The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 22 -
ENOCH, CAIN'S SON, AS LAWGIVER
And behold, they did as commanded and lived thus for some time. Cain again knew his wife and she bore him a son whom he gave the name 'Enoch', which means The Honor of Cain'. And Cain summoned all his children and told them: "Children, behold here a new brother whom the Lord has given me to be a lord over all of you. I will make him your lord so that there might be order among you and an end to your quarrels and strife. He will give you laws, praise the faithful and punish the transgressors so that we, too, may become a great, glorious nation like the children of God. They do not need laws because they have love, which makes them free, but has put us beneath their feet on account of my sin. Their feet will crush us if we, who are lawless and without order, do not have one who intercedes for us and justifies us before their great might.
2
"Behold, their God is also ours, but they have a good Father in Him whilst we have a Judge. The Father knows their love and His eye and ear is with them. But this is not the case with us. We are left to our own devices and can do what we want. However, if we wish to subsist we need law and order. Otherwise, in their quarrels and strife one may kill the other at will and the vessel of justice will thus fill before the time and all of us will perish, crushed by the great weight of our evil deeds. Therefore, let all of us join together, gather stones of all sizes and erect for him a tall and solid mansion and for each of us a small one, surrounding his in a wide circle in order that he may watch us all and observe our actions. He shall be free from any work and, as a sovereign in your midst, shall be provided for through the work of your hands.
3
"However, for the time being, I, as your father, will be the lawgiver for all of you in the name of God's justice, and woe betide him who will disobey my laws. My curse will strike him hard and there will be no mercy for the cursed in my heart since there no longer dwells love, but only justice.
4
"Behold, where there is love, there is also mercy and love is the law. But where there dwells only justice, the law is fight for fight, judgment for judgment, reward for reward, loyalty for loyalty, obedience to the law, judgment for disobedience, punishment for offences, curse for treachery and death for death.
5
"To sanction these my words I now swear to all of you by heaven and its inexorable justice and by the earth, the harsh dwelling-place of God's curse, that every transgressor shall be struck strictly in accordance with all you have just been told through my mouth, as your father and sovereign.
6
"Later on there will be your brother, as your true lord and lawgiver according to his just insight and free choice. Therefore, he will also be free from the law, and every one of his free actions must become and remain law to you until he decides to revoke it.
7
"Now that my will is known to you act in accordance with it if you wish to subsist in the severity of justice through laws for the upholding of order, thus avoiding judgment which would come upon all if within justice judgment were not set for judgment."
8
And behold, they all went away to put their hands to the work of building a city. And they worked on it for sixty years. Since their buildings often collapsed they needed much time for the construction of the new sovereign's mansion, and they only managed to complete it after I had shown Enoch in a dream how they had to build, as I felt pity for the poor children who in this work were subjected to much ill-treatment by Cain. Until that time he had adhered strictly to law and order, but now he was ruling his people as a tyrant by great terror and fear of punishment without mercy because there was no love in him. Where obedience to all the laws was concerned he was just, but he did not take into consideration that obedience as a result of great fear was actually not obedience at all, but purely self-love. For he who loves himself will observe a law only for fear of certain punishment following its transgression as he deeply pities himself when he, helplessly, has to experience the pain of punishment. Seeing only the slightest chance of remaining undetected in what he feels in his heart, he will curse the law and its giver and soon disregard it completely.
9
If such a man has been able to gain greater power, he will be twice as cruel in his attack on all the laws and abolish and destroy them together with the loveless lawgiver. (Note: This should be considered by all the leaders and lawgivers of this time, for their lot will be the same if they think that fear is the only means of upholding order and its advantages through the dumb obedience of slaves. Otherwise, they will all, sooner or later, maybe already here, but certainly in the beyond, one day painfully experience the consequences of laws which have not originated from the purest, unselfish love.)
10
For behold, Cain - as it were, lawfully - acted cruelly because he did not always find My full grace and acceptance whenever following a wicked act he shed tears of repentance. This I could not give him as his repentance was directed only at the loss of My grace, but never at My love.
11
Whoever grieves in this way, does not grieve deeply and truly for the loss of life, but rather for the loss of good living. Thus, his repentance is false, for he is not concerned about a complete reunification with Me. If I then wanted to give him what he has not asked for and does not desire, such an exchange of will would only give him death, since the free will is the actual life of man.
12
And behold, this was also the case with Cain when he banned love and chose justice instead, not hearing in mind that there is no justice without love and that justice is actually the highest form of love without which everything would - and necessarily had to - perish.