The God who deserves sympathy
10 God exists in a state of confinement. He has been living with a painful heart as the Parent who long ago lost His only children, His son and daughter Adam and Eve. He is the God of bitter sorrow. He has been endlessly shedding tears, beating His chest. God, while following after human beings, has experienced countless deaths. He has endured this over and over again, even to this day. There are so many nails driven into His heart that they could cover the whole world. Nowhere in the world can there be found a sorrow as profound as His. (297-017, 1998.11.15)
11 God is the Lord of the world, but He has never been able to wield His authority as the Lord. He is the subject partner of love, but He has never been able say to us, “I love you.” Even though He is in the position to own everything, He cannot say to us, “You are mine,” and hold us as He wishes. Among the countless human beings on earth, God never had His own son or daughter, not even one brave soldier who could totally defeat Satan. Even though there are countless Christians on earth who believe in Jesus, among them God has not had even one commander- in-chief who could order a total offensive against Satan. God tried to relate to the earth by having Jesus give orders to the angelic world, but this did not succeed. God also gave a vision for the ideal of the bride to the people on earth and searched everywhere for her. Yet He never met even one such woman whom He could proudly present before Satan. Indeed, as a group of people, we ought to feel deeply repentant before God. (7-068, 1959.07.12)
12 God is a being who truly deserves sympathy. God is in the difficult position of having to embrace sinful human beings and call them His beloved ones. God comes to the world where His sinful children are living, only to be mistreated—torn, wounded and cornered. He weeps bitterly; His heart is scarred and broken in pieces. His heart was in pain and desperation each time He raised up a people only to have them fall away. (8-283, 1960.02.07)
13 God carries bitter sorrow in His heart because of the Fall. The twists and turns in God's story of relating with human beings are beyond description. He is out of breath, running after people and trying to save them. How miserable God is! Even a beggar on earth is better off. For God, this is what it has come to. If God could simply sit on a throne and order everyone in heaven and on earth to do as He wished, why then has He struggled to deal with sinful humankind for the past six thousand years? Truly, God is the being most deserving of sympathy. He is the Lord of all, and our Father, yet He could never assume those roles. Nothing could be more frustrating. Although God created everything, He could not do as He pleased with His creation. He could never call us His sons and daughters even though we were created as such. God has led His providence for six thousand years in order to break down these walls. (10-134, 1960.09.18)
14 Of the beings in this world, none is more deserving of sympathy than God. God has labored harder than anyone; He is the King of hard work. From the moment God created human beings He had to relate with them, even if He did not want to face them. God could not avoid this destiny, because He is their Father. Throughout history God has struggled to relate with human beings. For six thousand years He has been unable to separate from them, even for one second. At the same time, God has to relate to people who believe that He destined them to a life of screaming and moaning. How miserable does that make God? (43-334, 1971.05.02)
15 God has been the God of sorrow throughout history, in every age. God was sorrowful in the past and remains so in the present. Those who do not recognize and respond to our grieving God will face judgment. If you truly love God, how can you ask Him to take away your pain and sorrow? God has taken responsibility for all the pain and sorrow throughout history, and we should feel indebted and grateful that He has done so. Yet without recognizing this fact, we bring our own pain and sadness to God. For this, we are bound to face judgment. God will recognize the person who weeps alone over his or her own sorrow, unable to pray to God about such personal pain, knowing that God has already endured so much pain and sorrow through all the ages of history. We must be the sons and daughters who can say, “God, Your pain is so great compared to mine! I will manage my own situation. Please let me do Your work, even if I have to face death.” If you constantly ask God for blessings, you will not be able to raise your head before God. You should recognize how sinful that attitude is. The more deeply you go into the realm of God's love, which is full of grace, the more you will realize that you are a sinner who cannot lift your head in front of God. (7-281, 1959.09.27)
16 God, the eternal being, sheds tears for us. His tears are to eliminate the way of death, the way of pain and the way of sorrow. God sheds tears to eliminate all of these paths. We need to understand that God is shedding blood, sweat and tears for us to eliminate the ways of sorrow, pain and death. Then, it is only right that we take His Will upon our shoulders so that He does not have to keep going to the point of death on our behalf. Thus far, God has placed our ancestors in positions where they had to shed tears, shed their blood and sweat, and confront death. It was not because God had no love that He did this; He did so in order to ultimately eliminate such situations. Yet God Himself experienced much greater suffering than they. How painful it is for a father and mother to see the death of their beloved child! How their heart is grieved to watch their child suffer! It is more painful than if they were to die themselves. With such a painful heart, God has been suffering throughout human history. We may have to endure path, but it is just within our one generation; then we are done with our responsibility. But God had to endure that kind of indescribable pain every time our ancestors went the way of death, the way of tears, the way of blood and sweat, and the way of sorrow and suffering. (14-244, 1965.01.01) |