Foundation Day - What lies beyond?

So looking here at a period of hundreds of years, as we know, this is all the vertical conditions of indemnity that True Parents, the fathers, try to restore horizontally. That's why in our own spiritual community a lot of these things have been going on; they're telescoped into one generation. The reason we're going through these things is all the issues, temptations, struggles, and challenges that the first Israel and the second Israel had to face. We face the same kind of challenges and temptations as a spiritual community, individually and as families. We can understand the temptations and challenges, and we can reflect and think, 'Okay, what do we need to do here? What's going on here?' If we can understand our own situation in light of the bigger picture of God's providence, we can discern whether we should go this way or that way. We're going to face all the same challenges and temptations that others have faced in God's providence, and we can easily make the same mistakes and think that's restoration. But actually, restoration is trying not to make the same mistakes and trying to do things differently.

That's why I'm picking on some of these little events, going into a little bit more detail to see what's going on. The national foundation to receive the Messiah was established, creating a spiritual community, a worshipping community in which there was religious freedom, and they were governed by the rule of law. I say about religious freedom, there's a very common saying among Jews: 'Four Jews, five opinions.' That's just the way they are; they all have their own opinions and argue about all sorts of different ideas. They don't all have to believe the same thing; they just have to live within the context, the framework of the law, and not break the law. Yes, but then you have the freedom of religion, the freedom of ideas, and the freedom to bring forth the Messiah to give new insights.

So that's the kind of community that was established. They went into Canaan, crossed over the Jordan, and when they were there, they all settled down to a loose confederation. Benjamin and Judah are down there. Do you know why Benjamin and Judah are so close together? Which of these twelve tribes formed the southern kingdom when the kingdom divided? The kingdom divided into two in the south and ten in the north. Which two formed the kingdom in the south? Judah and Benjamin. So why do you think Judah and Benjamin were together? They were all brothers. Why these two particular brothers? They liked each other? No, actually, they were from different mothers. Judah is from Leah, and Benjamin is from Rachel. Why didn't Judah offer his life to save Benjamin? That's right, yes, Judah is older, and Benjamin is younger. If you remember the story with Joseph, when Benjamin was found with a silver cup in his grain, Joseph was going to throw them all into prison and say, 'All the other brothers, you can all go home.' But Judah said, 'I will exchange my life for the life of my brother.' What did Cain do? Cain said, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Judah said, 'Yes, I am my brother's keeper.' Judah was willing to exchange his life for the life of his younger brother.

So how do you think Benjamin felt about Judah after that? You can imagine how much Benjamin loved his older brother and how close these two brothers were. The Cain and Abel unity was the real foundation of substance, far deeper than anything established by Jacob and Esau. It's a beautiful story; I haven't got time for it now. Anyway, it's a loose confederation, and they had charismatic leadership. They had no kings; they had judges. Every now and then, a charismatic figure would be raised up by God who would judge the people, lead them into war, and do various things. The key point here was that they had no king because God was their king. They were the people of God and lived according to God's law. God was their king.

One of these particular judges, Gideon, fought against the Midianites. After he defeated the Midianites, the people said, 'Wow, you're an amazing person; we want you to become our king.' This is what Gideon said to them: 'I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.' So he turned down the opportunity to become king and to set up a dynasty because he said, 'No, God is ruling over us; God is our king.' This was the vision: they were ruled by God's law, and God was their king. They lived according to their conscience and worshipped God. Could they see God? God was invisible. All the other people in the ancient world worshipped visible idols. A lot of people in the ancient world accused the Hebrews, the Israelites, of being atheists because they worshipped an invisible God. Which is easier to worship, a visible or an invisible God? It's easier to worship a visible god, isn't it? You just have a statue; you come down, you bow down to your statue, you feed the statue food, etc. It's much easier to worship a visible god. Sometimes people say, 'Well, I believe in God if you can show me Him. If I could see God, I would believe in God.' People want a visible God to believe in and to worship. But actually, the God of Israel, the God that Abraham discovered, was an invisible God, the God who created the heavens and the earth.

You could only meet God and speak to God in your original mind. So in order to be able to worship God and speak to God, what do you need to do? You need to pray; you need to live a religious life; you need to live a spiritual and moral life so you can actually experience and feel the presence of God in your mind and in your heart. That's why it's so important to live that kind of life. Is it easy to live that kind of life? No, it's hard work. But that was the kind of society that the Hebrews created when they crossed over the Jordan and went into Canaan. It was a confederacy; they lived according to the law. Every now and then, a charismatic leader would be raised up to lead them for whatever reason, but God was their king, and it was God that they worshipped—no human being, no statue, no idol. They just worshipped the invisible God through their original mind.

That's why it says, 'Listen, where do you hear God speaking to you?' Apart from all through me, of course, where do you hear God speaking to you? Right, but where do you hear that? In your mind. Yes, you hear God in your mind; you hear God in your heart. So that's why you have to listen. Is it easy to listen to God? Is it easy to hear God's voice speaking to us? Why not? It's like all these noises, like a radio, all these voices coming in. So how can you hear God's voice? You have to become very quiet; you have to become very peaceful; you have to meditate and pray until you can actually hear God's voice resonating in your heart and your mind. Yes, that's why it says, 'Listen, hear, O Israel.' You have to find that deep inner peace so we can hear God's voice speaking to us from within. That's where God wants to dwell, inside. It's usually when other people are asleep as well; that's right, so I have to wake up early.

Let's have a look at what kind of society they established. Lord Acton, a historian, said the government of the Israelites was a federation held together by no political authority but by the unity of race and faith, founded not on physical force but on the voluntary covenant. The principle of self-government was carried out not only in each tribe but in every group of at least 120 families. There was neither privilege of rank nor inequality before the law. Monarchy was so alien to the primitive spirit of the community that it was resisted by Samuel. What does that sound like? It sounds like they established a family federation, doesn't it? A federation of families. Yes, that's what it was all about. They were volunteers acting out of their own sense of responsibility, cooperating together, working together as families, and then as large groups of families that formed the structure for the tribe, and then the tribes tried to work together and cooperate together.

I think it's easy or hard? Is it easy to run a society based on a voluntary principle? It's not easy, is it? What kind of people do you need? Good people, hard-working, take the initiative, and have a sense of responsibility. Yes, but that's the kind of society the Hebrews, the Israelites, tried to establish when they went into Canaan. They created and sustained that kind of society for about 400 years. They created a democratic free society which lasted for about 400 years. Is that an achievement or not? Yes, not bad. I mean, no other country has done that in the modern world. So that was founded on a covenant, an agreement based upon law—no king, nobody organizing, telling what to do, but just working together, arguing with each other, discussing together, coming up with a plan and implementing the plan. From time to time, one particular person would get incredibly inspired and become a charismatic leader, a judge. But after he died, it wasn't passed on; there was no hereditary thing. Anyway, I said it's difficult to sustain that sort of thing. After 400 years, the people came to Samuel, who was the last judge, and they said, 'We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles.'

Why can't we be like everybody else? Everyone else has a king. It's so difficult to persuade people to get an army together; we just want someone to tell us what to do. We want someone to give out the orders, to raise an army, to organize everything. It's too difficult doing it ourselves. It's too difficult trying to work together; it's too difficult trying to cooperate with these people over here. We want someone to tell us what to do so I don't have to think, I don't have to decide, make the decision. Someone else can make all the decisions for me. Is that a regular temptation? Why can't someone else look after it? Anyway, so Samuel went, and God replied to Samuel, 'Listen to all the people saying to you; it's not you they rejected; they rejected me as their king.' Yes, they lost confidence in who they were. That's the most important commandment: 'I am the Lord your God.' They forgot that God was who they were, and they thought, 'We just need a king like everybody else to tell us what to do.' In that sense, they were rejecting God.

So God said, 'Okay, you can have a king, but look, this is what's going to happen. This is what your king will do: he'll conscript your sons as soldiers, so all your sons will be put into an army to fight his wars and battles. He'll turn your daughters into servants to work in his palaces. He will take your fields and your vineyards, the best fields and vineyards for himself. He'll take one-tenth of the harvest—that's the taxes. It wouldn't be nice if taxation was only 10 percent, anyway. He'll take one-tenth of your flocks, and eventually, you shall be slaves.' In other words, you become what you were. So that was the warning; that's a challenge. It's very interesting then; Saul became the first king. The reason why Saul became king—oops, go back a bit—was because the people didn't like Samuel's sons. So Saul and Samuel anointed Saul to become the first king, and then Saul had a son called Jonathan. After Saul died, who would you expect to become the next king? Jonathan, okay? But Saul made certain mistakes, and so God told Samuel to go and anoint David to become the king after Saul.

So David then was anointed and chosen to become the next king. What's the problem here? He's not the son of Saul. So how is he going to become king? Through his friendship with Jonathan? Yes, that's right. So what would happen if David went along to the palace and said, 'Look, Samuel just anointed me to become the king after Saul dies'? What would happen to him? They'd kill him; he'd be put to death. It doesn't work like that. You can't say, 'Oh, I've been anointed; therefore, give me the power.' That's the way it is. David then is the youngest in the position; Abel is in the position of Cain, and Jonathan's ambition is that of Cain. So what does Cain and Abel need to do? Abel needs to win the birthright; he needs to win Cain's respect. Yes, if you want to ask me if you're doing so, because otherwise I'm just saying this is because these are the same sort of challenges that they had to face, and we are facing with sons and inheritance and everything, and how to go about it in the right way. How not to make the same mistakes—that must be obvious, right? I mean, you know this is the life we're living; this is God's providence; this is what we're trying to restore. These are the same sort of situations our own spiritual community will face. These challenges we have to think about: what do we do? How do we face this? How do we overcome this? How do we solve this historical problem which we need to restore? Who's David? What's obvious? Okay, well, I'm just—Simon was asking me, so take it up with Simon, please. Anyway, this is what's in. But what's really interesting is David didn't go to the palace and say, 'You know, hand me the goods; I'm going to become the next king.' So what happened? David was a young boy, and one day his father Jesse said, 'Oh, you know, take your brother's a red cross parcel, some lunch, and tell me how the battle is going.' Because at this time, they're fighting the Philistines. David went off and said to his brothers, 'How's things going?' And then he saw Goliath in the valley, Goliath who's challenging the Israelites to come out and fight with him. David said to his older brothers, 'Why don't one of you go and fight and kill Goliath?' They gave him a slap, 'Silly little boy, you know, what do you know about war and these things?' Anyway, so eventually David said, 'I need to go and do something about this; this is a real problem.' So he went along, and to cut a long story short, he...

When David killed Goliath, his problems began. After defeating Goliath, he took the giant's sword and head back to Saul. The Bible tells us that when Jonathan saw this, he realised that David was an extraordinary person. In his heart, Jonathan felt that David was more qualified to be king than he was; David would make a better king. Consequently, Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. He gave David his robe, armour, sword, and bow, transferring to David all the symbols of being the heir to the throne. Thus, David became the heir by winning Jonathan's love and respect, which is how such situations should ideally be resolved within our spiritual community as well.

David's popularity grew, and Saul appointed him in charge of his armies. After David killed some Philistines, the people chanted, 'Saul has killed thousands, but David has killed tens of thousands.' This made Saul feel jealous, which was an inappropriate reaction. Instead of feeling threatened, a good leader should be happy to have a more capable warrior under their command. For instance, Alan Sugar, who left school at 15, surrounds himself with highly educated individuals and does not feel threatened by their capabilities. A good leader embraces those who are more skilled and knowledgeable, but Saul's jealousy led him to attempt to kill David. Despite having the opportunity to kill Saul, David spared him out of love and devotion.

Jonathan's loyalty is noteworthy. When Saul commanded Jonathan to help him kill David, Jonathan faced a dilemma. He loved his father deeply, but he also knew that what Saul wanted was wrong. Following his conscience, Jonathan refused to assist his father in committing such a sin against God. He protected David out of love for him while remaining a devoted son to Saul. Jonathan did not abandon Saul; he fought alongside him and kept his promise to David. This illustrates an exemplary model of filial piety, where one can love their parent while also standing against wrongdoing.

Solomon later emerged as a remarkable figure, known for writing the Song of Solomon and Proverbs, and for building the temple. From a biblical perspective, the temple represented the completion of the Exodus. However, Solomon's method of constructing the temple involved conscripting forced labour from all Israel, which is reminiscent of Pharaoh's practices. Solomon employed 30,000 men in shifts and had 70,000 carriers and 80,000 stone cutters, turning the people into forced labourers. This raises questions about the happiness and willingness of those who built the temple, as it was constructed under duress rather than from the heart.

In contrast, the tabernacle was built based on voluntary contributions from those whose hearts were impelled to give. This principle of willingness contrasts sharply with Solomon's use of forced labour. The resentment among the workers likely hindered the spirit of the temple's construction. Solomon's family issues compounded the problems; he married many foreign women, which led his heart away from God. Despite being warned not to marry these women, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, which created a heavy burden on the people, as they had to support this vast family through taxes.

God was displeased with Solomon for turning away from Him, leading to a prophecy that the kingdom would be torn from him and given to his servant. Jeroboam, who had previously argued with Solomon about the forced labour system, became a key figure in this transition. After Solomon's death, Jeroboam approached Solomon's son, Rehoboam, requesting a reduction in the heavy taxes imposed by his father. Rehoboam sought advice from both his father's advisors and his peers, ultimately deciding to increase the burden on the people. This decision led to the division of the kingdom, as Jeroboam and the tribal leaders rejected Rehoboam's rule.

The narrative illustrates how Solomon reversed the Exodus by reducing the Israelites to servitude, akin to a new Pharaoh. This split in the kingdom had lasting repercussions for the Jewish people, who never fully recovered from it. The concept of indemnity comes into play here; it involves restoring the original position and overcoming past mistakes. Indemnity is not merely repeating errors but facing similar challenges and striving to do better. As we reflect on our own lives and community, we can learn from these historical lessons, recognising the importance of responsibility and cooperation in our spiritual journey.

Understand it in this historical restoration kind of perspective.