The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 111 -
ASMAHAEL BRINGS METHUSEIAH AND LAMECH ALONG
Now also all the others were greatly surprised. But when Adam caught sight of the two descendants of Enoch coming towards them led by Asmahael, he asked Enoch:
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'Who told the two to come, for I did not want them to accompany us, since the one is too indifferent and the other too flighty and knows no earnest?"
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And Enoch replied: "Look, father Adam, partly it was done by the fatherly love of Jared in my place, but mainly by Him Who is walking with them towards us.
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"If you know Him, how can you ask why the Lord is doing it?
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"Oh, rejoice with me that the great God has so much pleasure in that which is low in the sight of the world, regards the insignificant with favor and hurries to help that which is weak in our eyes.
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"Oh, let therefore our great and exceedingly holy God and Father be praised forever! Amen."
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Adam was moved to tears and deep in his now greatly appeased heart praised and glorified Me.
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Meanwhile Asmahael brought his charges to the patriarchs and began to address the following words to all:
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"Listen, all of you who are here present bodily and in spirit in love and faith and especially those of you who discriminate between one and the other and say: 'This is a favorite of mine because he always obeys my heart. His life is truly out of me as it is in perfect compliance with my will!' And again you say: 'This child, or this person, I do not like and cannot love as he has not conformed to the desire of my heart and my will is as if alien to him and he does not completely observe what pleases me. If I wish to rest, he jumps about; if I want to walk, he runs across my path. But when he is expected to speak, he is silent and where he should be silent, he talks. When he is supposed to walk, he lies down and when he should be awake, he falls asleep and from his dreams brings forth all kinds of drivel' And by this standard you judge those who do not suit you, banning them from your heart because they do not conform to your self-love. See how unjust your judgment is.
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"When God let a man come into being, did He create him to be a curse or a blessing?
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"Has God ever revealed any difference between humans apart from the natural one of gender? Or has He ever given you a commandment saying that the children and people who do not develop in conformity with your self-love deserve your contempt and you must love and respect only those who have no other will than that of your heart?
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"Oh look, since you act like this without being commanded to do so, how can you curse slavery in the lowlands which is a disorder of the night and has arisen out of you; and how can you make slaves of your own children?
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"'Am not I,' says the Lord, 'also a Father of your children just as I am yours?
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"'And do I not have the right to give also the children their own free will? And having done this, which you find annoying, am I accountable to you?
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"'If you elders are not accountable to your children for your free will, how can you expect this of Me Who embraces all of you with the same love, not like you who love one more, the other less or not at all?
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'Show Me a spot on the surface of the earth onto which a drop of rain has never fallen, nor a ray of the sun, and where one drop would have been less damp than another.
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"'Truly I say to you: There is no harder servitude than that of obstinate willfulness when nothing is considered but self-love and all have to serve the will of one individual.'
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"Since the holy, eternal, wisest and most loving Father has given to everyone his own free will, just as his own heart, is it right if the parent does not ever want to accept a free life-activity of his adult son?
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"I say that although it is better for the son to obey his father all his life and never to oppose him, it is certainly much more appropriate for the father to bring up his son from birth in such a way that he becomes capable of acting freely and independently and as a free man, urged by his love, returns to the father and says:
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O father, look, your son has come and wishes to do all he can for you."
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'Tell Me, is not that more than if you have to say to your children: 'Come here and lead me!', and the son comes and obeys you, but would not have dared come if you had not called him?
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"Oh see how much discrimination there still is between you and how little you are like the One Who wants to make you His eternal children!
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"Look at the leaves of this big tree which are now protecting you from the hot rays of the sun and deliberate within you which leaf exceeds the worth of the other.
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"You will say: 'Oh, it does not make any difference whether they are the lower or the upper ones; but if the leaves were a tasty food the larger ones would be worth more than the small ones.'
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'Thus you have made an estimate; but what within you was the estimator? Can you say something else instead of faithfully admitting: 'It was our self-love that always craves enjoyments!', without in the least considering the Creator Who might have destined the smaller leaves for something greater than the large ones which appeal to your stomach?
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"When you construct a ladder, why do you make the lower rungs stronger than the upper ones?
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"I tell you - which you already know - that because of this the lower rungs are not any more serviceable than the upper ones which are weaker and towards the top quite distant from the bottom ones. And when you then lean your ladder against the tree, are not the weakest rungs the ones that come in contact with the fruit?
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'Truly, I tell you that I, too, will construct for Myself a ladder of people, namely, a ladder to the tree of life which reaches from the ground of the earth right into the heaven of all life. Happy shall be the rungs I place at the top, for only they will reach the life whereas the strong ones will wait under all the burden for whatever life is thrown down into the depth.
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"Make sure you understand this well and do not ever judge your children by your self-love, hut according to the divine freedom and love. Amen."