Conversion of Kudar-Iluna

CHAPTER 32

Kudar-Iluna, the former bandit traveling with Yeshua and company, speaks about his background, where his people are believed to have come from, and why they have been reduced to plundering for a living, which he laments. Yeshua speaks about a better way to live, and his words have a very powerful effect on Kudar-Iluna so much so that in tears of humility, he repents of his sins and vows to henceforth only walk in the light. Lazarus is also profoundly moved and also covenants to live a righteous life.

 1 For seven more days, they contended with the Red Desert, and it was endless and barren. Nor was there comfort in the sea they often walked near, for the water was salty and could not be drunk or bathed in without fresh water to rinse.

 2 But in the evenings, sitting in the Circle of Friends, under the light of the Moon and the stars and the fires of the merchants, they learned somewhat of Kudar-Iluna that he was the son of the leader of his people, which were the remnants of the Amorites, but now were very few in number, yet had once been a mighty people upon the land of Palestine.

 3 And Yochanan asked, “Where is it that your people came from? For with your pale skin and hair and eyes blue like the sky and great height and sharply pointed beard, you are a most strange-looking man.”

 4 Kudar-Iluna answered, saying, “The legends of my people say we came from the north during a time of great cold. More than that, I know not. We have married many Hebrews and other races as we have dwindled as a people, and there are few still that remain as our ancestors did in appearance, as I do.”

 5 Then Yochanan asked him the question that vexed him, “Why do your people rob the caravans and plunder and kill? Although in asking that, I should first thank you for not allowing the one who desired to kill me that day do his evil deed.”

 6 At that question, Kudar-Iluna held down his head and was very sad and said, “It is what has been left to us. My people were once a proud warrior race with great dominion over the lands the Hebrews now hold. But our ancestors were defeated in battle at diverse places. Almost all perished in battles with the Hebrews many generations ago.

 7 We who survive do so only in our mountain wilderness of Zin, a barren place, stealing women to be our wives and plundering to exist. I am ashamed of what I have been, but it is the only life my people know. If there was another way to live, surely we would.”

 8 Everyone was moved by the story of the people of Kudar-Iluna. And Yeshua said, “There is another way my friend: a way of love and righteousness, a way of peace and happiness, a way of respect and generosity, a way that leaves the sins of the past trampled upon the ground and henceforth walks only in the Celestine Light of God.”

 9 Kudar-Iluna shook his head in disbelief, “This cannot be the god of the Hebrews you speak of, for in his name, my ancestors were killed. Nor has he protected the Hebrews from the Romans or given them peace or happiness. As they took it from my people, so it has been taken from them.”

 10 Yeshua replied gently, saying, “Kudar-Iluna, I do speak of the god of the Hebrews and the god of the Amorites, and the god of the Egyptians, and the god of everyone. The people of the world worship their conception of God in honest devotion in diverse forms, but their sincerity does not change their ignorance. Therefore, the god that the world worships but knows not, I now declare unto you.

 11 There is but one God, the creator of all that is: this is Elohim. But Elohim is not one but three, and these three are not three but one, for verily the God of the Earth and all the heavens above is our Father and our Mother in Heaven; and they are two, a male and female, that in balance creation may be, but they act as one, and for us, they are one God. And from them came their firstborn Son of spirit and only begotten of flesh, and through him, their will is made manifest in all things.

 12 And Elohim the Father laughs that men would think that he alone would create life or that life would spring from an ethereal force, for life comes from life, not from the ethers.

 13 Be it a babe coming forth from a mother’s womb or a spirit into the heavens, it is only by the power of the male joined to the power of the female that life holding the divine spark of Celestine Light springs forth.

 14 From our Celestine Father and Mother, our spirits were born, and because of them, we are all brothers and sisters; and through the common roots of our spirits, we are all connected and receive sustenance from the same spiritual source.

 15 Therefore, if a man does injury to his brother or sister, he does injury to himself. And when the spirit of my brother or sister cries out, it wounds my spirit; and when my spirit cries out, it pains the spirits of my brothers and sisters.

 16 Likewise, when a man helps his brother or sister, he helps himself. And when a man gives a good gift to his brother or sister, he gives a good gift to God.”

 17 Yeshua taught many truths of light unto Kudar-Iluna that night. And Kudar-Iluna was humbled by the words of Yeshua, for they were like sweet water unto a parched mouth upon the desert, and he desired to know more. And he said, “Would that it could be true that we are brothers in spirit and that we had parents in the heavens that care about us, but this is contrary to all I have ever known and how could it be that you know things such as this that the priests of many religions know not?”

 18 Then Yochanan said unto him, “I have known Yeshua since we were small boys for we are kin, and I tell you, with all my heart, that he knows the heart and mind of God, for he is chosen of God; and I have seen with my eyes and heard with my ears great wonders that only he who is beyond a prophet of God could say and do.”

 19 But Kudar-Iluna still did not have faith in the things he had heard even though his heart testified of the truth. And he said, “You speak such strange teachings; how can there be a mother in the heavens, and how could we have lived before we lived and remember it not, and if these things are true, then why do even the priests of the Hebrews not speak of any but the Father and then only to give a name to the ethers they know not? Nor do they speak of a life that was, but only of the life to come”

 20 Yeshua explained, “It is because of the wickedness of the people and the priests of old that they could not accept the full teachings of the prophets, and now the sparseness of truth, which was taught because of the weakness of men, has become the fullness of traditions that men give the power of the law.

 21 And throughout the history of men, the rulers of the land have always used religion to control the people.

 22 Verily, many plain and precious parts of the truth have been hidden from men by the priests and the princes and the kings, that those in power might have greater dominion over those who otherwise would have known a more-glorious light.

 23 When Moses came down from the mountain with the commandments of God, it was not ten, but Twelve Commandments that he brought forth. But upon seeing the wickedness and idolatry of the Children of Israel, he broke the tablets of stone upon the ground in anger and they turned into dust.

 24 Then Moses returned in sorrow to the mountain of God and lamented upon the wickedness and weakness of the people; and the finger of God came forth from the burning bush and wrote ten new commandments upon another stone, which Moses brought down again unto the Children of Israel; and they are commandments which could be lived by the weakest of the people and did not call them to their greatness.

 25 Verily, where less is expected, less is given.

 26 But the time is soon coming when all that has been lost shall be restored; and where much is given, much will be expected; and by his life and his words shall a man be justified, and by his life and his words shall he be condemned.

 27 Then shall the fullness of truth be lost again, but it will come forth once more before the end of days, that the Children of Light will know their way home.”

 28 And the mouth of Kudar-Iluna moved as if to speak, but no words came out.

 29 And Yeshua said, “Do not marvel at this that you have a father and a mother in Heaven and that we have lived before we lived. Is it not written that God spoke to the prophet Yirmeyahu in the days of old and said unto him, ‘Before you were formed in the belly, I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you and ordained you to be a prophet unto the world.’

 30 Verily, the words of Elohim are plain. Therefore, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 31 Yeshua stood and he bade Kudar-Iluna to stand with him, and Miriam and Yochanan and Lazarus to stand with them. They stood in a circle, with their right arm upon the near shoulder or waist of the one beside them and their left arm upon the back or waist of the one to the other side. And the deepest feelings of their hearts, they shared with one another.

 32 Yeshua looked into the eyes of Kudar-Iluna and into his soul, and Kudar-Iluna wept as he looked into the eyes of Yeshua and saw the brightness of the light within him.

 33 And Yeshua admonished, “My brother, believe in Elohim, the one true Almighty God, and in the love of our Father and Mother in Heaven, and that it is a profoundly deep love for you. Know that you are a most precious child of God. If you will repent of your sins and henceforth walk the path of Celestine Light and righteousness, your sins are forgiven, they are no more, and you shall be born again.”

 34 And Kudar-Iluna fell to his knees and wept mightily, and all in the circle knelt beside him and embraced him with love. And he did covenant from the depth of his soul to henceforth walk in the light.

 35 And Lazarus too was overcome by the words of Yeshua and also began to weep mightily and called upon God and Yeshua and Miriam and Yochanan to forgive him his transgressions and promised with great humility that he would henceforth walk only in the Celestine Light of God.

 36 And these things did not go unnoticed by the merchants, and some of them murmured against the Hebrews and the bandit, but others were moved by all that they had seen and heard.