The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 101 -
ENOCH'S DISCUSSION WITH JARED ABOUT ASMAHAEL
Then Enoch replied to his father Jared: "Listen, father! Your remarks make sense; you are quite right in everything. When this morning Asmahael was lying in the dust before us I would rather have imagined the midday sun to melt all the stones to water than that this man from the lowland would perform such miracles among us. But it pleases the Lord to treat the humble with distinction and instead let the great go down.
2
Thus He lets the sun go down and in its place thousands upon thousands of little stars shine in the firmament. How much more sublime and endlessly more glorious is the starry than the sunny sky! How the glorious stars manifest a bright life in their vibrating shimmer and how multifarious is their light!
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"Compare it with the sky by day. Is not the clearest day also the most monotonous one? Who can gaze upwards? Everywhere the hot and glaring light of the sun punishes him.
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"If the sky during the day were not enlivened by fleeting, unimpressive cloud formations and many feathered dwellers of the air briskly darting across it, truly, we would not often raise our eyes from the earth heavenwards.
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"Behold, this is how the Lord always works. He does not respect the great but raises the lowly and humble to His love. The great mammoth has a life lasting almost for ever. It lazily walks around like a small, apparently lifeless lump of earth. But look at an anthill, how briskly life is whirling around in it.
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"And from thousands of such small things it can of course be seen clearly where the Lord is most active and where He is working above all. It is the same with men. He supports the humblest and most unprepossessing and through the weak shows the great and strong of the earth His immense might and forever invincible strength.
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"Was it not like that with me that I, the lowest and weakest of all, now for almost two days have had to preach to the fathers of Him and His love? But Asmahael came to us from the lowland, lower and weaker than I have ever been, shall ever be and be able to become.
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"His zeal was exceedingly great, His love unlimited and what He was seeking with us He had already brought with Him in the greatest abundance. Thus it is now quite appropriate for us to receive from His abundance rather than that we could enrich Him with our lagging zeal.
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Therefore, dear father Jared, be unconcerned and at peace. The coming events will still reveal to us many a thing concerning Asmahael once He will be with us in our hut. Do look forward to it, dear father Jared. Listen, they will become days of light and supreme bliss. Amen."
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Jared answered, fully satisfied: "You are right in everything you said; it must be like that. For if it were not, how could Asmahael give forth such powerful words?
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"When he will move to my place and stay with me in my hut, and probably you, too, once more, we shall most likely learn many a thing from him.
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"I am very much looking forward to it. I must tell you honestly, whether it is right or not, but I feel already now more strongly for Asmahael than for you. Where this love for Asmahael will eventually be leading, I cannot clearly tell you now, because it very much depends on whether he will remain as faithful to himself as he is now. But let that not worry you, for you will still not come off badly with me, your father.
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"But let us now be silent for he seems to have noticed our whispering! He has signed to the beast and it is now carrying him directly to us. Therefore, be silent, dear Enoch, be silent! Amen."