Category: Old Testament

With What Kind of Heart Should We Celebrate Jesus Birth?

2 Kings 8

 Some time later Elisha went to the capital city of Damascus to visit King Benhadad of Syria, who was sick. And when Benhadad was told he was there, 8 he said to Hazael,[b] “Go meet with Elisha the man of God and have him ask the Lord if I will get well. And take along a gift for him.”

9 Hazael left with forty camel loads of the best things made in Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He found the prophet and said, “Your servant, King Benhadad, wants to know if he will get well.”

10 “Tell him he will,” Elisha said to Hazael. “But the Lord has already told me that Benhadad will definitely die.” 11 Elisha stared at him until Hazael was embarrassed, then Elisha began crying.[c]

Lamentations 1

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.

Heaven’s Sorrowful Heart

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1959

Had Joseph and Mary had the same determination while Jesus was growing up as they had at his conception, they would have been able to block the path of the cross for him. We are aware that because the mother and son failed to complete the internal and external circumstances through cooperation, Jesus abandoned his home and went forth to look for disciples.

For that reason, when asked by Mary to make water into wine at the marriage feast at Cana, Jesus said, “Woman, what have you to do with me?” (John 2:4) When we think about this, we realize that Mary did not understand Jesus. Neither Joseph nor Jesus’ brothers knew. Jesus felt concern about Heaven and the physical living environment. We must understand that it was natural for Jesus to feel concern about God, yet it was a sorrowful fact for him to have to feel concern about the living environment.

Jesus was born and raised in a sorrowful environment. The environment in which he was to live, caring and feeling concern only for God, was lost. Therefore, we must understand the sorrowful fact that Jesus was put in a situation where he had to feel concern about God and be concerned about his physical livelihood. Continue reading “With What Kind of Heart Should We Celebrate Jesus Birth?”

Mary’s Life or Death Situation

Levitius 23

37 I have chosen these festivals as times when my people must come together for worship and when animals, grain, and wine are to be offered on the proper days. 38 These festivals must be celebrated in addition to the Sabbaths and the times when you offer special gifts or sacrifices to keep a promise or as a voluntary offering.

Richard:  I have gotten this verse or the next one three times in the last week.  God is telling me that Sabbath with Him is important.

Psalm 93

The ocean is roaring, Lord!
    The sea is pounding hard.
4 Its mighty waves are majestic,
    but you are more majestic,
    and you rule over all.
5 Your decisions are firm,
    and your temple will always
    be beautiful and holy.

Heaven’s Sorrowful Heart

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1959

Matthew 1:18-2:12

However, even Joseph and Mary, who should have toiled for Jesus and stepped forth pursuing the Will for him, could not relate to Jesus with the earnestness of God’s sorrowful heart. The three wise men from the East could not look at Jesus as Heaven looked at him, bearing a sorrowful heart.

Today we must first look back on the Shim Jung with which God grieved before Jesus’ birth. You must reflect in your minds on the sorrowful heart of God when He cast out Adam and Eve, because they fell in the Garden of Eden. You must reflect back upon that sorrowful and pathetic scene when God watched Adam, his only begotten son, being borne off by the enemy Satan.

To dissolve this sorrow, God came forth unfolding the dispensation for 4,000 years after the fall of Adam and Eve. God notified all of humankind of this sorrowful situation by sending numerous prophets and sages. Yet human beings could not comprehend God’s sorrow nor could they comprehend the grief of the Heaven-sent prophets. For this reason, the Israelites happened through the historical course where they betrayed Heaven. Since God will certainly attain His Will, He toiled without a moment of rest. Eventually, for the first time after the lapse of 4,000 years, God was able to restore the lost Adam. Continue reading “Mary’s Life or Death Situation”

The Sorrow of Jesus Remains on this Earth

Leviticus 23

39 Remember to begin the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the seventh month after you have harvested your crops. Celebrate this festival for seven days in honor of me and don’t do any work on the first day or on the day following the festival. 40 Pick the best fruit from your trees[n] and cut leafy branches to use during the time of this joyous celebration in my honor. 41 I command you and all of your descendants to celebrate this festival during the seventh month of each year. 42 For seven days every Israelite must live in a shelter, 43 so future generations will know that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Lamentations 2

Those who pass by
shake their heads and sneer
    as they make fun and shout,
“What a lovely city you were,
the happiest on earth,
    but look at you now!”

Heaven’s Sorrowful Heart

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1959

Matthew 1:18-2:12

Father, please extend Your hands of blessing over the whole of humankind in this hour. Please extend Your hands of blessing over the thirty million Korean people. Over the numerous children who remember Your name, please grant Your grace of love. Moreover, Father, please lift Your hands of love in blessing over the heads of the children, who are prostrated to pray from the depths of their heart in a lonely place in this hour. I pray from the bottom of my heart that You remember the members who are concerned for You in this hour, wanting to comfort You in the space of a generation for the sorrow You left behind on this earth where sin and evil dwell. Please bless them in this hour.

People on the earth do not know about this day nor do they know about Heaven’s festering sorrow. They know even less about Your infinitely sorrowful heart. Father, we cannot help being grateful for the glorious grace with which You granted this day to us, we who were unaware of the lamentable fact of this day. Now we may celebrate this day, which none of humankind recognizes as Christ’s birthday. Please remember Your sons and daughters gathered here.

Please allow our celebration this day to be the start for us to be able to console the heart of Jesus, who has grieved for 2,000 years. Please allow this to be the hour when, looking back on Christ, we can inherit his old battlefield as an unfinished work. He cared nothing about the path of Golgotha, giving his life after having been born in a sorrowful position. We realize that this must be the hour when we have to inherit the great achievement he left in his lifetime as our mission. Continue reading “The Sorrow of Jesus Remains on this Earth”

Jesus Needed to Establish a Bride

Exodus 1

20-21 God was good to the two women because they truly respected him, and he blessed them with children of their own.

The Hebrews kept increasing 22 until finally, the king gave a command to everyone in the nation, “As soon as a Hebrew boy is born, throw him into the Nile River! But you can let the girls live.”

Eccliastes 8

6 Life is hard, but there is a time and a place for everything, 7 though no one can tell the future. 8 We cannot control the wind[a] or determine the day of our death. There is no escape in time of war, and no one can hide behind evil. 9 I noticed all this and thought seriously about what goes on in the world. Why does one person have the power to hurt another?

Richard:  We should not take ourselves too serously.  Life should be balanced.

True Parents Day 1966 excerpts
Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Who is Jesus? He is the second Adam who came in place of Adam. So, he needed to establish a bride who would be the second Eve. Wasn’t that necessary for him to reestablish the position of parents? He needed to reestablish that which was lost, so he needed to establish an object partner who would work with him for the sake of God.

A man represents heaven, and a woman represents earth. Jesus came as a groom representing all men, so he needed to establish a bride. The people of Israel at Jesus’ time, however, did not understand Jesus will. The disciples, too, did not understand his will, so they could not help him.

This was supposed to have been accomplished in Joseph’s family. When this was not done, Jesus could not become the True Parent. Joseph’s family needed to understand that God had blessed their family at the climax of His four-thousand-year providence. They needed to bear total responsibility for their era and fulfill their responsibility. Also, it was Jesus’ mission to accomplish God’s will through the family of Joseph. For this reason, Jesus assailed his parents on three occasions. The parents did not know God’s will, however, and finally could not understand Jesus’ will. Continue reading “Jesus Needed to Establish a Bride”

Embrace Humanity in Place of God

Judges 9

The soldier who carried his weapons was nearby, and Abimelech told him, “Take out your sword and kill me. I don’t want people to say that I was killed by a woman!”

So the soldier ran his sword through Abimelech. 55 And when the Israelite soldiers saw that their leader was dead, they went back home.

Ezra 44

If a priest touches a dead body, he is unclean and must go through a ceremony to make himself clean. Then seven days later, 27 he must go to the inner courtyard of the temple and offer a sacrifice for sin. After that, he may once again serve as my priest. I, the Lord God, have spoken.

Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 21, 1958

Matthew 7:1-12

Father, we have come to understand that each of us is a substitute for God, a substitute for husband or wife, a substitute for parents, a substitute for children, and a substitute for brothers and sisters. We also have come to know that an inevitable historical course exists wherein we cannot but establish the resting place of the mind that can determine the great fundamental existence of the universe.

Now we understand that each man and woman among us is looking for true elder and younger siblings, True Parents, and a true reciprocating partner. We are aware that humanity is wandering about seeking the same ideology. Humanity is in the same situation. Humans can never be enemies. Humanity is entangled with the ideology of creation.

However, because of the fall, parental love, conjugal love, and brotherly love have been destroyed. Accordingly, in order for us to proceed forth in seeking these, we must first feel the emotion of love between brothers. Furthermore, we know that only when we meet the reciprocating partner whom we can love, taking the place of God’s sorrow of 6,000 years will the principled standard whereby we can take the place of heaven and earth be restored. Continue reading “Embrace Humanity in Place of God”