The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 48 -
ABOUT THE DIVINE BLESSING ON EARTH
When Enoch had in this way ended his apologetic speech he thanked Me silently for having given him such suitable words. Then he once more bowed to Adam and to all the patriarchs. Adam and the patriarchs, however, stood up, said all an 'Amen' and embraced the usually very shy Enoch who did not have the courage to put himself forward before others, but had all the more courage to quietly love Me very much out of the boundless humility of his heart and also obey the patriarchs with childlike love - and thanked Me also, full of love and firm trust, for the grace that I had awakened among them such a love-preacher.
2
"Seth thanked father Adam especially for the blessing of Enoch's tongue and asked Me in the presence of all to let this blessed tongue of Enoch continue to be with all descendants of this basic lineage of men until the end of all time.
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Then they all said Amen, but Adam blessed Seth's wish and said: "The Lord will be faithful in all His great promises until the end of time. May all our descendants become ever more faithful to Him until the end of all time! Amen.
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"But now, dear children, go with my rich blessing and thereby in the most holy name of our eternal, exceedingly kind and most loving Father to your dwellings and rest your limbs and your soul and spirit in God. And you, Abel-Seth, do not forget your father and bring me my food and drink and then do with my threefold blessing what I have advised your children to do. But Enoch shall all the time of my life dwell in my hut and eat from the bowl I shall be eating from. In return he shall always be prepared to serve me and all his fathers, brothers and sisters in the love out of the Spirit of God. And now go and do according to what you have heard! Amen."
5
Then they all bowed to Adam and went to their nearby huts. Seth, helped by his wife, did his duty and Enoch fetched his bedding from his plain hut, took it to Adam's hut and, after a silent thanksgiving, into the hut where the old mother Eve did her best to help him make the bed as soft as possible. When all was ready, Seth with his wife arrived with plenty of food and drinks and thanked Me, deeply moved in his heart, for the immense grace bestowed on him before all his elder brothers to be allowed to provide with food and drink his parents and the dear Enoch who appeared to him as a rising morning star.
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After the evening meal, followed by a prayer of thanks, Adam said to Seth: "Abel-Seth, you know that tomorrow is the sixth day of the week and the day after tomorrow the Lord's holy day of rest Let at the time of the offering all my children out of you, their children and children's children come here and also as many as possible of those of my children the Lord has given me after you.
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They shall tomorrow be reminded - and also those who got themselves wives from the lowlands - that they must cleanse themselves before entering this place, above which the eternal Spirit of Love and Wisdom has hovered in all wisdom, might and power, and there hear from the mouth of Enoch a new teaching from God which will be comforting to their hearts as it was to ours when they were filled with boundless expectations out of the immeasurable love of God. Now, dear Seth, I have made known to you everything concerning today and tomorrow. Everything else your heart will reveal to you and so may God's grace and also my blessing guide you! Amen."
8
Prior to retiring, Enoch shyly stepped up to Adam and said: "O father of the fathers, would you still allow me to bother you with a small request; but first of all do forgive me my unauthorized question."
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Adam, moved by this modest and humble sincerity, embraced Enoch and kissed him and then said weeping for joy: "O You great, exceedingly holy and kind Father! What a glorious fruit You have given me through Seth to replace the much grieved-for Abel! Abel was a hero before You and me, but the fruit of Seth is a dripping honey from Your eternal morning. Oh be thanked, be thanked forever for so much grace and mercy!
10
"Look, my Eve, how kind our God and Father is! With what treasures He has enriched us!" - And Eve said: "O Adam, I can but weep for joy at this much grace and love! We are not at all worthy of it, for next to my very great joy I also feel the great burden pressing upon the low places of the earth owing solely to my guilt. O Cain, Cain, why did you have to become a curse to the earth? O Adam, this thought always deprives my tongue of speech and the thorns, which absorbed my first tear when still in Paradise, twine around my joy. O Adam, let me weep and pray!"
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But Adam said: "Be calm, wife, let God now care and you do what is of benefit to your heart! And you, my dear Enoch, open your loving heart to me and tell me your pious wish. My heart, my eye and ear are now open to what comes from your blessed mouth. Therefore speak if you want to, whenever and in whatever manner you wish to, it would always be welcome to me. Amen."
12
Thereupon Enoch opened his heart, gave his tongue free vent and said to Adam: "O father of my fathers, do bless my bed in your hut so that also my soul may rest peacefully where the exalted mother has provided for the rest of my body.
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"For when the body is resting the soul must be at peace. Otherwise, the body cannot rest properly and the spirit is unable to practice viewing itself in its efforts to become like its archetype in God. Just as sleep to rest the body is a blessing of God through nature, peace of the soul is that inner, calm warmth of eternal Love from which the spirit receives the elements for its perfection so that it may one day become once more a true vessel for the holding of love and, thus, the life out of God.
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"O father of the fathers, my wish to approach you and ask for your blessing of my bed was not an insignificant matter. For there is nothing in the world that is not from life and leading to life, showing us the ways of salvation through the endless mercy of eternal Love and boundless grace. But men should not fail to bless everything beforehand out of God's love: the visions, the night, the bed, the rest and everything connected with it. Then dreams will show the pure person faithfully the works of love in spirit and he will find it easy to know himself. But whoever ignores the visions and does not respect the blessings of the bed, and thus the rest is like a blind and deaf person and love and life will silently pass him by.
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"If I were not able to behold great things in the smallest, how could I be able to eventually behold the infinite in the great and in the infinite, eternal Love and God's infinite wisdom, might and power?
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"Therefore, O father of my fathers, do not deny me the blessing of my bed and give peace to my soul so that it may cheerfully rest in God's love in order to bear powerful witness to the great grace in spirit and in all truth out of eternal mercy. Amen."
17
Having heard this pious request, Adam let himself be guided to Enoch's bed and blessed it three times. After he had completed this work of blessing, he returned to his place and said: "Enoch, it has been done according to the wish of your faith in God. However, since you need such a blessing it is surely needed by all and would not be superfluous for me either. But who will bless my bed?"
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Then Enoch replied with love and respect: "O father of my fathers! The mountains are full of your blessing and no doubt the One who had blessed you already before any human eye had gazed up to the holy great Father's dwellings of light has attended to your bed. If the holy great Father has blessed you and everything He has given you, how could you possibly expect a blessing from me who am myself only a very small part of your blessing from God?
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"Oh do be at peace in God For the very earth has been placed under your feet from the great abundance of blessing out of you and for you. Thus also your bed has been blessed for a long time already, allowing you a free rest and a great peace for your soul out of God, whereas my soul is only a soul out of you and, thus, just a small part of the exceedingly great blessing you received directly from the hand of the most holy Father's eternal Love. Therefore you may rest in great peace in the place, which was illumined and abundantly blessed by the most holy presence of God among all of us. Look, you need not worry about that to which the Lord has attended long before a sun illumined the earth!
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"But I have to thank you for this great grace that you have blessed my bed. However, to bless your bed with my hand, O father of my fathers, would be the greatest presumptuousness. How should he who has nothing 'give to the one who has long before received everything from God?
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"Look, I have received nothing but love, and this I can pass on as I have received it. But the blessing has been given to you alone, and we Ourselves are your blessing. Therefore, rest in all the peace of your soul out of God. Amen."
22
Adam was quite moved by these words, kissed Enoch three times on his mouth and spoke the following profound words: "O you dear Enoch! Just like that my son Abel once spoke when during the flight from Paradise he was carrying me and my blessing on his shoulders, which he returned to me faithfully in the land of Euchip.
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"O Enoch, the longer I listen to you the more familiar becomes to me the sound of your speech and it is as if I heard the sweet voice of my Abel. Even if your body is not that of Abel, your appearance is exactly like that of Abel, and so are your speech, the love, and the spirit.
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"O You great, most holy Father, the earth will hardly ten times as long be inhabited by men as I have inhabited it and still shall do so bodily according to Your holy will. But if I lived to the end, what could be a greater blessing for my heart on this earth than if You, Jehovah, gave my Abel back to me? But this wish, seeming to me so impossible to fulfill, has now so wondrously been fulfilled. O Jehovah, I cannot thank You enough for the boundless grace of giving me back my Abel and all the blessing in Enoch whom You find worthy of having from his lineage one day go forth a descendant, as a great, holy brother to all my children out of You. O Jehovah, do graciously accept my deepest gratitude!
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"And you, mother Eve, did not in vain prepare joyfully such a soft and comfortable bed for Enoch. For he, for whom you have wept for 600 years, has now been given back to us in Enoch. So rejoice with me, for he will never die but, if he will remain on earth beyond our time, he will return from where he has come as he is now. So rejoice with me, Eve! And you, Enoch, say if this is not so?"
26
And Enoch said: "Yes, father Adam, my flesh is out of Eve, my soul out of you and my spirit out of God How should I not be the one you have blessed, or Abel or your blessed seed, since my spirit and Abel's spirit are one and the same spirit out of God. Therefore, rest tenderly in the peace of your soul and you, too, dear mother Eve, in God! Amen."