Perspective Vision

from

Perspective  Vision

Uranda   April 17, 1953  Class

 

There is an old saying that hindsight is better than foresight. With the limited human consciousness this is so, but from the standpoint of divine consciousness, divine vision, it is not so, and as we learn to function according to the divine design under the control that is inherent in truth, we find that the recognition of the right pattern of action, or right-useness, is present at the moment, and we can see the shaping of things to come. When we look back, however, on the basis of limited human consciousness, we can well understand how the men and women who lived in the long ago had only their capacity to perceive the spiritual pattern to go by; they did not have an antecedent pattern; they did not have an outline of someone else's previous experience. The consciousness of what happened in the Motherland had degenerated to a few legends and myths, and in any case was not widely known. The records with respect to what happened, the records which were preserved, had not yet been found.

We might pause for just a moment to help you correlate on this point, because the records that were stored in a specially built temple, the records from which the early part of the Book of Genesis, for instance, comes, were placed in safekeeping by certain of the Naacal sages prior to the submersion of Atlantis, so that there would be a connecting link in outer form for those who should follow after. It was not until the time of Moses that these records, in the ruins of this temple, were found. This is part of the significance of the experience of Moses, who was in the wilderness herding sheep for forty years. Later on we will study more specifically the outworking and its significant aspects. But Moses was forty years of age when he killed an Egyptian who was belaboring one of the Hebrews, and he decided that he should leave that part of the country, after committing murder. So at the age of forty he went out into the wilderness and became a sheepherder. I think that this is another evidence of God's careful preparation of those who are to accomplish much under the inspiration of the spirit. A sheepherder learns patience, he learns gentleness, he learns careful alertness. And later on, when he was the shepherd for the children of Israel, he certainly needed all of the patience possible to him. On one occasion he became impatient and spoiled one of the divine patterns. But he needed patience; he needed to learn to protectively care for the flock. And so for forty years he practiced on sheep, before God turned the children of Israel over to his care.

Now it is not anticipated that you will have to be in training and under practice for eighty years before you begin your ministry. We recognize that Moses was a very well-educated man. He had attended the finest schools and universities in Egypt and they had a real educational program, very remarkable in many ways. He had lived in the court of Pharaoh; he had functioned as one of the princes of Egypt and had had every worldly advantage. He had a fine mind; he had a knowledge of languages; he was an educated man. So that first forty years of his training was very essential. And then came the second forty years of training. As a sheepherder? Yes. But more than that. As he wandered with his sheep, seeking the best pastureland for them, it was not far from Mount Horeb where he found the ruins of an old temple. It was a place where he could keep his sheep a good deal of the time, and there was water and pastureland. And so he began excavating, as opportunity afforded, in this old temple. He began uncovering whatever might be found there, and he discovered some records. Some of the records had been damaged and could not be deciphered, but the records that had been left there so long ago under the care of the Naacal sages were found by Moses, and the specific means by which he was enabled to find them was through his function as a sheepherder.

The information we have with respect to the creation of the world, for instance, the story of the early outworking of the world as it appears in the Bible, came from those records; likewise the story of Job. The Book of Job was in these records in the temple and was translated by Moses and made available to us. Many of the poems which later became Psalms—many of them attributed to David—were among those records which Moses found and translated and made available. David did round them out perhaps a little in some instances, he did set them to music, he did make them popular with his singing, etc., but the Psalms, broadly speaking, did not originate with David as is supposed, but rather they came through Moses' work of excavation and discovery and translation. Likewise the material which comes down to us as the Song of Solomon. It was by Solomon rounded out, given form, from the ancient records which Moses had established—Moses' early translation. But while it was Solomon who gave the record specific form and some popular position, shall we say. The Song of Solomon was among the records which Moses translated while he was herding sheep in the wilderness.

We begin to see that a great deal of that which is of value to us in the Bible came to us by this means. And after Moses had discovered the ruins of this old temple and began to translate and give form to these records in a manner which would make them available to us today, he was of course extremely interested, and he studied this material diligently. He lived with it; he was out there with his sheep, and the spirit of it began to penetrate into his heart and mind and consciousness. So he had a number of years in which to do this work. There is no Biblical story to support what I am outlining to you, so you can accept it according to your own determination of consciousness. But in any case, that is what happened.

There were basic principles from the standpoint of the outline of the Divine Plan which later became incorporated in the Books of the Prophets, particularly Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. So the very foundation of our Bible, in recognition of God's laws and principles and patterns of operation, was made available to us from these records by reason of Moses' discovery and his ability to translate, his ability to get them in form so that they could come down to us as they have. Some of the records were lost, some portions on occasion, but once we begin to see this pattern of divine provision, once we begin to understand God's care and the outworking of the Divine Pattern, we can recognize our great opportunity, our great responsibility.

But at the time of Abraham these records had not yet been discovered. Abraham did not have all of this material to study, read or consider. He did not have an outer awareness of the former things. It is true that Melchizedek did give him certain instruction and information, but you will have to recognize that if the disciples—earnest, sincere men—found it so difficult to actually comprehend what the Master was teaching, when they did have the background pattern of experience with respect to the children of Israel, you can perhaps more easily understand the problem as it confronted Abraham. He was instructed, but the background of experience was lacking. And so we emphasize again the point that, with human beings, hindsight is, under limited consciousness, better than foresight.

The disciples did not take full advantage of that which had been experienced by the children of Israel, that which was taught and made known. The Master used that material as text material in the presentation of His teaching. He revealed how these truths were there and that it was simply a matter of recognizing them and allowing them to come to focus in relationship to God's plan and purpose. But even though there was that background pattern for the children of Israel, and even though they were privileged to live and serve under the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, they simply did not reach the point of understanding what the Master meant by “the kingdom of heaven that is at hand.” And so it is not surprising that the orthodox concepts of Christianity have come down to us on such a limited basis. But we have a remarkable opportunity.

We not only have a blueprint, an outline of things yet to be with respect to the Divine Pattern, but we have two great cycles of outworking to give us background understanding: the situation as it developed with respect to the children of Israel, the First Sacred School, and the outworking with respect to the Master on earth and His disciples, and what followed. We can look back to two different patterns. So how blest we are, in comparison with Abraham. When we consider the extent to which he, under that circumstance, followed through effectively, we cannot but admire him and give thanks to God that he functioned in such a beautiful manner. We can then see, perhaps more clearly, what I mean when I say we have a greater opportunity today, a greater privilege with respect to actually understanding the things of God, than had either Abraham or the disciples who walked on earth with our Master when He was here.

So often human beings feel that if they could have had that privilege they would be able to move forward more effectively, they would be able to comprehend more easily. You know, I doubt very much if you would have had any better comprehension than the other disciples. In fact, it is just possible that some of you, insofar as the true Being is concerned—not you the human being, not you the body, but you the Inner Reality—it is possible that some of you, maybe all of you, were incarnate at that time. I do not wish to go into a specific consideration of that point, but I do wish to emphasize that had you, as you are now, lived then, I doubt if you would have done any better than they did. It is by reason of this outworking in the cycles of time, by reason of the changing vibratory patterns from out of the cosmos, by reason of many things, that you have a better opportunity than the disciples who walked with our Lord on earth. Consider, for instance, the expansion of consciousness and the increase in knowledge in the past fifty or one hundred years. They did not have that. What kind of a world consciousness were they dealing with? They were having to break out of the world consciousness of humanity. With us, while we may have to break out of it in relationship to certain religious matters, certain recognitions of spiritual principles, the overall pattern of the world consciousness has expanded and does not present the immediate limitation which was present at the time the Master was on earth.

Knowledge has been increased. We turn to study the physical body and its various marvelous mechanisms. Do you think that any of the disciples had the privilege of studying anything so filled with the possibility of understanding as this that you see on the blackboard before you this morning? The working of the human eye—just to mention one point. And we can take literature that is prevalent in the world, and within the scope of the world consciousness, and study such things and know that they are true. Some of the conclusions may be wrong but the basic pattern of understanding is there. So one of the greatest advantages we have over anyone in the period of recorded history is the fact that knowledge has been increased—not just for us but for all. And this manifestation of knowledge and learning is something that is widely recognized, widely influential.

So we are not in the position that Abraham was, and that the disciples of our Lord were, of attempting to work against the patterns of limitation in the world consciousness which did not have an awareness of such knowledge. They were limited people; they did not know these things. If you go back and actually consider their patterns of thought and life, the extent to which they allowed themselves to become narrow, prejudiced little creatures, content with, well, conditions which make us feel that we have advanced a long way, then we can see that all of these things put together give us the opportunity of understanding. And to the degree that you have that consciousness and awareness, you have a perspective within which to more deeply and clearly understand all of the things which we are studying together.

© Emissaries of Divine Light