Category: Cheon Seong Gyeong

God hearkened to Leah


The Richard Urban Show: #95-Black Math Genius Causes Controversy in Jefferson County WV Schools

Editorial: Public School Programs Should Not Be Based on Race

Cheon Seong Gyeong 387

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)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1342

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

Abraham’s Wife Sarah Obeyed Abraham

The Richard Urban Show: #95-Black Math Genius Causes Controversy in Jefferson County WV Schools

Editorial: Public School Programs Should Not Be Based on Race

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1050

The restoration of the global Kingdom of Heaven cannot come into being unless the foundations for the perfection of Abel on the levels of individual, family, tribe, people, nation, and world can be linked. We who understand this must apply this principle in our daily life, regardless of day or night, and in order to carry on the development of this fundamental principle, we have to be on the run without rest. We can say that this type of person is a person of God. Do you understand? (64-81, 1972.10.24)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1043

Which side is the subject partner and which is the object partner? Who is in the position to follow and who is in the position to lead? God accurately knows the answer; it is the one on God’s side. When God looks down on this world, He sees two sides in constant struggle. He already knows the answer to the question, “Which side is God’s?” and laughs, saying: “The people on my side are those who stand in a position of constant sacrifice, commitment, and service. Those on this side are those who fight for justice and I will choose such people.” Those at the center always sacrifice and serve. (147-98, 1986.8.31)

Women of the Bible

Women of great faith and devotion have played central roles in the advancement of God’s providence. From the Mothers of Israel to the significant women in Jesus’ life, the bible records the lives of women who made great efforts for God’s will, often at considerable personal cost. A woman’s life in olden times was not easy, and these women all struggled through particularly trying circumstances while maintaining strong faith in God.
To support her husband Abraham, Sarah endured great hardships and even risked being taken into pharaoh’s harem. Bathsheba was actually taken by King David, who also killed her husband, yet she swallowed her pain with the attitude that she should honor her dead husband by being loyal to her king. Rebecca, on the other hand, went against her husband to support her son Jacob, because she knew he was chosen to carry on the divine will. Rachel and Leah struggled with a female sibling rivalry that paralleled that between Jacob and Esau. Tamer and Mary each risked their lives to bear out of wedlock the children God desired. Mary Magdalene showed exemplary devotion to Jesus, superior even to that of the twelve apostles. Father Moon hints of her intimacy with Jesus and her destiny—were it not for the crucifixion—to become Jesus’ bride.
Father Moon sees a thread running through the lives of all these outstanding women: they were chosen in God’s providence to prepare God’s true lineage. Therefore, he had them develop great faith, and then placed them in circumstances which challenged them to restore the mistakes of the first woman, Eve

1.Sarah

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful to behold; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.” When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, he-asses, menservants, maidser-vants, she-asses, and camels.
    But the lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.” And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had.
    Genesis 12.10-20

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What did Sarah think when Abraham suggested that when they went before Pharaoh they should be introduced as brother and sister? Not long before, she had hurriedly fled their homeland at her husband’s urging. She could have thought, “What a husband! He dragged me away from a comfortable home to this foreign land, and he now does not even want me to call him my husband, but my brother!”
    They had been journeying for months, and she rarely had the occasion to bathe. Living like gypsies, she could not always count on a meal. They had been wandering here today and there tomorrow. Thinking of her difficult life, Sarah could have felt, “What a lousy husband! He has only brought me misfortune morning, day and night. And now he asks me to call him my elder brother, not my husband…”Despite such ordeals, Sarah maintained a hopeful heart and united with her husband. They did not fight during their long journeying. Beside every great man there must be a great woman. Since she was such a great wife to Abraham, if he were ever to take her for granted and try to strike her, God would have been angry with him. (49:144, October 9, 1971)

What about Abraham was better than Noah? Abraham’s wife Sarah obeyed Abraham when he asked her to pose as his sister. Noah’s wife, on the other hand, opposed Noah when he asked her to support him in doing something beyond common sense. From this perspective, Abraham’s wife was better than Noah’s wife. Noah’s family members opposed Noah. His son Ham treated his father with contempt because his mother who raised him was filled with complaints against her husband. Isaac, on the other hand, was raised in the bosom of his mother Sarah who was united with her husband Abraham; hence he willingly obeyed his father even in a situation where he was to be killed. Sarah is the reason why Abraham’s family was better than Noah’s family. (46:322, August 17, 1971)

Without knowing it, Abraham walked this providential course to restore the positions in Adam’s family. When the Archangel took Eve—capturing under his dominion all of Eve’s descendants and the natural world—Adam and Eve were still brother and sister. For Abraham to make the indemnity condition to restore this, he was deprived of Sarah, who was playing the role of his sister, by Pharaoh, who represented Satan. He then had to take her back from Pharaoh as his wife, together with Lot as the representative of all humanity, and wealth symbolizing the natural world. This course which Abraham walked was a model course for Jesus to walk in his day. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 3.1.2.1)

You Had Made Yourselves a Molten Calf

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2267

When Adam and Eve fell, they were conquered by the world of death. Satan, who exercises dominion over the world of death, created families that would turn against God in the age of the ideal of creation and has formed a world that stood in opposition to Him until now. When we consider this, we understand that what God wants most in His heart is the creation of ideal families. He wants to establish families that surpass the standard desired by His enemy. He wants families surpassing the standard that existed in the ideal age before the Fall. We need to think about this. (159-128, 1968.3.7)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1191

Instead of beating His enemy to death God must set the condition of having loved him. In the same way the person standing in the position of Adam has to set up a condition of having loved the enemy Satan. If you endure over and over again while being persecuted, and prevail over all the tears, blood and sweat, until the enemy naturally surrenders to you, and return embracing God’s love, then you can receive the blessing. That is when Satan will let you go. You must receive this public approval; “You can now become a child qualified to go to the heavenly kingdom.” Who must sign this approval? Satan must. After Satan signs this, you will sign it, and then True Parents must sign it. You can only stand before God only after getting this signature from True Parents. That is the heavenly kingdom. (141-202, 1986.2.22)

Moses

2. The Difficulties Moses Faced in Giving the Law and Guiding the Hebrews through the Wilderness

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there, and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God… Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
    Exodus 14.12-18
 
Moses said to Israel, “Know you not with what travail I gained the Torah! What toil, what labor, I endured for its sake. Forty days and forty nights I was with God. I entered among the angels, the Living Creatures, the Seraphim, of whom any one could blast the whole universe in flame. My soul, my blood, I gave for the Torah. As I learnt it in travail, so do you learn it in travail, and as you learn it in travail, so do you teach it in travail.”
    Sifre Deuteronomy (Judaism)
 
The whole congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
    Exodus 16.2-3
 
At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me [Moses] the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, “Arise, go down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molten image… Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”
    So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. So I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin which you have committed… because the Lord had said that he would destroy you. And I prayed to the Lord, “O Lord God, destroy not your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.’ For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”
    Deuteronomy 9.11-29
 
Moses said, “I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will go over before you; he will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them; and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them: for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” Then Moses summoned Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and of good courage; for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you or forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed.”
    Deuteronomy 31.2-8
 
 
 

I Am Who I Am

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1995

There is no doubt that the Kingdom of God is a place governed according to the will of God. It is governed by the sovereignty held by His children of direct descent, centering on Him and following the commands issued by Him. In such a place, democracy or communism cannot exist. Once it is established, the kingdom would remain eternally. Taking all this into consideration, one cannot help but think that it is truly lamentable that we are not citizens of such a heavenly kingdom. You should lament that you are not a citizen of such a nation. In fact, we should all lament that we do not have such an unchanging sovereignty. (72-292, 1974.9.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1186

What happened due to the Ceremony of the Settlement of the Eight Stages? The right of Right of the parent can be liberated and achieved. Because this time is coming, then, from the position of Parents, I am raising all of you into a position where you can be tribal messiahs. This is to liberate Jesus and Adam’s family from their grief. Through your tribes, you can obliterate the foundation created by the mistake of false parents; in this way, for the first time, hometowns where people were born can be transformed into the hometowns of the heavenly kingdom. (193-214, 1989.10.4)

Moses

Moses led an adventurous life, from the comforts of the palace to the hardships of exile in Midian, from the heady days when he led the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt to his painful struggle to keep them united during their long years of wandering in the wilderness. Yet two constants guided Moses every step of the way: his zealous love for his people and his firm faith in the transcendent God who is mighty to save.
The Bible says that Moses alone knew God “face to face.” Father Moon focuses on this aspect of Moses’ inner life, explaining that Moses was keenly aware of God’s anguished heart over the plight of his people and knew God’s burning desire to free them and establish them as a nation in Canaan. Hence he was willing to sacrifice everything to relieve God’s anguish and establish the Israelites in a way that would be acceptable to God.

1. Moses’ Zeal to Liberate His People

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together; and he said to the man that did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh, and stayed in the land of Midian.
    Exodus 2.11-15

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” When the lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here am I.” Then he said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
    Then the lord said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain.”
    Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name,’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” He said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt; and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt.” ’ ”|
    Exodus 3.1-17

And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt; for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt; and in his hand Moses took the rod of God.
    And the lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the lord, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me”; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son.’”
    At a lodging place on the way the lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So he let him alone. Then it was that she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision…
    Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
    Exodus 4.19-31

We sent forth Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his council with Our signs, but they waxed proud, and were a sinful people. So when the truth came to them from Us, they said, “Surely this is a manifest sorcery.”… None believed in Moses, save a seed of people, for fear of Pharaoh and their council, that they would persecute them; and Pharaoh was high in the land, and he was one of the prodigals. Moses said, “O my people, if you believe in God, in Him put your trust, if you have surrendered.” They said, “In God we have put our trust. Our Lord, make us not a temptation to the people of the evildoers, and deliver us by Thy mercy from the people of the unbelievers.”…
    Moses said, “Our Lord, You have given to Pharaoh and his council adornment and possessions in this present life. Our Lord, let them go astray from Thy way; our Lord, obliterate their possessions, and harden their hearts so that they do not believe, till they see the painful chastisement.” He said, “Your prayer is answered; so go you straight, and follow not the way of those that know not.”
    And We brought the children of Israel over the sea; and Pharaoh and his hosts followed them insolently and impetuously till, when the drowning overtook them, he said, “I believe that there is no god but He in whom the children of Israel believe; I am of those that surrender.” “Now? And before you were a rebel, one of those who did corruption. So today We shall deliver you with your body, that you might be a sign to those after you. Surely many men are heedless of Our signs.”
    Qur’an 10.75-92

 
 
 

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