My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Proverbs 1:10-16

Who, having properly invested in his son, talks to him like this? Who might be those sinners who entice the righteous to stalk and kill innocent people? Could it be that sinners entice sinners? What ever happened to “A mature person will not depart from his training“? (Proverbs 22:6)

The multitude near the mountain

Whose son needs to hear “Do not follow the crowd”?  If anyone thinks that a small group of humans anywhere is responsible for murders and thefts it is time for a rethink.  Let us remember exactly who said “We do not want to hear God’s voice” just when God was teasing out the evidence that humans are guilty and have no defence. 

Those words spoken and inscribed in stone are a witness against the Hebrew people.   The human race had already been decreed as dead and shut out of fellowship (Eden) to await the arrival of faith (=the Word Incarnate). The people gathered at Sinai were under no illusion that they were lining up to receive eternal life. We have not agreed that humanity was plunged into a cycle of rebellion and death deliberately.

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope,

Romans 8:20

This is not wisdom for God’s Son. God does not talk to Messiah like that. No son of the commandment, no child of God, can actually withstand the force of the law. Everyone is guilty as charged and dead until faith brings the release with eternal life.

We have been hearing a loud noise about the right to defend oneself, but it is always the right of beastly powers to assault the victims of injustice and to grind defenceless people into abject prostitution.  One must recognize that God has not elevated martial arts – jujitsu and judo – to the level of honourable attutude and pure behaviour.

Where is the defence of the next generation of leaders, the young people of our nations? It remains buried underneath the mountain of capitalist greed, hateful agendas, and militarism. Pure unadulterated love of mankind is missing from the actions of most of our governments. Reverence for human life amounts to mere words in the constitutions of the nations, not a thing that they aspire to perfect.

Neighborly morality

Let us ponder where was self-defence when Canaan was the target of genocide? Let us ponder today’s violence against worshippers in their synagogues, mosques, and churches as a grave warning against the mentality of the world before the flood. Let us resolve to distance ourselves from this contamination of human society by standing with David and his house, with the Risen Saviour of the world. We do not need to ask “Who is our neighbour?”

Self-betrayal

talks about giving oneself over to a certain work-ethic. Paul is not in a storytelling mode when he paints the picture of the completeness of the abandonment of light.

Ephesians 4:19

Beware of Gentile likes and ignorance

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Ephesians 4:17

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Ephesian 4:18

Who being past feeling (apelgekotes) have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

These people who are “past feeling” are not just behaving without feeling, they are settled into the condition where they feel nothing for others. In the Bible this would be the people, seeing only themselves as beneficiaries of God’s gifts and deserving of his mercies, profess to love God so much that they do not need to help their neighbour. In our world this would be the thing that defines a lot of deeply religious people. They say “We care for the lost and the outsider” but they will stand outside their door, do everything not to eat with or be seen with the lost of the outsider. Peter and the early church was bullied to accept this attitude towards others.
They just wanted to continue as they have in all their generations, yet the prostitutes and tax-collectors heeded the message from God’s anointed and his messenger.

To say the least, Yahweh’s chats with his ancient friends were subject to one devastating concern, namely that people who have a one-to-one with him die. At least they could have expected to be changed – something has to die or be discarded. Jacob’s experience on the journey between Padanaram and Canaan lights our way to a better conversataion environment and to content that eclipses the chats of antiquity.

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Genesis 32:30

Moses, amid terror and dangerous natural upheavals, chatted with God and survived. Why do Christians cling to the idea that God devours people who approach him, if they make mistakes in doing so? It could not be anything wrong with God. By the way, who was it that died trying to approach God that caused the apprehension in the first place?

Back to my opening thought. Chat and die. The chat in Eden did not go well, ending in exclusion and futility. The Sinai chat, with the covenant at the centre, ended as death sentence with no defence or appeal. The chat with Abraham hits bullseye with a commendation and two oaths.

You’ve not withheld your son

And said, By myself have I sworn, says the LORD, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, yours only son:

Your descendants will be numerous

That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

An international blessing

And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.

Genesis 22:16-18

It can only be a view of God that is divorced from the wisdom of God’s justice. Not only is God talking directly to us, is fully acquainted with our experience and language, he is speaking freedom, righteous standing, and eternal parental love and permanent grace. He is not condemning anyone, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither insider nor alien.

One problem with the believer’s chats is that the language of ancient chats are in a language that leaves no doubt about effectiveness. Why so many died without having a chat with God is no mystery. The law does not speak righteousness. It is not God’s righteousness that people are declared guilty and condemned to death. You will cetainly die is not a condemnation. It is a prescription for the only way to fellowship with God. Every day, year after year, the tabernacle service continued with the law declaring everyone guilty and enforcing silence on the accused. Let us face it. The law did not begin speaking condemnation because Paul says so. The messenger of that covenant (commands, statutes, and judgments) is an accuser/prosecutor, while the messenger of our covenant turns the hearts of children to their fathers and vice versa.

The megalogue

It comes as no surprise when we see that God shifts his chats over to his son. The word incarnate comes to give life through his own death. It is the only way to life. P’niel (face of EL, (פניאל) brings us to the face of God that is not angry.

In the face of Christ light beams. In the Holy Spirit every truth become accessible and help to walk in the light is guaranteed.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6