocently open with each other and with God; as it is written, they were not ashamed of their nakedness. Yet after they fell, they felt ashamed of their nakedness. They covered their lower parts with fig leaves and hid among the trees of the garden, fearing that God would see them. This shame was an indication of their inner reality, for they had formed a bond of blood ties with Satan by committing sin with their sexual parts. By covering their lower parts and hiding, they expressed their guilty consciences, which made them feel ashamed to come before God.
    Noah, who had severed his ties to Satan through the forty-day flood judgment, was supposed to secure the position of Adam right after the creation of the universe. God expected that the members of Noah’s family would react to Noah’s nakedness without any feelings of shame and without any thought to conceal his body… Had Ham been one in heart with Noah, regarding him with the same heart and from the same standpoint as God, he would have looked upon his father’s nakedness without any sense of shame. He thus would have fulfilled the indemnity condition to restore in Noah’s family the state of Adam and Eve’s innocence before the Fall.
    We can thus understand that when Noah’s sons felt ashamed of their father’s nakedness and covered his body, it was tantamount to acknowledging that they, like Adam’s family after the Fall, had formed a shameful bond of kinship with Satan and were thus unworthy to come before God. Satan, like the raven hovering over the water, was looking for a condition to invade Noah’s family. He attacked the family by taking Noah’s sons as his object partners when they in effect acknowledged that they were of his lineage. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 2.2)
 
Our forefather Noah worked alone. He built the ark with absolute faith, but his family did not unite with him. Because of this, everything fell apart. If Ham had become one with his father in love, why should he have felt shame? If Ham had been one in heart with Noah, he would have had no reason to feel ashamed at seeing his father’s nakedness. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Ham had lay down to sleep naked beside his father? If so, when Noah awoke to see him naked, don’t you think he would have blessed him, saying, “My son is just like me”? (268:293, April 3, 1995)
 
If only Noah had been more prudent after the Flood and had not lain naked! Had he been more prudent, would he have done it? Had he been more persevering, would he have allowed himself to get drunk? Certainly not! (99:38, August 27, 1978)
 
 

When God Gives a Command, It is not Something that Is Easy to Believe

Hebrews 13

11 After the high priest offers the blood of animals as a sin offering, the bodies of those animals are burned outside the camp. 12 Jesus himself suffered outside the city gate, so that his blood would make people holy. 13 That’s why we should go outside the camp to Jesus and share in his disgrace. 14 On this earth we don’t have a city that lasts forever, but we are waiting for such a city.

15 Our sacrifice is to keep offering praise to God in the name of Jesus. 16 But don’t forget to help others and to share your possessions with them. This too is like offering a sacrifice that pleases God.

Jeremiah 50

37 Then your chariot horses
and the foreigners in your army
    will refuse to go into battle,
and the enemy will carry away
    everything you treasure.

Noah

1. Noah and the Flood

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When God gives a command, it is not something that is easy to believe; rather it is something unbelievable. For example, God ordered Noah to build an ark for 120 years for the preparation for the flood judgment.9 Further, God ordered him to build the ark not by a river but on a mountaintop. Was it easy for Noah to believe this direction? The human ancestors fell due to the faithlessness; therefore, God needed Noah to stand on absolute faith. That is the reason He did not give him a command that was easy to believe. (53:93, February 10, 1972)

What do you think Noah’s family thought of him? Noah built the ark on the top of a mountain. If it had been on flat land it would be one thing, but building a ship on the top of a mountain is not only beyond common sense, it also certainly exceeded the limits of tolerance. In any ordinary sense, Noah was acting like a crazy man. If he wanted to build a ship, he should have built it on a river-bank, but since he built it on a mountain, his action was totally beyond common sense.
    When God gave that command, do you think He did it in a joking manner? No. God knew better than anyone that Noah’s course would require lifelong dedication on a path of unbearable suffering. God’s anxiety at giving that command was greater than Noah’s suffering. Nevertheless, God commanded Noah to go the path of suffering for 120 years, hoping thereby to gain a way to resolve His inner situation. How miserable was God’s heart? His misery was indescribable.
    At the decisive, tense moment, when whether or not to accept that command hung in the balance, Noah chose to obey God. At that moment, who do you think was happier, God or Noah? Had it gone the other way, God is the one who would have been saddened more than Noah. God’s position is that of a Lord who takes responsibility for joy and sorrow. (48:69, September 5, 1971)

Imagine, you women here, that you were Noah’s wife. Do you think you would have approved of him? Perhaps not. Every day he must have climbed up and down the mountain to build an ark, claiming that he had received a command from God. Every day his wife must have packed his lunch. Since Noah was too busy building the ark to provide for his family, she must have had to take the burden of providing for the family. In the beginning she might have been able to manage it, but within a few months family squabbles must have begun. Yet this difficult situation had to continue not for just twelve months or twelve years, but for 120 years. When she realized that she had to do it for 120 years, she must have fiercely accused her husband, saying that he had gone insane.
    Why couldn’t God instruct Noah to carry out His Will in ordinary circumstances? The reason is this: God cannot dwell together with evil. God’s direction is 180 degrees contrary to the direction of Satan. God abhors evil! If even a few people who are comfortable living in the satanic world have a small amount of faith in Him, God would not be pleased. In God’s sight, the things that are precious to people who compromise with evil would only defile His world.
    Even ordinary people have such a feeling. We do not like anything about our enemy; we do not even want to see him. If so, would the absolute God be pleased to receive praise from the evil world? Hence, God worked in a way that made it impossible for the people of the fallen world to have faith in Him. (69:94-95, October 21, 1973)

For one hundred and twenty years, Noah tolerated the faithless people who opposed and ridiculed him. Even when God told him to warn them that the earth was about to be judged, he accomplished his duty to God in faith. Because he was a righteous man, he was deeply concerned and saddened for the corrupt society in which he lived. While most people were living for their personal comfort, Noah alone struggled to uphold the commandment of public righteousness; Noah alone was concerned about the will of God; and Noah alone grieved in circumstances no one would want to endure. (3:169-70, October 25, 1957

He Began to Build the Ark

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Do our political leaders love the nation? Politicians do not care about what is going on in the nation, but just fight to get the presidency. Just let them try and do it! Everything will just fade away eventually, dissolving like bubbles, because they do not have the heart to sincerely live together with the people. If a leader cannot love the people, then he cannot escape the judgment of his people and history. (148-275, 1986.10.11)

Richard: False and fake political leaders will meet their reckoning.

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How many times a day do you think about your portion of responsibility? You have to remember this many times: when you eat, when you hold a spoon, when you wash the dishes, while you go to the toilet, while you walk…. Adam and Eve did not think about their portion of responsibility and consequently came to ruin. We must not become people who, like Adam and Eve, cannot fulfill our responsibility and fall. To become someone who can be restored and be victorious we have to respect and consider our portion of responsibility twenty-four hours a day. (124-103, 1983.1.30)

Noah

Noah is the first Biblical father of faith. His remarkable work to build an ark, believing God’s command that a flood was about to destroy humanity, showed faith far beyond the ordinary. Father Moon emphasizes the incredible faith of Noah, which was difficult to comprehend even for his wife and family. Another quality of Noah was his compassion for the people whom he knew to be doomed, enabling him to follow God’s command that he announce to the very people who were mocking and persecuting him that the judgment was imminent and invite them into his boat.
The story of Noah goes far back in the historical record. Diverse versions of the story go back 5,000 years, to ancient Sumer and Babylon. There is reason to believe that the account is based on historical fact, from evidence of a massive flood that wiped out a whole civilization in the region of the black sea some 7,500 years ago.
The biblical story of Noah ends with the sin of his son ham. Father Moon regards this as a serious setback for God’s providence. Always viewing history from a family perspective, he sees ham’s mistake as fracturing the unity of Noah’s family such that it could no longer serve in God’s providence.

1. Noah and the Flood

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the lord…And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
      Genesis 6.5-8, 13-16
 
My counsel… was inspired in Noah: “None of your people will believe except those who already believe, so grieve not at what they do. Make an ark under Our eyes and by Our inspiration, and speak not to Me on behalf of those who are unjust. Surely they will be drowned.”
    And he began to build the ark. And whenever the chiefs of his people passed by him, they laughed at him. He said, “Though you mock us, yet we too mock you even as you mock; and you shall know to whom will come a punishment that will confound, and upon whom will fall a lasting doom.”
    At length when Our command came to pass and the oven gushed forth water, We said, “Load in two of every kind in pairs, and your household—but not those against whom the word has already gone forth—and those who believe. Yet but a few were they who believed with him.
    He said, “Embark in it, and in the name of God may be its sailing and its anchoring. Surely my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful.”
    And it sailed with them amid waves like mountains. And Noah called out to his son, who was standing aloof, “O my son, embark with us, and be not with the disbelievers.” He said, I will betake myself for refuge to a mountain that will save me from the water. Noah said, “This day there is no one safe from God’s command, but he on whom He has mercy. And a wave came between them, so he was among the drowned.
    Qur’an 11.36-43 
 
God… did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the ungodly.
    2 Peter 2.5
 
Lo! We sent Noah to his people, saying, “Warn your people before there comes to them a painful doom.” He said, “O my people! Verily I am a plain warner to you. Serve God and keep your duty to Him, and obey me, that He may forgive you some of your sins and grant your respite to an appointed term. Surely the term of God, when it comes, cannot be delayed. Did you but know!”
    He said, “My Lord! I have called unto my people night and day, but all my calling has added to their repugnance. Whenever I call them that You may pardon them, they thrust their fingers in their ears and cover themselves with their garments and persist, magnifying themselves in pride.”
    Qur’an 71.1-7