The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 165 -
ABEDAM, THE HIGH, AND THE FIVE LIGHT-SEEKERS. NOT EXPLORING, BUT LOVING LEADS TO LIFE
Simultaneously with the four here discussed, the earlier mentioned, now seven, arrived at Adam's hut where they found the five in good spirits with the mother Eve.
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Having entered the hut, Abedam approached the five and said~ "Tell Me now what you have found during the time of our absence and what My Word has done for you? Has it renewed you or have you found it obsolete? Tell Me this from your hearts."
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And Enos spoke as the first about himself: "I beheld within me a strong and immensely luminous light. I wanted to know where it came from and, behold, the light went out and I no longer saw the inner parts of my body.
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Then I asked my heart where the light was hiding, but my heart remained silent. And I asked it a second and a third time, but it was still silent and has remained so until now.
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"Behold, that is all I have experienced. The silence of my heart and with it the extinguished light."
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And Abedam answered: "If instead of exploring you had loved the One Who has loved you already from eternity, your heart would not have become silent and you would now have light and the Word within it. However, you only wanted to know - and behold, knowledge is for life what the vapor of decay is to the light. With this vapor you have extinguished life together with the light in the heart. That is why it became dark within you and your heart silent.
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"Many on earth will still have the same experience. And those who will do as you did will find it hard to regain life and its light.
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"If you want to live, let be your seeking of knowledge and instead fill your heart with love. Then, with the regaining of life, you will receive also a proper measure of light.
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"If all men compiled their knowledge, would they thereby gain a better cognition of God, even by a hair's breadth?
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"What a difference there is between one who studies the laws and one who observes them!
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"Does not the confusion of the law destroy the one who studies it, whereas the observer of the law becomes alive through it?
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"You now want to say: 'But does one not have to know the law first before one can observe it?'
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"And I say that on the one hand you are right, but in order to lead you to the true light I will give you a parable and you shall then judge for yourself.
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"Behold, if you had two servants and the one, as you gave him a command, racked his brains all day long about it and did nothing but study its implications.
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"But the other servant did not ponder much over it but went and out of love for you carried out your will.
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Tell Me, which of the two servants will you keep and entrust with many of the secrets and wishes of your heart?
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"Surely not the scientific interpreter of your will; but the one who would always carry out your will.
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"Do you think that this is different with God? Oh no, I tell you! With God it is exactly the same, for He does not care for the exploring spirit, but always only for the one that is active in love,
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"So do the same and you will live and in one minute learn more from the great Lord and Father than with your thirst for knowledge in thousands of years,
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Take this to heart and act accordingly! Amen."
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Then Abedam asked Kenan: "Show Me your heart too and what you have found."
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And Kenan answered: "Truly, I did not fare any better than father Enos. Before my eyes, too, things were shooting past which looked like mighty flashes of lightning, but I could not follow them. They sank down beyond the far horizon and soon the earth globe was covered with the densest darkness. With great anxiety I had to realize how inadequate human powers are and how awfully slow to catch up with a passing light.
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"To ask my heart, however, would mean to ask a stone. Who can know what is hidden in it? It does not give me any answer.
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"I was actually present when Emmanuel Abba blessed us. But His blessing must have passed me by, as did the light I had seen, without having touched more of me than my eyes."
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And Abedam replied: "In the future many will have the same experience as you did; and for many it will be of long duration as they, too, will suffer death in their worldly wisdom. Their heart will turn to stone and the result will be covetousness. This will be followed by envy, avarice and manslaughter and the stingy one will be regarded as a hero of virtue in his always-selfish thriftiness. Then many will be suffering great poverty and even more death.
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"But if you want to live, do as I have advised Enos. Amen."
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Then Abedam asked Mahalaleel: "What have you found within you? Tell Me!"
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And Mahalaleel answered: "In truth, things were even worse with me than with my fathers. They had at least seen a light, but I saw nothing but night all around, nothing but a cold night.
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"I am empty and desolate throughout. Wherever I tapped myself it sounded hollow and empty. When I looked up to heaven I noticed that it was of iron and did not let even a ray of any hope for a brighter life through.
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"I wept in the great poverty of my own heart, but the hot sand of my desert swallowed up even my tears. Now I can no longer weep and am exactly like a stone.
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"Behold, this is what I have found and am still experiencing, except for a slight relief I now feel in your presence."
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And Abedam said to him: "As it is now with you, it will be with very many in the latter days.
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"But you are fortunate since you recognize the great need within you, for such recognition is also a great light. Those, however, will not recognize their death. Their inner worm will gnaw at them as if at the trunk of a dead tree in the forest, and they will not notice the worm, which eats them away, destroying them forever to dust.
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"They will dig so much iron from the mountains that they will make iron roads; yet not many will walk over these firm, straight roads who will be as you are now. But if from among the many dead there will emerge someone who is alive, even the short period he must spend among the dead will be very difficult for him.
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"However, the ones who will be as you are now will recognize the living ones only to the extent you are now recognizing Me. And many words of life will not achieve with them, as does one word of life now with you.
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"Of the three you are the more fortunate in your lack of light and soon you shall have good news.
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"But you should also do what I have advised Enos to do then you will live and have plenty of light! Amen."