Category: Judges

Jesus Came Before the People in Meekness and Humility

Judges 18

30-31 Even though the place of worship was in Shiloh, the people of Dan set up the idol Micah had made. They worshiped the idol, and the Levite was their priest. His name was Jonathan, and he was a descendant of Gershom the son of Moses.[i] His descendants served as priests for the tribe of Dan, until the people of Israel were taken away as prisoners by their enemies.

Richard: Here we see some of the Israelites worshipping idols. Yet they also claimed they were worshipping God. Yet Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 ““No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” And in Matthew 6:31-33 “31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
    Idols can be money, power or authority; anything that takes us away from the focus on putting the work of God toward building His Kingdom first.

Jeremiah 25

4 The Lord has sent prophets to you time after time, but you refused to listen. 5 They told you that the Lord had said:

Change your ways! If you stop doing evil, I will let you stay forever in this land that I gave your ancestors. 6 I don’t want to harm you. So don’t make me angry by worshiping idols and other gods.

Richard:  Again God warns against seeking Idols before seeking and doing His will.  See the reading above.

Jesus

13. Jesus Bore Our Sins on the Cross

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Jesus accepted his destiny, taking on his shoulders the whole responsibility for the future of Israel, giving all his strength. His disciples scattered in all directions; they abandoned Jesus, concerned only to protect their own lives. Meanwhile, Jesus did not think about his own life at all. With utmost sincerity, taking more responsibility than any other person who lived for God in history, and eager to accomplish God’s purpose, he went the way of the cross. He walked that path with God. (35:23, September 27, 1970)
 
Suppose Adam and Eve had a brother, and he had not fallen. If that brother went to Satan and tried to bring Adam and Eve back, Satan would by no means let them go without a price. Satan would want something more valuable than what he would lose by giving up those fallen siblings. Therefore, the unfallen brother would have to sacrifice himself in place of his fallen siblings; only on that condition could he liberate them. That sacrificial brother is Christ, the second Adam. (52:50, December 14, 1971)
 
An offering must shed blood. God does not like bloodshed, but He cannot save a person unless he sets a condition of dying and being reborn. Offering sacrificial animals and having them shed blood has served as a condition for this throughout the ages.
    Thus, in the Old Testament Age, God raised the people of Israel by having them set this indemnity condition, forgiving their sins based on their offerings of animals. On that foundation, God planned to send the Messiah to open the New Testament Age and lead Israel to build the nation of God’s victory.45 However, when the people failed to believe in the Messiah, the Messiah died by offering his own self.
    Animal sacrifices represent the people who offer them. Based on their accumulated offerings of animals, all Israel at the time of Jesus stood as the fruit of the Old Testament Age; this fruit was supposed to unite with Jesus. However, when it did not happen, Jesus had to offer his own self as the sacrifice. That is how Jesus came to die on the cross. (54:252-53, March 25, 1972)
 
The basic nature of Satan is arrogance and fury. In contrast, Jesus came before the people of the world in meekness and humility.
    Jesus did not show meekness and humility because he was incapable and unworthy. He deserved to be higher and enjoy more glory than anyone else, but Jesus forsook all that and lowered himself. Satan confronted Jesus and tried to draw him into a fight, but Jesus knew that if he remained meek and humble to the end, Satan would be bound by a condition in the Principle to submit to God. Therefore Jesus maintained his humility, doing what Satan with his arrogant and wrathful nature cannot do. Then Satan, who also knew Heaven’s law, realized that he would have no choice but to recognize Jesus.
    In other words, if you move forward in meekness and humility, then even the satanic world will naturally submit. Jesus understood this principle, and he took a position of meekness and humility of which Satan was utterly incapable. Similarly, you can pioneer the new path to God only when you place yourself in a position of meekness and humility. (3:187-88, October 27, 1957) 
   
Do you know Jesus’ heart when he subjugated Satan? It was a heart full of compassion for God, compassion for all humanity, and compassion for all creation: “How pitiful is God, who lost His sons and daughters! How pitiful is creation, which lost its owners! How pitiful are human beings, who lost their value, purpose, and position!” Because Jesus’ heart exploded with such pity, Satan retreated. (9:181, May 8, 1960)
 
 
 

Allow Yourself Time to Experience Nature with Your Own Direct Senses

Absolute Proof: Documentary on Election Fraud by Mike Lindell

Judges 18

19 “Quiet!” the men said. “Keep your mouth shut and listen. Why don’t you come with us and be our priest, so you can tell us what God wants us to do? You could stay here and be a priest for one man’s family, but wouldn’t you rather be the priest for a clan or even a whole tribe of Israel?”

Mark 5

9 Then Jesus went inside and said to them, “Why are you crying and carrying on like this? The child isn’t dead. She is just asleep.” 40 But the people laughed at him.

After Jesus had sent them all out of the house, he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples and went to where she was. 41-42 He took the twelve-year-old girl by the hand and said, “Talitha, koum!”[g] which means, “Little girl, get up!” The girl got right up and started walking around.

Spiritual Union

3. Oneness with All Things

Those who see all creatures within themselvesAnd themselves in all creatures know no fear. Those who see all creatures in themselvesAnd themselves in all creatures know no grief. How can the multiplicity of life Delude the one who sees its unity?
Isa Upanishad 6-7 (Hinduism)

Buddha said, “Through the Consummation of Incomparable Enlightenment I acquired not even the least thing. This is altogether every-where, without differentiation or degree.
”Diamond Sutra 22-23 (Buddhism)

The infinite joy of touching the Godhead is eas-ily attained by those who are free from the bur-den of evil and established within themselves. They see the Self in every creature and all cre-ation in the Self. With consciousness unified through meditation, they see everything with an equal eye.

I am ever present into those who have realized Me in every creature. Seeing all life as My manifestation, they are never separated from Me. They worship Me in the hearts of all, and all their actions proceed from Me. Wherever they may live, they abide in Me.

When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.
Bhagavad-Gita 6.28-32 (Hinduism)

In the Great Beginning, there was non-being. It had neither being nor name. The One originates from it; it has oneness but not yet physical form. When things obtain it and come into existence, that is called virtue [power which gives them their individual character]. That which is form-less is divided [into yang and yin], and from the very beginning going on without interruption…

By cultivating one’s nature one will return to virtue. When virtue is perfect, one will be one with the Beginning. Being one with the Beginning, one becomes vacuous, and being vacuous, one becomes great. One will then be united with the sound and breath of things. When one is united with the sound and breath of things, one is then united with the universe. This unity is intimate and seems to be stupid and foolish. This is called profound and secret virtue, this is complete harmony.
Chuang Tzu 12 (Taoism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Heavenly Father is breathing. His breath is the breath of love. God continuously breathes love into the cosmos, bringing it into alignment with love. You should align yourself with love, since in loving you will find eternal life. Only then will you transcend this reality and enter the realm of Heavenly Father’s breath. (201:191, April 1, 1990)
 
Allow yourself time to experience through your own direct senses—through your eyes, nose, mouth and ears—and believe through your own experience. It is important to give yourself enough time to have such experiences.
    Self-centered people are not able to sense it well, but when people who lead a life filled with God’s grace look at nature, they experience everything as brand new. In the morning it seems new, and in the evening it seems new. As God’s grace slowly rolls in like waves, they feel fascination and mystery in three dimensions. A person who can experience this is a happy person. (30:134-35, March 21, 1970)
 
If you want to dwell in God’s heart, you should have the heart to protect all creatures in heaven and on earth as if they were your own. Since God’s heart dwells in all His creatures, caring for them links you with God’s heart. The highest spirituality is to be possessed by God and dwell in His heart. If even looking at a flying bird or smelling a flower’s fragrance prompts you to sing eternally, then you are not dwelling in the world, but in God’s heart. In that state, time means nothing. (8:182, January 23, 1959)
 
I long for the ideal world, a world that completes the purpose of creation, a world transcendent of the world of consciousness, a world where I can feel endless peace.
    What would it be like to live in that world? On seeing even a blade of grass, you would extol the value of its existence. As a human being, you are a small thing compared with the vast universe, yet all its creatures would praise you, saying, “You are truly amazing! Whenever you move, heaven and earth move, God’s heart moves, and eternal life moves.” All people should attain this level. (9:320, June 19, 1960)
 
 
 

The People Who Became Centrally Responsible Were not the Jews but Rather the Christians

1 John 4

7 My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. 8 God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. 9 God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. 10 Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

Judges 16

16 One day while Samson was in Gaza, he saw a prostitute and went to her house to spend the night. 2 The people who lived in Gaza found out he was there, and they decided to kill him at sunrise. So they went to the city gate and waited all night in the guardrooms on each side of the gate.[a]

3 But Samson got up in the middle of the night and went to the town gate. He pulled the gate doors and doorposts out of the wall and put them on his shoulders. Then he carried them all the way to the top of the hill that overlooks Hebron,[b] where he set the doors down, still closed and locked.

Richard: Samson had a problem with unethical sexual relationships with women, which ended up being his downfall.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

Chapter 4

The Parallels between the Two Ages in the Providence of Restoration

Since the ultimate purpose of the providence of restoration is to lay the foundation for the Messiah, if it is prolonged, the dispensations to restore this foundation must be repeated. In the course of the providence, the repetition of dispensations to restore the foundation for the Messiah has meant, in effect, the repetition of dispensations to restore through indemnity the symbolic offering and the substantial offering.

God’s first chosen people consisted of the descendants of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob, who had established the family foundation for the Messiah. Therefore, the nation centrally responsible for God’s providence in the Age of the Providence of Restoration was Israel. The Old Testament, which records the history of Israel, provides the source material with which to study the history of the providence in that age. Indeed, the people who became centrally responsible for the providence in the Age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration were not the Jews, but rather the Christians. They assumed the mission to accomplish God’s unfulfilled providence of restoration. Accordingly, the history of Christianity provides the source material for understanding providential history in this age.

THE PERIOD OF SLAVERY IN EGYPT AND THE PERIOD OF PERSECUTION IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

After Jacob entered Egypt with his twelve sons and seventy kinsmen,their descendants suffered terrible abuse at the hands of the Egyptians for four hundred years. This was for the restoration of the four-hundred-year period from Noah to Abraham—a period for the separation of Satan—which had been defiled due to Abraham’s mistake in his offering. The corresponding period of persecution in the Roman Empire was to restore this previous period through parallel indemnity conditions. Jesus’ twelve apostles and seventy disciples were the first of many generations of Christians who suffered severe persecution in the Roman Empire over a period of four hundred years. By enduring this suffering,they were restoring through indemnity the four-hundred-year period of preparation for the advent of the Messiah—a period for the separation of Satan—which had been defiled due to the Jewish people’s mistake in not honoring Jesus as a living sacrifice but leading him to the cross.

At the end of Israel’s slavery in Egypt, Moses brought the Pharaoh to his knees by the power of the three signs and ten plagues. He then led the Israelites out of Egypt and set out for the land of Canaan.Likewise, toward the end of the period of persecution in the Roman Empire, after Christians had drunk the cup of persecution to the fill,Jesus increased the numbers of believers by moving their hearts with his power and grace. By stirring the heart of Emperor Constantine,Jesus led him to recognize Christianity in 313 A.D. Jesus inspired Theodosius I in 392 A.D. to establish Christianity as the state religion. Christians thus restored Canaan spiritually inside the Roman Empire, the satanic world.

When the period of slavery in Egypt was over, Moses on Mt. Sinai received the Ten Commandments and God’s Word revealed in the Law,which formed the core of the Old Testament Scriptures. By setting up and honoring the tablets of stone, the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle, he paved the way for the Israelites to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Likewise, at the conclusion of the period of persecution in the Roman Empire, Christians gathered the writings which had been left behind by the apostles and evangelists and established the canon of the New Testament. Based on these writings, they sought to realize God’s ideals spiritually, ideals which had been enshrined in the Ten Commandments and the Tabernacle in the Old Testament Age.They built up churches and expanded their foundation to prepare forthe Second Coming of Christ.

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES AND THE PERIOD OF REGIONAL CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Upon inheriting the mission of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan. For the next four hundred years, fifteen judges governed the Israelite tribes: thirteen judges from Othniel to Samson record-ed in the Book of Judges, as well as Eli and Samuel. The judges filled the various responsibilities of prophet, priest and king, which became separate offices in the later periods. Israel in this period was a feudalistic society with no central political authority. In the New Testament Age, the period of regional church leadership was set up to restore the period of the judges through parallel indemnity conditions. In this period, regional church leaders—patriarchs, bishops and abbots—led Christian society. Like the judges of the Old Testament Age, they had duties similar to those of prophet, priest and king. As in the time of the judges, Christian society in this period was a feudalistic society under these local authorities.

View slides 1 to 25 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014

Love Your Home Church more than Your Wife or Husband

Judges 5

The Lord’s angel said,
    “Put a curse on Meroz Town!
Its people refused
to help the Lord fight
    his powerful enemies.”

24 But honor Jael,
the wife of Heber
    from the Kenite clan.
Give more honor to her
than to any other woman
    who lives in tents.
Yes, give more honor to her
    than to any other woman.
25 Sisera asked for water,
but Jael gave him milk—
    cream in a fancy cup.
26 She reached for a tent-peg
and held a hammer
    in her right hand.
And with a blow to the head,
    she crushed his skull.
27 Sisera sank to his knees
    and fell dead at her feet.

Jeremiah 34

21-22 These enemies are King Nebuchadnezzar[e] of Babylonia and his army. They have stopped attacking Jerusalem, but they want to kill King Zedekiah and his high officials. So I will command them to return and attack again. This time they will conquer the city and burn it down, and they will capture Zedekiah and his officials. I will also let them destroy the towns of Judah, so that no one can live there any longer.

Richard: In the Old Testament, enemies attack God’s chosen people, the Isrealites, because they have discarded God and his commandments. As a whole, the United States has veered far away from God. We should heed God’s words and ways. This will help protect our nation and help each person and family to find true happiness. Read this speech to get a good overview of what God’s will is: http://visionroot.org/resources/rev-sun-myung-moon/peace-message-10/ .

Selected Passages from the Words of Rev. Sun Myung Moon about Home Church

Today’s Word magazine, September 1981 pp. 9 – 10

If your beloved parent or child were in jail, you
wouldn’t go to see him out of duty, but out of
love. The people in your home church area are like
prisoners in jail, and as God’s representative, you
should go there with a parental heart. You have to
penetrate people’s trust one level at a time,
gradually winning their hearts. It takes real
effort and love to do so. I want you to have
concern and pity for those who fiercely reject
you, because they are the ones whose hearts have
been hurt deeply and cannot trust. You must
understand that they need more love than anyone
else. ( 1/28/79)

Love God more than anything else. God is the
root, and home church is the fruit and harvest
of His love. When you come to the throne of God,
can you proudly say, God, I loved my tribe and the
world, representing You, and now I have come back
to You?
Home church is the battleground where you are
going to explode your love. You are going to home
church to wage the battle of love, aiming the gun
of love at each person. At the finish of that
battle, God will be triumphant, as well as 1tue
Parents and all your home church people. If you
win the battle of love in your home church, you
will be as God to your people. Because God is
invisible, He will manifest Himself to them
through you as His representative. I would like to
hear home church people say that when you enter
their home, God enters through you. ( 1/7/79)

Love will open their eyes. When you link that love
to one home church and it connects it to another
and so on, it will form an unbreakable chain of
love which no one, not even God, can cut. This link
will be directly sustained by the spirit world.
(5/1/79)

Set the condition that you love your home
church more than your wife or husband, your
children or parents. With all your heart, soul and
mind, love your home church. Jesus said that
whoever loved his husband or wife or family
more than he would not be worthy of the
kingdom of God. Likewise, if you love husband,
wife or family more than home church and God,
you are unworthy of the heavenly kingdom.
(1/1/79)

Are you going out with the messiah’s heart? Do
you look for someone to help you and give you
something, or do you feel that you are the
messiah who will bring whatever your 360 homes
need? ( 1/28/79)

The only way you can go out to home church is
with great expectation of finding a treasure of a
person, your lost relatives. The person who is
successful in home church is the one who
recovers the lost people, the lost country and the
lost spirit world. Everything that was lost will be
recovered by the successful home church workers.
(2/25/79)

In the small world of home church, you are
going to demonstrate that you love the people in
your area more than anyone else in history. You
must be superior in heart to everyone-past,
present and future-in loving that small world.
Then God will say, My son, you have fulfilled the
qualification. Come and receive my inheritance.
( 12/24/78)

Jesus Did Not Come to Die

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Judges 3

3 These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.

5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

7 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. 8 The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim,[a] to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. 9 But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. 10 The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he became Israel’s judge[b] and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. 11 So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Richard: There could be a parallel here. As a nation, we have turned far away from God. So could the troubles we are experienceing as a nation be a way for us to give penance? Could President Trump be someone God has inspired to fight against the corruption of “the swamp”, and help bring the nation back to a closer alignment with God?

1 Chronicle 5

23 The people of the half-tribe of Manasseh were numerous; they settled in the land from Bashan to Baal Hermon, that is, to Senir (Mount Hermon).

24 These were the heads of their families: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah and Jahdiel. They were brave warriors, famous men, and heads of their families. 25 But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. 26 So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria), who took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan, where they are to this day.

Richard: Interestingly, God repeats his warning in the first reading; the nation and the people suffer due to unrighteousness in the eyes of God.

Jesus Whom God Wanted To Find

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 18, 1959

Matthew 23:29-39

What is the sorrow of Jesus? Where did the three disciples who were with Jesus in the hills of Gethsemane go? Where did his beloved parents and younger siblings go? Jesus longed for them all. If Jesus’ tribe had attended him centering on Joseph’s family, Jesus would not have died, but he was chased out by his family, by John the Baptist whom God had prepared, by the religious body, by the race, and by his disciples. Thus, he had to die. Without knowing these circumstances, people say that Jesus came to die. If what I say is true, people who have been believing that Jesus came to die are crucifying Jesus a second time.

Jesus is looking for people. He is seeking beloved younger brothers and sisters. Where did my beloved parents go? Where are my brothers? Where are my relatives? Where is my tribe? Where is my church? Where is my religion? In order to dissolve this sorrow, Jesus has been praying for two thousand years, “Heavenly Father, please forgive us again. I did not complete my mission as the representative of the world. I did not complete my mission to lead the Israelites. I did not complete my mission to lead the church. I did not complete my mission to lead the tribe and family. Therefore, please forgive us.” This is the truth.

What is the sadness of God? When God saw that Jesus was being betrayed by his own blood brothers, how much did He grieve? When God saw that even Jesus’ parents, who had brought him up, did not know him but separated themselves from him, how much did God grieve? After preparing for thousands of years, God sent Jesus to Joseph’s tribe. What did He feel when that tribe, which was supposed to rejoice and attend Jesus, betrayed him? What did God feel when the Jewish religion expelled Jesus? What did He feel when the Israelites betrayed Jesus? You should realize that God’s heart burst in pain when Jesus was rejected by individuals, by his brothers and sisters, by his family, by the people He had prepared, by the church, by society and by the nation.

God promised to send Jesus again. He will surely come, and he will take responsibility for this age. You who are facing the Last Days share the common fate of attending the one who comes. If the age of attending him is coming, what frame of mind should you have in order to attend him? You cannot attend him by merely believing in the Bible. When Jesus came the people of his time believed only in the Old Testament and thus failed to attend him. Moreover, you cannot attend him just by blindly believing in God. People failed to attend the prophets in the Old Testament age as well as in the New Testament age. Who is to say that the same thing will not happen in this age? We must reach the position of sons and daughters. We must become a family of Jesus. Without that we cannot attend Jesus.

Thus, we must be sons and daughters of the historical God. We must reach the position of binding a relationship with God’s heart. In this age do you think you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven just by going to Church with a Bible in your hands? Let’s see where you will go. I have often seen this kind of image. Ministers who have been boasting that they will go to the Kingdom of Heaven are in a desolate place spiritually. There are lots of people like that. Do not boast. Even if they are devoted to making their church prosper, it doesn’t mean that they are sons and daughters of God. Even if people respect you, saying that you have a Ph.D., it doesn’t mean that you are a son or daughter of God.

Similarly, if even the apostles could not become Jesus’ sons and daughters or his family members, who among the people on earth would be able to claim that he or she is Jesus’ son or daughter, that he is Jesus’ brother or sister? Why couldn’t the apostles take those positions? It is because they did not recognize the historical Jesus. They did not recognize the Jesus of the age.

Thus, for us to become his sons or daughters today, we must know the God of the six thousand years of history. We must know the historical Jesus. We must believe in the God of the age, who is leading the 2.7 billion people who comprise mankind. We must believe in the Jesus of the age. Moreover, we must believe in the Jesus of the future, the future that is unfolding from this moment into a form that is 180 degrees different from what we now know. Do you think that Jesus will come and lead people just the way they are? No. He will overturn them. At that time the spoken words, the written words, and everything will be different. That is the essential point here. You must become a better disciple than the apostles were, a better bride than the apostles, and a better brother to Jesus than the apostles were.