Always when the human mind begins to suggest that there is a contradiction, there is the place to be most careful to examine the basic factors and to keep it in alignment within the scope of the Law; for when the human being begins to respond to the Lord, and to recognize the Lord as the Savior, what is it that the human being can legitimately hold back and say, “This is mine and not Thine, O Lord”? Can he hold back his money? No, that comes first. Once the human being begins to respond, money and the possessions of all sorts, and the land, everything, the whole land of Egypt, individually and collectively, belongs to the Lord. And the Lord brings it into Pharaoh's house; that is, within the range of direct control of the king. The manifest king is the mind, the mind, the conscious mind of the individual, or from the standpoint of focalization. So here we see that once the human being begins to truly respond to the Lord, if he is going to function correctly and be truly saved, he cannot hold anything back, in a recognition of receiving the Bread of Life, in a recognition, as they put it here, “Thou hast saved our lives.” The human being reaches a point where he, and all that he is, becomes the servant of the Lord. As the Master put it, we must first be servants and then we reach a point, developing through the servant pattern, to a place where we can be classified as friends. The human being who remains so centered, so faithful and true as a servant, that he never violates the trust reaches the point of being a friend. And a friend is what? A friend is the closest relationship possible to human beings.
Friendship. I am not talking about the casual acquaintances and the so-called patterns of friendship that are really not properly so classified. I am talking about true friendship. A marriage to have any meaning must become a basic friendship. If it does not, it does not have any true meaning in any lasting sense. Friendship signifies that pattern of unified understanding, agreement, harmony, trust, oneness, the oneness of the inner and the outer, the fact that the outer has been received into the oneness of the inner. We see such a pattern of friendship between Joseph and Pharaoh, one of the most outstanding illustrations of friendship to be found anywhere. Pharaoh accepted Joseph. He did not undertake to interfere with the Lord's rule, and the Lord, or Joseph, did not fail in his responsibilities to Pharaoh, and the pattern of correct relationship between the Lord and the conscious mind, individually speaking and collectively speaking, is here revealed. It is one of the most graphic and excellent portrayals of the principle to be found anywhere.
So the pattern of friendship was established. First it appeared that Joseph was Pharaoh's slave. Because he may have been a slave in the house of Potiphar, or somewhere else, fundamentally he was Pharaoh's slave in outer appearance. But because of the integrity of Pharaoh there was in season a deliverance from the state of slavery and imprisonment to the state of effective function on earth for Joseph. And then in actual fact, in that pattern of function as Pharaoh turned all authority over to Joseph, the principle was that Pharaoh was a servant to Joseph. He did not relinquish his throne, but in actual fact Pharaoh put his whole future, not just part, his whole future, the whole future of his kingdom, everything, into Joseph's hand, a complete, absolute trust. And that trust was proven over and over again. Joseph became ruler in the land of Egypt, Lord of all Egypt.
So, in friendship what do we begin to see? In friendship each is the servant of the other, and neither imposes upon that fact and neither violates the trust so established. In friendship, true friendship, each is the servant of the other, on the basis where the relationship is never imposed upon and the trust is never violated. Here you begin to see the true nature of friendship as the Master was speaking of it while He was on earth, and as it is necessary to us; for we cannot function effectively on earth unless the Lord serves us, and we cannot find any fulfilment on earth unless we serve the Lord. The pattern of this relationship is not immediately clear when the human being first begins to reach the point of being a servant, a true, trustworthy servant. And as long as the human being keeps violating his responsibilities as servant he will never reach the point of friendship, where it is an interrelated pattern of servitude, each the servant of the other. We see that so beautifully portrayed here, because Joseph could not have accomplished what he did without Pharaoh. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/if-world-can-help-it-no-leader-shall.html] Pharaoh was absolutely essential to Joseph and Joseph was absolutely essential to Pharaoh, and neither ever violated the trust. So Joseph brought all of these things into Pharaoh's house, and the response to the Lord through Pharaoh, or by reason of Pharaoh, was not just something in part, just to give a little time or a little money, or a little of what one thinks he possesses. In this outworking there was a complete yielding, a complete process of turning one's whole being over to the Lord, so that the human being as such was not in a position of owning something without regard to Pharaoh or Joseph. This is that which is necessary to you if you would know it.
What does the human being give up? Sometimes it is pictured as a sacrifice, supposedly a sacrifice, to turn all of these things over to the Lord. Was it a sacrifice for the Egyptians actually? Well what was better? To live or die? And it comes back to that question with us, doesn't it? For the human being who seeks to retain to himself his money, his flocks, his lands and himself will always die in the famine; he will starve to death spiritually speaking. He may exist for a little time but he will be full of woe and misery, and his so-called possessions will give him no satisfaction. Until the human being reaches the point where he retains nothing for himself he cannot think of himself as a servant of the Lord. To retain anything, no matter what it is, is to deny himself the privilege of becoming a servant of the Lord, and until you have become a servant of the Lord you most certainly cannot become His friend. So the pattern is established on a basis where the Lord is your servant and you are the Lord's servant, when you let it balance out and come to a level in the function of service.
Now the Lord is serving you, no matter what you do, or you would not be alive. You would not have anything, you could not breathe, you could not think, you could not have any pleasure whatsoever, you could not have any consciousness, any awareness, nothing. Only by reason of the fact that the Lord is serving you do you have any privilege or right or opportunity in life on earth. The pattern of service, then, is way out of balance. The Lord is serving you so much more than you are serving Him, even yet, but you are here learning to be a server, learning to serve the Lord. There is no other purpose here but to learn how to serve, to learn to understand the principles back of service, the basis of service, so that first you can begin to serve the Lord, and then you can begin to let your pattern of service rise up, ascend, be resurrected into a level where, under the Lord's grace and blessing, it is allowed to balance out.
As you are the Lord's servant He is then your servant; neither imposes upon the other and neither violates the trust of the other. And there you have friendship. While you are a servant, in the sense of serving only a little, according to your capacity, according to your potentiality, you are not a friend; you have not proven yourself as a friend yet. Until you have reached the point of being a servant without any reservation whatever, you cannot be a friend. The only reason why any human being holds back is because he simply does not trust the Lord, and while you do not trust the Lord how can you be classified as a friend? How can you prove that you trust the Lord other than to yield all to Him? If the Lord required that your service to Him should equal His service to you, you would be in a bad way. It wouldn't ever work out.
What does He require with respect to your service? That you begin to function on the basis of your true potentiality, your true capacity, to fulfil that for which you came into the world. That is all He requires. It is much less, actually, than the Lord's service to you, but it is on that basis that the level of service is allowed to balance out. And once it comes to balance, you are friend and not servant. If you are neither servant nor friend, what are you? A stranger? A foreigner as far as the kingdom of heaven on earth is concerned. And if we would enter into the kingdom of heaven on earth, and know what it is, we must of necessity begin to experience this pattern of service which will allow us to reach the point of becoming friends.
So this is clearly portrayed here. And the Master was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” He answered correctly, wisely. “To love the Lord thy God with ninety percent of your spiritual expression. That will not bother you very much, if you do not have more than ten percent. About fifteen percent of your heart you can use to love the Lord. You will need the other eighty-five percent to continue on in self-activity. And about three percent of your mind, so that you can have the other ninety-seven percent to do as you please, think about whatever you want to, in the way you want to. And about one percent of your physical expression in life. And your God will be perfectly satisfied. And the second is like unto it: Be sure you love yourself more than you love anybody else.” Or did I get it mixed up somewhere? Seems to me I did.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy mind, thy soul, and with all thy strength,” which certainly includes the body—the soul signifies the body also—with your whole being, all, and all is one hundred percent. Now if we had been studying this portrayal of the Divine Pattern and had not found here an indication, in this drama on the stage of life, an actual outworking with respect to that principle, could we have very well trusted this portrayal? No! It is because this portrayal is there that we can trust it, because it reveals the fact that not just part but all must be yielded to the Lord, so that the Lord can bring it into Pharaoh's house, under the control of Divine mind. But until all the land of your Egypt, no matter what its nature or quality or characteristic, until all the land of your Egypt is without any reservation yielded to Joseph, you cannot share in the pattern of friendship between Joseph and Pharaoh, you cannot enter into that pattern of agreement—what was it the Master said, about agreeing on earth as touching these things, two or three of you?—you cannot share the pattern of agreement which allows the power of God to actually manifest on earth. And that agreement is already established on earth; it is already here. It is. It does not have to become. All that is necessary is to share that which already is. It has been for a long time.
One aspect of World Service has come particularly to my attention of late, over the past few years, and that is the evidence in the world body as a whole that they are hearing the Word. They haven’t heard us out there speaking it particularly but they are certainly getting a message. Of course everything that’s happening on the face of the earth, whether we like it or not, whether it’s good or bad or anything else, is a result of the World Service in which we participate — the Word and its influence.
But I am thinking of it specifically with regard to some books that have come out. And one must be very careful in this because you would like to know what books, and read them, and so on. It isn’t necessary. But what is revealed is a growing recognition that what has been included, for instance in the Bible, has been distorted — not an innocent accident but deliberately. I am thinking of the gathering together and arranging of the Bible as we know it — the Gospels — that much has been put in there. Well, for all of our Story of Man classes we have known that. We have said the virgin birth is an inclusion of a paganistic concept, and that Jesus did not die on the cross, and so on — but it’s really getting through in many places. And what I find interesting is that it doesn’t matter a hoot how it was put together, the Word came through. The Word is in the Bible. It is in the Gospels.
It is good that this recognition come, the conviction that the Master did not die. And it’s interesting because there are different manipulations as to why He didn’t, what the circumstance was — which doesn’t matter, again — but the conviction is there, and that’s great! And of course, what we see a lot of these days is, or I have, is Biblical scholars — the ecclesiastia, if you please, of the church — doubting many things. A very recent one is a man who has been associated with the church for many, many years, who realizes the things that have been included such as the virgin birth, and other things, put Jesus in a class by Himself, and contradict His words that “you can do it, and greater works than these.” Why are they greater? Because more people are doing it. So these are some of the things which, to me, are strong indications of our World Service having effect.
In a very different vein perhaps, another Book has come to my attention. Not recently written — it is one of the oldest on the face of the earth — but has been given form recently and has come to my attention. It is called, The Book of Enoch the Prophet, and that goes back pretty far. You know where Enoch came in the Bible? Before the flood. Right? And he is spoken of as one who “walked with God.” He was with God, and he was not because God took him — not up into the sky somewhere. That’s an interesting fact in this book, because he was around. So this prophecy — I would bring it to focus because it is exactly the same as anything we hear from this place today. The truth is true and it doesn’t change. But it’s interesting to see something that was said that long ago — before the flood is what I am talking about. He was the great-grandfather of Noah. So I am going to read a little bit about this:
“In the year 1773, after a period of almost total obscurity lasting 1500 years, a Scottish explorer, James Bruce, discovered in what is now Ethiopia, The Book of Enoch.” Many of these things were unearthed in the land around Egypt. He writes: “Amongst the articles I consigned to the library at Paris was a very beautiful and magnificent copy of the prophecies of Enoch. Another is amongst the books of scripture that I brought home, standing immediately before The Book of Job, which is its proper place in the Abyssinian canon.” I find that interesting. It had its place just before Job. And Job, which is included in the Bible, is in this same category. This is acknowledged as the most ancient document — without date. They don’t know when it was written. And here again you have something that occurred before the story of man as we know it, the history of man, which we take from, well in the Bible, Abraham.
And he says it rested there forgotten until 1821 when Richard Lawrence issued his first translation — and that is the book I am talking about. Interesting that in the Epistle of Jude, and one of the Epistles of Peter, you find the Book of Enoch quoted, perhaps emphasizing the authenticity of this document. Jude has always seemed to be a very strange book in there. It didn’t seem to fit. Well that is really quoting from Enoch. This ancient book now rediscovered was used by different ones up until 400 A.D. And 400 A.D. is when the Bible, as used by particularly the Catholic Church was put together — but that’s Christianity as far as the Bible goes. And that is when these paganistic aspects got in there and it’s when certain things were left out, including the Book of Enoch. It was in the Bible as late as 200 A.D. and then removed. It actually contains much from which so-called mystic passages come, such as in Revelation. “When primitive Christianity had freely appropriated the visions of Enoch as the materials of constructive dogmas, this remarkable book gradually sank into oblivion, disappeared out of western Christendom, and was eventually forgotten by a church which unconsciously perpetuated its teaching as the miraculous revelations of Christianity.” He says that this translation places the book within the reach of all English readers. “Catholics may disregard its contents as it is not found in the sacred canon of their infallible church, but Protestants who adhere to the principles of the reformation, etc, must inevitably enrol among the prophets.”
Now with regard to the contents of this book there is the term, “watchers,” which is used synonymously with “fallen angels.” The following is quoted from the Mesopotamian flood story, the old Babylonian myth. There are — I’ve forgotten how many — over forty or fifty stories of the flood throughout the world. The ancient cultures of practically all people include a version of the flood with a little different name for Noah. It’s the same story, but some of them have more detail, which is quite interesting. For instance this one says the gods’ motive for the flood, after being asked why, is: “A cosmic imbalance between the human world and the divine world. The human world is overpopulated with humans.” This was written before the flood: “And the gods cannot sleep because of the noise.” They probably couldn’t eat at suppertime either! Hence the flood which destroyed much of the population.
In this myth it is set forth also that there had not been death before the sons of God mated with daughters of men. And this cosmic imbalance of overpopulation had to be corrected. Thus death became the result, in this story, of overpopulation. The story of Adam and Eve tells the same story essentially, when human beings wished to be as gods. Now I suppose if you look at the story in Genesis 6 where the sons of God wanted the daughters of men, that could be the other way too. Couldn’t it? Humans wished to be as gods; but it’s the same thing. The fall simply was that this resulting being would have control which should be in the hands of the Lord. Not all beings fell — only a certain number of them; that’s why they are called fallen angels; but not all participated in this. It probably would have been the end of everything if that had happened. The result of this — the offspring — was giants, not just larger beings, but distortions which covered the face of the earth. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/factors-of-heredity.html]
There is another little quote from another story of the flood which simply emphasizes the reason for the destruction: “the people multiplied.” Now the only brief reference in the Bible to overpopulation is that they multiplied. Biblical scholars are embarrassed by that story? They don’t like it. They really don’t like that insertion. Along the way in the history of the writing of the Bible they have tried to eliminate it, so they changed it a little bit, this story of the sons of God uniting with the daughters of men. This was not pleasing to man’s mind. And the giants — one aspect of the giants, I suspect, along the way, was simply dinosaurs — but here again an aspect of giants, of distortion. And this other little record from another story of the flood: “The people multiplied. The land was bellowing like a bull. At their uproar the God became angry; He heard their noise; He addressed the great Gods: ‘The noise of mankind had become oppressive to me; because of their uproar I am deprived of sleep.’”
I will read a few passages from The Book of Enoch and then we will take a look at a few of the highlights in the Bible, which gives a continuous story. You may find excerpts here and there of the truth written in other places or other books or whatever, but it isn’t a continuous thing. I have always found it stopped, but here we have something that follows all the way through — a continuous thing. Consistency. We heard about of the appearance on earth of, what shall we say, unfallen angels in the fallen state. This is just a bit from this book: “The word of the blessing of Enoch, how he blessed the elect and the righteous who were to exist in the time of trouble, rejecting all the wicked and ungodly.” And again I emphasize that these words could be said of today. It is very timely.
“Enoch, a righteous man who was with God, answered and spoke while his eyes were open and while he saw a holy vision in the heavens. This the angels showed me. From them I heard all things and understood what I saw: that which will not take place in this generation, but in a generation which is to succeed at a distant period on account of the elect. Upon their account I spoke and conversed with Him who will go forth from His habitation, the holy and mighty One, the God of the World, who will hereafter tread upon Mount Sinai, appear with His hosts, and be manifested in the strength of His power from heaven. And all shall be afraid, and the watchers be terrified. The earth shall be emerged and all things which are in it perish while judgment shall come upon all, even upon all the righteous. But to them shall He give peace. He shall preserve the elect and toward them exercise clemency. Then shall all belong to God, be happy and blessed. And the splendor of the godhead shall illuminate them.
“Then the most high, the great and holy One spoke and sent ____” [some angel’s name here, very long] “to the son of Lamech. Who is he? Noah! “saying, ‘say to him in my name: conceal thyself’”— function secretly— “then explained to him the consummation which is about to take place. For all the earth shall perish. The waters of a deluge shall come over the whole earth and all things which are in it shall be destroyed. And now teach him how he may escape and how his seed may remain in all the earth.
“There I beheld the Ancient of Days whose head was like white wool,” and we see this very clearly in other passages in the Bible — Daniel. “And with him another, the Ancient of Days, another whose countenance resembled that of man.” We have Jehovah. “His countenance was full of grace like that of one of the holy angels. Then I enquired of one of the angels who went with me and who showed me every secret thing concerning this Son of Man, who he was, whence he was, and why he accompanied the Ancient of Days. And he said: This is the Son of Man to whom righteousness belongs, all before the Lord of Spirits.” Here we have a constant reference in this ancient book to the Lord of Spirits—I think an interesting term.—constantly this is the reference to the Highest Point.
“This Son of Man whom thou beholdest shall raise up kings and the mighty from their couches, shall loosen the bridles of the powerful,” and so on. “In that hour,” speaking of the hour when all of this would be consummated, “was this Son of Man invoked before the Lord of Spirits, andHisname in the presence of the Ancient of Days. Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were formed, His name was invoked in the presence of the Lord of Spirits.” It gives me a feeling of the One who focalizes the body of mankind; we have known His name to be Jesus — Jehovah. “All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before Him, shall bless and glorify Him, and sing praises to the name of the Lord of Spirits.”
Now we have a little section in here by Noah. I think it would be nice to hear something of what Noah said. “In those days Noah saw that the earth became inclined” — we hear that the axis was tilted — “and that destruction approached. Then he lifted up his feet and went to the ends of the earth, to the dwelling of his great-grandfather Enoch.” When he needed some help he found Enoch. “And Noah cried with a bitter voice: ‘Hear me, hear me, hear me’” — three times — “and he said, ‘Tell me what is transacting upon the earth, for the earth labours and is violently shaken.’ After this there was a great perturbation on earth and a voice was heard from heaven. I fell down on my face when my great-grandfather Enoch came and stood by me. He said, ‘Why hast thou cried out to me? A commandment has gone forth from the Lord against those who dwell on the earth that they may be destroyed. For they know everything, every oppressive and secret power of the devils.’”
And that’s an interesting observation because other ideas or concepts have come through as to what occurred before the destruction called the flood. The distortions, on the physical level for instance, of the power that was still in man as he was then. Because of this combination — divine and human — he is often spoken of as a semi-divine being. He wasn’t created to be semi-divine. He was divine. And this fall is not just some little airy-fairy thing that took place. And you say, “How could it happen?!” It was a mixture with a level beneath himself, and it produced so-called giants — monstrosities!
And after the flood this power was removed from him in that sense, but he still produced monstrosities all over the face of the earth. But whatever he can produce on the physical level, and he can produce monstrosities, no matter how limited he is — we see that today. It is just a different kind of a giant. But there is a giant! However, there was a destruction of the actual union between man and animal levels. So that was destroyed. And we need to keep in mind that overpopulation was the reason then, just as it is today, and this was a result of that mingling of the so-called sons of God with the daughters of man in a level where he did not belong.
I mentioned The Book of Job as being in the same category as The Book of Enoch. So we could take just a brief look at Job here — a record again. Of course Job starts out with an account of creation and then the fall, which includes in that record the involvement of other planets — which was absolutely true. It was not just something which happened in the earth itself. Here was the involvement of the family to which this earth belongs. How could everything else be unaffected? So in the restoration, or turning back of the heart of man, we will find much, surely, that is restored in the whole body. I like the words in another record of the flood, of the cosmic imbalance caused, the relation between cosmic and human balance drastically disturbed — and so we only need to look at our solar system to see planets that have been greatly harmed, destruction there, and so on. We won’t go into that, but it’s evident.
And the wonderful record of Job where he meets everything that came to him through these first three so-called friends, and then the one who brought all those three to focus, and couldn’t stop talking! As it was put, “I am full of matter, I have got to talk or I’ll explode.” If anybody ever says that you’d better get out of the way. “I’ve just got to get it out of my system.” I have always been impressed by the very modern nature of these arguments. Oh my, they are so modern! And they are just talk about double-talk. You can’t find the meaning in them; not that you should read them, it’s a waste of time, but some of them however, without having a centering, can seem to make sense. “Who does he think he is? He thinks he is God.” This was their argument, the basic one — and that’s exactly what they said to Jesus. He was accused of blasphemy because he said, “I Am.” And that’s just what they said to Job, and Job provided that victory back there in a magnificent way. And some of his answers deal with the workings of the earth. Very beautiful, this wonderful awareness of the tiniest bit on this level. Then he switches to Orion and Arcturus — a cosmic balance recorded in Job. And that is what is necessary; the same principles work in what we call “out there” as in this self, and this is what we find in Job, the magnificence of it — which also is evident in the Enoch book.
And these wonderful words: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,” after he met all this stupid nonsense that the mind could produce. This was his mind. He met all of this in himself. It wouldn’t do any good to meet it somewhere else. It’s always what we meet in ourselves that has any meaning whatsoever. The Lord answered Job and said, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof: When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for Joy?”
That’s a picture of the way this planet was created — the solar system and man — the morning stars sang together. The morning is a wonderful way of depicting a new creation. So whatever or whenever this solar system came into being the morning stars sang together, there was cosmic harmony planet-wise, and through man. The sons of God shouted for joy. That wonderful picture.
And I bring some of these ancient things to focus because of the timelessness, the feeling that time is erased. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-timelessness-of-time.html] We hear of time being no more. Well what does that mean — that we throw away our clocks and watches? I suppose that would save a lot of time too. But it erases the barriers. What was on earth, back there we say, “before the flood,” is exactly the same today. And what is depicted in Revelation — none of it is strange, none of it is somewhere else. It all happened right here on this very same earth. And so the restoration happens right here on this earth. And it’s real. So the picture in Job is that he participated. He was in the world exactly as it was. He had physical miseries and he moved through it perfectly. And the end was victory, not a personal victory only, which it never is, but World Service. Going back in the story, I read from Enoch about the time of the flood, and I should read the story from Genesis, Chapter 6:
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth.” I read this because these little references got in, but they tell a lot more than what is in that little sentence. And scholars would eliminate it altogether if they could, because they are embarrassed by this — “… began to multiply” and “… the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” There was a deliberate action here. “And the Lord said? My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” That’s not very much considering that he could live forever when he was first created — maybe not be here forever, but a different way of living altogether. But let’s not see it as different from what we are today, because we are here to let this transmutation be an absolute reality. It depends on consistency, and it works. It is working. It’s happening.
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that.” Interesting, because there were a few instances of giants that were taken care of at the time of the children of Israel, and this is an old remnant evident there. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD and He said, I will destroy everything.” And we found that in Enoch as well. It was all going to be destroyed. And then came Noah. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/grace-in-eyes-of-lord.html] And always there must be that focus if anything is going to be continued. Noah was that One. And of course, Enoch was that One. It is said that Enoch ascended, so we have that precedent.
And now we’ll go to Abraham who brings the same spirit. We come to history as it is set down and as it is acknowledged — after the depiction of the state that the world was in. In the story of creation, it was said that all the provision for man’s perfect health and unending life on earth was there; and there is a characteristic that’s mentioned with regard to all this provision: the seed was in itself upon the earth. That applies to food, but to anything — the seed is always here, for anything. The seed is always here, within itself, in ourselves. However, immediately after this destruction, the flood, cataclysmic occurrences, the state that we recognize as a caveman state was in evidence for thousands of years. It doesn’t say that everyone on the face of the earth was going around killing animals with clubs, any more than today everyone is on the same level. So I bring that point out because there would not have been anything if that were not true. But the imbalance was very much in evidence, and it pictures man eating animals, as he does now. It is said that the fear of man came upon beasts. Why? Because it’s all there was to eat. The earth had been almost physically destroyed, and this was the way of survival. But something else did enter the picture here.When we see the state of the world today, the way things survive, all the kingdoms, we can see the result of something — not the way it was created but the way it has become. It’s the way it is, and the beauty that has persisted no matter what certainly says that the Law of God, the Word of God, is present no matter where you look, and it is not subject to anything man can do, and we need to remember that.
Okay, after all this the first Great One we find referred to is Abraham, and he has been labeled the pioneer, and I would say that certainly applies. In that dark time, here was one who knew the Lord, knew why he came on earth, maybe not always consciously, but this absolute compulsion of the spirit, the Lord of Spirits, was there in him. And the one thing I must refer to in Abraham is, of course, the fact that he had the compulsion that made him leave his father’s house — leave his whole environ which was in ancient Babylon, and which had all of the human nature of course, as it appeared then, not maybe exactly as it appears today but in essence exactly the same thing. It was a great civilization; and it worshipped death, which is the same thing today. And the highest form of worship was to sacrifice that which was closest to you to an angry god. Remember they were close to this time of the cataclysm, and there was fear that god would strike again and they must appease this god. And so sacrificing the most precious was a custom, and Abraham undertook to do this. His only son, for whom he had waited many, many years, was taken to a mountain to worship, it is said.
But remember that this is what’s happening today, exactly! The only son — each one has that expression within himself and herself, and this is what is sacrificed. And just as he was to kill his son the Angel of the Lord spoke. That’s the essential thing. We hear the words and we answer, “Here am I.” And the Angel said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him.” And I emphasize that word, because believe it or not, Bible scholars, including Scoffield, have taken that verse to say that it was prophesying the death of Jesus. That’s what they say right here in the footnotes. But the Lord said, “Don’t do it. Don’t touch Him, that precious One. That doesn’t make any sense at all.” And this is looking to the day when there needs to be the recognition that God is not subject to anything man can do, and we need to remember that in this day. It looks like the world has passed redemption. Well, there is a cosmic balance, and that is what we are about — that balance must be in us in whatever is required! But to say that God can be killed, and much of this world worships an idol which is a dead body hanging on a cross, which is supposed to be the Lord. That makes God pretty ineffectual, I would say. But, of course, He was resurrected after He was dead. And that is what the world says, “After you die you’ll go to heaven but you can’t have it here.” So this whole Book deals with that lie and letting it be dissolved.
We have then a Body appearing on earth called the Children of Israel. Jacob was responsible for that. After all, they were all his sons — twelve of them. And that was no mean feat. There were four women involved with a contest going on as to which could produce more, and Jacob weathered it and the sons were produced. However, I would emphasize that two women, regardless of anything, when the crisis came, they were right there in agreement. When he needed to move out of his father-in-law’s house they said, “Whatever is right we do with you.” I mention that because the provision has been there; and I mention Jacob, but the real factor in letting the twelve sons become a body was Joseph. And this is not recognized.
We have the wonderful story of his dreams and all the rest, and how he fed the world with his cleverness in storing the grain in time of famine. The primary purpose was that his brothers came down into Egypt, seemingly for some food, but he put them through some tests, every single one of them, to see whether they had changed, whether they would sell their youngest brother — which was Joseph’s true brother; they had the same mother — the way they had sold him. And he tested them, put them in jail, all sorts of things. They did not know Joseph was their brother. And they came through, they had changed absolutely, and they would not do it. They offered themselves instead of their brother, because it would kill their father. All of this story is a very valuable one, completely overlooked, as far as I can see, by biblical scholars. But that’s what did it. And there was the Focus for the Body. But they had to be right. And so Joseph, in my book, takes great credit for the Body of the Son of God appearing on earth. That was the first evidence or manifestation of a Body.
And, of course, we go on to Moses who really brought that Body into form, coming from the twelve sons to the Twelve Tribes. And there was the opportunity to let it all happen. Moses, of course, was a Mighty One.
These are all points who allowed it to come to focus, to survive actually. And you have many along the way. You have the kings, and wonderful Samuel. It was at his point where the people demanded the separation of church and state — we would call it that today. They wanted a king like all the nations. The priest Samuel, priest in the true sense of the word, was also the head of the nation, the government — true government. And the people demanded the separation. “We want a king like everybody else.” Here was the insistence, and there was no way that this could not happen. So, after Samuel, who did everything he could, you have the first king — Saul, and then David, and then Solomon. At the time of Solomon there was a great kingdom of Israel in the sense of a kingdom we would think of today, an earthly kingdom, very wealthy, in supremacy as far as other nations were concerned. And in that part of the world it was a focus for the Whole World. Solomon was very wise, we hear; but he certainly lost his wisdom along the way, and his failure was the end of the First Sacred School — it could have been the magnet, but actually it was the failure of it.
And when we come to the story of Jesus and the temptations, you remember the third temptation was “all of the kingdoms can be yours.” And they were His. Here was a temptation, if He could ever be swayed. “You can have all the power and glory on earth, the earthly kingdom, if you do what I say” — the mind could manipulate this. Well of course it could. A great, wealthy, earthly kingdom — and it is pictured of Solomon having a thousand women, seven hundred wives, three hundred concubines. Remember they wouldn’t all live in the same house, or anything. These were heads of other countries, princesses of different countries were included in this, and this was very political. And he let them build idols to their own gods. In other words, let’s just be nice to everybody and they’ll love me as their ruler. It doesn’t work that way. They waited their opportunity and rose up and turned against him. That is not the way to go, any more than it is in ourselves, when we let these little things pass. Absolute obedience is the answer. And Solomon completely failed in that regard. And the Master met that — at the beginning of the Second Sacred School He met the failure of the First Sacred School. And when the word was “Look what all you can have,” He said, “Get thee hence, Satan.” That is the word for us today, and it is the only World Service there actually is.
After that failure there was the division of Israel into two kingdoms, Judaea and Israel. The first Great One after that was Elijah, a great pioneer who came in that very low and miserable state and followed through — in spite of Jezebel who was a lot worse than Ahab, her husband. Here was a great victory again.
But we come to Daniel, a Mighty Prophet, who found himself in enemy country — Persia, the land of the captivity. And what Daniel did was magnificent. Here we have the one evidence of function under four kings, where they turned their hearts to the One God. These were all polytheistic religions, many gods worshipped, and the idols. And Daniel’s influence was so great that these countries turned, and actually changed their religion under him, which certainly had an influence worldwide — vibrationally at least. And then we have the return of a remnant to Jerusalem — a very heroic time, because that land was peopled with the enemy, so-called. Daniel did not return, but we have others coming back. Most of those in captivity had no idea or concept or wish to go back there — they were happy in Babylon; they were well treated. They weren’t in captivity — they didn’t think they were. They were given fine conditions, they went along with their gods. It’s exactly the same thing today. How many are willing to do that, to just leave it all for very primitive conditions, in fact very dangerous conditions? Many of them did not survive. Here it was, and it is just the same today. But those who came back provided something into which the Master could come, and He came — it was there that the Master was born. And, of course, His life and His Word is the basis for all that has happened since.
I would suggest that following what is in the Bible from Acts until Revelation it is not worth your time, truly. What Paul did — the church wouldn’t like to hear this — well, it is a lot of manipulation, a lot of it lies. Again, so much put in here in the record, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s the beginnings of the church as we know it today; that’s the point. But as Uranda used to say, the Catholics have Peter and the Protestants have Paul, but nobody has Jesus Christ. I visited the Vatican last year, and forget it! But the wonderful nature of the Master, this beautiful presence and expression — not the way He is pictured on stained glass windows with a crown on His head; He wouldn’t recognize Himself — but this beautiful persistent, consistent expression of the Lord of Spirits on earth.
And we read His magnificent words, certainly the fifteenth Chapter of John: “I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.” Here is the restoration of cosmic balance, the absolute oneness of heaven and earth right here — and it is the only thing that will release this imbalance, this distortion. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” Something to remember when the purging’s going on. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” “I am the vine? ye are the branches.” That One who focuses this body of mankind. His victory is the victory of the Body, and the Body is simply asked to participate in that.
I think we could finish our time with a look at the last book in the Bible — Revelation — written in so-called mystic language, symbolic. We’re talking about analogies all the way through here, not about something that did happen before the flood, after the flood, but how it applies now in everything we do, in every day. And again, we see the consistency.
In the eighteenth Chapter, speaking of these days, there is the attitude portrayed of two different sets, you might say, of beings — something being separated here. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-from-of-babylon-uranda-may-30-1954.html] “The kings of the earth, Who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her” — Babylon, a female, symbol of this world, of this material level separated from the spiritual level — “shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning.” This is called Babylon. “Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying? Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is judgment come.”
“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.” That’s what it amounts to. And certainly on the face of the earth there is this focus, and as it is put elsewhere in the Book of Revelation, certain things would happen because of the merchants, the great men of the earth. In other words, this level of money, greed, the whole thing, individually and collectively, is the reason for what must happen — and is happening. And then there is this other word: “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for god hath avenged you on her.”
“And a mighty angel took up a stone," and so on. But, “Rejoice over her.” On the one hand there is the sharing of the torment of all that is happening; on the other hand, rejoice! It’s happening! And that’s the wonderful part of it — it’s happening. And we’re here to make it happen. I almost said, “See it happen.” But we’re here for the one reason that nothing has been able to eliminate the creation of the Lord on this planet. And it takes the angels of the Lord to do it, those who have their focus in the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. And the physical, the material, the absolute expression of it through ourselves, and the focus that we find on earth which allows it to be so — that is a marvel. We read about it being in Jesus. We have in our history the presence of Uranda, we have Martin. This is a marvel. It’s a magical thing. This focus of the Word in One, that the Whole Body may participate. “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” There is no separation. It is what we need to see in every moment.
And I saw a heaven opened. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” Isn’t that what we’ve been talking about? A cosmic imbalance — old heaven and old earth. But the new heaven and the new earth — here is cosmic balance, if we want to call it that. The working of the Creative Process. The joy is in being a part of it happening, and recognizing it happening, not thinking it needs to be any other way but just the way it is.
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” The last words in the book: “I come quickly.” And it doesn’t need to be dragged out any longer. This has been a look at the timelessness of the Word. It is the same. The very first words in Revelation were regarding that which is, and which was, and which is to come. And I like the order of that. It doesn’t say, “Was and is and is to come.” It says what is, and was, and is to come, because what was and which is to come is all in that whichis — right now, here.
Although the rain falls from time to time it is said that the earth will not be subjected to a flood as it was before, at least not a flood of water. There is another flood, however, which comes upon the earth: a flood of the spirit of God, symbolized particularly in this instance by fire. Fire is seen by human consciousness as being hot. It has been seen as being useful but also destructive. Fire is a symbol of the spirit of love which comes upon the earth, just as water was a symbol of the spirit of truth which came upon the earth.
There was an obliteration of life because of the flood of water, except for what was preserved by reason of the Ark, which was lifted up by the flood, resting easily upon the surface of the water. While there may have been an actual event, a cataclysm presumably, when the earth was covered with water, the portrayal in the story conveys the truth through symbolism. What happened in the outer circumstance was in fact symbolic of something else that was occurring in an invisible sense. A change was being wrought. The earth after that cataclysm certainly was not the same as it was before. By the same token, in these days there is this other flood which I mentioned, a flood of spirit, symbolized in this instance by fire. We do not need at the moment to speculate upon what the nature of the actual event is in the external circumstance. No doubt we can think of possibilities.
In any case there is a change to be wrought. We ourselves have perceived something of this and have, with many others, sensed changes in the offing in the worldwide sense. I do not know whether they are really in the offing anymore. They are right here. Most people seem to try to live as though they were not. Observations with respect to the future, planning with respect to the future, still seems to be based in what has occurred in the past, as though there were no real changes occurring. This means that most are trying to live in a nonexistent world. It is difficult; we see difficulties on every hand. It is wiser to live in the experience of change, because this permits an increasing awareness of another world. If we are still involved with the past, that certainly obscures our awareness of what it is that is at hand.
In the story of the flood of old it is indicated that there was one person at least—whose name was Noah—who had some awareness of the changes that were occurring and would come in a very specific way in due course. Coming events do cast their shadows before. It is said that he went ahead and built an Ark, which as it turned out was a wise move. Others apparently didn't think so at the time. Whatever the nature of the flood may be in external manifestation, it is what is being portrayed in the invisible sense that has first importance. Unless one is related in some fashion to what is occurring in the invisible sense one will be caught off guard and helpless when the external event puts in an appearance. Noah and those who were with him in the ark were preserved. The flood was the means by which the preservation was made possible but this preservation only occurred because there were those who saw what was coming and were more concerned with association with the invisible causes than with the visible effects. Of course visible effects were taken into account but only because there was consideration of the invisible causes. This is portrayed in that particular story by Noah's relationship with the Lord.
There are still invisible causes. There is still the opportunity to participate in association with those invisible causes. If that is done, then the effects may come and those effects will assist in preserving what should be preserved. Those who were caught in the flood of water viewed the situation as being very destructive, but those who were in the Ark found it to be quite constructive; they had a new start eventually. As it worked out it didn't seem to do much good. Human beings went right back where they were before the flood of water, where every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. This is the human state, rather aptly described.
But we have an awareness of something that is happening behind the scenes in the invisible sense so that a particular change may occur, first of all in the experience of humanity, and because of this, in all the world round about. This change comes because there is something analogous to a flood. As I say, it isn't a flood of water. It is a flood of the spirit of love, the truth of love, coming down from God out of heaven, as it has been put, emerging out of the invisible into visible experience. For some this seems to be a creative experience, for others a destructive one, depending presumably upon whether one is in what was symbolized by the ark or not. There is an Ark relative to what is occurring now in the world, an Ark which is lifted up by what happens. For those who are contained within the Ark it might be said that there is salvation. Let us not see this word merely in a religious sense, as though it meant going to some mystical or mythical heaven somewhere, but as relating to what happens right here. The question is as to whether anyone survives on the face of the earth. It seems to me some reference was made to the importance of saving a little flesh. It was indicated that the days should be shortened; otherwise probably no flesh would be saved. Well flesh wanders around here on the surface of the earth, so the salvation relates to what happens here on the surface of the earth.
We have seen these things in some measure and recognize our own association with what is happening, participation in it, and our own responsibility, the responsibility which relates to the spiritual, the invisible, happening. There is a flood on the way. Obviously there is something happening in the consciousness, and consequently in the experience, of human beings the world around. The evidences of irrationality are clear enough everywhere, people behaving in the most crazy ways and yet able to excuse it apparently. There is something happening; there is a flood, an intensification. I suppose we might call it a vibrational flood, something happening in the consciousness of human beings which either lifts them up or drives them crazy—or more crazy than they were before. But there is an ark, which originates in an invisible realm.
You may recall that when Noah went to work he had instructions from someplace as to the material for the Ark and the dimensions of the Ark and all the rest. There was a design. There was something already provided of which he became aware, and because he became aware of it, it took form—the Ark was built. So it is in these days. There is the invisible design. There is what is necessary from that standpoint and this may be useful, valuable, offering the opportunity of salvation, provided that there is someone who becomes aware of it. Then, coming down from God out of heaven, it may take form on earth. The invisible aspect of the Ark before it was built was essential to the Ark after it was built.
There is an invisible aspect to the Ark now. We have described that invisible aspect by using a certain word, and that word is the Word—the Word that was with God in the beginning, the Word that is God, the Word by which all things are. Inherently in the Word is the design. The Word is portrayed in form initially by words. If that's all that happens the form will be inadequate. But if by reason of the Word and the words the invisible design takes form through human flesh, by reason of the lives of those concerned, then there is an ark— there is an ark which may be lifted up by reason of the flood. The flood may be described as a vibrational intensification affecting the consciousness of human beings the world around. There is something of this nature flooding into the world, and human beings are aware of it without knowing what it is. Because they are wrapped up in the effects of what is happening they cannot see what is happening. One has to be in position to stand back so that one is unmixed with what is happening, in order to see what is happening. But if one is merely a part of what is happening one doesn't understand what is happening and the experience is a destructive one.
The provision of the Ark is present. The Word is present and there are those who know it. They know it, not just because of the words that have been spoken to clothe the Word but because they themselves have experienced the reality of that Word in their own living. Every aspect of expression, thinking, feeling, speaking, acting, then is clothing for the Word. When this is so, a person knows the Word. If it isn't so, but words have merely been heard with the ear, then nothing has yet happened of any significance; the destructive experience is still the primary one and the individual finds himself pushed around from pillar to post. What is he being pushed around by? By his own state, which exhibits an unwillingness to allow the Word to be given flesh by reason of his own living. Human beings suffer their own difficulties by reason of their own actions. They like to blame it on someone else. Very often the attitude is taken that it isn't fair. Did you ever hear children playing, getting into a little trouble somewhere?—“It isn't fair!”—and probably tears flow. One sees adult human beings indulging in the same childishness: “It isn't fair!” Oh yes it is, absolutely.
It has been said that the Law works; at least this is one way of describing the way things happen, and each one is responsible for the happening. Surely our concern is for the creative happening rather than the destructive one. If there are those who insist upon the destructive one, well they must be allowed to so insist. But from our standpoint, we ourselves properly accept the responsibility of being associated with the Word and letting that take form in our living, letting that condition what finds expression in our thinking, in our feeling, in our speaking, in our acting. That is assuming creative responsibility. We don't take the attitude that anyone anywhere can stop us from being right in this way, from letting the Word be made flesh because of our own living. So here is the immediate responsibility relative to this flood.
There is a description in several places in the Bible, in the Book of Revelation in particular, of the nature of this flood. There are some words in the 21st chapter of Revelation about “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.” Well the rain comes out of the sky. In that first flood it is said that it rained for forty days and forty nights. Pretty heavy rain! It came down from the manifest symbol of the heaven, out of the sky. So it is that this flood also comes down from the heaven, or out from the heaven—however one might for the moment be aware of the nature of the heaven, the invisible heaven. There is something coming from the invisible heaven. It was described as “the holy city, new Jerusalem.” We have seen this in terms of a new state of spiritual consciousness for human beings, a true state of consciousness once more emerging out of heaven. It comes as a flood. We don't need particularly at the moment to investigate as to why this is happening. There are very logical reasons as to why it is happening but they might not seem altogether logical to the illogical human mind. It doesn't matter anyway; it's happening. This flood is a reality; it is present with us. Human beings generally are beginning to wonder whether they are going to be able to survive it. Of course their endeavors to survive are based, as I say, in what has been known in the past, grabbing on to the flotsam and jetsam. But there is an Ark—the Word—the Word that is with God, the Word that is God, the Word by which all things are, the Word in which life is.
Speaking of the flood, the new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven, it is said: “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life”—they through whom the pure lifestream is flowing. “Blessed are the pure in heart.” The human experience is of an adulterated lifestream, toxic blood. The poisons affect the function of the brain and the central nervous system, producing hallucinations in the mind, so that human beings sometimes imagine they are being intelligent when they are being quite irrational. The pure lifestream is known to those who enter into the Word, into the Ark, which lifts them above the pollution, lifts them above the poisons. As we noted in the past, it is ultimately useless to try to cleanse the blood as long as one is still taking poisons into one's body. So it is in the spiritual sense also.
As long as human nature governs the attitudes and the experiences of living, the lifestream is adulterated; there is filthiness in the lifestream and there is no way by which a person can then experience either health or understanding. The Word is present on earth. It has been spoken in words over the years for those who had ears to hear and hearts to understand, who were willing to allow the filthiness to be removed, to be left behind, no longer taken into the expression of living. To this extent there have been those who have allowed this Word to expand in form on earth, both in the form of words and in the form of living flesh, so that the invitation might be extended to others to participate in this living flesh.
But the Word must be known. As it was put long ago, “If ye continue in my word … ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” There have been precious few who have actually continued in the Word. Some have continued in the words after a fashion but have never known the Word. The prior state of human nature has been grasped and held on to, but in the Word “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.” None of these things are present. Most people think of that as some sort of futuristic, perfect state somewhere, but not possible now. When will it be possible? There have been human beings in every generation for millennia who have had that attitude, that it will be possible one day, but how few men and women there have been who had what it takes to accept the reality now.
The Word has been offered in words and in the flesh for many years, in a personal sense for twenty-five or thirty years. It's interesting, isn't it, but words have been used week by week, month by month, year by year, in services, in Classes, in Assemblies, in lectures, in so many ways for such a long time. From my own standpoint, I have spoken over these years spontaneously for these various opportunities that presented themselves to me. How could this be done? Where did it come from? You know the answer to that, in theory at least. But there need to be those who know the truth for themselves. From time to time there are those who feel that I don't understand them. Well it's true, I don't go into great analysis of the characters of all those who come within the range of my awareness. My time would be cut out, wouldn't it, if I indulged in that sort of thing. It's not necessary. It only would seem to be necessary from the standpoint of human nature, that one has to examine people so carefully.
What is it that offers salvation? The Ark, we say; well, the Word. And where does the Word come from? It may be said that it comes from nowhere, but it is now here. It has been now here for all these years. It came anyway—that's all that's necessary—not just in words but in the flesh of living. And what comes that way is the way it exactly should be. In theory, I suppose, most would say, “Yes the expression of the spirit of God is right; that's righteousness.” But in fact it's denied a lot of the time. We don't need as individuals to know everything about everything and everybody. I'm not anxious to have my consciousness cluttered up with all that; I don't know about you. What would we do with it all? Just let the spirit of God find expression, that's all, and we may do this to the extent that we have generated a little spiritual substance to let it happen, to give us a starting point at least, so that we may begin to live the truth of love. We may abide in the Ark; but we can't stand outside the Ark and question the dimensions of the Ark or the material of which it is composed and be in the Ark at the same time.
The Ark is the Lord's responsibility; its dimensions are His responsibility; the way it takes form is His responsibility. It does take form because there are those who agree with the Lord in this. If there is no one to agree, of course nothing happens; but if there are those who agree then it takes form, and it takes form the way it takes form. We don't question it. We don't tear it down; we don't judge it; we don't try to make it some other way. We don't take the attitude ever that we are being unjustly treated or unfairly treated someway. That's childish nonsense! We stand with the Lord, in agreement with Him, and the evidence of that agreement is that we agree with those who stand with the Lord. It's very simple, really. The human nature approach makes it complicated seemingly. It isn't. It never was. That approach is sustained because apparently most people don't want to grow up; they want to stay childish. We know better. Let us prove that we know better.
So may we provide a facility for the full and free expression of the spirit of God and let Him have His way without constantly injecting our own theories and ideas and opinions into the picture. Let it be the way it is. Now that's been said once or twice, I believe. People nod their heads but seldom do it. They say, “Well this obviously is not right; this is unfair.” Is it? How do you know? Let it be the way it is and trust God. Each individual is responsible for that expression of the spirit for him- or herself and for nobody else. So why look at someone else and say, “Well they're not doing it right; I'm being treated wrongly, unfairly”? No you're being treated exactly the way you should be treated. We all are. Let's not object. If we get a kick in the pants, well that's what was coming to us. Or doesn't the Law work? Let's wake up and assume our responsibilities in a consistent way so that there may be a more expansive Ark than has yet put in an appearance, an Ark to be lifted up upon this flood of spirit and fire, to offer salvation on earth to all who will receive it.
