Category: 1 Kings

Heaven Wanted to find Someone who Knew Jesus

1 Kings 20

12 Meanwhile, Benhadad and the other kings had been drinking in their tents. But when Ahab’s reply came, he ordered his soldiers to prepare to attack Samaria, and they all got ready.

13 At that very moment, a prophet ran up to Ahab and said, “You can see that Benhadad’s army is very strong. But the Lord has promised to help you defeat them today. Then you will know that the Lord is in control.”

14 “Who will fight the battle?” Ahab asked.

The prophet answered, “The young bodyguards who serve the district officials.”

“But who will lead them into battle?” Ahab asked.

“You will!” the prophet replied.

15 So Ahab called together the two hundred thirty-two young soldiers and the seven thousand troops in Israel’s army, and he got them ready to fight the Syrians.

Richard: Notice here that a small vanguard of bodyguards leads the troops, who are in turn led be Ahab, who was not confident that he could lead the troops.

Mark 12

13 The Pharisees got together with Herod’s followers.[a] Then they sent some men to trick Jesus into saying something wrong. 14 They went to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are honest. You treat everyone with the same respect, no matter who they are. And you teach the truth about what God wants people to do. Tell us, should we pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”

15 Jesus knew what they were up to, and he said, “Why are you trying to test me? Show me a coin!”

16 They brought him a silver coin, and he asked, “Whose picture and name are on it?”

“The Emperor’s,” they answered.

17 Then Jesus told them, “Give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God.” The men were amazed at Jesus.

Jesus Whom God Wanted To Find

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 18, 1959

Matthew 23:29-39

The short speech that I want to give today is on the topic of “Jesus Whom God Wanted to Find.”

We know that Jesus is the only begotten son of God. God wanted to find Jesus for four thousand years. God found Jesus after the Israelites went through all kinds of conditions of hard work. Jesus was a person who worked hard to fulfill the will of God and the will of the people who wanted to attend him. Thus, the fate of Heaven, the historic fate of the chosen people of Israel, the fate of the age and the fate of the future were all entangled centering on Jesus. When God found Jesus, His purpose for choosing Israel was to be fulfilled. When God embraced Jesus completely, He was embracing the chosen people of Israel. When God could dwell joyously with Jesus, He could dwell with the people of Israel. It was the work of God to find Jesus in total fulfillment. Moreover, attending Jesus completely is the hope of the fallen descendants and of mankind, who are anticipating salvation.

To find Jesus Heaven went through all kinds of hardships from after the Fall until his arrival. In order to attend this one man, the chosen people went through a road of unspeakable persecution and the road of death in their historic course. They repeated numerous times the history of struggle where they fell down, stood up, stood up and fell down, and stood up again. This historical sorrow of the chosen people of Israel would have been removed by their clinging to Jesus. The sorrow of God, who had suffered to send Jesus, also would have been removed.

Jesus did come. Jesus came to this land and worked hard. Jesus fought for us in this land. He endured and fought for Heaven. He even went the road of death alone. Jesus actually did come for the age and the future.

But he is in a position of not having removed the sorrow of history and not having removed the sorrow of the age. For that reason today, two thousand years after Jesus’ coming, he has to come again. This age needs Jesus to come again. The future also needs Jesus.

When we think of this, how much would God have longed to see Jesus as a person who had completed God’s hope? How much would Jesus have wanted to stand in a position representing the dignity of Heaven on the one hand and the dignity of earth on the other? But Jesus never got to establish that dignity in its totality.

Jesus, having appeared to his people, probably longed to reign as King of Kings, the governor of all people and the crown prince of Heaven. Even if that did not happen, the Israelites, who had been prepared for four thousand years, should not have abandoned him, even at the risk of their lives. He would not have let go of the Israelites even at the point of death. But with death at hand, they divided and separated. Thus, he disappeared from the people, and he was in a situation where he had to depart from this earth. We should know this clearly. Jesus was filled with a sense of his historic mission and a sense of the mission to the age. Moreover, he was filled with a heart of wanting to save mankind, who were crying out as they were swept away by the wave of death. Was there a person who attended this Jesus, the Messiah, the only begotten son of God? There was no one.

If there is something that Heaven looked for from Jesus, what would that have been? If there was something that Heaven wanted to find, it would have been someone who knew Jesus. The person who truly knows him is a person who knows God. The person who knows God knows him. The Israelites, who considered that they knew God, were supposed to attend Jesus. But mankind lost Jesus. Heaven lost him, and he had to die, leaving his mission behind on this earth. We should recognize this fact again.

Salvation is to Restore What has Been Lost

Ezekiel 44

The Lord said:

15 The priests of the Levi tribe who are descendants of Zadok the priest were faithful to me, even when the rest of the Israelites turned away. And so, these priests will continue to serve as my priests and to offer the fat and the blood of sacrifices. 16 They will come into my temple, where they will offer sacrifices at my altar and lead others in worship.

1 Kings 20

23 Meanwhile, Benhadad’s officials went to him and explained:

Israel’s gods are mountain gods. We fought Israel’s army in the hills, and that’s why they defeated us. But if we fight them on flat land, there’s no way we can lose.

24 Here’s what you should do. First, get rid of those thirty-two kings and put army commanders in their places. 25 Then get more soldiers, horses, and chariots, so your army will be as strong as it was before. We’ll fight Israel’s army on flat land and wipe them out.

Benhadad agreed and did what they suggested.

The Toil of God as He Tries to Raise up His Beloved Children

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 11, 1959

John 3: 11-21

1 Corinthians 7:28-29

If this is what the God who sought me is like, then how about tomorrow? Is there any way to comfort this God? Even if human beings were to experience pain, there is no greater pain than God has experienced. No matter how unsolvable a problem human beings have, there is no problem more difficult to resolve than God’s.

Do you think that God yearns for the appearance of a son who will say to Him, “Father, how much You have suffered,” with a heart more sorrowful than His? Have you ever thought that God sought sons and daughters who can say, “Father, how much have You suffered, how many times have You fallen down, and how many times have You struggled?” He wants sons and daughters who can endure many sufferings, persecutions and difficulties and cast away all sorrows, bitterness and indignation. The God we believe in and should serve is such a person.

Where are the true sons and daughters who understand the sorrow of God, who is seeking us even while going the course of the cross? We need such sons and daughters. You have to understand clearly that the group, the people, the nation and the world which can unite centering on such sons and daughters is the world that God is hoping to realize, the ideal world of creation.

I know God as a miserable being. Misery is the only word to describe God’s situation. No matter how miserable a person may be, compared to God, he is not miserable. No matter what kind of sorrow there may be, it is not comparable to that of God. No matter how bitter one may be, compared to God, he has no problem.

Upon creating Adam and Eve, God desired a garden of goodness. God created them in order to embrace them and love them and rejoice while all things of the universe reciprocated in harmony. Yet when we look at the Bible, where does it say that such a thing ever took place? The heart of God over losing Adam and Eve is the heart of sorrow over losing one’s only son and only daughter.

It is said that Jesus is the only son. What does the only son refer to? It refers to the only son who can receive God’s love and comfort God. Since Adam lost God’s love due to the Fall, Jesus was sent to recover it. He is the first son and the only son born of God’s love. That is why he is referred to as the only begotten son. What was Jesus supposed to do on the earth? He should have shown us what the love of God is like. He was supposed to show us what life centering on God’s love is like, what society centering on God’s love is like, and what the world centering on God’s love is like.

When Jesus came to the earth, did he clearly show what the love of God is like? He passed away without showing it fully to us. Did he show what the family that God loves is like? Did he show what the people, nation, and the world that God loves are like? He could not.

If Adam and Eve had reached perfection without falling, God would have raised two arms and blessed them, “Oh, my beloved sons and daughters, I want you to inherit My work and govern all the things of the universe and live together with Me eternally.” However, this will of God was completely undermined. For this reason God longs for the one day that He can bless two people like Adam and Eve, giving them all of Heaven and earth. This is what you have to understand.

What is salvation? It is to restore what has been lost. This is why while going through the historical course of ups and downs, God held the people up every time they became tired and fell down. After four thousand years passed, God sent Jesus.

By sending him God wanted to unveil the sorrow and unload the suffering of the four thousand years. Through Jesus God wanted to restore and complete the ideal of the creation of the universe. Jesus was the person sent as the one responsible for that. Jesus was the one sent to complete the ideal of creation.

We Should Long for Eden

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Exodus 38

8 Bezalel made a large bowl and a stand out of bronze from the mirrors of the women who helped at the entrance to the sacred tent.

I Kings 19

20 Elisha stopped plowing and ran after him. “Let me kiss my parents good-by, then I’ll go with you,” he said.

“You can go,” Elijah said. “But remember what I’ve done for you.”

21 Elisha left and took his oxen with him. He killed them and boiled them over a fire he had made with the wood from his plow. He gave the meat to the people who were with him, and they ate it. Then he left with Elijah and became his assistant.

Longing for Eden

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
June 28, 1959

Genesis 2: 1-25

We members of the Unification Church should have a kind of flower which we like the most among all the flowers, just as God loves certain things more than others among all of His creations. If we do not have such a feeling, then we should be disqualified from the world of the heart. You should be able to say which flower out of all the flowers, which tree out of all the trees, which grass out of all the grasses you like the most. Only then will you have a longing mind toward nature.

As one’s life vibrates, the one who has a relationship of heart which can embrace life and attract nature would be a person of dedicated will and seriousness. The nature we are looking at, this land we are stepping on, what kind of nature and what kind of land are they? Unfortunately, it became fallen land, sorrowful land. You should feel this. When you look at all things, you should feel the sorrowful situation of all things, as well as joy and goodness, for they remain in the realm of lamentation. Fallen humankind should feel unlimited sorrowful emotion and be able to connect with God as they look at beautiful places and enjoy them.

We should be a people who can feel sad, who can cry, and who can sigh, instead of feeling joy as we hold a blade of grass, look at a tree or mountain, and all other things. We should know that this mind emerges out of a longing for Eden. God is filled with such a heart. Humankind has not escaped from that relationship of heart until now. The person with such a heart would long for Eden as he looked at nature. When longing for Eden, we should long not only for nature within it, but also for the original person who can own all things there.



A Person of Authority Is to Live for the Sake of the Whole

1 Kings 16

14 Everything else Elah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Israel.

Richard:  It is advisable to keep a daily diary.  Later, as a saint of God, you can write you autobiography.

Amos 6

But the Lord God All-Powerful
will send a nation
to attack
    you people of Israel.
They will capture Lebo-Hamath
    in the north,
Arabah Creek[g] in the south,
    and everything in between.

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

Love is not loving oneself; it is a heart dying to love the world and Heavenly Father, transcending race. It is a heart that wants to sacrifice and shout. It is a desire to transcend the world and connect with Heaven, and to do so as long as one has energy, strength and life.

Jesus led thirty years of his life in constant giving and attending to practice such love, in spite of hardships every day. Jesus sometimes chastised and condemned the Pharisees as “grave-like” people. That was because they did not understand the heart of wanting to give and serve endlessly.

We cannot find someone today who can truly live for others. The people of Korea have not become a race that can live for others. They do not have an ideology to exist for others. We have to realize that this race is in conflict with the will of the heavenly providence that exists for others, for the past race, for the present race, and for the future race.

You are the same. Your heart should automatically live for the sake of the past, the present, and the future. It is the path of the fall when one lives selfishly or tries to be successful for one’s own sake. That is the road of the fall. When an individual is placed in a position of authority, one is not to be elevated but to live for the sake of the whole. Continue reading “A Person of Authority Is to Live for the Sake of the Whole”

Have the Heart of Wanting to Hold on to and Save those in Need

Esther 1

1 1-2 King Xerxes[a] of Persia lived in his capital city of Susa[b] and ruled one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.[c] 3 During the third year of his rule, Xerxes gave a big dinner for all his officials and officers. The governors and leaders of the provinces were also invited, and even the commanders of the Persian and Median armies came. 4 For one hundred eighty days he showed off his wealth and spent a lot of money to impress his guests with the greatness of his kingdom.

Richard:  We should let everyone know about the Kingdom that has already arrived.  (Need more education on this topic?  Try subscribing to the Urban Family Life Training Web Portal:  https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/online-teaching-portal.

1 Kings 19

18 But seven thousand Israelites have refused to worship Baal, and they will live.

19 Elijah left and found Elisha plowing a field with a pair of oxen. There were eleven other men in front of him, and each one was also plowing with a pair of oxen. Elijah went over and put his own coat on Elisha.[f]

20 Elisha stopped plowing and ran after him. “Let me kiss my parents good-by, then I’ll go with you,” he said.

“You can go,” Elijah said. “But remember what I’ve done for you.”

21 Elisha left and took his oxen with him. He killed them and boiled them over a fire he had made with the wood from his plow. He gave the meat to the people who were with him, and they ate it. Then he left with Elijah and became his assistant.

Richard:  Always follow your conscience, centered on God’s Word: http://visionroot.org/resources/the-eight-books-of-holy-scripture/.

 

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

What is the meaning of the saying, “Love me more than anything else”? It means “I will have faith in you and love you.” God is treating us just that way. Because God has loved us so, He was unsparing of His time.

When the leaders of the churches today cannot cry tears and hold onto the lives of their distressed sheep with genuine hearts, they are violating heavenly law. If they cannot become such shepherds, they are as if they were dead.

The acts of God are unique in that His heart precedes His words. Satan is defeated by the words unconsciously uttered as His heart overwhelms him. Evil succumbs in such a way. No matter how good the spoken words are, evil does not surrender if they are not founded on heart. Restoration starts when a person becomes indignant over having his life stand at the crossroads of life and death and is overcome by the heart of wanting to hold onto and save those in need, throwing himself in for that cause in spite of all pain, not worrying over his situation. Continue reading “Have the Heart of Wanting to Hold on to and Save those in Need”