Author: Richard U.

They Were His Enemies Who Had Tried to Kill Him

1 Kings 13

15 “Come home with me,” the old prophet said, “and have something to eat.”

Ezekiel 48

13 I will give the other half of my sacred land to the Levites. Their share will also be eight miles long and three miles wide, 14 and they must never sell or trade any of this land—it is the best land and belongs to me.

Joseph

3. Joseph Meets His Brothers and Reconciles with Them

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob, was sold into slavery in Egypt. However, it was God’s will that he suffer in Egypt, because through Joseph he planned to preserve a future for Israel. We, too, are like Joseph. Our fate is to be mistreated, even though we are striving to save the nation and the world. Therefore, we should all be determined to suffer for the sake of God’s will to restore humanity at the sacrifice of our lives and everything we own. Then our church will be aligned with God’s concept.
    Because I know this, despite all persecutions, I never complain or carry a grudge. Rather, I work tirelessly to overcome every obstacle all the way to the end. (146:124-25, June 8, 1986)
 
It must have been so painful for Joseph to see his brothers when they came to Egypt to purchase grain. They were his enemies who had tried to kill him years before. However, they were still his brothers, of the same blood; further, they loved and cared for his parents during all those years while he lived in a foreign land. Besides, his parents loved them. Thinking of all this, Joseph forgave them. (48:312, September 26, 1971)
 
Joseph’s eleven brothers persecuted him and even attempted to kill him, yet he knew that unless he won them over, he would be unable to bring his parents to Egypt and preserve their lives. God has placed me in precisely the same situation as Joseph. Joseph suffered in Egypt to lay the foundation to save his brothers. Likewise, I am working to save the declining remnants of Christianity. Joseph represented the future of the Israelites; likewise I am taking the responsibility of Joseph to provide a future for Christianity. 
 
Joseph forgave his eleven brothers when they visited him in Egypt because, despite their evil, he knew that they cared for his parents during his absence. Likewise, we cannot help but bless the Christian churches that oppose us because they served God before the Unification Church came into being. (Way of God’s Will 1.3)
 
 

I Am Your Brother Joseph, whom You Sold into Egypt

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1884

I do not receive a salary. I live off my own efforts and means. Wherever I go in this world, I can survive – even if I were to be placed in the farthest reaches of Africa by a helicopter, where there are no human beings or animals. When I went to the mountains, I learned how to survive off the mountains, and when I went to sea, I learned how to survive off the ocean. That is why I am going to the den of beggars and doing these things to create heaven. Even if you do not follow me around, I am trained in such a way that I could fulfill God’s will, even through a bunch of beggars. So, would you or would you not go to the den of beggars if I told you to do so now? But to do so, you need training. (109-152, 1980.11.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1513

For what purpose did God create the universe? If everyone realized that it was for love, how peaceful and close we would feel towards the universe. On that basis, because God has absolute love, His object is sure to live forever. That is the most precious thing of all. (215-300, 1991.2.21)

Joseph

3. Joseph Meets His Brothers and Reconciles with Them

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live, and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might befall him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
    Now Joseph was governor over the land; he it was who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers, and knew them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” Thus Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed of them, and he said to them, “You are spies, you have come o see the weakness of the land.” They said to him, “No, my lord, but to buy food have your servants come. We are all sons of one man, we are honest men, your servants are not spies.” He said to them, “No, it is the weakness of the land that you have come to see.” And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.” But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you, you are spies. By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.”…

    Now the famine was severe in the land. And when they had eaten the grain which they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food… Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man; may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may send back your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” So the men took the present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin; and they arose and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
    When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.”… Then Joseph made haste, for his heart yearned for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there…
    Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their asses. When they had gone but a short distance from the city, Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you returned evil for good? Why have you stolen my silver cup?’ “
    When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there; and they fell before him to the ground. Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed divine?” And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
    Then Judah went up to him and said, “O my lord, let your servant, I pray you, speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant; for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children; and his father loves him.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes upon him.’ We said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’ When we went back to your servant my father we told him the words of my lord. And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; one left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces; and I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring down my gray hairs in sorrow to Sheol.’ Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the lad’s life, when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame in the sight of my father all my life.’ Now therefore, let your servant, I pray you, remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord; and let the lad go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the lad is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would come upon my father.”
    Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him; and he cried, “Make every one go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, I pray you.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Make haste and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not tarry.’”
    Genesis 42.1-45.9

How Do You Know Whether to Complain or Be Grateful?

1 Corinthians 7

7 Now I will answer the questions that you asked in your letter. You asked, “Is it best for people not to marry?“[Or “married couples not to have sex.”] Well, having your own husband or wife should keep you from doing something immoral. 3 Husbands and wives should be fair with each other about having sex. 4 A wife belongs to her husband instead of to herself, and a husband belongs to his wife instead of to himself. 5 So don’t refuse sex to each other, unless you agree not to have sex for a little while, in order to spend time in prayer. Then Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 In my opinion that is what should be done, though I don’t know of anything the Lord said about this matter. 7 I wish that all of you were like me, but God has given different gifts to each of us.

Song of Songs 1

She Speaks:

Young women of Jerusalem,
it is only right
    that you should adore him.
My skin is dark and beautiful,
like a tent in the desert
    or like Solomon’s curtains.
6 Don’t stare at me
just because the sun
    has darkened my skin.
My brothers were angry with me;
they made me work in the vineyard,
    and so I neglected
    my complexion.

Don’t let the other shepherds
    think badly of me.
7 I’m not one of those women
who shamelessly follow
    after shepherds.
My darling, I love you!
Where do you feed your sheep
    and let them rest at noon?

Joseph

2. Joseph’s Path from Prison to a Great Destiny

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

A seemingly chance encounter may be fraught with destiny, so we should not take anything casually.
    You know the story of Joseph. His brothers put him in a well thinking to kill him, but they sold him instead and he was brought to Egypt as a slave. There the wife of his master Potiphar tried to seduce him, and when he would not be tempted she had him imprisoned. While in prison and awaiting the day of his execution, he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and was raised to the rank of Prime Minister of Egypt. How, in the midst of his misery, could Joseph have even imagined that such good fortune would befall him? Yet these things opened the way for him to save the Israelites. Who could have known that it would turn out that way?
    Likewise, if I had not been sent to Heung Nam prison for three years, I never would have committed myself to eradicate communism from this earth with my own hands. I would not have known the reality of communism, but would have simply dismissed it as just another philosophy. It was in prison that I experienced communism first-hand. You cannot imagine the cruelty and misery of life in that prison. Yet out of my experience there I resolved to liberate all people who suffered under the communist yoke. The inmates of that prison faced all kinds of evils, and many of them perished. Yet in that awful place a miracle occurred: something unexpected happened in my life that would one day change history [cause communism to fall].
    When you consider this, how observant you should be in everything you do and at every moment! You should be able to digest any situation you encounter. This is absolutely necessary for your life as a human being. If you live your life with this attitude, success will walk by your side. If you do not, success will always be two steps ahead of you.
    For example, suppose while walking down the street you trip over a crack and knock down a young lady who happens to be walking beside you, sending her to the hospital with a broken ankle. You visit her in the hospital, befriend her, and in time she becomes a church member and gains eternal life. Looking back on that accident, do you think she will curse you or be grateful that it happened? She would say, “It’s amazing! I am so glad that my ankle was broken. Thank you, ankle! Amen!” and add proudly, “In all of history, there is no one who was witnessed to the way I was!”
    Therefore, do not pray, “Please God, guard me from getting into a car accident.” Instead, think that a car accident could be the opportunity that opens the door to many unexpected blessings. Who knows the future? You cannot see it. So how do you know whether to complain about your situation or be grateful? Since you do not know, be grateful. That is the attitude of a wise person. (November 4, 1990)

People in prison fit into two categories. One category is criminals who violated the legitimate interests of society for selfish reasons and broke the law. Even Satan’s world25 does not like such people. The second category is godly people who are disliked by people in Satan’s world. Since people in Satan’s world are God’s enemies, they target the people on God’s side for imprisonment. Everyone in prison, everyone who is executed under Satan’s sovereignty, belongs to one of these two categories. This has been so throughout history.
    God uses the imprisonment of godly people to cut the satanic net that covers this world and, by casting Heaven’s net, to connect all people to the rope of God’s love. Even though the powers of the satanic world put a godly person in prison, they cannot handle him or digest him. Eventually, they will have to pay a penalty.
    When a person whom Satan’s world imprisons loves God more intensely than Satan’s people love in their self-centered way, he creates a problem for Satan’s world. It will have to pay compensation a million-fold. Why? Satan knows that he should belong to God and be under the authority of God’s realm of true love. Therefore, as long as God is alive, when someone is exhibiting true love, Satan cannot show his face. If he nevertheless causes any harm to come to that person, he will have to pay a heavy price for eternity.
    This is the very strategy of God. Often in the past, God sent His beloved children into a situation where they would stand up for righteousness and purposefully make problems for the evil world. They would be imprisoned and sometimes even executed. Yet by killing God’s children, the satanic world has had to pay compensation for thousands of years. By this strategy God could expand the foundation of religion throughout the world. (167:305-06, August 20, 1987)

Since God Has Shown You All This, I Have Set You Over All the Land of Egypt

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2085

I have proclaimed the era of tribal messiahship. Do you know why I had to do this? It is because Korea betrayed me. Therefore, it must be restored through indemnity. I have restored America’s betrayal through indemnity, but I must do it again here. Isn’t that right? (188-59, 1989.2.16)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 998

Because I knew that God was such a lonely and isolated being, I have gone forth knowing that my mission until the day I die was to fulfill even a por-tion of God’s will and desire; to expand a foundation in at least one field and gather together those who can live for the sake of God. It is because I was born as God’s son and because I felt myself responsible for establishing His will that I have persevered until now with love. Even though I was persecuted, and even though I was beaten, I endured all this without taking revenge. Even as I fought my way forward, staggering or crawling on my belly, I always thought about how to set up this tradition and bequeath it to the world. (82-47, 1975.12.30)

Richard: We can all benefit by adopting the spirit exemplified by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Joseph

1. Joseph the Dreamer

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Joseph once told his parents about a dream in which the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. Years later, this dream came true.
    You also have dreams, don’t you? If you have a vivid, unusual dream that you cannot forget even after three years, I want you to know that it is a revelation from Heaven. Any of you who ever had that kind of dream, raise your hands.
    Long before you met the Unification Church, some of you had dreams of meeting an Oriental man and following him. Later, after you joined the church, you recognized him as Reverend Moon.
    These phenomena occur when the spirit world descends and tries to teach you. It may employ one of several distinct types of messages: God or Jesus may appear, an angel may convey a message, or one of your ancestors may appear and speak to you. It is not always easy to understand the meaning and significance of such dreams. (91:274, February 27, 1977)
 
2. Joseph’s Path from Prison to a Great Destiny
 
When Joseph attained his full manhood, We gave him power and knowledge; thus do We reward those who do right. But the woman in whose house he lived sought to seduce him from his true self: she bolted the doors and said, “Now come, dear!” He said, “God forbid! Truly your husband is my lord! He made my sojourn agreeable! Truly to no good come those who do wrong!” And with passion did she desire him, and he would have desired her, but that he saw the evidence of his Lord: thus did We order that We might turn away from him all evil and shameful deeds, for he was one of Our servants, sincere and purified. So they both raced each other to the door, and she tore his shirt from the back; and they met her husband near the door.
    She said, “What is the penalty for one who formed an evil design against your wife but prison or a grievous chastisement?” He said, “It was she that sought to seduce me—from my true self.” And one of her household saw and bore witness, “If it be that his shirt is rent from the front, then is her tale true, and he is a liar! But if it be that his shirt is torn from the back, then is she the liar, and he is telling the truth!” So when he saw his shirt, that it was torn at the back, her husband said, “Behold, it is a snare of you women! Truly, mighty is your snare! O Joseph, pass this over! O wife, ask forgiveness for your sin, for truly you have been at fault.”
    Ladies said in the city, “The wife of the ‘Aziz is seeking to seduce her slave from his true self; truly he has inspired her with violent love; we see she is evidently going astray.” When she heard of their malicious talk, she sent for them and prepared a banquet for them; she gave each of them a knife and said [to Joseph], “Come out before them.” When they saw him, they did extol him and cut their hands; they said, “God preserve us! No mortal is this! This is none other than a noble angel!” She said, “There before you is the man about whom you blamed me! I did seek to seduce him from his true self, but he did firmly save himself guiltless… And now, if he does not do my bidding, he shall certainly be cast into prison and be of the company of the vilest!”
    Qur’an 12.22-32
 
The chief butler said to Pharaoh, “I remember my faults today. When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, we dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own meaning. A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard; and when we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted to us, so it came to pass; I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.”
    Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon; and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it; and I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”… Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dream is one. The seven lean and gaunt cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. It is as I told Pharaoh, God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; the famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of that famine which will follow, for it will be very grievous. And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now therefore let Pharaoh select a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take the fifth part of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine which are to befall the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.” 
    This proposal seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants… Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discreet and wise as you are; you shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command… Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
    Genesis 41.9-41
 
 

I Saw Them Making Obeisance to Me

1 Kings 13

23 After the meal the old prophet got a donkey ready, 24 and the prophet from Judah left. Along the way, a lion attacked and killed him, and the donkey and the lion stood there beside his dead body.

25 Some people walked by and saw the body with the lion standing there. They ran into Bethel, telling everyone what they had seen.

26 When the old prophet heard the news, he said, “That must be the prophet from Judah. The Lord warned him, but he disobeyed. So the Lord sent a lion to kill him.”

Richard: Clearly, it is important to obey what God has said, centered on your conscience.

Matthew 7

2 Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about.

Joseph

Joseph, the dreamer, was hated by his brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt; yet years later when he rose to a high position and his brothers came to Egypt to buy food, he had the opportunity to help them in their distress. Joseph’s troubles with his older brothers, and their eventual reconciliation, mirrored Jacob’s life-long struggle with his older brother Esau. but Joseph is also a story of a godly man rising to a position of great power. Unlike Jacob, Joseph had the power to get revenge on his brothers, and indeed he used it to discomfit them and make them admit their former crime. Yet in the end he forgave them and helped them, because he saw some goodness in them—that they truly cared for their father Jacob.
Father Moon identifies with Joseph’s life of misfortunes and supposedly chance encounters that turned out to be part of a larger divine plan. He is particularly interested in Joseph’s motives for forgiveness, and he applies it to his own situation, as a leader who has endured persecution from his Christian “brothers.”

1. Joseph the Dreamer

When Joseph said to his father, “O my father, I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon—I saw them making obeisance to me.” He said, “O my son, do not tell this dream to your brothers, lest they devise a plan against you. The devil is indeed an open enemy to man. And thus will your Lord choose you, and teach you the interpretation of sayings, and make His favor complete to you and to the children of Jacob, as He made it complete before to your fathers, Abraham and Isaac. Surely your Lord is Knowing, Wise.”
    Verily in Joseph and his brothers there are signs for the inquiring.
    When they said, “Certainly Joseph and his brother (Benjamin) are dearer to our father than we, though we are a company. Surely our father is in plain error.” (One said), “Slay Joseph or banish him to some other land, so that your father’s regard may be exclusively for you, and that after that you may be accounted a righteous people.” Another said, “Slay not Joseph, but if you must do something, cast him into the bottom of the well. Some travelers may pick him up.
    ”They said, “O our father, why won’t you trust us with Joseph, when we are good friends to him? Send him with us tomorrow that he may enjoy himself and play, and we will take good care of him.” He said, “In truth it saddens me that you should take him with you, and I fear lest the wolf devour him while you are heedless of him.” They said, “If the would should devour him while we are so strong a band, then surely we should have already perished.”
    Then when they led him off, and were of one mind that they should place him at the bottom of the well, We inspired in him (Joseph): You will tell them of this deed of theirs when they do not know you.
    And they came to their father at nightfall, weeping and saying, “O father! We went off racing with one another and left Joseph by our goods, and a wolf devoured him. You won’t believe us, though we are truthful.” And they came with false blood on his shirt. He said, “No. Your minds have beguiled you into some matter. My course is comely patience. And God it is whose help is to be sought about that which you describe.”
    And there came travelers, and they sent their water-drawer. He let down his bucket into the well. He said, “Good news! Here is a youth.”  And they concealed him as an article of merchandise, and God was Cognizant of what they did. Then they sold him for a low price, a few pieces of silver, for they attached little value to him.
    Qur’an 12.4-20