Category: Old Testament

Nature Has Much to Teach Us

I Corinthians 12

12 My friends, you asked me about spiritual gifts. 2 I want you to remember that before you became followers of the Lord, you were led in all the wrong ways by idols that cannot even talk. 3 Now I want you to know that if you are led by God’s Spirit, you will say that Jesus is Lord, and you will never curse Jesus.

Daniel 5

8 All of King Belshazzar’s highest officials came in, but not one of them could read the writing or tell what it meant, 9 and they were completely puzzled. Now the king was more afraid than ever before, and his face turned white as a ghost.

Richard: When you know God with certainty, there is no need to live in fear.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Nature as Teacher

Nature has much to teach us. From ants industriously storing food to birds sweetly calling for their mates, observing the ways of nature’s creatures provides lessons about the basic morality of life. cultivating the earth and caring for animals teaches about patience, sacrifice, and God’s dependable grace when the harvest yields its abundance. Father Moon teaches that through plants and animals God provided even the earliest humans with sufficient instruction to live a life of love and value.

But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
or the plants of the earth, and they will teach
you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the l ord has done this?
Job 12.7-9

After the sacred volumes of God and the
Scriptures, study, in the second place, that great
volume of the works and the creatures of God.
Francis Bacon 5

Have you considered the soil you till?
Do you yourselves sow it, or are We the
Sowers?
Did We will, We would make it broken orts,
and you will remain bitterly jesting—
“We are debt-loaded; nay, we have been
robbed.”
Have you considered the water you drink?
Did you send it down from the clouds, or did
We send it?
Did We will, We would make it bitter; so why
are you not thankful?
Have you considered the fire you kindle?
Did you make its timber to grow, or did We
make it?
We ourselves made it for a reminder,
and a boon to the desert-dwellers.
Qur’an 56.63-73

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12.24

Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord ;
his going forth is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.
Hosea 6.3

Everything About a Cow is Good

Psalm 119

73 You created me
    and put me together.
Make me wise enough to learn
    what you have commanded.
74 Your worshipers will see me,
    and they will be glad
    that I trust your word.
75 Your decisions are correct,
    and you were right
    to punish me.
76 I serve you, Lord.
Comfort me with your love,
    just as you have promised.

Ecclesiases 9

11 Here is something else I have learned:

The fastest runners
    and the greatest heroes
don’t always win races
    and battles.
Wisdom, intelligence, and skill
don’t always make you healthy,
    rich, or popular.
We each have our share
    of bad luck.

12 None of us know when we might fall victim to a sudden disaster and find ourselves like fish in a net or birds in a trap.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Reverence for Life

2. The Sacred Cow

The cows have come and brought us good
fortune,
may they stay in the stall and be pleased with us;
may they live here, mothers of calves,
many-colored,
and yield milk for Indra on many dawns…

They are not lost, nor do robbers injure them, nor
the unfriendly frighten, nor wish to assail them;
the master of cattle lives together long
with these, and worships the gods and offers
gifts.
The charger, whirling up dust, does not reach
them,
they never take their way to the slaughtering
stool,
the cows of the worshipping man roam about
over the widespread pastures, free from all
danger.

To me the cows are Bhaga, they are Indra,
they [their milk] are a portion of the first-
poured Soma.
These that are cows are Indra, O people!
the Indra I long for with heart and spirit.
Ye cows, you fatten the emaciated,
and you make the unlovely look beautiful,
make our house happy, you with pleasant
lowings,
your power is glorified in our assemblies. 4
Rig Veda 6.28 (Hinduism)

Behold this buffalo, O Grandfather, which You
have given us.
He is the chief of all four-leggeds upon our
Sacred Mother.
From him the people live and with him they
walk the sacred path.
Sioux Prayer (Native American Religion)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When I was a boy living in the country, I used to hate to feed the cows. The cows know when it is lunchtime. But I didn’t want to stop playing, so I said to myself, “Cows, wait 30 minutes,” and then continued playing for another hour or two. The cows waited for me, wondering, “Where is our master, the one who was supposed to bring us in?” If I had been a cow whose master came very late, I would have gotten angry and become violent. Yet when I arrived, the cows just looked at me without saying a word. Then I thought, “Oh cows, you are great! I’m sorry.” That happened many times.
I then realized, “Cows are better than me,” and I said to them, “Now that I know that you have an aspect greater than me, I will feed you a great deal and atone for my shortcomings.” I kept feeding them until after sunset. The cows continued to eat because their master was feeding them.
Like this, I learned many things from cows. Cows sometimes appear great and kingly as they lie in the burning sunlight on a midsummer’s day, shedding sweat and looking over the remote mountains, meditating calmly.
This is why people all over the world like to eat cow meat, not the meat of dogs or tigers. In those days toothbrushes were made of cow bone. Every part of the cow was utilized. Nothing was discarded; even their manure was used as fertilizer. Therefore everything about a cow is good.
(109:40-41, October 26, 1980)

A Man is Ethical Only When Life Is Sacred

Hebrews 2

14 We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death. 15 But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying. 16 Jesus clearly did not come to help angels, but he did come to help Abraham’s descendants. 17 He had to be one of us, so that he could serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins. 18 And now that Jesus has suffered and was tempted, he can help anyone else who is tempted.

2 Kings 5

2 One day while the Syrian troops were raiding Israel, they captured a girl, and she became a servant of Naaman’s wife. 3 Some time later the girl said, “If your husband Naaman would go to the prophet in Samaria, he would be cured of his leprosy.”

4 When Naaman told the king what the girl had said, 5 the king replied, “Go ahead! I will give you a letter to take to the king of Israel.”

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Reverence for Life

Passages in this section prescribe the ethic proper to reverence for life. Taoist and Buddhist texts remark on the artificiality of the human world and call us to return to the innocence and purity of nature. Living in nature is purifying and conducive to the spiritual life, in contrast to the dark and dirty environment of the city. for anyone who spends time in nature, reverence for the natural world and respect for all its creatures is not something forced, but flows naturally from a loving heart. Then there is the doctrine of ahimsa, non-violence towards all living beings, which arose on the Indian subcontinent. Vegetarianism is often motivated by this ethic. Moreover, among nature’s creatures, none gives more completely and without complaint than the cow, which is rightly revered by Hindus and many native peoples.
Father Moon’s teachings touch on many of these points, but especially emphasize love of nature, which he regards as the starting point for environmental ethics. However, he offers an interesting dissent from vegetari-
anism, based upon the concept that creatures of lower order seek to come closer to God’s love through being eaten and absorbed by creatures of higher order. Ideally they would strive to be nourishment for humans, who stand at the summit of creation because they embody God’s love. Nevertheless, people who do not practice true love are unworthy to consume their food.

  1. Care and Reverence for All Living Things

As a mother with her own life guards the life of
her own child, let all-embracing thoughts for all
that lives be thine.
Khuddaka Patha, Metta Sutta (Buddhism)

The mode of living that is founded upon total
harmlessness towards all creatures, or upon a
minimum of such harm, is the highest morality.
Mahabharata, Shantiparva 262.5-6 (Hinduism)

The Prophet said, “There is neither harm nor
cause for harm in Islam.”
Majma’ al-Zawa’d 4.6536 (Islam)

One should not injure, subjugate, enslave, tor-
ture, or kill any animal, living being, organism,
or sentient being. This doctrine of nonviolence
is immaculate, immutable, and eternal. Just as
suffering is painful to you, in the same way it is
painful, disquieting, and terrifying to all animals,
living beings, organisms, and sentient beings.
Acarangasutra 4.25-26 (Jainism)

A certain priest had been killed by the bite of a
snake, and when they announced the matter to
the Blessed One, he said, “Surely now, O priests,
that priest never suffused the four royal families
of snakes with his friendliness. For if that priest
had suffused the four royal families of the snakes
with his friendliness, that priest would not have
been killed by the bite of a snake…
Creatures without feet have my love,
And likewise those that have two feet,
And those that have four feet I love,
And those, too, that have many feet.
Vinaya Pitaka, Cullavagga 5.6 (Buddhism)

The moral person accepts as being good: to pre-
serve life, to promote life, to raise to its high-
est value life which is capable of development;
and as being evil: to destroy life, to injure life,
to repress life which is capable of development.
This is the absolute fundamental principle of
the moral.
A man is ethical only when life, as such, is
sacred… that of plants and animals as well as that
of his fellow man, and when he devotes himself
helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
Albert Schweitzer

Rear them, but do not lay claim to them;
Control them, but never lean upon them,
Be their steward, but do not manage them.
This is called the Mysterious Power.
Tao Te Ching 51 (Taoism)

A horse or a cow has four feet: that is Nature.
Put a halter around the horse’s head or put a rope
through the cow’s nose: that is man. Therefore
it is said, “Do not let man destroy Nature. Do
not let cleverness destroy destiny [the natural
order].”
Chuang Tzu 17 (Taoism)

In the land of Yamato there are many
mountains;
ascending to the heaven of Mount Kagu,
I gaze down on the country, and see
smoke rising here and there over the land,
sea gulls floating here and there over the sea.
A fine country is this,
the island of dragonflies, this
province of Yamato. 1
Man’yoshu I (Shinto)

On the eastern side of this Himalaya, the king
of mountains, are green-flowing streams, hav-
ing their source in slight and gentle mountain
slopes; blue, white, and the hundred-leafed, the
white lily and the tree of paradise, in a region
overrun and beautified with all manner of trees
and flowing shrubs and creepers, resounding
with the cries of swans, ducks, and geese, inhab-
ited by troops of monks and ascetics. 2
Jataka (Buddhism)

Come back, O Tigers, to the woods again,
and let it not be leveled with the plain.
For without you, the axe will lay it low.
You, without it, forever homeless go.
Khuddaka Patha (Buddhism)


t

Be Praised My Lord with All Your Creatures

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Luke 7

6 So Jesus went with them.

When Jesus wasn’t far from the house, the officer sent some friends to tell him, “Lord, don’t go to any trouble for me! I am not good enough for you to come into my house. 7 And I am certainly not worthy to come to you. Just say the word, and my servant will get well. 8 I have officers who give orders to me, and I have soldiers who take orders from me. I can say to one of them, ‘Go!’ and he goes. I can say to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes. I can say to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he will do it.”

9 When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised that he turned and said to the crowd following him, “In all of Israel I’ve never found anyone with this much faith!”

10 The officer’s friends returned and found the servant well.

Proverbs 29

29 If you keep being stubborn
    after many warnings,
    you will suddenly discover
    you have gone too far.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

The Sanctity of Nature

3. Mother Earth and Her Children

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegeta-
tion, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing
fruit in which is their seed, each according to its
kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth
brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed,
and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their
seed, each according to its kind. And God saw
that it was good.
Genesis 1.11-12

Perhaps if we are lucky,
Our earth mother
Will wrap herself in a fourfold robe of white meal,
Full of frost flowers;
A floor of ice will spread over the world,
The forests because of the cold will lean to one
side,
Their arms will break beneath the weight of snow.
When the days are thus,
The flesh of our earth mother will crack with
cold.
Then in the spring when she is replete with
living waters,
Our mothers,
All different kinds of corn,
In their earth mother we shall lay to rest.
With their earth mother’s living waters
They will be made into new beings;
Into their sun father’s daylight
They will come out standing;
Yonder to all directions
They will stretch out their hands calling for rain.
Then with their fresh waters
The rain makers will pass us on our roads.
Clasping their young ones [the ears of corn] in
their arms,
They will rear their children.
Gathering them into our houses,
Following these toward whom our thoughts bend,
With our thoughts following them,
Thus we shall always live.
      Zuni Song (Native American Religions)

Set me, O Earth, amidst thy center and thy navel,
and vitalizing forces that emanate from thy body.
Purify us from all sides.
Earth is my Mother; her son am I;
and Heaven my Father: may he fill us with
plenty…
Whatever I dig from thee, Earth,
may that have quick growth again.
O purifier, may we not injure thy vitals or thy
heart…
As a horse scatters dust, so did Earth, since she
was born,
scatter the people who dwelt on the land,
and she joyously sped on, the world’s
protectress,
supporter of forest trees and plants.
What I [Earth] speak, I speak with sweetness;
what I look at endears itself to me;
and I am fiery and impetuous: others who fly at
me with wrath
I smite down.
Peaceful, sweet-smelling, gracious, filled with
milk,
and bearing nectar in her breast,
may Earth give with the milk her blessings to
me. Who brings the day, and you give light to us
through him.
How handsome he is, how radiant, with great
splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
Thou art the vessel, the Mother of the people,
the fulfiller of wishes, far-extending.
Whatever is wanting in thee is filled
by Prajapati, first-born of Eternal Order [the
first god]. Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon and the
Stars.
In heaven you have formed them, bright, and
precious, and beautiful.
May those born of thee, O Earth,
be, for our welfare, free from sickness and
waste.
Wakeful through a long life, we shall become
bearers of tribute for thee.
Earth, my Mother! set me securely with bliss
in full accord with Heaven. Wise One,
uphold me in grace and splendor.
Atharva Veda 12.1 (Hinduism)

Most High, omnipotent, good Lord,
All praise, glory, honor, and blessing are yours.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
And no one is worthy to pronounce your name.

Be praised, my Lord, with all your creatures,
Especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who brings the day, and you give light to us
through him.
How handsome he is, how radiant, with great
splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon and the
Stars.
In heaven you have formed them, bright, and
precious, and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, for Brother Wind,
And for Air, for Cloud, and Clear, and all
weather.
By which you give your creatures nourishment.

Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Water,
She is very useful, and humble, and precious,
and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, for Brother Fire,
By whom you light up the night.
How handsome he is, how happy, how powerful
and strong!

Be praised, my Lord, for our Sister, Mother
Earth.
Who nourishes and governs us,
And produces various fruits with many-colored
flowers and herbs.
St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Sun (Christianity)

Every Part of This Soil is Sacred

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Revelation 5

9 Then they sang a new song,

“You are worthy
    to receive the scroll
and open its seals,
    because you were killed.
And with your own blood
    you bought for God
people from every tribe,
    language, nation, and race.
10 You let them become kings
    and serve God as priests,
and they will rule on earth.”

Lamentations 1

20 Won’t you look and see
    how upset I am, our Lord?
My stomach is in knots,
and my heart is broken
    because I betrayed you.
In the streets and at home,
    my people are slaughtered.

21 Everyone heard my groaning,
    but no one offered comfort.
My enemies know of the trouble
that you have brought on me,
    and it makes them glad.
Hurry and punish them,
    as you have promised.
22 Don’t let their evil deeds
    escape your sight.
Punish them as much
as you have punished me
    because of my sins.
I never stop groaning—
    I’ve lost all hope!

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

The Sanctity of Nature

2. Alive with Consciousness, Endowed with Purpose

No creature is there crawling on the earth,
no bird flying with its wings,
but they are nations like yourselves.
Qur’an 6.38

I say: Just as the consciousness of a man born
blind, deaf and dumb is not manifest, likewise the
consciousness of beings of earth-body [e.g., miner-
als] is also not manifest. Nevertheless such a man
experiences pain when struck or cut by a weapon,
and so also do the beings of earth-body. Likewise
for water-beings… fire-beings… plants… ani-
mals… air beings: their consciousness and expe-
riences of pain are actual, though not manifest.
Acarangasutra 1.28-161 (Jainism)

If these [my disciples] were silent, the very
stones would cry out.
Luke 19.40

Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation
of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every
plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad
or happy event in days long vanished.
Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb
and dead as the swelter in the sun along the
silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring
events connected with the lives of my people,
and the very dust upon which you now stand
responds more lovingly to their footsteps than
yours, because it is rich with the blood of our
ancestors
Chief Seattle (Native American Religion)

The explanation of the goodness of creation is
the goodness of God… Nevertheless, certain
heretics remain unconvinced, on the ground that
many things in creation are unsuitable and even
harmful to that poor and fragile mortality of the
flesh, which of course is no more than the just
penalty for sin. The heretics mention, for exam-
ple, fire, cold, wild beasts, and things like that,
without considering how wonderful such things
are in themselves and in their proper place and
how beautifully they fit into the total pattern of
the universe, making their peculiar contributions
to the commonweal of cosmic beauty. Nor have
they observed how valuable they are even to us
if only we use them well and wisely. Consider, for
instance, poison. It is deadly when improperly
used, but when properly applied it turns out to
be a health-giving medicine.
Saint Augustine, City of God 11.22 (Christianity)