Hyung Jin Moon
March 14, 2010
Cheon Bok Guk, Seoul Korea
Koran [3.195]
I will not waste the work of a worker among you, whether male or female, the one of you being from the other.
Hindu [4:3]
Thou are woman, thou are man, thou are youth and maiden. It is thou alone when born, who assumes different forms.
Words of True Father from the collected works volume 32 page 266:
The person who comes to unite all of humanity with God's love is True Parents, the Messiah. Adam and Eve were meant to center on God's love and be married. But because of the fall they could not accomplish this. For 6000 years until now man has been waiting for a qualified person to come and save them. Christianity calls this person the Messiah.
In the history of the Providence, God has chosen many central figures. The entire providence of restoration has had one goal to restore the world to the state of perfection that it was supposed to have originally before the fall. Before Adam and Eve fell the goal was to create the Kingdom of God. That is still the goal; since Adam and Eve fell the History of Restoration began. Throughout that long history of restoration there have been many precious women that Heavenly Father has used as central figures, like Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and others. Today, I want to look at a particular woman that God used as a central figure. Her name is Ruth. Let us take a look at some scripture about Ruth. This is from the Book of Ruth Chapter 1 verses 16-17.
She was talking to her mother in law.
But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn my back on you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
This is part of the story of a family, the family of Elimelech. Elimelech and his family lived in Bethlehem. His wife's name was Naomi. They were living in Bethlehem with their two sons. Elimelech and his wife and both sons went to Moab where both of their sons married women in Moab, local women. The first son married a woman named Orpah and the second son married a woman named Ruth. They had a difficult life. After living 10 years in Moab Elimelech died and not only Elimelech died but both of his sons died as well. So now the mother-in-law was left with her two daughters-in-law, no husband, and no sons. But both of these daughters-in-law were local Moab women. They were not from the Jewish faith; they did not worship the God of Israel. So Naomi told them they did not need to stay with her any longer, they should go back to their own towns.
She told them, "Go back to your families, live with your families. Your husbands are dead, your father-in-law is dead, there is nobody left but you and me. I think you will be better off if you go." So when the two daughters-in-law heard this Orpah, the wife of the eldest son said, "Okay, I see", and went back home. But when the second daughter-in-law, Ruth, heard what Naomi was saying to her she replied, 'No mother, I will stay with you, I will take care of you. I will not go back to my home. I will take care of you until you die. I will also believe in your God. I will learn about your God. I will worship your God'. So Ruth converted to Judaism and joined the religion of her mother-in-law. So now she came to worship the God of Israel.
So Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem. But the family had gone from Bethlehem for a long time. They had no property there, they had no house there, they had no work, they had no money. So they had to find a way to live, to eat. Ruth worked tirelessly searching through the fields to find grain that was left by the harvesters, to find enough to eat somehow. In this way she tried to take care of her mother-in-law, Naomi. They had no hope of having a good life; really they had no way of finding a good life. But one day she was working in the fields of a rich man named Boaz. Boaz, the owner of the farm came out and noticed her. He asked, 'Who is this woman'? He had heard rumors about her, he had heard about how much she took care of her mother-in-law, Naomi.
As it happens, Boaz was related to Naomi's husband, a cousin of Elimelech. At that time there was a tradition among the Jewish people that if the husband died at a young age, leaving a young widow, the young widow would marry the eldest relative in the family and in this way her deceased husband's lineage would continue. So Boaz the owner of this big farm heard about how Ruth was taking care of Naomi. Because he was a blood relative of Naomi's husband, Ruth was a part of his family now. He fell in love with Ruth and took her to be his bride. So Ruth became the wife of Boaz, a very rich farmer and now she was the head of all of his property. After her years of sacrificial life to take care of Naomi, Heavenly Father rewarded her. She was responsible for managing all of Boaz's properties.
We look at the Book of Ruth, chapter 2, verses 11-12. Boaz replied,
"I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband -- how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."
So Boaz and Ruth got married and they had a son named Obed. Obed grew up and he became the father of Jessie. Jessie was the father of King David. Ruth's devotion and faith was rewarded by the birth of King David in her lineage; the King of Israel. You remember, there is the story of David and the giant Goliath. The small David killed the giant Goliath with a single stone. This is the way that Ruth's loyalty to Naomi was rewarded. From her womb came the lineage of the future King, the victorious King David. According to some Jewish traditions, Orpah, the other daughter in law, who didn't stay to take care of Naomi but just went home to her own family and did not serve God, had children with a non-believing husband, and from her lineage is where Goliath came from, who was an enemy of the Jewish people.
So Ruth's devotion was rewarded by God and King David came several generations later. But not only David; if you look further down the lineage of David, there is Jesus. Jesus came from the line of David also, which means that Jesus came from the line of Ruth. So if you think of this from the principle point of view, God had been trying to send Jesus ever since the fall, to send the restored Adam, because God's only idea was to restore what was lost at the time of the fall. So Heavenly Father sent Jesus to complete the work that Adam had not finished; to become the perfected Adam. Then he was to find the perfected Eve and become the center of human history, a restored human history centered on God and centered on true love. That was the mission of Jesus. But as you know, Jesus went the way of the cross. He was not able to substantiate his four position foundation. He did not have a chance to join with a perfected Eve and make his family.
Let's look at John 3:3-8.
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born again!" Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
So Jesus was explaining about the work of the Holy Spirit, about rebirth through the Holy Spirit. So Christians talk about the Holy Spirit. You can see the Holy Spirit working in many ways, but Christians don't have a good way of explaining why the Holy Spirit comes as such a warm and embracing power. They can't explain why, when the Holy Spirit comes, people shed tears of joy. They can't explain why these miracles happen. The only place where we can find a clear explanation why the Holy Spirit has this power is if we look into the Divine Principle. In a chapter in Christology we can understand the nature and position of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus died, in order to complete the spiritual salvation for his followers, and to move the providence forward centering on Christianity, God had to setup the four-position foundation with Jesus.
And since Jesus did not have his bride, the Holy Spirit came in the bride position. So the providence of restoration, of rebirth, of resurrection, came with the four-position foundation with God, the spiritual Jesus in the father position and the Holy Spirit in the mother position. This position, the Holy Spirit's position, is the perfected mother's position. This is the same position where our True Mother is now sitting. This is why the Holy Spirit is such a warm and powerful force because it is the mother of mankind. The Holy Spirit came in the position of mother of mankind to give rebirth to mankind. So, it shows us that the mission of the messiah, the mission of Jesus, cannot be completed without his bride, without someone in the Eve position. That perfected Eve has to also unite completely with the perfected Adam. Only in this way can resurrection, can restoration be accomplished. This is what God has been waiting for.
Now as Unificationists, when we look at Father, we understand that if we look at him with our spiritual eyes, we can see that he has done incredible spiritual feats in order to move the providence forward and to save mankind. True Father has faced death many times, has made conditions many times. We can see this, we have seen this and we have understood this. We have looked at True Father with our spiritual eyes and with our physical eyes and we kind of know what True Father's mission was. But with True Mother, we haven't looked at her with our spiritual eyes. True Father went the path of the first death and resurrection, the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth death and resurrection alone, from the individual and family level, tribal level up to the national level. He went alone. During this time, he was not yet blessed with True Mother. But when we get up to the sixth level, this happened when Father was already blessed with True Mother. The world level, the sixth resurrection, was Father's imprisonment in Danbury. This was the world level death and resurrection, and from the internal point of view, it is the mother's resurrection.
So at this resurrection level, it would not be possible for True Father to complete this by himself. He had to complete this in unity with True Mother together. The sixth and seventh death and resurrection, the world level and cosmic level death and resurrection had to be accomplished with True Father and True Mother together. So because True Mother was completely united with Father, then it was possible to be victorious in the sixth death and resurrection. While True Father was in Danbury, True Mother prayed continuously. She guided the members of the church and she gathered 7,000 Christian ministers to fight for True Father's freedom, to fight for religious freedom.
The power of the love of True Mother that she had for True Father is what brought those ministers together. She gave them the strength to fight for religious freedom and to fight for liberation of Father because of her intense love for True Father. The ministers saw her love and her devotion to God and her desire to save True Father from suffering. She inspired them to give demonstrations to declare that serious mistakes had been made to imprison Rev. Moon. She inspired them. As with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit brings us closer to Jesus. And in this way, True Mother also has the power to bring us closer to True Father. So it's important for us to understand and realize the value of True Mother and her position.
Let's look at the Catholic Church for a minute. The Catholics pray to Mother Mary, the mother of Jesus. They offer many kinds of prayers to Mother Mary. They pray to Mary, giving praise and adorations to her. They pray to Mary for miracles. Many pray to Mary. Why do they pray to Mary so much? Because they are looking for the completed Eve. Mary is the closest person to the completed Eve that they can find. So they pray to her. But what they are really looking for is the perfected Eve, the bride of the messiah, the perfected Eve. All of history has been waiting 6,000 years for the perfected Eve, and she's here! It is our True Mother.
One of our ministers here at Chung Bok Gung has had very difficult problems with his health. He's been sick a lot. He's been in so much difficulty. He couldn't work sometimes because his body was too weak. He said, "I can't be a minister anymore, I don't have the power. All I can do is go become a monk." But one day, when he was feeling so bad physically, he had a dream. In his dream, True Mother came to him and she fed him with mother's milk. She became his mother in his dream. She gave him new life in his dream. After that, after he awoke, his health began to improve. Now, he has been a minister for 30 years. He is an amazing minister. His health was miraculously restored by True Mother in his dream.
There's another minister here in our church, here at headquarters, who had not been able to have a baby for 10 years. His wife and he tried so hard but for 10 years could never have a baby. But again, they met True Mother in a dream and she told him, "Please, unite with your wife now." ...
Notes:
Ruth, chapter 1
1: In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
2: The name of the man was Elim'elech and the name of his wife Na'omi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chil'ion; they were Eph'rathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.
3: But Elim'elech, the husband of Na'omi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4: These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years;
5: and both Mahlon and Chil'ion died, so that the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband.
6: Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.
7: So she set out from the place where she was, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8: But Na'omi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
9: The LORD grant that you may find a home, each of you in the house of her husband!" Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10: And they said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people."
11: But Na'omi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?
12: Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,
13: would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone forth against me."
14: Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15: And she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law."
16: But Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God;
17: where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you."
18: And when Na'omi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
19: So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, "Is this Na'omi?"
20: She said to them, "Do not call me Na'omi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
21: I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Na'omi, when the LORD has afflicted me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"
22: So Na'omi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
Ruth, chapter 2
1: Now Na'omi had a kinsman of her husband's, a man of wealth, of the family of Elim'elech, whose name was Bo'az.
2: And Ruth the Moabitess said to Na'omi, "Let me go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor." And she said to her, "Go, my daughter."
3: So she set forth and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Bo'az, who was of the family of Elim'elech.
4: And behold, Bo'az came from Bethlehem; and he said to the reapers, "The LORD be with you!" And they answered, "The LORD bless you."
5: Then Bo'az said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, "Whose maiden is this?"
6: And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, "It is the Moabite maiden, who came back with Na'omi from the country of Moab.
7: She said, `Pray, let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.' So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, without resting even for a moment."
8: Then Bo'az said to Ruth, "Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my maidens.
9: Let your eyes be upon the field which they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to molest you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn."
10: Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?"
11: But Bo'az answered her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.
12: The LORD recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!"
13: Then she said, "You are most gracious to me, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants."
14: And at mealtime Bo'az said to her, "Come here, and eat some bread, and dip your morsel in the wine." So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her parched grain; and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.
15: When she rose to glean, Bo'az instructed his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.
16: And also pull out some from the bundles for her, and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her."
17: So she gleaned in the field until evening; then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
18: And she took it up and went into the city; she showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned, and she also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
19: And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you." So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Bo'az."
20: And Na'omi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!" Na'omi also said to her, "The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin."
21: And Ruth the Moabitess said, "Besides, he said to me, `You shall keep close by my servants, till they have finished all my harvest.'"
22: And Na'omi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, "It is well, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, lest in another field you be molested."
23: So she kept close to the maidens of Bo'az, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-in-law.
John, chapter 3
1: Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicode'mus, a ruler of the Jews.
2: This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him."
3: Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4: Nicode'mus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5: Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7: Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born anew.'
8: The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."
9: Nicode'mus said to him, "How can this be?"
10: Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this?
11: Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive our testimony.
12: If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13: No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man.
14: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up,
15: that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."
16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17: For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
18: He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19: And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20: For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21: But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.
22: After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized.
23: John also was baptizing at Ae'non near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized.
24: For John had not yet been put in prison.
25: Now a discussion arose between John's disciples and a Jew over purifying.
26: And they came to John, and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is, baptizing, and all are going to him."
27: John answered, "No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven.
28: You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.
29: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full.
30: He must increase, but I must decrease."
31: He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks; he who comes from heaven is above all.
32: He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony;
33: he who receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
34: For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for it is not by measure that he gives the Spirit;
35: the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.
36: He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.