The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 172 -
ABOUT THE NATURE OF INTERCESSION
And Enoch was silent and so was Sethlahem, both quietly awaiting the approach of the Great One.
2
They did not have to wait long, for in a moment He was already with them, accompanied by Jared and Abedam. Meanwhile Adam with Eve and the children of Seth had to go to the already known morning height there to wait happily for Him and all the others known to us from Adam's hut.
3
Upon reaching Enoch at the sacrificial altar the high Abedam immediately asked him: "Dear Enoch, I have heard some grumbling from the hearts of a few men from the midday. Sethlahem has certainly made them shut up, but now their hearts are crying all the more pitifully and are full of malice.
4
"What do you think we should do to them?"
5
And Enoch answered: "O Abba, You are telling me in my heart. Your holy will be done, and that will be the best for them.'
6
Then Abedam said to Enoch: "Behold, Enoch, it was for their sake alone that the nightly storm was allowed to rage in order to humble their proud hearts. But you have now seen with your own eyes and heard with your own ears what little effect it has had on them.
7
"Would it not be better if such people did not exist at all?
8
"Maybe one should let them be swallowed up by the earth so that their breath may not continue to pollute this hallowed place?
9
"Well, what do you think, would it be right if they fared according to the worth of their hearts?"
10
And Enoch replied to Abedam: "Lord, You who are full of love and mercy, Your will is always holy and Your mercy endless. You do not need to be implored for mercy by anyone, yet You give us opportunities to examine our own hearts to see how much love for the neighbor and brother dwells in them and how far we have managed to become like You in our mercy.
11
"Behold, as I recognize through Your infinite grace and mercy that the mercy and love for my brothers are nothing else but Your mercy and love, a tiny spark from Your endless, super-holy fire of love, I come to You also here in my only apparent mercy and confess that nothing is mine, but everything is Yours, - my love is Your love within me and my mercy Your mercy within me. Therefore, O Abba, eternal gratitude, glory and praise be to You for this!
12
"O Abba, if I feel within me mercy for someone, I feel at the same time how late I am with my mercy compared to You.
13
"Where would a poor, weak blind one already be by the time I come to his aid with my mercy if You had not shown him mercy much earlier?
14
"Yes I can ask You to have mercy upon the weak and blind. But when I ask this, O Abba, I do not do it to move You to something, but only that You may graciously look at my heart when it makes You a small offering from Your treasure for the brothers.
15
"And so I say also here as I do everywhere and at all times: O Abba, Your holy will be done! And what my heart offers You in love and mercy for the brothers - a trifling offering compared with Your endless love and mercy -, accept it graciously as if it were something before You so that if You have shown full mercy to someone in a way even obvious to us blind ones, I too may rejoice together with those to whom You visibly showed Your mercy.
16
"O Abba, do receive my confession graciously and have patience with my foolishness. Your holy will be done now and forever! Amen."
17
And Abedam looked at Enoch most lovingly and said to him:
18
"Dear Enoch, your words were perfect as they showed what your heart is like and how much wisdom of love dwells therein. But to help you understand perfectly what all intercession needs to be like out of eternal order, hear this:
19
"If you see any in whatever way poor brother or sister, that is, poor either physically through the weakness or total uselessness of one or the other sense or that he is poor in heart, poor in love, poor in energy to act, poor in will, poor in insight, poor in intellect or completely impoverished in his spirit and everything pertaining to it and you show him mercy out of the love of your heart for Me, and through it for the brother or sister, behold, then your mercy is a perfect one. For then it is already an absorption of My great mercy in the same way as when the wind blows through the forest, moving the trees and every little leaf on the tree making it fan and thus produce its own little wind which is then absorbed by the general great wind as if it were really something in comparison with it.
20
"You will have often noticed that when the wind blows it also moves the dry leaves, and because they are dry and stiff and dead they cannot withstand the draft of the wind and soon break from the branches and float down to the dead earth. And even if the great wind carries them along for a while they gradually sink down where annihilation awaits them.
21
This is the destiny of the leaf of a tree, but not that of man. Woe betides him if he has become dry on the tree of life; truly, he will not escape his destruction.
22
This is meant by the comparison that only the living can be moved to living mercy by My great mercy. Thus his mercy is absorbed by Mine as if it were something. Just as the wind absorbs the fanned breath of wind of the leaf and, carrying it along, lets it wash against other leaves, it is also with man's mercy towards his fellowmen. Therefore, one brother shall do to the other as much as he can out of his living love, yes, living out of and through Me, and I shall then look upon his action and his intercession as if it were something before Me.
23
"Behold, if the wind blows like this it takes your breath with it as if it were something. But do you think your breath would either strengthen the wind or even give it a different direction?
24
"O look, even the breath of all the living people together is not able to do that. For no human being knows where the mighty wind comes from, nor does anyone know where it goes, except that it allows you to notice from its draught its regular direction. If you breathe in that direction the wind will absorb your breath and carry it along, but if you intentionally breathe against it, your breath will be repelled, break against your own mouth and thus contribute to choking your own life.
25
"If you weep beside a stream and tears of compassion drop from your eyes, truly, if you have let your tears fall into the water of the stream and they are merging with it, they too will be carried to the sea of mercy. But if someone wept beside a stream and, ignoring its water, lets his tears drop into the sand of the shore, would such tears reach the sea too?
26
"Behold, he who believes to move Me through his intercession to a joint mercy, is he not even more stupid than one who is of the opinion that wherever he has shed a tear the sea must come and absorb his tear, not bearing in mind what the sea actually is and where every little brook is directed?
27
"But he who allows Me to move him has the proper mercy and his tears will fall promptly into the sea.
28
"Who, then, has prayed to Me and moved Me to create you when there was nothing as yet besides Me? Or have I maybe since then become harder and more loveless to have My created beings move Me to something?
29
"O look, there is surely no need for that; but it is necessary that My children let Me move their hearts and receive Me in pure love, then observe the direction of My great mercy and then actively join Me in this mercy. Behold, that is My will!
30
"When I asked you earlier what was to be done with these rebellious ones, your answer was proper as you had let yourself be seized and moved by Me. And also in the future everyone should have a proper compassion with every poor fellowman, for everyone is a brother to the other in My love. But if I want to awaken the dead, who will then ask Me not to do so?
31
"And behold, Enoch, you have not fully comprehended My question, for also these mutterers must first be swallowed up by the earth of true humility before they can become alive.
32
"That is the reason why I gave you this lesson. But now let the mutterers come closer. Amen."