Cheon Seong Gyeong 1995
There is no doubt that the Kingdom of God is a place governed according to the will of God. It is governed by the sovereignty held by His children of direct descent, centering on Him and following the commands issued by Him. In such a place, democracy or communism cannot exist. Once it is established, the kingdom would remain eternally. Taking all this into consideration, one cannot help but think that it is truly lamentable that we are not citizens of such a heavenly kingdom. You should lament that you are not a citizen of such a nation. In fact, we should all lament that we do not have such an unchanging sovereignty. (72-292, 1974.9.1)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1186
What happened due to the Ceremony of the Settlement of the Eight Stages? The right of Right of the parent can be liberated and achieved. Because this time is coming, then, from the position of Parents, I am raising all of you into a position where you can be tribal messiahs. This is to liberate Jesus and Adam’s family from their grief. Through your tribes, you can obliterate the foundation created by the mistake of false parents; in this way, for the first time, hometowns where people were born can be transformed into the hometowns of the heavenly kingdom. (193-214, 1989.10.4)
Moses led an adventurous life, from the comforts of the palace to the hardships of exile in Midian, from the heady days when he led the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt to his painful struggle to keep them united during their long years of wandering in the wilderness. Yet two constants guided Moses every step of the way: his zealous love for his people and his firm faith in the transcendent God who is mighty to save.
The Bible says that Moses alone knew God “face to face.” Father Moon focuses on this aspect of Moses’ inner life, explaining that Moses was keenly aware of God’s anguished heart over the plight of his people and knew God’s burning desire to free them and establish them as a nation in Canaan. Hence he was willing to sacrifice everything to relieve God’s anguish and establish the Israelites in a way that would be acceptable to God.
1. Moses’ Zeal to Liberate His People
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together; and he said to the man that did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh, and stayed in the land of Midian.
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” When the lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here am I.” Then he said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the lord said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain.”
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name,’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” He said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt; and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt.” ’ ”|
And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt; for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt; and in his hand Moses took the rod of God.
And the lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the lord, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me”; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son.’”
At a lodging place on the way the lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So he let him alone. Then it was that she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision…
Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
We sent forth Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his council with Our signs, but they waxed proud, and were a sinful people. So when the truth came to them from Us, they said, “Surely this is a manifest sorcery.”… None believed in Moses, save a seed of people, for fear of Pharaoh and their council, that they would persecute them; and Pharaoh was high in the land, and he was one of the prodigals. Moses said, “O my people, if you believe in God, in Him put your trust, if you have surrendered.” They said, “In God we have put our trust. Our Lord, make us not a temptation to the people of the evildoers, and deliver us by Thy mercy from the people of the unbelievers.”…
Moses said, “Our Lord, You have given to Pharaoh and his council adornment and possessions in this present life. Our Lord, let them go astray from Thy way; our Lord, obliterate their possessions, and harden their hearts so that they do not believe, till they see the painful chastisement.” He said, “Your prayer is answered; so go you straight, and follow not the way of those that know not.”
And We brought the children of Israel over the sea; and Pharaoh and his hosts followed them insolently and impetuously till, when the drowning overtook them, he said, “I believe that there is no god but He in whom the children of Israel believe; I am of those that surrender.” “Now? And before you were a rebel, one of those who did corruption. So today We shall deliver you with your body, that you might be a sign to those after you. Surely many men are heedless of Our signs.”