Abraham

Where is the Lamb for a Burnt Offering?

The Richard Urban Show:

Three major events all happened on January 13th, 2020. Find out why this was D-Day and what we can expect to happen in the next two years.

Watch: #94-D-Day Was January 13th, 2020

Podcast: D-Day Was January 13th, 2020

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2084

You must set the condition of having loved your enemies even if the world persecutes you and even if you stand facing a global enemy. God and the people of all religions who are trying to be God’s children are caught up in this one line. The teaching, “Love your enemy,” is the great truth. Although the content is simple, no one has known that this would become the dividing line between God and Satan. (The Way of Unification – 595)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1043

People who follow the path of goodness always face sacrifice. That is why we teach the way of sacrifice. To say “live for others” means to sacrifice rather than gaining profit. It is an act of investing oneself. Investing yourself means you should invest to the fullest extent, even offering your own life. (78-61, 1975.5.4)

Isaac

Of all the tests of faith that Abraham faced, surely none was more difficult than the command that he sacrifice his son as a burnt offering. Yet, Abraham was obedient to God’s order. He journeyed with his son to Mount Moriah, bound him and placed him on the altar, and was about to kill him only to be stopped at the last minute by an angel. The bible identifies this son as Isaac, although in the Islamic tradition he is thought to have been Ishmael.
On the way to Mount Moriah, Isaac’s faith was tested as much as Abraham’s. He was old enough to understand what was about to happen; yet he was determined to unite with his father’s wishes even at the cost of his life. He was an exemplary son in this regard.
Father Moon challenges us: Do we have the faith of Isaac, ready to die on God’s altar? Do we have the faith of Abraham, ready if need be to send a beloved child into the face of death for the sake of God’s will? Have we raised our children to have the faith of Isaac, ready to support their parents in faith?

After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the ass; I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place The lord will provide; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the lord it shall be provided.”
And the angel of the lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Genesis 22.1-18

On their way to Mount Moriah, Abraham and Isaac met Satan disguised as an old man. “Where are you going, Abraham?” asked Satan.
“I’m on my way to pray,” answered Abraham.
“Why then the wood and the fire and the sacrificial knife?”
“We shall be on top of Mount Moriah several days and will use them to prepare our food.” “You are an old man and you have only one son with your wife Sarah, yet you are willing to sacrifice him,” mocked Satan.
“As God told me to do, so shall it be,” answered Abraham.
Satan then addressed Isaac, “Where are you going, Isaac?”
“To study God’s wisdom,” said Isaac.
“Do you intend to study after you are dead? For your father intends to sacrifice you.”
“If God wishes to accept me as a sacrifice, I am glad to do His will.”…
As they were wending their way to perform the will of God, Isaac said to his father, “O father, I am yet young, and I am fearful lest my body tremble at the sight of the knife, causing you grief; I am fearful lest the offering shall not be a perfect one, perfect as I should like it to be.”
Genesis Rabbah 56 (Judaism)

We gave [Abraham] tidings of a gentle son. And when he was old enough to walk with him, Abraham said: O my dear son, I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice you. So look, what do you think? He said: O my father! Do what you are commanded. God willing, you will find me of the steadfast. Then, when they had both surrendered to God, and he had flung him down on his face, We called to him: O Abraham! You have already fulfilled the vision. Lo! Thus do We reward the good. Verily this was a clear test. Then We ransomed him with a tremendous victim.
And We left for him among the later folk the salutation, “Peace be to Abraham!” Thus do We reward the good. Surely he was one of Our believing servants. And We gave him tidings of the birth of Isaac, a Prophet of the righteous. And We blessed him and Isaac.
Qur’an 37.101-107

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.” He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Hebrews 11.17-19

Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre.
Genesis 25.8-9

Sodom and Gomorrah Deserved God’s Punishment

2 Corinthians 9

9 I don’t need to write you about the money you plan to give for God’s people. ²I know how eager you are to give. And I have proudly told the Lord’s followers in Macedonia that you people in Achaia have been ready for a whole year. Now your desire to give has made them want to give. ³That’s why I am sending Titus and the two others to you. I want you to be ready, just as I promised. This will prove that we were not wrong to brag about you.

Jeremiah 23

¹¹The Lord told me to say:

You prophets and priests
think so little of me, the Lord,
    that you even sin
    in my own temple!
¹²Now I will punish you
    with disaster,
and you will slip and fall
    in the darkness.
I, the Lord, have spoken.

Richard: Remember, the current day priests and prophets are ministers in Christian churches.

4. Abraham’s Plea for the People of Sodom and Gomorrah

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
Genesis 18.17-19

The Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know.

”So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near, and said, “Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you still destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
And the lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham answered, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?

”And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
“Suppose forty… thirty… twenty…”
“For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.”
“Oh let not the lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.”
“For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.
Genesis 18.20-33

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Sodom and Gomorrah deserved God’s punishment. It was not Abraham’s direct concern whether the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah understood the will of God or whether their people were doomed. Yet because he had a sense of mission for the divine dispensation, he felt that he should take responsibility for them. Day and night, Abraham felt anxious over the fate of the two cities; what is written in the Bible reveals some of his inner feelings.
Today, as we witness the concluding period of the 6,000-year history of God’s providence, we can sleep in peace, wear nice clothes and eat good food, but not because of any merit on our part. The reason the world can at least sustain us is because in the background there was Abraham, and countless unknown people like him, as a hidden root. They appealed to God on behalf of their peoples, shedding tears and blood on countless altars…
If there were even a few righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah who knew of Abraham’s fervent prayer that penetrated into heaven, of his discussion with God face-to-face, Abraham could have used them as a condition when he appealed to God, “O Father, who determines and judges with justice, far be it that you should slay the righteous with the wicked!” Nonetheless, when he realized that he was the only one praying for Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham’s heart was deeply saddened. (1:138-39, July 1, 1956)

America—this Sodom and Gomorrah-like hell! Unless I can deal with it and restore it, the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be built. It has every element that can ruin the youth of the world. It is the breeding place of drugs, promiscuity, and all manner of corruption. I am trying to clean it up with my own hands. (105:324, October 28, 1979)

Since I came to America I have been working as hard as I can, and also I am pushing Americans to go through many hardships. Nevertheless, if we can prosper, it can be a blessing to America, and an indemnity condition that can cover the failure of America to fulfill its God-given mission. Then, I can pray to God, “Heavenly Father, please have regard for these Thy children and forgive America for their sakes. Although America deserves to perish, because these children are devoted to Thee, please save this nation.” It is similar to Abraham’s prayer when he pleaded with God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if ten righteous people could be found. (103:200, February 25, 1979)

Islam Would Emerge as the Opponent of Christianity

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2204

God stands in the position of being the Father who has truly perfected love, and the son fulfills his filial duty based on God’s love and the fundamental love of the universe, thus uniting with the Father. How can God pave the way of filial piety of a higher dimension in front of this love? If this had been done, then the Fall would never have happened for all eternity.
This is the realm of the greatest of all liberation. This realm goes beyond the realm of the Principle. It is the original world of true love. When we think about this, then you must not think it is the end when you realize the ideal of the family, the Kingdom of God on Earth, and the Kingdom of God in Heaven. There are still some traces stained by Satan’s blood in the internal root, which have to be removed.
Tens of millions of years of history have passed, and even if several times, ten times, or even more than a hundred times that time passes, do you think it is possible to forget the world of the Fall? You should ponder the thought that God’s highest hope is to forget all this, to have you and me join together, to have the sons and daughters join together, and become filial sons and daughters who can comfort God who takes the trouble to love us. (300-33, 1999.2.21)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1344

The mistake Cain committed by not being obedient to Abel, which led to their fatal conflict, has not been indemnified by providential figures of the past, and so the process of restoration has been prolonged until now. In order to restore this mistake completely, the foundation of Cain’s obedience to Abel must be indemnified before each ancestral couple. The 72 Couples, therefore, came into existence for this purpose. The number 72 is double the number 36. (22-193, 1969.2.2)

Abraham

3. Abraham, Ishmael and the Roots of Islam

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar; and Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
The angel of the lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” The angel of the lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the lord said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael; because the lord has given heed to your affliction.
Genesis 16.1-12

Abraham said, “My Lord! Make safe this territory [of Mecca], and preserve my sons and me from serving idols. My Lord! Truly they have led many of mankind astray. But whoever follows me, he truly is of me. And whoever disobeys me—still, You are Forgiving, Merciful.
Our Lord, I have settled some of my posterity in an uncultivable valley near your Sacred House, Lord, that they may establish proper worship; so incline some hearts of men that they may yearn toward them, and provide them with fruits in order that they may be thankful.”
Qur’an 14.35-37

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

If Abraham had not failed in the symbolic offering, Isaac and his half-brother Ishmael would have stood in the positions of Abel and Cain. They would have been responsible to fulfill the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature that Cain and Abel did not accomplish.13 However, because Abraham failed in the offering, God set up Isaac in the position of Abraham, and Esau and Jacob in the positions originally intended for Ishmael and Isaac. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 3.2)

Ishmael was the Cain-type offspring of Abraham, born from his concubine Hagar. Abraham’s concubine and Abraham’s wife fought and became enemies. The two women were supposed to be united as one family; then God’s historical burden would have been lighter. Instead they fought, and Sarah expelled Hagar.
This division could have been restored at the time of Jesus, but it was not. As the result of Jesus’ crucifixion, there arose divisions—up and down, right and left, and front and rear—which have persisted through the last 2,000 years. Among nations there would be conflict between the left wing and the right wing, and among religions Islam would emerge as the opponent of Christianity. Islam was victorious in the lands of the Middle East. (215:253, February 20, 1991)

God Sought to Change the Course of Human History

2 Chronicles 20

²⁰Early the next morning, as everyone got ready to leave for the desert near Tekoa, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Listen my friends, if we trust the Lord God and believe what these prophets have told us, the Lord will help us, and we will be successful.” ²¹Then he explained his plan and appointed men to march in front of the army and praise the Lord for his holy power by singing:^[e]

“Praise the Lord!
His love never ends.”

²²As soon as they began singing, the Lord confused the enemy camp, ²³so that the Ammonite and Moabite troops attacked and completely destroyed those from Edom. Then they turned against each other and fought until the entire camp was wiped out!

Nahum 1

⁶Who can stand the heat
of his furious anger?
It flashes out like fire
and shatters stones.

Abraham

2. Abraham’s Mistake in Offering the Animals

And he said to him, “I am the lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord god, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a dread and great darkness fell upon him. Then the lord said to Abram, “Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years…”
Genesis 15.7-13

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Abraham offered three sacrifices—two birds, a ram and a she-goat, and a heifer—but he was careless and failed to cut the birds in two. If he had been more serious and mindful that this offering was for the sake of humanity and for the sake of God, not for himself, then he would not have committed that historical blunder. (93:313, June 12, 1977)

Because Abraham did not cut the dove and pigeon in two as he should have, birds of prey came down and defiled the sacrifices. As a result of his mistake, the Israelites were destined to enter Egypt and suffer hardships for four hundred years. Why was it a sin not to cut the birds in half?…
God’s work of salvation aims to restore the sovereignty of goodness by first dividing good from evil and then destroying evil and uplifting the good. This is the reason Adam had to be divided into Cain and Abel before the sacrifice could be made. This is the reason why in Noah’s day, God struck down evil through the flood judgment and winnowed out Noah’s family as the good. God had Abraham cut the sacrifices in two before offering them, with the intention of doing the symbolic work of dividing good from evil, which was left unaccomplished by Adam and Noah… In other words, when Abraham offered the birds without first dividing them, it meant that he offered what had not been wrested from Satan’s possession. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 3.1.2)

God sought to change the course of human history through Abraham, by his condition of making the symbolic offering. Yet because the condition was not made, the course of Abraham’s family had to pass through three stages, from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob, and the turning of history required an arduous process of symbolic, image-like and substantial conditions. (81:96, December 1, 1975)

You Must Not Compromise with Satan’s World

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2260

The family on earth is the horizontal entity whose purpose is to create the heavenly kingdom. Reproduction is not possible in the vertical world. The number of children expands in the horizontal world and they become God’s citizens. When members of royal families who are God’s citizens multiply, they are all citizens except the firstborn. They become relatives. Those citizens become clans. There must be a firstborn among the clans, right? Among tribes, too, there needs to be the firstborn that ties all the tribes together. This is Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were to be the king and queen of the eternal tradition. In a democratic world, all this disappears. Then what is the spherical shape? The foundation for producing the citizens of heaven is not the family foundation in Heaven, but on earth. To bear children is to produce citizens of the heavenly world. (234-165, 1992.8.10)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1178

What does the savior come to do? He does not come for the sake of politics. Some Christians say that when the Lord comes, the Christians will be lifted up into the air, and those left on earth will all perish. But that is not so. It is not like that. They say he will come to judge, but the savior is not someone who comes to judge. He is the son of God, and, at the same time, he comes as the parent of humankind. Will someone who comes as the parent of humanity, with the heart of the parents, look at a sick son or daughter, groaning on the brink of death, and abandon them, saying, “You go to hell!”? Even if parents in this fallen world see the miserable scene of their own child being about to die, they would cry themselves hoarse and want to do anything to save their child’s life, even at the cost of their own. That is how parents are, so how much more would the savior, who has the original parent’s heart be determined to do? He cannot think of such a thing as judging people. Don’t you think so? (222-150, 1991.11.3)

Richard: The savior returns as True Parents. Rev. and Mrs. Moon have fulfilled that role. It is up to us to learn the truth and practice it in our own lives.

Abraham

1. Abraham: A Man of Absolute Faith

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Abraham brought a revolution at the home of his father Terah. As a boy, he would kick the idols and say to his father, “Father, what are these idols?” He must have resolved many tens of times, “Someday, with my own hands, I am going to…” (151:62, October 7, 1962)

Abraham was the most-loved son of an idol merchant, and he lived well under his parents’ care. However, one day God called him saying, “Abraham, Abraham! You must leave from the house of your father Terah and go to the land I will show you.” God did not give him any advance preparation; the order came to him suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue. Yet in that circumstance, Abraham was not supposed to hesitate. He had to leave at once, as if he had been waiting for God’s order. He could not say, “Lord, please give me some time to get ready.” He had to depart immediately. Had he not done so, it would have been a grave mistake affecting many generations and even the course of human history. In other words, had Abraham delayed, it would have been a condition that Satan could accuse, nullifying all God’s historical efforts heretofore. Knowing this, those who are to attend God’s command must act right away. (43:270, May 1, 1971)

Suppose Abraham had gone to his parents and said, “Father, Mother, God has commanded me to leave Ur and travel to an unknown land. I intend to obey Him.” They undoubtedly would have said, “Are you crazy?” Therefore, he could not say a word about it. Moreover, his instructions were not just to visit a nearby village. God instructed him to journey to a strange land, as far away as Egypt.

Abraham could overcome these obstacles and leave home because he had absolute faith in God’s words. His love for God was absolute, greater than his love for his parents, his relatives or his homeland. To Abraham, nothing was more important that God’s command; he cherished it more than his own life. I am sure he stole away in the middle of the night. Suddenly he found himself wandering like a gypsy. He lived in self-denial; he had given up everything. (69:95, October 21, 1973)

In the land of Canaan, God trained Abraham. As God advanced the dispensation, He put Abraham in circumstances where he would weep, not only for his own people but also for other peoples and even his enemies…

God conducted His work by having Abraham wander about like a gypsy in a foreign land. Though a stranger, he prayed sincerely, in tears, for the people’s salvation. That is why God could establish Abraham as the ancestor of faith and to bless his descendants to prosper greatly like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. (52:53, December 14, 1971)

In the wilderness, Abraham our ancestor, awaited the coming of the day when God’s reign could be established. He left the fertile rivers of his homeland in hope, looking towards the day when the sons and daughters whom God had blessed would multiply and fill the earth like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, and smite the evil world.

Why should we care about Abraham? We, too, are enslaved in the country of the enemy, behind its prison bars. We, too, should feel thoroughly disgusted with our lives in this fallen environment. We should also feel goose bumps at the prospect of freedom. If you cannot feel this, then you are not worthy to be called true believers before Heaven.

For what purpose did God raise Abraham? It was not for just himself and his descendants. It was to create a bridge for God to reach out to distant peoples living in the enemy camp, in Satan’s world.11 Abraham was to make a foundation for God’s providence to expand outward. However, because the connection between Heaven and earth was still fragile, God had to begin by working through Abraham’s direct lineage. Thus, He referred to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…

God blessed Abraham on the condition, “You must not compromise with Satan’s world. You must not assimilate into Satan’s world. You are My chosen people. Your life should be different; your feelings, desires and ideals should all be different. Your descendants shall live only if they overcome life’s challenges by relying on Me.” This was the nature of the blessing Abraham passed on to Isaac. Isaac kept it and conveyed it to Jacob, and Jacob likewise conveyed it to his descendants. (7:215-16, September 13, 1959)