The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 33 -
THE DEPARTURE OF THE MEDUHEDITES
And behold, when the last fifty days had passed, Meduhed - inspired by Me - called them all together and delivered a mighty speech, as follows: "You men, friends and brothers, with all your wives, children and male and female servants, all of whom are now, according to the will from above, our dear brothers and sisters, too. Come all to me and position yourselves after the well-known order around the small hill so that you may clearly hear the, to me, newly revealed will of the Most High!
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"For it is the will of the Lord that you collect all the tools and place an even number of them in each hulk in the straw which has so far served you as a bed. When you have done this and fastened in the corners the branches, which are well covered with foliage, with the still available nails, only then fetch the fruits gathered for a duration of at least thirty days and place them carefully in the corners below the branches onto the foliage of figs. Leave the camels and donkeys behind as a sign for the Lamechites that we were here and also as a sign that we have left to them all that is beastly and have saved what is human and divine Surround the tools with small branches to the height of a foot and cover them with your blankets and straw coats, and throw the animal skins over the tools. All this has to be done exactly in accordance with the divine instructions through me. Then come once more to me to the hill so that I may give you further instructions as willed from above. Thereupon we shall all together tank God and praise Him for His immense and boundless goodness and mercy.
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"Now go and do quickly as advised from above through me. Amen."
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And they all bowed to Meduhed, thanked God in their hearts for His instructions and most willingly and quickly set to work. In seven days, by your reckoning, everything was in perfect order
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When they had completed their tasks as prescribed, they all, according to Meduhed's pious wish, once more assembled at the hill and thanked Me for the so promptly and successfully accomplished work.
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When Meduhed had seen their completed work and saw them all gathered around the hill with cheerful and pious hearts, he once more spoke to them, saying:
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"Men, friends and brothers, women and sisters, listen! It is the will of the Lord, our great and almighty God, that always one hundred and twenty of you shall occupy one hulk, forty males and eighty females. The children shall sit and lie on the skins on top of the tools The women shall sit on the branches, blankets and coats. But you men shall stand around the women with your laces turned towards the row of the hulks and the current of the wind, and you shall eat only once a day, and that at noon You shall relieve yourselves, like the women and children, at the rear of the hulk into the water, and one shall support the other so that no one falls into the water. Throughout this time the men shall not sleep or sit, least of all lie down. For the Lord will strengthen your bodies and keep you awake throughout the time we shall spend on the surface of the great water according to His holy will The women and children shall not help themselves to the fruit, but shall humbly ask the men and fathers for food in order that we may become one people in accordance with the will and the eternal, almighty order of God, worthy of His goodwill and His endless love and grace". And we will not, and shall not, touch a single hair on our heads without His holy will.
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"Once all of us will be inside the hulks, the elder in each hulk shall be prepared, upon a sign from heaven in the form of a bright Hash of lightning, to promptly cut the rope with a sharp knife. Then a wind will arise and drive the hulks out to sea, which will already be witnessed by Tatahar and his murderous gangs, they will be reaching the shore when we are already a thousand man-lengths away from it.
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"You will see them throw stones into the water, but none of them will be able to reach us. For God's right hand will quickly remove us from the sight of these hyenas and guide us to a great, distant land, thirty days and thirty nights away from all the firm lands, situated almost in the middle of the great water. It is called "Ihypon" (i.e., 'a safe garden') and this land will be there for us as long as the world stands, according to the will from above. We shall recognize it when, already from a considerable distance, we will catch sight of a burning mountain fully aflame in the love of God.
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"In the inner parts of the land there will be vast plains full of the most glorious and sweetest fruits, as well as of useful, tame animals which will give us their milk for a healthy fare. The earth will taste like honey and milk and will be without sand and stones and enjoyable like good bread. And listen what the Lord says: There is nowhere on the entire earth, mother land as fine as this, for there it is never too warm or too cold, but there reigns eternal spring
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'The people who will be living there in accordance with the will of God shall never grow older and their dying will be like a gentle sleep, and invisible beings will come and secretly revive such a person and carry him up to God. And not even a mote will be left behind which had stuck to the feet of such a reanimated one.
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"But he who ever ignores the will of God in his heart will also die and never rise again in his body. And the worms of the earth will come and consume him completely, and his soul and spirit will once more for thousands of years, as solidified bodies, have to serve the mountains as a foundation, darkly aware of their misery and total nothingness, until finally, by the gracious will from above, some animal absorbs them. Then they will have to work their way up from stage to stage through the entire animal world in mute misery, until finally they can once again attain to the dignity of man. Do remember this well, for you might have to die thousands of times before you again win the life out of the love and grace of God. Do understand what the Lord is here telling you!
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"In future you shall not sleep with your wives before you are forty years old, and then not more often than it requires with the blessing of God to beget a human being. And you may at the most have two or three wives Whatever is above that would be considered a grave sin by God and make your life on earth short and difficult, weaken your love for God and thus, finally, deprive you of all wisdom which is but God's voluntary gift to those who scrupulously keep His commandments.
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"And finally: As it is here, you shall also there not regard anything as your property, but as the property of God. And the one who might claim a right and say: This blade of grass belongs to me!' will be promptly punished by God with blindness so that in the future he will never again be able to pick up a fruit from the ground, but will have to learn to subsist throughout his lifetime on the love of God and his brothers
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"The sinners shall eat nothing but the grass on the ground and the bitter foliage of poor trees as do the animals to whose level they will have degraded themselves. And before they have not atoned for their sin, they shall not dare eat anything else if they want to stay alive. This concerns above all the unchaste, and particularly those young women who will lie with a man more often for the sake of sensual pleasure. The Lord will fill the body of such a one with a pestilence, and she will be expelled to the outer limits of the great land where nothing grows but grass and leaves. Finally, the Lord, our great almighty God, says that you shall love one another, and no one shall ever become the judge of the other. Let the weaker go to the stronger to obtain support and help for his sojourn on earth, and the wisest shall serve au and be a counselor to his brothers.
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"Now that you have heard God's will clearly and plainly, thank God with me in your hearts, saying: Lord, You almighty and great God, we thank You with the fervor of our still weak heart Do make it strong, You great, good and powerful eternal God, so that one day, worthier or Your holiness than now in our utter weakness, we may thank You and praise You and thereby, as You have so graciously promised us, become worthy of being at least in some way like Your children. Now, O great God, Your will be done. Let us enter the hulks and be led by You as it pleases You! Amen."
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And behold, after this brief prayer they left the place together with Meduhed and boarded the hulks with cheerful hearts.
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And lo, everything happened exactly as predicted by Meduhed. Led by the serpent, Lamech's hyena and tiger hordes chased angrily after the poor Meduhedites. But quite as quickly I swept the hulks with My people away from the shores and then calmly, yet with speed, to the shores of the great land that was surrounded by the vast waters.
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As for the Lamechites, I had them driven by the constantly rising tides of the sea right to the mountains where thousands of them were killed and eaten by hyenas, tigers, lions, bears, wolves and serpents; for the army of pursuers consisted of seven thousand men and seven thousand women. And only seven young men and seven maidens returned to the city of Enoch and reported what had happened. They also brought the animals left behind by the Meduhedites safely back, in all thirty-five thousand camels and as many donkeys, which they handed over to Lamech and told him all they had seen, namely, how a bright flash of lightning had come down from the cloudless sky between them and the fugitives and carried the latter at the end of the world far out on a boundlessly vast water. Thereupon the waters had begun to rise and driven them high into the mountains where countless numbers of the well-known ravening beasts had come upon them and killed and consumed all except them because they had fled among the great number of camels and donkeys. Let Lamech well consider the events that had taken place, for they felt that there might live a great king above the stars with whom men should never dare to fight They should rather worship Him and honor Him because of His incomprehensible might, for even the sea, the winds, the lightning and all the ravening beasts obeyed Him. - This they had seen with their own eyes, and they had heard a great voice like thunder command the beasts and speak also with the elements like a great storm from the heights of the stars.
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And behold, when Lamech had heard this he became very angry in his heart and decided to take revenge on Me. This resulted from the fact that the serpent had taken full possession of his heart. Therefore, he said to the young men who had returned: "Listen, you seven innocent youths! I want the king above the stars to make amends and I insist on a thousand-fold compensation. Since you know where He can be contacted, go there and tell Him in my name what I demand. And should He refuse, tell Him that I curse Him and however great and mighty He may be, He shall on earth through me, and with my mockery, be torn to pieces by His people, as was done to my people by His beasts. For with all His windy and watery might He is but a weak lamb compared with me, the king of lions. Set fire to the forests everywhere and to all the mountains that all His beasts be fried and He sit down at a well-prepared table and eat the flesh and bones of the burnt beasts. If He does not want them to burn, let Him conduct floods over all of it and drown His might!
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"Oh, I am well acquainted with this airy king above the stars! Whatever He does is for fear of me. For He knows my greatness, might and power which cause Him much trouble and will finally destroy Him completely unless He satisfies my justified demand and all my wishes.
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"Now go and do what I bade you do. Take with you men with plenty of fire brands in order to set fire to the mountains in case of His refusal!"
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The young men left and discussed the situation. "For if he is so mighty," they said, "why does he not go himself? It is no doubt easier to be furious than to fight and easier to threaten in blind fury than to act. What be said, each one of us could have said too, but where does it lead? Everyone can see how far his and our hands can reach, but who bas ever seen even one finger of the king above the stars to be able to judge His might and power? Lamech is but a gnat compared to Tatahar and his adherents, and where are they now? We seven are now the entire center of his power, and we have witnessed the incomprehensible might of the great, invisible king above the stars, have heard His speech the power of which made the whole earth tremble, like someone whom the frost has penetrated, freezing his bones and marrow.
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"Therefore, we shall go and do what we please, and instead of threatening we shall praise Him and His great might and power. Maybe He will accept us as He has done with Meduhed, and then let Lamech at home measure his strength and bite into the stones in his fury.
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"We would rather serve such a great and mighty king who can surely hold us above the tides like Meduhed's people."
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And behold, as they had wisely decided they carried out their resolve, which was pleasing to Me. They took their wives and camels and donkeys laden with fruits and hurried to where they saw the waters, and rested on the shore of the great ocean.
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Now the one who had been the spokesman said: "Here we are! Where do we want to go? We are so ignorant, therefore, jet us ask the great king to take us into His service and show us the place of our true destination. Most likely we have only thanks to His influence been able to free ourselves from the clutches of Lamech and managed to get here.
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"Therefore, I can respectfully on behalf of all of us who have no names as yet to You, O great invisible king of all might and strength! First of all, receive our thanks for saving us from the teeth of the hyenas and the clutches of Lamech. And I pray that You lead also us to some safe place according to Your will, where we can serve You undisturbed. For we know that You are a mighty Lord and we are aware of the absolute nothingness of Lamech whose supporters we were supposed to be. However, we did not want that since we have seen and deeply sensed the great might of Your glory and have also heard the wild, senseless and empty prattle of the now completely powerless Lamech.
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"Do hear our joint supplication and let us know Your will - or destroy us. For it is better to be destroyed by You than to serve Lamech!"
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And lo, as the seven with their seven wives had ended their brief, but very sincere prayer a strong wind arose in the mountains and with the wind came racing towards them a very big hyena full of fury. It stopped in front of the small group surveying them penetratingly as if trying to find the best morsel among the people who were seized with mortal terror. And when they all wanted to flee into the water, the spokesman pulled himself together and shouted at them: "Listen to me! Let us remain standing here completely surrounded by the invincible might of the great king. And believe me, if He should destroy us, He will preserve us also in our destruction Do not be so afraid of this small hyena since we have luckily escaped the murderous clutches of a much bigger one, and this all the more so as we are now in the plain where a hyena has no longer the power of attacking humans and tearing them to pieces. For the great, mighty king above the stars has in the mountains saved us from the teeth of thousands of the most ravenous beasts at a time when we were still against Him - how could He now wish to destroy us when we are for Him?
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"Believe me, He will surely save all of us. Look at me, I will now trustfully go to the hyena and put my head in its jaws. Should it hurt me, then you may flee into the water or wherever you wish. But if you see me pull my head unhurt from its jaws, then you shall all cast yourselves down and thank the great king, for then He will have come already very close to us."
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And behold, he immediately did what he had said, walked full of trust up to the foaming hyena, which opened its jaws wide so that his whole head would fit in.
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And as he had put his head in, quite as unhurt he withdrew it again. The whole group was amazed, and they promptly fell on their faces and thanked Me from the depth of their hearts, although I was still a stranger to them.
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When they were almost exhausted from their effusive gratitude and praise, the hyena, to their utter amazement, began to direct a sensible speech to them, saying:
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"You late descendants of Cain and Enoch, rise to your feet and look at me! See my angry and threatening appearance! I am only a ravenous beast destined to faithfully guard the mountains and the there living great children of God Whom in your blindness you call a great king. But tell me whether as an animal I have ever disregarded the will of God. My life is dust and earth, my time is only a few years, days and heartbeats. I have nothing to expect. What my blood thirst gives me is all I can receive from the Creator for my existence. If one of you has ever seen me transgress my prescribed limits without the will of God, let him take a stone and kill me.
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"But you hesitate, - not that you lack the courage, but because my obedience to the will of God astonishes you. And look how a ravenous beast, according to the will of God, teaches you men, whom an everlasting life is awaiting, about your forgetting God so completely and, thus, about your destiny. Look, no ravenous beast is so wild that even in starvation it would attack and kill one of its kinds in order to satisfy its hunger. But you men, who are meant to live forever, go about in hordes to kill your brothers, not out of necessity, but out of a purely hellish love of power; to stain the earth with their blood and to hurriedly bury their flesh in the earth.
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"Oh shame on you, you humans who are meant to be lords of the world! Where is your glory? You are fourteen of you and I am only one and you were mortally afraid of my appearance, of an unfortunate animal, which by the will of God was originally destined to serve you!
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"Accompany me into the forests and convince yourselves as to whether even one animal dominates the other. If one of them becomes quarrelsome and envious it is soon expelled from the herd because it was not according to the will of God within us. And you will never find an animal, which sends another on the prey in order to be fed as a loafer, except it has become weak. Then another animal will carry some prey to its cave and place it near its jaws. And no animal will eat it before it has become cold. This we are taught by the divine will within us, and be assured, not one animal will lift its head without the will of God.
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"We know no property limits, except those of our nature and the nature of our bodies. But you men who have so completely forgotten God, divide the earth, and then some king or ruler, or favorite of them, says: "This I give you for a small tribute, and this to the favorite and his better servants because of their helpful, strong fists. The rest of the people you may use as beasts of burden, which you have to supply only with just enough to keep them alive so that they can perform all the tedious work for the idlers. Should they resist, they would have to face ill-treatment and possibly death." If then such a slave imagined that he could also be a brother of the king or of a ruler or had the same right as a man who was made great by the king, - would he not be promptly murdered? - Oh tell me, where upon the entire earth is there anything crueler than you men are? Is not a serpent, or I or a lion, a tiger, a ravening wolf or an angry bear like a pure, holy angel compared with you men? Oh if we were given love, as you are, how we would love God! But even without love we love Him through our perfect obedience endlessly more than you do who have not only forgotten His love out of which He created you, but God Himself, your Creator.
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"Ask the stones, ask the grass, ask the air, ask the water, ask everything you see, except men, and all the things will proclaim the great God to you and tell you of the endless wonders of His love. Only you free humans, who were meant to live forever in bliss, could completely forget your Creator, your benefactor! - No wonder that you are nameless, whatever could you be called? Devils know God and flee Him. Satans know God too, and hate Him for being God and a lord of their existence. But who are you who from devils and satans have through His endless love become free human beings and have forgotten Him completely and in your gnat-like weakness consider yourselves gods because you can strike each other with stones and clubs and erect hollow heaps of stones which you call cities? Look, you are nothing, as you now are. A blade of grass is more and the claw of a hyena is a sacred object compared with all the countless brood of such men as the ones you left behind in the city of Enoch and as you yourselves have been till now.
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"In short, this is the will of the great God: Before you are given another destination you shall for seventy days be schooled by us hyenas to learn humaneness and love of your neighbor and through it learn to know God again. And when through us wild beasts you have recognized your equality and God through our mute and blind obedience, only then will the Lord of all creatures let us show you a peaceful place.
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"Now follow me, as willed by God, willingly and without fear, except in the fear of God! He who is willing shall not be harmed, but the unwilling and disobedient one is not even worth being torn to pieces by the teeth of hyenas, he may expect the lot of Lamech, the satans and the prince of satans.
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And behold, all fourteen persons followed a fierce hyena to a dark cave in the mountains where, allowed by Me, they learned from the nature of the beasts equal right of humanity, love of their neighbor, obedience and, thus, to again recognize Me and fully trust Me. Thereby they became aware of the great difference between hue humans and animals and at the same time recognized how deep they had been beneath them. All this they learned through My particular grace, which made them, see and fully sense My will in the wild beasts.
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(N.B. More than at that time, you would now need such a school. For then men, as children of the world, were bad because of the darkness, but now they are evil in the light and the prince of darkness admits that compared with the children of the world he has become a bungler, and he fares already like some weak parents who are surpassed by their children in all kinds of judgments.)