The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 29 -
THE SUCCESSORS OF ENOCH
And behold, Farak rose once more and spoke: "Look, brother Thahirak, God and all the free spirits cannot undo in all eternity what has been done; all the less can we weak men do that. Consider this, if a person possessed only a spark of divine wisdom, would not this have to judge as follows:
2
This man has sinned grossly out of his malicious thinking. He did not have grace from above and was blind in his selfishness doing great harm to himself and all who came in contact with him. But through God's mercy a bright flash of lightning descended from above, accompanied by roaring thunder, making him see his depravity and hear his countless atrocities. If this man then became afraid and in all earnest felt remorse for his evil deeds from the bottom of his heart, cast out all his wickedness and surrendered his will to the mercy of God -- tell me what would you yourself do to such a man? (Answer: 'Forgive and regard him as if he had never sinned, and feel great joy that one who had erred so much had found him· self again and found a way out of the dungeons of the darkest delusion to the light of divine mercy!') You have answered correctly though you are only a man. How much more will the supremely wise God, as the first cause of all truth and love, agree with your judgment since He knows best how, whereby and why we have sinned so often.
3
"So know then: We loveless men judge our erring brothers according to the number of crimes, irrespective of whether there was any remorse or not. However, God out of His love and wisdom does not judge offences that were committed and repented, but only those that are still being committed and are not repented. Although what has happened does not ever disappear, but remains stored in the everlasting memory of God as a dark stain on the line of our life, this line is not judged at its beginning, nor in the middle, but only in the end when it grows and extends either in a straight line because of the love and justice in it or in a crooked line because of the malice and all the injustice out of it.
4
"And behold, the power of wisdom out of God has straightened out your crookedness and, therefore, you shall not judge yourself but from now on extend the line of your life in a straight direction towards the true God in loyalty and justice. You shall also look often back at the line God has straightened out for you in order to prevent yourself from swerving from the straight direction, for then you would easily discover any deviation which you could promptly adjust with the grace from above which would illumine for you your life's great goal in the realm of eternal love and all its life.
5
"Go now and do faithfully what Enoch bade you do and remember my words. This applies to all of you and includes me, the cruel one. Be brothers to Enoch and to each other and also to the people you have to lead according to the will of God, the Mighty, the Powerful, the Strong, the Most Wise and Most Loving Amen."
6
Following this final speech they all rose, bowed to Farak and said: "Farak, you wise man out of the old wisdom of God! We now recognize your great might and incomprehensible insight in all things. Although we cannot imagine how you could have come by this, we will nevertheless do what you regard as good and proper because we can see that your wisdom is based on love. This will never disadvantage one, especially when one walks love's gentle ways which all of us will now do in accordance with your wisdom.
7
"Just make sure that you straighten out Enoch as you did us, amen."
8
And behold, thereupon they all left for their cities where they ruled with wisdom and kindness as advised by Farak. And the people were happy under their leadership.
9
And when Farak had in a similar manner easily converted also Enoch, the latter rose, took the strong hand of Farak and said: "O brother, you have spoken the truth and acted properly, for wherever a being lives, love and grace from above can still be expected, as was the case with me. All this ceases only in death. Now that everything is still alive, amends can be made for much. I want to heal all the hurts my people have suffered and do all this by your side, my wise brother, for through your great insight you have been able to protect from a great disaster me, the grossly deceived, and thus the poor, deceived people, too."
10
And behold, this now somewhat better rule continued with fluctuations for over five hundred years, still under the sons, that is, the children and grandchildren of Enoch. His youngest son Irad (the forcible, as a pupil of Farak) ruled for a hundred years and his youngest son Mahujel (the fatalist or proclaimer of providence) ruled also for a hundred years, followed by his youngest son Methusael (the aim-setter and explorer of nature and its forces) who ruled for one hundred and ten years and, finally, his son Lamech (the inventor of capital punishment which under his rule became customary), who had forgotten Me almost completely. His rule lasted two hundred years.
11
With Lamech I have to remain a bit longer, for with him sovereignty comes to an end and is replaced by idolatry and mammonism, as well as by the cursed natural philosophy, the greatest masterpiece of the serpent's endless malice.
12
Actually Lamech was not entitled to rule because of his mid-birth. According to ancient custom only the youngest son was entitled to rule, and only if he died or could not rule for some reason it was the turn of the first-born, and if this one too should die, only then was the middle son entitled to take over government.
13
But in this case Methusael's eldest son Jored (the mystical sage after the manner of the long-deceased Farak) and his youngest brother Hail (faithful pupil of Jored and legitimate ruler) were still alive.
14
And behold, Lamech, a brutal, gloomy, ambitious and perjured man whose ambition and philosophy had convinced him that he, too, was entitled to rule, resented the ancient custom. And being surrounded by an evil gang of like-minded accomplices, when through the death of Methusael the time had come for Hail to take over government, he called an evil council meeting to decide what could be done to make sure that his arrant purpose was achieved.
15
Then one of his accomplices of the name of Tatahar (that is, the bloodthirsty, or a bloodhound), gave him the gruesome advice: "We are seventy-seven of us, are strong as trees, daring as tigers, courageous as lions and cruel as hyenas, but you are a master of all of us. So we think it would not be difficult for you with a strong club in your hand to make an end to Jored's wisdom in the forest at the foot of the mountains where we recently hunted tigers. And once some hungry hyena has crushed his bones with its powerful teeth you may as well in gratitude throw to it as a tidbit the boy Hail, which will be a welcome meal for these beasts. Then we tell the people that when hunting hyenas in the mountains they acted rashly relying too much on their secret wisdom and were killed and eaten by hyenas. And since you will then be the sole legitimate descendent of Cain, Irad, Mahujel and his son Methusael, who could then dispute your right to take over government?
16
"Well, Lamech, what do you think? Is this not the best advice, which will surely lead to the achievement of your purpose? Go and act accordingly; we stand by you, and success is beyond doubt!"
17
This advice was just what Lamech wanted, and already the following day he sought an opportunity to carry it out, which he soon found with the help of the serpent. Noticing that Jored and Hail were happily walking towards the forest, he followed quickly on another route with his accomplices and hidden behind trees waited for the two brothers When they had entered the forest, he rushed upon Jored, killed him at one blow and then did with Hail as suggested by Tatahar.
18
And behold, this happened to the two because they had become proud of their wisdom and as princes had forgotten that true wisdom consists only in the greatest humility and that once this is neglected, also wisdom can debase. Since this was the case with them, they could not be advised or helped without interfering with their freedom. This I cannot do in the least, for the least part of freedom is worth endlessly more than the natural life of all living beings on earth. This explains the might allowed in wars, be it even for the sake of only one man's freedom of will and action.
19
Let this be a warning also to you, My quite capable instrument, in case you should ever feel superior to your brothers (either secretly or, even less, obviously) because I gave you the gift of wisdom. For behold, if you became unchaste or stole when in need or indulged and became mean in any way, then this rare gift in humans would weaken in you. But if you became proud of it, I would promptly take it away from you and leave you naked and forlorn in the forest of error, whereupon the wild beasts would come and consume you until nothing were left of you but a bad name.
20
Behold, you received it in humility, in humility you must keep it and pass it on in all humility to all your brothers.