Witnessing Activities
Special Lectures
| Lecture 33 : [Moses and Jesus 6] The second worldwide journey of return to Canaan (Jesus) | |
|---|---|
| Date created : 2015-04-22/ Views : 1490 | |
The providence of return centered on Moses and Jesus 6
Chapter 33: The second worldwide journey of return to Canaan (Jesus)
Welcome back to the path to happiness. I’m your host, Dr. Tyler Hendricks.
In our last session, we learned that in the way of God’s love, we have to overcome betrayal and disappointment, and stay on course. Rev. and Mrs. Moon, as well, whom Jesus called as True Parents, have gone through so much betrayal and disappointment. But they never accuse or blame; they, like Jesus, maintain the impossible messianic mission and take full responsibility. How do we know who they are? Just like Jesus… by their words and deeds, and their unchanging and loving hearts.
Let us continue our study of Jesus’ course, and see how it applies to our world today.
John the Baptist was supposed to establish the foundation for the Messiah and guide the religious leadership to Jesus, so he should have followed Jesus with trust and loyalty.
John the Baptist baptized Jesus at the Jordan River, but gradually doubted him and eventually betrayed him.
Therefore, John’s disciples and the national leadership also came to distrust Jesus, and Satan invaded the foundation established by John the Baptist.
Therefore, Jesus had to take the position of John the Baptist and pay the indemnity to establish the foundation of faith. So Jesus became the central figure for the second course to restore Canaan on the world level.
The baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist at the Jordan River was to have been when Jesus inherited John’s foundation.
But when John the Baptist turned away, Jesus did a 40 day fast to separate Satan and establish the foundation of faith in the position of John the Baptist.
Even though he was the Messiah, because he was in the position of John the Baptist, he told Peter to not tell the people that he was the Messiah(Matt 16:20). Scholars call this the “messianic secret.”
Because Moses hit the rock twice, and because of John the Baptist’s unfaithfulness, Jesus did a 40 day fast in the wilderness, to restore Moses, and underwent three temptations from Satan.
The three temptations were; 1: to turn stones into bread, 2: to leap off of the top of the Temple for angels to catch him, and 3: to rule the world by bowing down to Satan.
God’s purpose of creation was to establish the three blessings, and Satan blocked the three blessings from being fulfilled.
Because Jesus came to fulfill the three blessings, Satan gave three tests in order to block the path back to the blessings.
Let’s find the principles of these three tests.
_____________________________________
First, after his 40 day fast, Satan tested by saying “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus is the Christ, the foundation (1 Corinthians 10:4), and the rock.
The rock was invaded by Satan due to faithlessness (Num. 26:24). Therefore, Jesus could be tempted by Satan.
Jesus went out into the wilderness and fasted to restore the rock.
When the people following Moses into Canaan became unfaithful because of food, Moses hit the rock, the root of the tablets of stone, and it came into Satan’s possession.
Satan knew Jesus was trying to restore the rock.
That is why Satan said to Jesus to give up his attempt to restore the rock and turn it into bread to satisfy his hunger. Then Satan would keep the rock in his possession.
Jesus replied to Satan, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Matt 4:4)
The human body is to live with nutrients from nature, and the soul is supposed to engraft into Christ, who is the embodiment of the Word of God.
Therefore Jesus’ reply was that even though he hungered for physical food, Jesus would live on the Word of God, and become the bread of life to save the souls of all humankind.
Due to Jesus’ relying on God centering on the principle, he overcame the first temptation.
By this Jesus restored the rock, showed he was Christ and defeated Satan. He was able to establish the foundation of faith to restore the first blessing.
As the second test, Satan put Jesus at the top of the Temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down and let the angels catch you”. (Matt 4:6)
Because Jesus came as the lord of the Temple, Satan acknowledged this and set him on the top.
And to jump down from there meant to fall down from the position of master and go back to the fallen position. Then Satan himself would seize the position of the master of the Temple instead of Jesus.
To this Jesus said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’. (Matt 4:7)
Jesus, as the original substance of God, supervised the angels. Satan, as a fallen angel, was naturally under Jesus’ supervision.
Furthermore because Jesus overcame in the first temptation, he established the position of the lord of the Temple. There were no conditions for Satan to test him again, so he told Satan to leave.
By this Jesus was victorious over the second temptation. Since all the children of Israel came to worship God at the Temple, which housed the male-female word of God, Jesus restored the position of the bridegroom in the temple, to receive his bride and give rebirth to the children.
By establishing the position of the True Parent that was lost due to Adam’s fall, the second blessing, multiplication of children, was restored.
_________________________________________________
On the third temptation, Satan placed Jesus on a high mountain, showed him all things of the world and said, “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.” (Matt 4)
This meant for Jesus, the last Adam, to surrender to Satan and give up the position of lord, just as Adam did.
To this Jesus replied, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’. (Matt 4:10)
Angels, as servants, (Hebrew 1:14) were made to bow down to and worship not only God who created them, but Jesus, who appeared as the body of God.
Satan, the fallen angel, had to do the same.
That is why Jesus replied with this principle.
And furthermore because Jesus was victorious in the first two temptations, and created the foundation to restore the first and second blessings, it was natural that he would be the lord of love for the whole world, which is the third blessing.
That is why he replied sternly to worship God, because he already was standing on the foundation of victory.
By passing the third temptation, Jesus’ separated form Satan and established the conditions to restore lordship over the whole world, Jesus was able to establish the foundation of faith to restore God’s ownership of all living things, or the third blessing.
By his 40 day fast and victories of the three temptations, Jesus was able to restore by indemnity the failure of all central figures to establish the 40-day foundation to separate from Satan, and established the conditions to restore the four position foundation and fulfill the three blessings.
Even though Jesus came as the True Parent of humankind, he had to set the foundation of faith in the position of John the Baptist. He fulfilled the the 40-day foundation to separate from Satan and established the position of Abel, who was the central person for the foundation of substance.
Now if the chosen people around him would become one with Jesus, the foundation for the Messiah would be created, and on that foundation Jesus, from the position of John the Baptist, would advance to the position of the Messiah. He would be able to separate all humankind from Satan, liquidate the original sin, return us to the original ideal of creation, and establish heaven on earth.
So Jesus went to Galilee and made a fresh start.
He proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” (Matt 4:17) which was exactly what John the Baptist had proclaimed. So we see that Jesus was in John’s position, due to John’s failure.
Jesus tried to make the people into the people of the kingdom of heaven.
He healed diseases of the body and soul and gave wise counsel.
But the people around him, centered on the religious leaders, concluded, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” and did not trust him. (Matt 12:24)
Jesus went to his hometown and told his message, but even in his hometown he was excluded, and he had to leave with a sad heart.
They said, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” and excluded Jesus. (Matt 13:55=57)
Due to the unfaithfulness of the chief priests, scholars, and other religious authorities, his own families and disciples’ lack of faith, and final the betrayal his disciple Judas Iscariot, Jesus was crucified on the cross.
With this, the second worldwide course to restore Canaan, failed, and the providence was extended to the third course, after the Resurrection.
_____________________________________________
So we see how complicated the Messiah’s course is when people don’t accept him, and how he is the one to suffer the most! Especially the religious leaders stuck with their institutions, because all the people looked up to them, and they could not risk everything to follow the Son of God. But who can blame them? We all have families and jobs and want a comfortable life, just like them. The Messiah was kind of a trouble-maker, who had different things to say and even judged them for being children of Satan. It’s a lot to think about, when we consider the prophecy that Jesus will come again.
That’s it for now. Thank you for your kind attention, and see you next time.
