1 Corinthians chapter 15
Today we are walking in: Key Concepts of Character
Habakkuk 2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
VISION
Today we look to the word VISION- H2377 chazown- vision(in ecstatic state), visions (in night), oracle, prophecy (divine communication), vision (as title of book of prophecy) from H2372; a sight (mentally), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle:—vision. to see, perceive, look, behold, prophesy, provide, to see, behold, to see as a seer in the ecstatic state, to see, perceive with the intelligence, to see (by experience), to provide
The Torah testifies........
Numbers 24:4
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Numbers 24:16
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
The prophets proclaim.........
1 Samuel 3:1
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days;there was no open vision H2377.
Jeremiah 14:14
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision H2377 and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
The writings bear witness.........
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision H2377, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Psalm 89:19
Then thou spakest in vision H2377 to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Chapter 9
Key Concepts of Character
“We manifest character when self-sacrifice for the sake of our principles becomes more important to us than compromise for the sake of popularity.”
—Dr. Myles Munroe
This section of the series focuses on how we can actively engage in personal character development. Let’s set the stage by talking about storytelling. In novels, screenplays, and other forms of fictional narratives, there is an element called the “character arc.” Usually, the hero starts out in one situation, having a particular mind-set about his life.
After progressing through a series of events and challenges while attempting to reach a personal goal, he ends up in a new place in his life, with a changed perspective. The “arc” refers to the protagonist’s personal transformation as he journeys from where he was at the beginning of the story to where he arrives at its conclusion.
Following the Character Arc
For example, in the classic film On the Waterfront, the main character, Terry, played by Marlin Brando, begins his character arc as a washed-up boxer who is intimidated by the corrupt union boss he works for. The boss, who has ties to the mob, exploits the longshoremen, and Terry is told to put pressure on one of the men who is trying to expose his corruption. Terry is shocked when the encounter leads to the man’s death. Although the incident deepens his low opinion of himself, Terry finds himself falling in love with the sister of the dead man.
The union boss orders the murder of Terry’s brother, who refused to kill Terry at the boss’s order. At this point, the demoralized former boxer summons the courage to stand up to the boss in defense of the oppressed longshoremen. He proves his willingness to sacrifice for his newfound convictions when he is severely beaten up and almost killed. By the end of the story, completing the character arc, Terry has discovered a strength and resilience within himself that he never would have thought possible in his “old life.” In the process of his trials, he becomes a leader among his peers and someone who has demonstrated true character.
Like the protagonist in a story, you, too, will experience a “character arc” as you develop and refine your moral standards and principles, so that you can be transformed personally and professionally. In fact, you will progress through many “character arcs,” since the process of character development is ongoing. A novel or screenplay may cover only a small portion of a protagonist’s life. The story may take place over a matter of days or weeks, and that period of the character’s life is all we learn about him. However, in “real life,” the hero would encounter a number of other challenges that would take place after the events of the story have ended.
In this teaching, we will look at several practical illustrations and key concepts of character that we have examined throughout this series. This will lead us to teaching 10, in which we will explore in greater depth the secret to successful character development.
Illustrations of Character
The English word character comes from a Latin word meaning “mark,” or “distinctive quality.” As we have seen, our character is what marks, defines, and identifies us. And we’ve been asking ourselves, “What distinctive qualities identify me? Are they positive or negative?” Genuine character includes the following features: It is (1) fixed, or set, (2) predictable, and (3) stable.
1. Character Is Fixed, or Set
Most people are familiar with the saying, “Every man has his price.” This idea implies that every person has a point at which he will compromise his moral standards to gain something else that is a higher priority to him. Some of the usual candidates are money, fame, and power. But if we want to be leaders of character, we have to stop accepting this notion—right now. There’s no “price” for a leader of character that will cause him to compromise his standards, because his principles are his life. All leaders of character are therefore “set in their ways,” ethically speaking.
There’s no “price” for a leader of character that will cause him to compromise his standards.
The fixed quality of character may be illustrated by elements whose intrinsic quality is to be unchanging, or absolute. For example, the letters of the alphabet within a particular language are fixed. (Each letter is also called a “character,” in reference to being a “mark.”) For instance, A is always A. It will never turn into C. The same property is true for all of the letters of the alphabet. The meanings of the individual letters do not change. If they were not set, the system of using them to communicate meaning among people who share a common language would fail. It would lead to mass confusion.
Moreover, a number of languages in the world share some or all of the basic Latin alphabet. For example, the French and Portuguese languages use the identical twenty-six letters of the alphabet that the English language does. The Spanish language adds only one letter. The pronunciation of the letters differs, but the fact that the alphabets are fundamentally equivalent simplifies the process of learning these related languages. Similarly, moral absolutes give people solid parameters that enable them to understand the world they live in and to interact with others in a meaningful way.
Numerals are another example of the fixed nature of character. The number 1 is always 1. It will never change to become 2. And so on, up to infinity. In nations across the globe, the properties and functions of numbers are used in exactly the same way.
An additional example of the set nature of character is that of physical laws. As we discussed in a previous teaching, the Creator’s moral principles function in a parallel way to His physical laws, such as gravity—they are unchanging, and they apply to all of us.
Let’s conclude this section by looking at a final illustration taken from the properties of a commonly used building material—cement. If cement is wet, it is malleable, enabling you to form a specific shape—often adding other materials to it first—using a mold. For instance, you might use it to make sections of a concrete sidewalk or concrete building blocks.
However, once cement hardens, or sets, you can’t reshape it. If you want to make something different, you need to start with fresh cement. I heard a story about some cement workers who forgot to keep the drum of their large cement mixer rotating. By the time they realized their error, the cement in the drum had completely dried, and they knew there was nothing they could do to salvage it. The cement was now set and unchangeable. Those workers had to spend hours using sledgehammers to remove all the dried cement from the drum so it could be used again.
When cement is set—hopefully, as intended—you know that the sidewalk, concrete blocks, or whatever else you have formed will be solid and secure. Likewise, a person with character is “set” in the sense that he cannot be changed from holding to his established convictions and standards. Suppose someone offered you cash under the table to look the other way in an illegal business transaction, and said, “Just pretend you didn’t see this. Let it go.” If you agree to look the other way, your character is not “set.” Your values are still malleable. But if you refuse, your character is solid and secure. That is why we must learn to exercise the kind of personal discipline that will say, “I cannot do this. It’s against my convictions.”
2. Character Is Predictable
In teaching 7, we discussed several attributes of the Creator, one of which is that He is always “predictable.” To be predictable is to be consistently responsible and trustworthy. We can rely on Yah because He is not one thing one day and another thing the next.
Would you say that your conduct is predictable or unpredictable? For example, is your temperament consistent? Do your family members and coworkers have to walk around on tiptoe when they see you because they don’t know how you will react to them on a given day? Do they have to warn others, “Watch out—he’s in a bad mood today!” One biblical writer described Yahusha of Nazareth as “the same yesterday and today and forever.”1 That is the way our character should be. Moreover, when we demonstrate that we are reliable, we give other people a sense of security and well-being.
A principled leader is predictable to the point that his character speaks for him in his absence. That is to say, people know him so well that they could vouch for what he would or would not do in a given situation—and be totally accurate. Consequently, as one gauge of how strong your character is, you might ask several people you trust to give you an honest assessment of what they think your conduct would be under various scenarios. Use that information to help you form and strengthen your character.
A principled leader is predictable to the point that his character speaks for him in his absence.
3. Character Is Stable
As we noted earlier, one consequence of humanity’s loss of true character was instability. The first-century writer James said that a double-minded man is unstable in everything that he does.2 I think James was saying that if a person has a character defect in one area, he will inevitably have character flaws in other areas, as well. And it’s hard to trust a person who keeps vacillating.
Instead, when we walk with integrity, our good character can flow evenly in all areas of our life. Yahusha of Nazareth told a concise parable describing how the nature of the Creator is meant to fill us. He said that the kingdom of Yah is “like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”3 Character must “work its way” through every part of us, so that we can consistently manifest it to others.
Another excellent illustration of the stability of character is that of a statue. Perhaps you have a favorite statue—the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor; the “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Michelangelo’s David in Florence, Italy; or a statue in your community. One of my favorite statues is of Queen Victoria, located in Parliament Square in downtown Nassau, Bahamas. The statue is carved completely of marble, and the famous queen is depicted as a young woman, sitting with a royal scepter and a sword, wearing a crown and flowing robes, and smiling serenely.
The statue was placed in the square in 1905, so I’ve never known a time when it wasn’t there. Because it has remained unchanged for decades, it always reminds me of the stability and resilience of character. I see this statue frequently in my comings and goings, and no matter what the weather conditions, the statue does not appear altered. It could be a day when the temperature reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and everyone in town is wilting from the heat, but “Victoria” continues to smile. During the rainy season, the downpours are so heavy at times that you can hardly see in front of you. The rain comes down like lead, and it beats on the statue, but she smiles through it all. That statue has also been through every hurricane in the Bahamas since the early twentieth century, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It has endured 140-mph winds, staying strong in the midst of the storms.
Moreover, someone might go up to “Queen Victoria” and insult her, but she would just keep smiling at the person and never retort. You could go to her in the middle of the day, and she would still be sitting and smiling. You could “sneak up” on her at two in the morning, and she’d be smiling. When no one is in Parliament Square looking up at her, she is still smiling. One time, I saw a bird land on her head and “relieve” itself on her—even then, she kept her serenity! I can guarantee what she is doing right now without being in her presence, because I know she is unchanging—she has “character.”
Similarly, a principled leader does not change his values and principles, no matter the external circumstances. He is able to weather all kinds of personal and professional storms, even those that are “hurricane strength,” while remaining calm and steadfast. We need to ask ourselves the following: “Am I consistent, no matter where I am, what I am doing, and what time of day it is?” “What do I do when people ‘relieve themselves’ on me—in other words, gossip about me, criticize me, attack my motivations, insult me, or even swear at me? Do I become a different person, losing my temper and lashing back?” “What would I be like if my business collapsed and I lost everything? Regardless of how devastated I felt, would my character remain the same?” “Am I the really the person that I project to others?” “Do I behave in an unethical or inappropriate way when no one else is around?”
A true leader is able to take criticism and mistreatment and still retain his character. Genuine character will outlast all disagreements, disapproval, opposition, and attacks. If you believe in your ideas and your standards, you should stay with them—be stable. Even your enemies may eventually acknowledge your integrity. Yahusha of Nazareth was cursed at and mocked. He was spat upon, had His beard plucked out, was severely whipped, and had nails driven into His wrists and feet; He endured the worst form of capital punishment ever invented. Yet what did He say when He was dying on the cross? “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”4 Even after all He went through, Yahusha perfectly reflected the Creator’s nature —always consistent, predictable, trustworthy, just, and loving. That’s character!
A true leader is able to take criticism and mistreatment and still retain his character.
Character Means...
Based on the above, let’s look at some statements that summarize what it means to have character.
1. Character Means Having a Commitment to a Set of Values Without Compromise
Leaders of principle do not relinquish their values in the face of pressure to disregard their beliefs. Because their values are based on their convictions, they are willing to lose money, promotion, and other advantages for the sake of their values. Unfortunately, many leaders today are experts in compromise. They change their values based on what they think other people want them to do, not what they genuinely believe is right.
Moral compromise is different from the natural give-and-take that occurs, for instance, when a group of people is discussing options for how to implement procedures or what methods to use to attain a certain goal. There is an important distinction between compromising one’s beliefs and making a concession on an opinion, so that a group can come to a consensus. In those circumstances, we are not to be uncompromising for its own sake, or for the purpose of making life hard for another individual. However, when moral issues are clearly at stake, we must steadfastly hold on to our values and ethical code.
In an earlier teaching, we discussed the account in which Moses sent twelve leaders to scope out the Promised Land before the nation of Israel entered it. Ten of the leaders expressed their fear of the inhabitants of the land, but two of them insisted the Israelites would be victorious over their enemies. These two leaders had a strong conviction about, and commitment to, what Yah had already assured them they could do. They had “a different spirit” from the other leaders.5 They had the spirit of character.
Today, many leaders are afraid to be criticized and opposed, so they don’t take a public stand on important moral issues that affect the well-being of their community and nation. They cannot handle disagreement, criticism, or opposition because they just want to be accepted. You could say they have accepted popularity as their “price” for moral compromise. When people try to pressure us to back off from our values, we have to be able to say, “I can’t be ‘bought,’” or “I’m not going to compromise,” or “I must publicly express my principles regarding this issue.” When you look back on your life, you may not remember the things that you fell for. But you will remember what you stood for.
2. Character Means Being Dedicated to a Set of Standards Without Wavering
Earlier, we examined the process through which our moral standards are derived from our values. We should compromise neither our values nor our standards. When a principled leader establishes moral parameters for his life, he doesn’t waver in his dedication to them. He does not violate them for anyone or anything. As someone who has lived under the constant pressure of public scrutiny, let me tell you that no one else will set moral standards for you. You must set your own. And then you must be fixed and stable in relation to them.
Let me suggest a few additional examples of specific moral standards that a leader might set: “I will not lie in order to get a promotion or increase my profits”; “I will treat my employees justly by giving them fair wages and ensuring the safety of their work environment”; “I will uphold the value of every human life.”
The first book of Moses gives the account of a young man named Joseph who lived in Canaan.6 While he made some mistakes, he exhibited strong character dedicated to a set of moral standards that brought him through severe trials.
Joseph came from a large family. He was one of twelve sons—and his father’s favorite. Consequently, his father gave him special treatment, including the gift of an elaborate robe. It’s not surprising that his brothers became intensely jealous of him. After plotting to get rid of him for good, they sold him as a slave to a passing caravan that was on its way to Egypt. Then, they smeared the blood of a goat on his special robe to make their father think that Joseph had been attacked and killed by a wild animal.
How would you react if your own siblings sold you as a slave? Might not that have been an excuse to waver in regard to your standards? But Joseph relied on the reserves of his moral character, kept his wits about him, and trusted in Yah. He was purchased by a man named Potiphar, who was the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. Even though he was a slave, Joseph apparently made a decision to perform his work with excellence, because Potiphar put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. Joseph established himself as a trusted and valued servant, and the estate prospered under his management.
So, life was improving for Joseph, and those are the times when some people will let their guard down and ride along where life is taking them, often becoming lax in their standards. If Joseph hadn’t been unwavering in his convictions, that might have happened to him, too, because the opportunity soon presented itself. Joseph was good-looking, and he caught the eye of Potiphar’s wife, who soon asked him to sleep with her! He refused, saying, “No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against Yah?”7
Even though she persisted daily in trying to convince him, he would not succumb to her offer. Again, how many people under such circumstances would have done the same? This young man was abruptly torn from his family and the home he’d always known and taken to a foreign land as a slave. He might have accepted whatever opportunities for pleasure and advantages were offered to him. Yet Joseph knew he had a noble purpose in life, and he had a reverence for his Creator, so he remained faithful to his ethical code.
His commitment cost him greatly. Furious at being refused, Potiphar’s wife accused Joseph of attempting to molest her, and Potiphar had him thrown into prison. Remarkably, even in that circumstance, he must have remained steadfast, because the prison warden soon put him in charge of all the other prisoners. Every time he kept to his convictions, it strengthened his character even further.
So, Joseph remained dedicated to his principles, even though he was all but forgotten in prison. Yet all these trials were the prelude to his emergence as a powerful leader in Egypt when, through a series of Yah-orchestrated events, he went from imprisoned slave to Pharaoh’s first-in-command. Keep Joseph’s “character arc” in mind in the next teaching when we discuss how trials and difficulties lead to personal growth and steadfast integrity.
Every time Joseph kept to his convictions, it strengthened his character even further.
3. Character Means Making a Continual Effort to Integrate Your Thoughts, Words, and Actions
Integrated Means “Whole” and “Entire”
The words integrate and integrity are both derived from the Latin word integer, meaning “whole” and “entire.” Thus, one definition of integrate is “to form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole.” Having character means making a continual effort to integrate your thoughts, words, and actions, so that you are “one.” A leader should be able to declare, “What I say, what I do, and who I am are the same.” Achieving such consistency takes daily discipline.
An important principle to remember is that there’s no “break” in life from character. There is no point at which we will have “arrived,” so that we no longer have to concern ourselves with values and principles. We must therefore keep vigil over our character. For instance, it is very easy to be tempted to lie. Suppose you were laid off from your job, and you found some short-term work through a temporary agency. Then, at a social function, you meet a wealthy business executive who asks you, “So, what do you do for a living?” You don’t want to seem inferior, so you inflate your job description. Character requires daily maintenance, because every day—and often many times throughout the day—our character will be tested.
Integrity Means Having One Face—Not Two or More
If we are to be principled leaders, our private life and our public life must be ethically “one.” This means we must be honest when no one else is watching us. When we say something in public, we must still mean what we said when we are in private. A person with integrity is the same person all the time, night or day, hot or cold, in good times and in bad. He believes what he says, and he says what he believes. He says what he does, and he does what he says. There is no dichotomy.
When we lack integrity, we are disingenuous, or “two-faced.” Let’s look at an illustration of this concept from the origins of the acting profession. The Greeks were the first to develop drama. While they started out using only a chorus of people to narrate a story, they later incorporated into that format an individual who could play five different parts, or characters, by wearing different masks, changing them according to the particular role he was playing.
Interestingly, the word the Greeks used for this person was hypokrites, from which we get the English word hypocrite. Similarly, the word hypocrisy comes from the Greek word hypokrisis, meaning “acting on the stage, pretense,” from hypokrinesthai, meaning “play a part, pretend.”8 In its original form, “hypocrite” was not a negative term; it merely referred to the actors who wore masks on the stage while playing multiple parts. However, the term evolved into the idea of a person of “many faces”—someone whose real identity was not what it appeared to be.
Yahusha of Nazareth referred to a number of the religious leaders and practitioners of His day as “hypocrites.” For example, He said, “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full”9; and “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”10 In other words, He was saying, “You are actors! You wear a mask to hide who you really are. You keep changing your ‘face.’” They were not “integrated” because they lacked true character.
We must ask ourselves, “Am I manifesting who I really am in my interactions with others?” That can be a tough question to ask yourself—and to answer—but it is a necessary one. We have to start taking off our masks, so that who we really are can be seen. Then, we must work to develop our character, so that other people will be able to fully trust what we say and do.
It is wearying to pretend to be someone you’re not. It’s as if you have more than one person living inside of you, working at cross-purposes. It’s similar to what we talked about in an earlier teaching regarding character versus reputation. Character is who you are—reputation is the mask.
The problem with having a conversation with a hypocrite is that you’re not sure exactly who you’re speaking with at any given time. Today, many people—especially younger people—say, “Everybody is a hypocrite.” They have observed too many leaders say one thing but do another. Or, they have seen leaders act in ways contrary to what they’ve been told constitutes good character. They don’t believe that what the leaders tell them has any real value. As a result, many of them think, I’ll behave any way I want to, because standards don’t seem to matter. Look at how that politician lied. Look at what that businessman stole. They start pointing at people who have violated values and moral standards.
In contrast, when a leader’s private life and his public life are consistent, he will demonstrate integrity to those around him. True character does not change with the tides; it is not altered according to the latest opinion poll. It is consistently “one.”
The problem with having a conversation with a hypocrite is that you’re not sure exactly who you’re speaking with at any given time.
4. Character Means Making Sacrifices in Support of Your Principles
A principled leader possesses beliefs so strong that he is willing to sacrifice for them—to experience the loss of popularity, friendships, colleagues, financial gain, and success for their sake. Such a quality must be reintroduced to society by leaders of genuine principle.
Mahatma Gandhi made some major sacrifices for his vision. For instance, he went on several hunger strikes, one of which drew attention to the unjust treatment of India’s poorest classes in the caste system, the “untouchables.” People will continue to remember Gandhi for generations because of his willingness to sacrifice for what he believed in.
5. Character Means Imposing Self-Discipline in Keeping with Your Values and Moral Standards
In conjunction with making sacrifices, a leader must impose daily discipline upon himself, so that he will remain aligned with his convictions and continue to adhere to his principles. In teaching 5, we discussed specific ways to exercise self-discipline.
Perhaps, before you picked up this series, you felt like giving up your values and standards because you found yourself in the midst of a difficult circumstance. It could be that, because you had made a commitment to your principles, you disciplined yourself to stick with them, and affirmed, “I will continue to cultivate myself as a person and as a leader.” If that has been your situation, I commend you for your discipline and urge you to keep holding on to your convictions. Your leadership is needed in our world!
The Manifestation of Character
As we have seen in this teaching, and as we will explore in more depth in teaching 10, character is manifested in our lives...
When our values, principles, morals, and standards are tested.
When we persevere under the pressures of life.
When self-sacrifice for the sake of our principles becomes more important to us than compromise for the sake of popularity.
Is your character fixed, set, predictable, and stable? Where will you be in five, ten, twenty, or thirty years? Will you continue to follow moral standards, or will you have sacrificed them on the altar of compromise? Will you still hold to the same convictions, or will you have abandoned them for temporary pleasure?
Some years ago, I visited another country to speak at a conference held at the ministry of a famous preacher in that nation. The ministry was packed with people, and it was a good experience. The preacher introduced me to his spouse, whom he called “my darling, beautiful wife, to whom I’ve been married all these years.” The next year, when I went back, he had a different wife. He had divorced his first wife to marry someone else.
I never went back to that ministry, because I couldn’t trust the man. If he couldn’t keep his word to his own spouse, how do I know he would keep his word to me? (He is now on his third wife.) Instead of having true character, this man was a character. He was wearing a mask. There are many people like that in the world. We don’t want to be a character; we want to have character.
Each of us must take some responsibility for the crisis of character in our world today. We are all part of the problem. But we can all be part of the solution by committing to follow sound principles and moral standards —to becoming “one” in our thoughts, words, and actions. To quote Winston ministryill’s famous declaration: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”
The Divine destiny connection, the chain that links us together.
Monday, December 23, 2024
Friday, December 20, 2024
THE POWER OF PRINCIPLES
Genesis chapter 1
Today we are walking in: The Power of Principles
Habakkuk 2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
VISION
Today we look to the word VISION- H2377 chazown- vision(in ecstatic state), visions (in night), oracle, prophecy (divine communication), vision (as title of book of prophecy) from H2372; a sight (mentally), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle:—vision. to see, perceive, look, behold, prophesy, provide, to see, behold, to see as a seer in the ecstatic state, to see, perceive with the intelligence, to see (by experience), to provide
The Torah testifies........
Numbers 24:4
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Numbers 24:16
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
The prophets proclaim.........
1 Samuel 3:1
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days;there was no open vision H2377.
Jeremiah 14:14
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision H2377 and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
The writings bear witness.........
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision H2377, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Psalm 89:19
Then thou spakest in vision H2377 to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Chapter 8
The Power of Principles
“Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”
—Victor Hugo, writer
When a consumer product is developed and produced, its manufacturer often publishes important information about it in a user’s manual that is packaged with the item. The manual is actually a book of “principles” indicating how the item functions, how to properly operate it, and how to make it last longer. Some of these principles might be: “Keep away from heat.” “Always clean appliance after using.” “Do not use near or place in water.” “Not intended to bear weight exceeding 10 pounds.” “Observe recommended maintenance schedule.”
Similarly, after creating the first human beings, the “Manufacturer” gave them valuable information about how they “functioned,” how to properly “operate” their lives, and how to ensure that their leadership would have longevity. He conveyed specific principles so they could understand the nature by which they had been designed to live. Later on in human history, He made sure these principles, and additional instructions, were put into writing as a vital reference for all of humanity.
Earlier, we discussed the fact that the values of an organization or community should always be conveyed clearly to its members. And we are all members of the largest community on earth—the human race. The Creator has “published” His principles and values in various ways in the Bible, which is, in effect, a “Corporate User’s Manual” for human beings. Some of these principles and values are included in compilations of moral standards, two of which are commonly known as the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. But many more may be discovered in its pages—some of which we explored in the previous teaching.
In teaching 7, I wrote that the principles contained in the biblical record are time-tested, stable, and civically sound. They can secure true human development and enable us to rebuild our societies and nations on a foundation of sound values and ethics. In addition, if an individual who has suppressed his conscience, or moral compass, becomes aware of the Creator’s principles, and responds to them, his conscience can be reawakened, so that he will regain a conviction of right and wrong. For all these reasons, I have designed this teaching as an overview of the key properties and benefits of the principles the Creator has established for us.
The Key to Leading Effectively
The power of principles has been among the greatest discoveries of my life, and I believe the same can be true for you. The key to living effectively on this earth is to know, accept, and apply the Manufacturer’s principles. Comprehending these principles will give us wisdom, and following them will make us leaders of character.
The Manufacturer—Not the Product— Sets the Principles
The first key property to understand about principles is that a manufactured product does not establish the principles by which it functions—the creator/manufacturer does. As we have noted, everything our Creator/Manufacturer made was designed to operate according to principles He had determined in advance. That includes us human beings. So, the principles by which we function have already been defined by our Creator; they are not defined by us.
The Purpose of Principles
These principles are not arbitrary but are specific to our purpose: We were meant to operate according to principles that can uphold our moral nature in Yah’s image and likeness. Therefore, it is in our best interest to understand and follow them.
“First Laws”
We have previously defined a principle as “a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption,” “a rule or code of conduct,” and “a primary source.” The word principle is derived from two Latin words meaning “beginning” and “initiator.” Accordingly, principles refer to “first laws.”
The Creator’s “first laws” for life on earth pertain to both the physical and the moral (spiritual) realms. Yah instituted physical laws, such as the force of gravity, to govern our earthly environment, giving us the parameters for how we may function in the natural world. Likewise, He instituted moral laws for the conduct of our lives, giving us parameters for how we may live in an ethical way with respect to Him, ourselves, and other people.
Comprehending principles will make us wise, and following them will make us leaders of character.
Principles Are Permanent
Another key property of Yah’s principles is that they are unchanging, or permanent. We can resist them, but that does not alter them or the consequences of rejecting them. To use a familiar example, you could try to defy the law of gravity by jumping off a building, believing that you would float down to safety, simply by wanting it to happen. Yet gravity would still pull you down to the ground—in effect, saying, “I’m going to prove to you that physics works!” Fixed laws apply to everyone.
All of life relates to physical and/or moral principles. We are concerned in this book with exploring moral principles, which lead to character, as well as the consequences of disregarding them. Therefore, let’s look at some benefits of learning, and adhering to, the Creator’s eternal principles.
Benefits of Knowing and Following the Creator’s Principles
Principles Safeguard Us from Substitutes
Principles enable us to build and maintain personal character as they govern and safeguard our lives. While the “first laws” are those the Manufacturer instituted and stated in His User’s Manual, there are other moral laws we must view with caution because they are substitutes for the originals. These were invented by some of the Manufacturer’s “products.”
For example, many people today are advancing their own principles regarding what conduct is morally and ethically acceptable. The reason many of our nations are experiencing decline is that they are being led by influential people whose philosophies are based on other “manuals.” These cultural leaders claim that the revised principles are better than the ones the Manufacturer established. Yet the new principles are not recognized by the Manufacturer and will not lead to lasting success, according to the laws He has established for the world. We cannot institute “new” natural laws. And we cannot alter the inherent principles by which human beings have been created to function.
Perhaps you’ve had the experience of preparing for a week-long trip and trying to decide what to pack. In such a situation, many people tend to overpack, so they have to sit on top of their suitcase in an attempt to shut it. The suitcase’s sides bulge, and its zipper becomes strained. Often, after several unsuccessful attempts, people end up taking out some of their items because the case wasn’t designed to hold that much volume. Sometimes, however, people succeed in shutting the lid, and then they have to lug around a heavy suitcase. If they’re traveling by plane, they may have to pay an extra fee due to the extra weight of their luggage. Then, by the time they return home, the seams of the suitcase have started to pull apart, and the fabric is fraying.
This scenario is similar to what happens when we try to add “new” principles that don’t fit in with the Creator’s original design—they become burdensome and damaging to us. Some people claim that shifting morals indicate social progress—leading the way for human development and reengineering. However, they fail to recognize the consequences to human development of tampering with, or rejecting, integral principles. Such new laws may garner popular support, but they won’t cancel first laws, which, again, are as fixed, morally speaking, as physical laws are.
Here’s another simple illustration. Suppose an individual decided he wanted to forgo using gasoline to run his car, so he filled his tank with orange juice, instead. He had the will to do this, and he had the ability to do it, but his action didn’t alter the principle of how an internal combustion engine works. As originally designed, his car won’t run unless he puts fuel in it. And putting orange juice in his tank will damage the engine.
In this regard, let’s look at some statements found in the User’s Manual, in the book called the “Psalms,” in which the biblical writer is addressing the Creator:
You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.1
The word “precepts” refers to first laws. The writer was saying, in effect, “Creator, You’ve laid down principles that are not optional; they are not open for discussion.” Although they are permanent, first laws are not stagnant. On the contrary, they are applicable to all people, in all eras of history, and they are life-giving. Later on in the passage, we read,
I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.2
Next, let’s look at the opening lines of another psalm, written by King David, about leaders who try to function according to principles contrary to those the Creator has set:
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord and against his Anointed One. “Let us break their chains,” they say,
“and throw off their fetters.”3
The next part says,
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.4
Why does the Creator “laugh” at this conspiracy? Since His principles are already set, any plots against them are in vain. People are inventing their own laws, but they won’t work. Yah has already determined the best way for us to function.
The Creator isn’t impressed by any governmental leader or legislative body that creates laws contrary to the ones He has built into life. Neither is He threatened by them. He is our ultimate Leader, and His authority cannot be supplanted by those whom He has created.
Though we can’t invent principles that will cancel the Manufacturer’s first laws, that doesn’t mean that people won’t attempt to create them and live according to them. But if they do, they won’t be living in harmony with themselves, with others, or with their Creator. They won’t function as they were designed to.
Following Yah’s established standards is the only way human beings can live productively and peacefully. Yet many people seem to fight against these principles. I believe that if they understood the essential purposes of Yah’s first laws, they would stop fighting them and benefit from their life-giving power.
Principles Simplify Our Lives and Decision-Making
Another reason the Creator’s principles are eminently valuable is that they simplify life. When you understand His principles, you know how to respond in a variety of situations—especially those that involve ethical questions. You must take time to learn Yah’s laws, but when you do, they will make many of your decisions clearer and easier.
The first psalmist I quoted in the previous section also made this statement: I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts.5
The writer was saying that because he had “sought out” the Creator’s principles, he knew he would “walk about in freedom.” When we follow Yah’s first laws, we are liberated. We are, as we discussed, set free to make decisions about various issues and dilemmas without having to wonder what to do. And we are also free from the negative consequences that come from making poor ethical decisions. Thus, observing foundational principles enables us to walk with a new confidence.
Let’s look at one more excerpt from the passage quoted above: I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.6
If you study the Creator’s principles, you’ll become much wiser than many leaders today. I frequently interact with powerful, influential people, and when I’m asked to present my ideas for solving certain societal or corporate issues, the leaders often comment on the wisdom contained in those ideas. What many of them don’t realize—especially at first—is that I have studied many of Yah’s integral principles. I can’t take credit for the wisdom. As a consultant, my role is to explain and expound upon these principles to them. When they first hear the principles, they think they are new and remarkable.
They are remarkable—but they are not new. Once more, they are long- established and time-tested.
If you study the Creator’s principles, you’ll become much wiser than many leaders today.
Consequently, if someone is having a problem with his company, and he asks me to serve as a consultant to address the issue, I often know exactly what to advise right away, because most problems involve violations of first laws—principles of ethics, principles of right relationships, principles of sound financial practices, and so forth. At times, I can identify most problems within a company in a matter of hours. Why? I’m not looking at personalities or agendas—I’m looking for the key principles the leaders and their employees are ignoring or rejecting.
If you understand principles, therefore, discovering solutions to a variety of concerns will become second nature. To return to the automobile analogy, suppose the fuel gauge of your car was below “E.” You wouldn’t have to wonder what to do in order to get your car to continue to function. The decision would be simple, because you would know the “principle.” Even if you didn’t know much about engines, you would know the most important law to apply in order to make your car run again: Put some gas in it. Likewise, in the moral arena, you don’t have to question how to respond when someone asks you to do something dishonest, reckless, vengeful, and so forth. When you know first laws, or principles, you know exactly what to do—and what not to do.
In the Corporate User’s Manual, the book of Proverbs gives much practical wisdom that we can apply in a number of situations. One passage, using an illustration from the natural world, addresses the perils of laziness and the rewards of working to provide for your own needs:
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.7
In another section of the User’s Manual, Yahusha of Nazareth discusses our need to address our own shortcomings before trying to correct others’ faults:
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.8
Principles Enable Us to Fulfill Our Potential
Violating the Creator’s principles will also prevent us from reaching our full potential. If we follow His laws, we can fulfill our destiny. If we don’t, we will never reach it. For instance, the “destiny” of your car is to mobilize you and transport you safely to your destination. Yet, if you were to violate a key principle related to the vehicle—for example, if you were to continue operating the car after allowing the oil pan to run dry, so that you ruined the engine—you would have nullified the manufacturer’s promises about its functioning. Similarly, the success of your future depends on your obedience to key principles established by your Manufacturer—the Creator.
Obedience is not a negative word. In this sense, to obey merely means to follow proven principles. Suppose you were to place grain seeds on a clean tile floor. When you came back after a few days, you would see that they had not sprouted or taken root. They need to be planted in soil to do that. So, every time you plant seeds in the ground, you are submitting to the principle of growth established by the Creator. Likewise, when you adhere to His moral principles, you are submitting to a vital standard for fulfilling your personal potential as a leader. Remember that character ensures the longevity of leadership, and men and women of principle will leave important legacies and be remembered by future generations.
As we saw earlier, the process of applying a principle requires that you must first know what the principle is (for example, you have to know that your car requires fuel to function). Second, you must value, or accept, the principle (you become convinced of the need to put fuel into your car). Third, you must act on the principle (by actually putting fuel into your car’s gas tank). You would barely think about the process described in this illustration if you’d been around automobiles from the time you were a child, so that the process had become second nature. Nevertheless, each step is necessary, and we must realize that the process applies to the implementation of principles in many contexts.
Without First Laws, Life Is an Experiment
When people don’t know or obey first laws, they begin to experiment with foundational elements of human life, including values and morals. These substitute laws are “experiments” because the people promoting them have little understanding of what is going to happen to individuals and society if the new laws are promoted and practiced. Experimentation is beneficial and necessary in relation to scientific inquiry, creative endeavors, and so forth. But experimentation in moral matters is a dangerous practice.
Experimentation Leads to Distrust and Disillusionment
The average leader in the world today has not been trained in the Manufacturer’s principles, so he often has to make up his responses when confronted with societal issues and problems. This means that many of the leaders of your country are merely guessing about how to deal with national problems. So, your country’s future is, in essence, an experiment for them. They keep trying this policy and that policy, but few of them work.
One outcome of society’s experimentation with ethics has been people’s growing distrust of authority, leading to their disillusionment. When leaders of all walks of life lack character and experiment with principles, their constituents don’t have anyone they can really trust. By and large, in our society today, the younger generations don’t trust the older generations, and the older generations don’t trust the younger generations—or even themselves. Citizens don’t have confidence in their politicians, and politicians don’t have regard for the citizens. Parishioners don’t respect their priests and ministers, and the priests and ministers don’t esteem the parishioners. Likewise, students don’t respect their teachers, and the teachers don’t esteem their students.
This widespread distrust has resulted in varying degrees of apathy, compromise, permissiveness, sexual confusion, a devaluation of human life, and a culture of violence and death. Our experimentation must be replaced with the application of first laws in regard to the fundamental values of human life. Experimentation in moral matters is a dangerous practice.
Experimentation Leads to Lawlessness
We have seen that, in the optimal scenario, a country’s laws are based on values and standards by which the citizens in the national community have agreed to live. This is why a nation can reflect a national ethic. If the citizens value a certain standard, it becomes a law to them. If the individual citizens agree to abide by that law, they become moral. Their conduct, then, becomes ethical.
Yet this process has broken down today. Values and standards are often considered relative. People say things such as, “What’s right for you isn’t necessarily what’s right for me. Therefore, you can’t impose your standards on me.” This viewpoint can apply only so far, because our world was designed with fixed principles and moral absolutes, without which a society can’t function in a healthy way. And individuals must exercise personal responsibility in relation to these fixed principles and moral absolutes.
Experimentation in ethical issues results from not having—or acknowledging—moral references or parameters, so that nothing is “settled.” Instead, relativism and license take over. License contrasts with the freedom that is gained from following sound principles; it leads to lawlessness, which is a rejection of natural laws and standards. I believe that a spirit of lawlessness has affected every level of society today.
The only way to solve lawlessness is to restore character. Principled leaders are those who establish moral boundaries and set ethical “stakes.” We need people who will say, “This is what I believe,” and “This is the boundary. This is where we stand.”
Leaders who have not comprehended moral principles, or who have rejected them, have led us into lawlessness. It will take leaders who understand moral principles, who live by them, and who establish ethical policies to lead us back to lawfulness. Laws can help to create character as people adhere to them.
Many people say, “Governments cannot legislate morality.” I believe the opposite. Let us not be fooled into believing that political decisions and policies are morally neutral. Why? Because all decisions have moral implications, and therefore all governmental policies and laws are “moral”— they reflect the values and ethics of those who institute them. You can’t create a law that doesn’t reflect a moral code. And codes regulate conduct.
Yet, as we know, a society can be only as strong as the number of its members who value its laws and adhere to them personally.
Moral principles can be promoted in the context of any form of “government,” not just political entities. Such standards can be set by all types of leaders, on all levels—whether leaders of a family, a civic group, a university, a business, a nation, or another entity. Implementing some form of rules, policies, or codes of acceptable behavior is what all “governments” do.
Experimentation Leads to Loss and Destruction
When leaders try to implement principles that they have fabricated, and that are in opposition to the Manufacturer’s first laws, “malfunctions” will occur. To act in a way contrary to the User’s Manual is to risk damage to the “product.” Picture a lighthouse in a storm, with waves crashing high against it. The waves are in motion, but the lighthouse is stable; it is grounded. The principles given to us by the Creator are like lighthouses—they remain constant, and they provide light that guides us to solid ground.
To act in a way contrary to the Corporate User’s Manual is to risk damage to the “product.”
I was born in a very poor neighborhood in the Bahamas. My ten brothers and sisters and I slept on the floor of our two-bedroom wood house, the corners of which rested on four stones. In my neighborhood, questionable characters were always present, exerting a negative influence. But when I discovered the Creator’s principles, they not only changed the way I thought about myself, but they altered the course of my life. I recognized the potential within me and gained a vision for my life that has stayed with me to this day.
A number of my fellow classmates had great potential. However, many of our teachers would tell the students, “You are a failure. You’ll always be a failure, and nothing but a failure.” After some time, a lot of the students would finally believe it, and say, “There’s no use in trying. I’m just going to fail this exam, anyway, so I might as well not study.” Sadly, many did fail in school and never fulfilled their potential.
Other classmates’ lives went off track because they violated moral principles and laws. Some of them are in prison now. When I visit them, they say, “You’ve done well.” I reply, “I’ve just made some decisions that were different, that’s all.”
Whether a person consciously or unconsciously violates first laws, the result is decline and destruction. Most things in life aren’t killed; they die on their own. The Creator did not say to the first human beings, “If you disobey Me, I will kill you.” He said, in effect, “If you disobey this first principle, you will certainly die.”9 He knew the inevitable consequences of violating bedrock principles.
Destruction from within—whether it is within an individual, a family, a business, a church, a volunteer organization, a local community, or a country —is a sign of either a lack of awareness of first laws, a rejection of them, or both. Similarly, no matter what kind of crime someone may commit—a misdemeanor, a white-collar crime, or a violent crime—it is the result of a denial of principles.
If a leader does not know first laws and implement them, I can predict the future of his organization. You may be a leader who has been ignoring time- honored principles. Perhaps, by using your charisma and exhibiting enthusiasm, you have gotten people excited about following you and your vision. But, underneath, your foundation is not secure.
Your organization may grow at first. Yet when it gets to a certain size, it will stop expanding, because you haven’t applied the principles necessary for it to grow beyond that point. Corporate growth is not all about business plans, investments, and top-notch employees. You also have to conduct business honestly; make wise decisions; and hire people who have integrity, who have a passion for the corporate vision, and who value and support the contributions of all their coworkers.
Recommit to the Principles in the Corporate User’s Manual
It doesn’t make a difference what the current issues, trends, and fads may be —if you know and follow first laws, you will outlast temporal matters. Leaders of character do not live by transient movements or emotions but by solid principles. Again, emotions are part of the human makeup. However, leaders of character are not guided by how they feel on a particular day; they are guided by the principles that form their lifelong convictions and values.
No matter what type of leadership you exercise, don’t forget first laws! Perhaps you are a leader in a local, regional, or national government who is in a position to tackle contemporary problems and to help develop laws and civic programs. Or, maybe you are a leader in your business or organization who is in a position to develop corporate plans and to set policies. If you violate the Manufacturer’s principles, you will contribute to the weakening of your nation, your company, or your organization.
Leaders of character are guided by the principles that form their lifelong convictions and values.
Recommitting to first laws is like rebooting a stalled computer by pushing the reset button—it allows us to return to the “original mode” where we can function as we were intended to. By studying and implementing the principles in the User’s Manual, you will avoid moral compromise and ethical missteps. You will protect yourself from the negative effects that such mistakes inevitably have on other aspects of your life, including the exercise of your gifts and the realization of your potential. You will also gain much practical wisdom for leadership. You will be able to say, with the biblical writer, “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.”
Today we are walking in: The Power of Principles
Habakkuk 2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
VISION
Today we look to the word VISION- H2377 chazown- vision(in ecstatic state), visions (in night), oracle, prophecy (divine communication), vision (as title of book of prophecy) from H2372; a sight (mentally), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle:—vision. to see, perceive, look, behold, prophesy, provide, to see, behold, to see as a seer in the ecstatic state, to see, perceive with the intelligence, to see (by experience), to provide
The Torah testifies........
Numbers 24:4
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Numbers 24:16
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
The prophets proclaim.........
1 Samuel 3:1
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days;there was no open vision H2377.
Jeremiah 14:14
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision H2377 and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
The writings bear witness.........
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision H2377, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Psalm 89:19
Then thou spakest in vision H2377 to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Chapter 8
The Power of Principles
“Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”
—Victor Hugo, writer
When a consumer product is developed and produced, its manufacturer often publishes important information about it in a user’s manual that is packaged with the item. The manual is actually a book of “principles” indicating how the item functions, how to properly operate it, and how to make it last longer. Some of these principles might be: “Keep away from heat.” “Always clean appliance after using.” “Do not use near or place in water.” “Not intended to bear weight exceeding 10 pounds.” “Observe recommended maintenance schedule.”
Similarly, after creating the first human beings, the “Manufacturer” gave them valuable information about how they “functioned,” how to properly “operate” their lives, and how to ensure that their leadership would have longevity. He conveyed specific principles so they could understand the nature by which they had been designed to live. Later on in human history, He made sure these principles, and additional instructions, were put into writing as a vital reference for all of humanity.
Earlier, we discussed the fact that the values of an organization or community should always be conveyed clearly to its members. And we are all members of the largest community on earth—the human race. The Creator has “published” His principles and values in various ways in the Bible, which is, in effect, a “Corporate User’s Manual” for human beings. Some of these principles and values are included in compilations of moral standards, two of which are commonly known as the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. But many more may be discovered in its pages—some of which we explored in the previous teaching.
In teaching 7, I wrote that the principles contained in the biblical record are time-tested, stable, and civically sound. They can secure true human development and enable us to rebuild our societies and nations on a foundation of sound values and ethics. In addition, if an individual who has suppressed his conscience, or moral compass, becomes aware of the Creator’s principles, and responds to them, his conscience can be reawakened, so that he will regain a conviction of right and wrong. For all these reasons, I have designed this teaching as an overview of the key properties and benefits of the principles the Creator has established for us.
The Key to Leading Effectively
The power of principles has been among the greatest discoveries of my life, and I believe the same can be true for you. The key to living effectively on this earth is to know, accept, and apply the Manufacturer’s principles. Comprehending these principles will give us wisdom, and following them will make us leaders of character.
The Manufacturer—Not the Product— Sets the Principles
The first key property to understand about principles is that a manufactured product does not establish the principles by which it functions—the creator/manufacturer does. As we have noted, everything our Creator/Manufacturer made was designed to operate according to principles He had determined in advance. That includes us human beings. So, the principles by which we function have already been defined by our Creator; they are not defined by us.
The Purpose of Principles
These principles are not arbitrary but are specific to our purpose: We were meant to operate according to principles that can uphold our moral nature in Yah’s image and likeness. Therefore, it is in our best interest to understand and follow them.
“First Laws”
We have previously defined a principle as “a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption,” “a rule or code of conduct,” and “a primary source.” The word principle is derived from two Latin words meaning “beginning” and “initiator.” Accordingly, principles refer to “first laws.”
The Creator’s “first laws” for life on earth pertain to both the physical and the moral (spiritual) realms. Yah instituted physical laws, such as the force of gravity, to govern our earthly environment, giving us the parameters for how we may function in the natural world. Likewise, He instituted moral laws for the conduct of our lives, giving us parameters for how we may live in an ethical way with respect to Him, ourselves, and other people.
Comprehending principles will make us wise, and following them will make us leaders of character.
Principles Are Permanent
Another key property of Yah’s principles is that they are unchanging, or permanent. We can resist them, but that does not alter them or the consequences of rejecting them. To use a familiar example, you could try to defy the law of gravity by jumping off a building, believing that you would float down to safety, simply by wanting it to happen. Yet gravity would still pull you down to the ground—in effect, saying, “I’m going to prove to you that physics works!” Fixed laws apply to everyone.
All of life relates to physical and/or moral principles. We are concerned in this book with exploring moral principles, which lead to character, as well as the consequences of disregarding them. Therefore, let’s look at some benefits of learning, and adhering to, the Creator’s eternal principles.
Benefits of Knowing and Following the Creator’s Principles
Principles Safeguard Us from Substitutes
Principles enable us to build and maintain personal character as they govern and safeguard our lives. While the “first laws” are those the Manufacturer instituted and stated in His User’s Manual, there are other moral laws we must view with caution because they are substitutes for the originals. These were invented by some of the Manufacturer’s “products.”
For example, many people today are advancing their own principles regarding what conduct is morally and ethically acceptable. The reason many of our nations are experiencing decline is that they are being led by influential people whose philosophies are based on other “manuals.” These cultural leaders claim that the revised principles are better than the ones the Manufacturer established. Yet the new principles are not recognized by the Manufacturer and will not lead to lasting success, according to the laws He has established for the world. We cannot institute “new” natural laws. And we cannot alter the inherent principles by which human beings have been created to function.
Perhaps you’ve had the experience of preparing for a week-long trip and trying to decide what to pack. In such a situation, many people tend to overpack, so they have to sit on top of their suitcase in an attempt to shut it. The suitcase’s sides bulge, and its zipper becomes strained. Often, after several unsuccessful attempts, people end up taking out some of their items because the case wasn’t designed to hold that much volume. Sometimes, however, people succeed in shutting the lid, and then they have to lug around a heavy suitcase. If they’re traveling by plane, they may have to pay an extra fee due to the extra weight of their luggage. Then, by the time they return home, the seams of the suitcase have started to pull apart, and the fabric is fraying.
This scenario is similar to what happens when we try to add “new” principles that don’t fit in with the Creator’s original design—they become burdensome and damaging to us. Some people claim that shifting morals indicate social progress—leading the way for human development and reengineering. However, they fail to recognize the consequences to human development of tampering with, or rejecting, integral principles. Such new laws may garner popular support, but they won’t cancel first laws, which, again, are as fixed, morally speaking, as physical laws are.
Here’s another simple illustration. Suppose an individual decided he wanted to forgo using gasoline to run his car, so he filled his tank with orange juice, instead. He had the will to do this, and he had the ability to do it, but his action didn’t alter the principle of how an internal combustion engine works. As originally designed, his car won’t run unless he puts fuel in it. And putting orange juice in his tank will damage the engine.
In this regard, let’s look at some statements found in the User’s Manual, in the book called the “Psalms,” in which the biblical writer is addressing the Creator:
You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.1
The word “precepts” refers to first laws. The writer was saying, in effect, “Creator, You’ve laid down principles that are not optional; they are not open for discussion.” Although they are permanent, first laws are not stagnant. On the contrary, they are applicable to all people, in all eras of history, and they are life-giving. Later on in the passage, we read,
I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.2
Next, let’s look at the opening lines of another psalm, written by King David, about leaders who try to function according to principles contrary to those the Creator has set:
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord and against his Anointed One. “Let us break their chains,” they say,
“and throw off their fetters.”3
The next part says,
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.4
Why does the Creator “laugh” at this conspiracy? Since His principles are already set, any plots against them are in vain. People are inventing their own laws, but they won’t work. Yah has already determined the best way for us to function.
The Creator isn’t impressed by any governmental leader or legislative body that creates laws contrary to the ones He has built into life. Neither is He threatened by them. He is our ultimate Leader, and His authority cannot be supplanted by those whom He has created.
Though we can’t invent principles that will cancel the Manufacturer’s first laws, that doesn’t mean that people won’t attempt to create them and live according to them. But if they do, they won’t be living in harmony with themselves, with others, or with their Creator. They won’t function as they were designed to.
Following Yah’s established standards is the only way human beings can live productively and peacefully. Yet many people seem to fight against these principles. I believe that if they understood the essential purposes of Yah’s first laws, they would stop fighting them and benefit from their life-giving power.
Principles Simplify Our Lives and Decision-Making
Another reason the Creator’s principles are eminently valuable is that they simplify life. When you understand His principles, you know how to respond in a variety of situations—especially those that involve ethical questions. You must take time to learn Yah’s laws, but when you do, they will make many of your decisions clearer and easier.
The first psalmist I quoted in the previous section also made this statement: I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts.5
The writer was saying that because he had “sought out” the Creator’s principles, he knew he would “walk about in freedom.” When we follow Yah’s first laws, we are liberated. We are, as we discussed, set free to make decisions about various issues and dilemmas without having to wonder what to do. And we are also free from the negative consequences that come from making poor ethical decisions. Thus, observing foundational principles enables us to walk with a new confidence.
Let’s look at one more excerpt from the passage quoted above: I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.6
If you study the Creator’s principles, you’ll become much wiser than many leaders today. I frequently interact with powerful, influential people, and when I’m asked to present my ideas for solving certain societal or corporate issues, the leaders often comment on the wisdom contained in those ideas. What many of them don’t realize—especially at first—is that I have studied many of Yah’s integral principles. I can’t take credit for the wisdom. As a consultant, my role is to explain and expound upon these principles to them. When they first hear the principles, they think they are new and remarkable.
They are remarkable—but they are not new. Once more, they are long- established and time-tested.
If you study the Creator’s principles, you’ll become much wiser than many leaders today.
Consequently, if someone is having a problem with his company, and he asks me to serve as a consultant to address the issue, I often know exactly what to advise right away, because most problems involve violations of first laws—principles of ethics, principles of right relationships, principles of sound financial practices, and so forth. At times, I can identify most problems within a company in a matter of hours. Why? I’m not looking at personalities or agendas—I’m looking for the key principles the leaders and their employees are ignoring or rejecting.
If you understand principles, therefore, discovering solutions to a variety of concerns will become second nature. To return to the automobile analogy, suppose the fuel gauge of your car was below “E.” You wouldn’t have to wonder what to do in order to get your car to continue to function. The decision would be simple, because you would know the “principle.” Even if you didn’t know much about engines, you would know the most important law to apply in order to make your car run again: Put some gas in it. Likewise, in the moral arena, you don’t have to question how to respond when someone asks you to do something dishonest, reckless, vengeful, and so forth. When you know first laws, or principles, you know exactly what to do—and what not to do.
In the Corporate User’s Manual, the book of Proverbs gives much practical wisdom that we can apply in a number of situations. One passage, using an illustration from the natural world, addresses the perils of laziness and the rewards of working to provide for your own needs:
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.7
In another section of the User’s Manual, Yahusha of Nazareth discusses our need to address our own shortcomings before trying to correct others’ faults:
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.8
Principles Enable Us to Fulfill Our Potential
Violating the Creator’s principles will also prevent us from reaching our full potential. If we follow His laws, we can fulfill our destiny. If we don’t, we will never reach it. For instance, the “destiny” of your car is to mobilize you and transport you safely to your destination. Yet, if you were to violate a key principle related to the vehicle—for example, if you were to continue operating the car after allowing the oil pan to run dry, so that you ruined the engine—you would have nullified the manufacturer’s promises about its functioning. Similarly, the success of your future depends on your obedience to key principles established by your Manufacturer—the Creator.
Obedience is not a negative word. In this sense, to obey merely means to follow proven principles. Suppose you were to place grain seeds on a clean tile floor. When you came back after a few days, you would see that they had not sprouted or taken root. They need to be planted in soil to do that. So, every time you plant seeds in the ground, you are submitting to the principle of growth established by the Creator. Likewise, when you adhere to His moral principles, you are submitting to a vital standard for fulfilling your personal potential as a leader. Remember that character ensures the longevity of leadership, and men and women of principle will leave important legacies and be remembered by future generations.
As we saw earlier, the process of applying a principle requires that you must first know what the principle is (for example, you have to know that your car requires fuel to function). Second, you must value, or accept, the principle (you become convinced of the need to put fuel into your car). Third, you must act on the principle (by actually putting fuel into your car’s gas tank). You would barely think about the process described in this illustration if you’d been around automobiles from the time you were a child, so that the process had become second nature. Nevertheless, each step is necessary, and we must realize that the process applies to the implementation of principles in many contexts.
Without First Laws, Life Is an Experiment
When people don’t know or obey first laws, they begin to experiment with foundational elements of human life, including values and morals. These substitute laws are “experiments” because the people promoting them have little understanding of what is going to happen to individuals and society if the new laws are promoted and practiced. Experimentation is beneficial and necessary in relation to scientific inquiry, creative endeavors, and so forth. But experimentation in moral matters is a dangerous practice.
Experimentation Leads to Distrust and Disillusionment
The average leader in the world today has not been trained in the Manufacturer’s principles, so he often has to make up his responses when confronted with societal issues and problems. This means that many of the leaders of your country are merely guessing about how to deal with national problems. So, your country’s future is, in essence, an experiment for them. They keep trying this policy and that policy, but few of them work.
One outcome of society’s experimentation with ethics has been people’s growing distrust of authority, leading to their disillusionment. When leaders of all walks of life lack character and experiment with principles, their constituents don’t have anyone they can really trust. By and large, in our society today, the younger generations don’t trust the older generations, and the older generations don’t trust the younger generations—or even themselves. Citizens don’t have confidence in their politicians, and politicians don’t have regard for the citizens. Parishioners don’t respect their priests and ministers, and the priests and ministers don’t esteem the parishioners. Likewise, students don’t respect their teachers, and the teachers don’t esteem their students.
This widespread distrust has resulted in varying degrees of apathy, compromise, permissiveness, sexual confusion, a devaluation of human life, and a culture of violence and death. Our experimentation must be replaced with the application of first laws in regard to the fundamental values of human life. Experimentation in moral matters is a dangerous practice.
Experimentation Leads to Lawlessness
We have seen that, in the optimal scenario, a country’s laws are based on values and standards by which the citizens in the national community have agreed to live. This is why a nation can reflect a national ethic. If the citizens value a certain standard, it becomes a law to them. If the individual citizens agree to abide by that law, they become moral. Their conduct, then, becomes ethical.
Yet this process has broken down today. Values and standards are often considered relative. People say things such as, “What’s right for you isn’t necessarily what’s right for me. Therefore, you can’t impose your standards on me.” This viewpoint can apply only so far, because our world was designed with fixed principles and moral absolutes, without which a society can’t function in a healthy way. And individuals must exercise personal responsibility in relation to these fixed principles and moral absolutes.
Experimentation in ethical issues results from not having—or acknowledging—moral references or parameters, so that nothing is “settled.” Instead, relativism and license take over. License contrasts with the freedom that is gained from following sound principles; it leads to lawlessness, which is a rejection of natural laws and standards. I believe that a spirit of lawlessness has affected every level of society today.
The only way to solve lawlessness is to restore character. Principled leaders are those who establish moral boundaries and set ethical “stakes.” We need people who will say, “This is what I believe,” and “This is the boundary. This is where we stand.”
Leaders who have not comprehended moral principles, or who have rejected them, have led us into lawlessness. It will take leaders who understand moral principles, who live by them, and who establish ethical policies to lead us back to lawfulness. Laws can help to create character as people adhere to them.
Many people say, “Governments cannot legislate morality.” I believe the opposite. Let us not be fooled into believing that political decisions and policies are morally neutral. Why? Because all decisions have moral implications, and therefore all governmental policies and laws are “moral”— they reflect the values and ethics of those who institute them. You can’t create a law that doesn’t reflect a moral code. And codes regulate conduct.
Yet, as we know, a society can be only as strong as the number of its members who value its laws and adhere to them personally.
Moral principles can be promoted in the context of any form of “government,” not just political entities. Such standards can be set by all types of leaders, on all levels—whether leaders of a family, a civic group, a university, a business, a nation, or another entity. Implementing some form of rules, policies, or codes of acceptable behavior is what all “governments” do.
Experimentation Leads to Loss and Destruction
When leaders try to implement principles that they have fabricated, and that are in opposition to the Manufacturer’s first laws, “malfunctions” will occur. To act in a way contrary to the User’s Manual is to risk damage to the “product.” Picture a lighthouse in a storm, with waves crashing high against it. The waves are in motion, but the lighthouse is stable; it is grounded. The principles given to us by the Creator are like lighthouses—they remain constant, and they provide light that guides us to solid ground.
To act in a way contrary to the Corporate User’s Manual is to risk damage to the “product.”
I was born in a very poor neighborhood in the Bahamas. My ten brothers and sisters and I slept on the floor of our two-bedroom wood house, the corners of which rested on four stones. In my neighborhood, questionable characters were always present, exerting a negative influence. But when I discovered the Creator’s principles, they not only changed the way I thought about myself, but they altered the course of my life. I recognized the potential within me and gained a vision for my life that has stayed with me to this day.
A number of my fellow classmates had great potential. However, many of our teachers would tell the students, “You are a failure. You’ll always be a failure, and nothing but a failure.” After some time, a lot of the students would finally believe it, and say, “There’s no use in trying. I’m just going to fail this exam, anyway, so I might as well not study.” Sadly, many did fail in school and never fulfilled their potential.
Other classmates’ lives went off track because they violated moral principles and laws. Some of them are in prison now. When I visit them, they say, “You’ve done well.” I reply, “I’ve just made some decisions that were different, that’s all.”
Whether a person consciously or unconsciously violates first laws, the result is decline and destruction. Most things in life aren’t killed; they die on their own. The Creator did not say to the first human beings, “If you disobey Me, I will kill you.” He said, in effect, “If you disobey this first principle, you will certainly die.”9 He knew the inevitable consequences of violating bedrock principles.
Destruction from within—whether it is within an individual, a family, a business, a church, a volunteer organization, a local community, or a country —is a sign of either a lack of awareness of first laws, a rejection of them, or both. Similarly, no matter what kind of crime someone may commit—a misdemeanor, a white-collar crime, or a violent crime—it is the result of a denial of principles.
If a leader does not know first laws and implement them, I can predict the future of his organization. You may be a leader who has been ignoring time- honored principles. Perhaps, by using your charisma and exhibiting enthusiasm, you have gotten people excited about following you and your vision. But, underneath, your foundation is not secure.
Your organization may grow at first. Yet when it gets to a certain size, it will stop expanding, because you haven’t applied the principles necessary for it to grow beyond that point. Corporate growth is not all about business plans, investments, and top-notch employees. You also have to conduct business honestly; make wise decisions; and hire people who have integrity, who have a passion for the corporate vision, and who value and support the contributions of all their coworkers.
Recommit to the Principles in the Corporate User’s Manual
It doesn’t make a difference what the current issues, trends, and fads may be —if you know and follow first laws, you will outlast temporal matters. Leaders of character do not live by transient movements or emotions but by solid principles. Again, emotions are part of the human makeup. However, leaders of character are not guided by how they feel on a particular day; they are guided by the principles that form their lifelong convictions and values.
No matter what type of leadership you exercise, don’t forget first laws! Perhaps you are a leader in a local, regional, or national government who is in a position to tackle contemporary problems and to help develop laws and civic programs. Or, maybe you are a leader in your business or organization who is in a position to develop corporate plans and to set policies. If you violate the Manufacturer’s principles, you will contribute to the weakening of your nation, your company, or your organization.
Leaders of character are guided by the principles that form their lifelong convictions and values.
Recommitting to first laws is like rebooting a stalled computer by pushing the reset button—it allows us to return to the “original mode” where we can function as we were intended to. By studying and implementing the principles in the User’s Manual, you will avoid moral compromise and ethical missteps. You will protect yourself from the negative effects that such mistakes inevitably have on other aspects of your life, including the exercise of your gifts and the realization of your potential. You will also gain much practical wisdom for leadership. You will be able to say, with the biblical writer, “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.”
Thursday, December 19, 2024
CHARACTER PRECEDED THE GIFT OF LEADERSHIP
Genesis chapter 1
Today we are walking in: Character Preceded the Gift of Leadership
Habakkuk 2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
VISION
Today we look to the word VISION- H2377 chazown- vision(in ecstatic state), visions (in night), oracle, prophecy (divine communication), vision (as title of book of prophecy) from H2372; a sight (mentally), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle:—vision. to see, perceive, look, behold, prophesy, provide, to see, behold, to see as a seer in the ecstatic state, to see, perceive with the intelligence, to see (by experience), to provide
The Torah testifies........
Numbers 24:4
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Numbers 24:16
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
The prophets proclaim.........
1 Samuel 3:1
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days;there was no open vision H2377.
Jeremiah 14:14
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision H2377 and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
The writings bear witness.........
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision H2377, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Psalm 89:19
Then thou spakest in vision H2377 to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Character Preceded the Gift of Leadership
Let’s return to the passage in the first book written by Moses that describes the creation of human beings, as we continue to explore the principles the Creator has established for us to live by. “Then Yah said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness....’” Note that the first thing on the Creator’s mind regarding humanity was to give men and women character, or the essence of His nature. Clearly, character is His priority. And, as we have seen, it must be our priority, too, if we are to become the leaders we were meant to be.
The Creator’s next statement was, “And let them rule....” Another way of translating “rule” is “have dominion.”17 In other words, He was saying, “Let them have leadership—authority and power—over the earth.” Since character was Yah’s priority, He gave the gift of His image and likeness before He gave the ability to rule. Significantly, He didn’t consider it wise to entrust human beings with power until He had given them character.
We often do the opposite with our leaders—give people power and then hope they have character. If they don’t, the way they use their power will expose that fact. But, from the start, character has always been imperative for human beings. And it should be the prerequisite for leaders today.
The Creator didn’t entrust us with power until He gave us character.
Leadership Is Natural
The word “rule,” or “have dominion,” means to govern, to control, to manage, and to master. Because human beings received the gift of leadership in creation, it was natural to them. We were designed to rule and influence the earth according to Yah’s character. That is why I wrote earlier that we were all born to lead in an area of gifting. We must grow into the leaders we were meant to be, by acknowledging and refining our leadership gifts and by developing character.
Many people are frustrated because they don’t have a sense of purpose about why they are on this earth. Man’s greatest ignorance is of himself. We have often disregarded or forgotten the reality of Yah and His purposes, as well as our having been created in His image and what it signifies. And, as we’ve seen, what we believe about ourselves creates our world. No human being can live beyond the limits of his beliefs. Having a knowledge of the Creator and what He designed us to be will give us a renewed sense of purpose.
Leadership Is a Cooperative Endeavor
Note that the Creator specifically stated, “Let them rule....” He didn’t say, “Let some of them rule,” or “Let the elite rule.” Instead, He said, in effect, “Let all human beings rule.” Dominion, or leadership, was established by Yah as a cooperative endeavor—and having character is essential for cooperating effectively with others.
The unique gifts we possess relate to the general human mandate to rule and to our individual fulfillment of that mandate alike. A community of leaders, each contributing his gifts and skills, is necessary to accomplish the overall leadership commission. Yah did not create the human race as a community that would have a leader or some leaders—He created a community of leaders. The idea that some people are superior and others are inferior doesn’t exist in His plan.
Leadership Does Not Mean Dominating Other People
Yah said, “And let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”18 This list of areas over which human beings are to rule is especially instructive with respect to what’s not included on it—other human beings. You and I were not meant to dominate other people, nor were we designed to be dominated by them. We were intended to exercise leadership over the earth’s environment, animals, resources, physical properties, and so forth—but never other human beings. Again, dominating other people is illegitimate under the Creator’s established purposes. That is why the human spirit naturally resists being controlled.
We Must Develop an Environment of Character
One of Yah’s first instructions to human beings was, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”19 The whole world was to be filled with men, women, and children who manifested the nature of Yah. Accordingly, we should develop an environment conducive to demonstrating Yah’s character. Internally, we should develop the mind-set and qualities of character. Externally, we should create a community environment that promotes and upholds ethical standards, such as integrity and justice.
While there is no such thing as an “ethical community,” there is such a thing as a community of ethical people. Corporately, the people agree on the values by which they are going to live. That agreement is what creates a culture of morality. And that moral culture becomes the source of ethics for the community. As we have seen, an ethical culture always begins with individuals’ personal commitment to live according to strong values.
A Human Priority
The order the Creator set for leadership is character before power. That is why an emphasis on character must become a human priority again. When we return to character, we return to the natural state in which we were meant to function.
You may be a manager, a supervisor, an entrepreneur, a politician, a clergyperson, an educational director, the chairperson of a community group, or the president of a nation. Whatever form of leadership you exercise, I urge you to make the following lifelong commitment: to help bring back character as the priority among leaders. Otherwise, our world will continue to spiral apart, morally and ethically. Across the globe, societies are deteriorating, and they will crumble if we don’t make character our first concern.
The whole world was to be filled with men, women, and children who manifested the nature of Yah.
How Human Beings Lost Character
As we have discussed, a basic quality of the Creator’s nature is that it doesn’t change. The questions we must therefore ask are: “How did human beings as a race—made in Yah’s image and likeness—lose the continual manifestation of His character?” “When did we stop being always consistent, always predictable, always trustworthy, always just, always merciful and compassionate, and so forth, as the Creator is?” “Why did we start to demonstrate unethical characteristics, so that our world has veered so far away from being an expression of His nature?”
Ironically, human beings lost their ability to consistently manifest the Creator’s nature because the first man and woman heeded the false accusation that Yah wasn’t treating them with true character—that He was not being just. When His trustworthiness was called into question, the first humans made a decision to doubt His authenticity. Then, for the sake of gaining power for themselves, they broke a key principle He had established for them. You can read about these incidents in the first book of Moses.20
The principle that the first human beings violated had been designed to protect them, so that they would not suffer the consequences of living outside of Yah’s nature. In breaking this principle, they went against the very means that would have safeguarded them. Because they chose to live outside of Yah’s nature, their character became warped. This indicates that, in some way, their character did not depend on nature alone—it also required an ongoing decision to remain in that nature. Today, we face the same type of decision: Will we live by our established principles, beliefs, values, moral standards, and ethical code? This is a choice we make on a daily basis.
The first humans’ tragic decision caused humanity to suffer the consequences of a loss of Yah’s true nature—including the onset of strife, sickness, and physical death. The fundamental source of all of humanity’s deficiencies and problems was—and is—its rejection of the Creator’s principles. This rejection is what the Scriptures call “sin.” It is why human nature is described by spiritual leaders as being “fallen.” It once existed on a high ethical plane, but it descended into a place where it often manifests only a fraction of its former state.
Results of the Loss of True Character
Let’s explore several results of humanity’s rejection of the principles and character of Yah.
1. Distortion of the Creator’s Image
Because humanity lost Yah’s true nature, it now has only a distorted image of that nature. The principal traits of fallen human beings are the opposite of genuine character: inconsistency, unpredictability, unfaithfulness, compromise, unjustness, prejudice, untrustworthiness, domination, vindictiveness, unforgiveness, cruelty, and so forth. All societies of the world suffer the symptoms of humanity’s loss of character.
For example, there are people who connive to discredit their colleagues and other people in the workplace in order to get the promotions that these other individuals deserve. There are university students who cheat on tests in order to “achieve” a higher academic standing, with the result that they sometimes receive unfair advantages over others, such as higher-paying jobs. We wonder how these things can happen. (Some people aren’t sure themselves why they commit some of these acts.) Moreover, humanity’s warped character can cause the consciences of some people to be off-balance—they may lack a natural sense of guilt when doing wrong; or, they may have an overactive conscience, in which they continually feel guilty about things for which they are not responsible.
So, all human corruption stems from our loss of Yah’s character as an intrinsic element of our own nature. Human beings are still capable of exercising moral conduct, but it involves making the continual decision to embrace strong convictions and values. And we are all inconsistent in this endeavor, because sound character is no longer natural to us.
2. Confusion About Self-image and Self-worth
Another result of human beings’ rejection of Yah’s image is that they lost their own essence. They became confused about who they were, what they were born to be, and how they were to live. They no longer had a clear sense of purpose and meaning in the world. And they forfeited the feeling of acceptance and worth that comes from being in unbroken relationship with their Creator.
3. Instability
Without character, human beings also became unstable. This is why it is often hard for us to depend on others. Many people neglect to keep their promises. For example, on their wedding day, a couple gets dressed up, stands in front of a clergyperson or a justice of the peace, and makes promises such as, “I will love and cherish you until I die!” Then, at some point after the honeymoon, the husband or wife may lose interest and leave— sometimes to run off with someone else. If your spouse has left you, you understand what I mean. You had a beautiful wedding in which everything was picture-perfect: the preacher, the gorgeous bridal gown and tailored tuxedo, the flowers, the rings, and more. It was an ideal day. And now you are wondering what happened to the marriage. Such heartbreak occurs because many people are unstable and inconsistent. They haven’t made the conscious decision to establish strong values and truly commit to them.
If someone is unstable, it doesn’t matter what he promises; you can’t trust it. As the biblical writer James said, “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”21 If the source hasn’t changed, the result will be the same. James also wrote, “He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind....He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”22 An unstable person is like the waves of the sea—unpredictable, changeable.
That is why, when we meet people who have strong character, we admire and love them. It is because they are a picture of our original self. A person of character gives us a glimpse of what all human beings used to be like and what most of us, deep down, desire to be like. It is my hope that this book will reintroduce us to ourselves, will reconnect us to the image in which we were created. We were made for character, but we’ve been living outside of it. Let us become inspired to return to our true self—the image of Yah.
A person of character gives us a glimpse of what all human beings used to be like and what most of us, deep down, desire to be like.
The Restoration of Character
Because the Creator has genuine character, His plans for human beings did not include allowing them to languish in a state in which they lacked His nature—and experienced all the resulting consequences. In His faithfulness and trustworthiness, He initiated a plan to restore humanity to Himself. This plan involved giving us a renewed nature, one by which we would again be able to share His character and consistently follow His life-giving principles.
He accomplished this plan through Yahusha of Nazareth, also called Yahusha the Hamachiach. Yah testified about Him, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”23 Yahusha said, “I and the Father are one.”24 Yahusha was Yah’s Son because He came from Yah, He was one with Yah, and He fully manifested Yah’s character on earth. One of Yahusha’ disciples wrote about Him:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Yah, and the Word was Yah. He was with Yah in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men....The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.25
And Paul of Tarsus wrote, “For in Hamachiach all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”26 Yahusha had the same nature and Spirit as Yah. And His purpose for coming to the earth was to restore the image of Yah in us. The Scriptures are very clear that we need a new nature. “No one can enter the kingdom of Yah unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”27
Therefore, Yahusha came to give us back our character. No one can be restored to the Creator’s nature except through Him.28 Yahusha the Hamachiach, as the Son of Yah, was the only One who could represent both the Creator and His created beings in order to fix the breach between the two and bring about full reconciliation and restoration.
When Yahusha Hamachiach died on the cross, He paid the price for our fallen human nature. He also paid the price for all the times when we ourselves have acted contrary to the character and principles of our Creator. When we acknowledge and accept what He did for us, we are restored to Yah and receive His nature within us once again. This enables us to experience a lasting transformation by which we can manifest His image and develop genuine character according to His principles. In this life, we can expect to experience a process of ongoing growth and maturation in the way we manifest the Creator’s nature.
Restoring a Culture of Character on Earth Yah’s “Kingdom”
When Yahusha Hamachiach was on earth, He emphasized the topic of the “kingdom of Yah” as He taught His disciples and the crowds who gathered to hear Him. I wrote earlier that the kingdom of Yah—the influence of heaven on earth— was Yahusha’ greatest value and priority. Let’s look briefly at what the kingdom of Yah signifies.
Yah exists in a heavenly “country.” He created earth to be like a colony of heaven, an extension of His kingdom. Such a culture could be produced only through beings who were like Him. As we have seen, He gave men and women the gift of leadership, or dominion, on the basis of their manifestation of His character. Yet when humanity rejected Yah’s nature and principles, the full manifestation of His character on earth was lost.
Yahusha made declarations such as, “The kingdom of Yah is near. Repent and believe the good news!”29 He was referring to the return of Yah’s culture to earth, which was inaugurated with His arrival and would be accomplished when He made provision for people to be restored to their Creator and receive the fullness of His nature once again.
The manifestation of Yah’s nature on earth is called a “kingdom” because it is the realm over which He governs. It includes the community of all who have been infused with His nature as a result of their restoration to Him, so they can reflect His attributes. The renewal of Yah’s culture on earth is the continuation of His original plan in creation—that the whole world would be filled with His character.
A Clash of Cultures
The word “repent,” which Yahusha used in announcing that the kingdom of Yah was near, has become a religious term, but it essentially means to change one’s manner of thinking. For what reason did Yahusha say people needed to alter their thinking? Because He was bringing back a different culture to the earth, and to be a part of that different culture required a different mind-set and different values.
This re-arrival of the kingdom of Yah on earth immediately brought about a clash of ideas and cultures. One reason is that the concepts of life that were advanced by the Roman Empire, including the idea that some races were superior to other races, dominated the world in which Yahusha lived. And what Yahusha taught was the opposite of the Roman outlook.
A Different Type of Leader
One of Yahusha’ most powerful statements about leadership is one in which He gave a commentary about Caesar and the Roman Empire:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles [the Roman leaders] lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.30
The standard behavior for leaders at that time was to control and manipulate other people, to throw around power and authority, and to tell others what to do. (Not much has changed, has it?) But Yahusha told His disciples, in effect, “That’s not the way it will be among you in Yah’s kingdom. Your leadership will be different.” What a distinction between the leadership perspectives of each culture! The first says, “To be great, you have to order other people around and show them who’s the boss.” The second says, “If you want to be great, if you want to be first, then you must serve other people.” Yahusha told His disciples, in effect, “Look at Me—I didn’t come to be served. I came to give Myself.” This point is crucial. What did Yahusha give? Himself. True leadership means finding something within yourself to give.
The culture of the kingdom of Yah changes our conception of what it means to be a leader. Sometimes, we think that leadership is measured by how many people serve us, how many followers we have, or how many people are in our “entourage.” I’m usually suspicious of people who have big entourages, because it suggests that they have an ego problem or a self-image issue. Leadership is not measured by how many people serve you. It’s measured by whether you are serving other people.
And when you’re serving other people, you’re thinking about their value— that is what motivates and governs your relationship with them. When the Creator made us in His image, He established the value of all human beings. Sadly, wherever there is an absence of character, people find it easy to devalue others. But those who don’t want to honor and serve people cannot be true leaders.
Leadership is not measured by how many people serve you. It’s measured by whether you are serving other people.
Higher Standards
Wherever the kingdom of Yah manifests on earth, therefore, it inevitably comes into ethical conflict with the prevailing culture. “Colonization” will lead to such dissonance, because one culture is entering another culture to replace it, not coexist with it. The culture of Yah’s nature does not correspond with the destructive ideas that have developed from fallen human nature, and such ideas are dominating our nations today. It will take principled leaders to bring about transformation—and not merely become absorbed into the existing system.
We can no longer function according to the false patterns of leadership we see exhibited in our culture. I know that many of us were trained according to traditional concepts of leadership, such as the Roman Empire promoted; many of us received our degrees from schools that taught these ideas. Yet our standards must be higher.
Although you may experience “cultural clashes” as you begin to live by the Creator’s principles, don’t let those encounters cause you to respond in anger toward other people. True leaders serve; they don’t push other people around.
For example, in the last chapter, we talked about how unspoken negative values can dominate a corporate entity. People may tell a new employee such things as, “Look, if you’re going to be a part of this company, you have to do what everyone else is doing. Otherwise, you have to leave.” What they’re insinuating is, “We’ve got a certain culture in this organization, and everybody’s on the take. So, if you don’t try to get your piece of the pie, then you are going to be a problem for us because you will expose us. Either you become part of the group, or you won’t survive.”
In such a situation, a leader must remain steady—dedicated to the values, principles, and ethics by which he has committed to live. Cultures will be transformed as we follow our moral conscience, consistently manifest the qualities of Yah’s nature, and seek to serve others.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MORAL CONSCIENCE
Matthew chapter 7
Today we are walking in: The Origin Of Our Moral Conscience
Habakkuk 2:2
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
VISION
Today we look to the word VISION- H2377 chazown- vision(in ecstatic state), visions (in night), oracle, prophecy (divine communication), vision (as title of book of prophecy) from H2372; a sight (mentally), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle:—vision. to see, perceive, look, behold, prophesy, provide, to see, behold, to see as a seer in the ecstatic state, to see, perceive with the intelligence, to see (by experience), to provide
The Torah testifies........
Numbers 24:4
He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
Numbers 24:16
He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision H2377 of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
The prophets proclaim.........
1 Samuel 3:1
And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days;there was no open vision H2377.
Jeremiah 14:14
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision H2377 and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
The writings bear witness.........
1 Chronicles 17:15
According to all these words, and according to all this vision H2377, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Psalm 89:19
Then thou spakest in vision H2377 to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Chapter 7
The Origin of Our Moral Conscience
“If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values—that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.”1
—Martin Luther King Jr.
Suppose you put your house on the market, after having just remodeled several rooms—creating a master-bedroom suite with a walk-in closet and a spa-like bathroom; installing custom-made cabinets, marble countertops, and new appliances in the kitchen; and converting the basement into an enormous family room. These improvements enabled you to raise your asking price considerably.
However, also suppose that the foundation of your home hadn’t been properly supported, so that it suddenly became severely cracked, causing the house to tilt; or, imagine that a sinkhole developed, so that your house slipped into a deep pit. Under those conditions, no one would want to buy it! You couldn’t even live in it yourself. If the house couldn’t be salvaged, your improvements to the interior would have been for nothing. In reality, a house is only as valuable as the strength of its foundation. And its foundation is only as strong as what it is built upon.
The Bedrock Beneath Character
A foundation anchors a house to the ground. Yet, that foundation will not be secure if it hasn’t been built upon solid rock, giving the house stability. Similarly, the anchor of a boat won’t keep the vessel from drifting out to sea if it is not embedded in rock. Yahusha of Nazareth told the following parable, unfolding a scenario similar to the one we looked at above:
I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.2
I wrote earlier that one of our greatest weaknesses as leaders is that our philosophical training about who we are as human beings—including our inherent purpose—has been severely deficient. We have accepted flawed philosophies perpetuated by our culture. These flawed philosophies were built on foundations that were not supported by “solid rock.”
Since character is the foundation of leadership, ask yourself, “On what have I constructed the current foundation of my beliefs, convictions, values, morals, and ethical code?” While you may embrace positive beliefs and values, have you built them on bedrock that is durable enough to keep the foundation of your character from cracking, sinking, or being swept away? In this chapter, we will consider the bedrock that our moral foundation must be anchored to in order to give our character lasting stability.
A Permanent Internal Guide
As we discuss the bedrock underneath character, let us begin with an inborn resource we all have: the conscience. To me, the conscience is like “default mode” in a computer. When people are unsure of what to do in a given situation, they may consult their conscience for direction. Or, when they are about to engage in a certain action, their conscience may suddenly rise up within them, giving them the conviction that the action is morally wrong, and they should not do it.
The word conscience is defined as “the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.” The conscience is a permanent internal guide for a leader. Our thoughts and decisions will be either confirmed or challenged by the requirements of our conscience. In our heart, or subconscious mind, we recognize where our motivations and behavior are aligned with our conscience and where they have veered from it.
The Conscience Manifests in Beliefs and Convictions
A principled leader will be led by his conscience. That is why great leaders have always made statements such as “I have to do this,” or “Even if you kill me, I cannot do that.” (Remember that leadership passion is a desire that is stronger than death.) These statements are declarations of conscience. The leaders’ consciences were speaking, and they were listening to them and following them. We need to ask ourselves, “Have I been listening to my conscience, or have I been ignoring it?”
Only when our beliefs align with our conscience can they manifest in strong convictions. And, as we know, convictions are what create our values, which become our moral standards, our ethics, and our character. In the end, our outward behavior is the product of our inner conscience. Remember that character is who we are when no one else is watching.
The Conscience Is Not the Same as the Emotions
Other people may not be able to observe our actions at all times, but our conscience is always aware of what we are doing. Since it is that part of us that counsels us concerning moral issues, I often refer to it as our moral conscience.
The moral conscience doesn’t have to do with “feelings,” as believed by some people who confuse the conscience with various emotions they experience. They will often rely on their feelings when making decisions, although emotions can be undependable when weighing options. Rather, the conscience is about conviction. The definition above referred to the conscience as a “sense or consciousness.” It is moral certainty about the rightness or wrongness of our thoughts or actions. Thus, the conscience is distinct from the emotions, although a sense of conviction can lead to various emotions. We must learn to distinguish between the two through a process of careful evaluation and personal experience.
In addition, a principled leader does not allow himself to be advised by the opinions of the “crowd” over the convictions of his own conscience. For example, a politician who follows his conscience would be willing to stick with his principles, even though it might mean losing an election. Many leaders today would rather follow the crowd. As a result, their character is compromised. They may have developed certain convictions, but their convictions are not based on ethical concerns. They are based on self- centered considerations such as those we looked at earlier—attaining a certain position, controlling others, gaining wealth, and so forth.
In such cases, these leaders have made a decision—consciously or subconsciously—that something else is more important than what their conscience is telling them. They make choices based on what feels good to them, or an aspiration to obtain something, or a desire for excitement. They make such choices because they don’t stop to think, check with their conscience, and reflect on the probable consequences of their actions.
The conscience is that part of us that counsels us concerning moral issues.
Ignoring the Conscience
Just as most leadership training today does not instruct people about character, it does not train people to follow their conscience. That crucial part of the human makeup is all but ignored. So, we produce leaders today who are not taught to value their conscience and to listen to it. Because of society’s confusion about values and the nature of the conscience, many people have a conscience that has become underactive. We must all train ourselves to listen to our conscience. Those who do so will safeguard themselves from making wrong choices that would hurt them and/or others.
A leader who actively ignores his conscience will reap serious consequences for himself and his followers. We can ignore our conscience to the point that it becomes dull. It is even possible to develop a “seared” conscience—one that has been disregarded and denied for so long that it has essentially been silenced. For example, this may be what occurs in the lives of those who run financial scams for decades, even though they know the devastation they are wreaking on their clients’ retirement funds.
Sometimes, we may wonder how people can commit acts that are outright evil. I believe the reason Adolf Hitler could have authorized the deaths of more than 10 million people in the Holocaust is that he ignored his conscience and chose to follow a contaminated philosophy. I don’t believe anyone could order the extermination of multitudes of people and not have his conscience rise up at some point. To do such things, you have to ignore your conscience, not allow it to speak, and eventually “sear” it, so that you no longer hear it.
What Is Our “True North”?
Our moral conscience is like a compass. But it has a “true north” that evaluates and confirms its accuracy so that we can be sure we are steering the right course. It is also the measure by which our thoughts and feelings should be assessed to see if they line up with moral convictions. This author identifies “true north” as Yah. And in this context, I am referring to the Yah of the Bible. It was He who gave us the conscience as an element of the divine part of our human makeup.
Consequently, a properly functioning conscience is in sync with correct moral code. Even when a person has little knowledge of Yah, he has the conscience as a built-in regulator, telling him, “This is wrong,” or “This is right,” or “This is beneficial,” or “This is not acceptable.” I’ve talked with some people who claimed that the immoral actions they were involved in were perfectly acceptable. Yet if their conscience was still awake, they were not being honest with themselves or with me. They had a specific motivation for wanting to engage in that immoral conduct, but it was not based on their conscience. I would prefer to have someone admit to me that he’s acting contrary to his conscience than to have him claim that his behavior is moral and try to convince me of that viewpoint, too. When he’s honest with me about his actions, I can acknowledge where he’s coming from, and we can be open with one another.
A Lost Understanding of True North
Many people no longer have an understanding about Yah, or they have purposely set aside that understanding. In the same speech from which the quote at the beginning of this chapter is taken, Martin Luther King Jr. suggested that Americans had “unconsciously left Yah behind.” They had become involved in enjoying new technologies and an abundance of material goods, and, without meaning to, they had let their knowledge of the Creator, and their interest in Him, slip from their conscious thoughts.
I believe the same is true for many people in the world today. Yet a knowledge of Yah and His nature is the only “rock” on which we can secure the foundation of character. This knowledge must be restored to individuals and to nations. To help us to live according to His nature, Yah created us with a moral compass—the conscience. Yet He also gave us additional safeguards and guides for living: His precepts, or principles.
The word principle may be defined as “a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption,” “a rule or code of conduct,” and “a primary source.” The Creator gave us specific principles to follow that would establish our character in keeping with His, help us to better understand His nature and align with His purposes, guide our relationship with Him and other people, and enable us to be successful in fulfilling our inherent purpose.
Previously, we talked about how principles are crucial to our leadership success—how we all need to establish moral standards by which we will live our lives. Just as our character requires a bedrock that will hold it secure, our personal standards and principles—through which our character develops— must be built on the bedrock of the standards and principles our Creator has given us.
The principles contained in the biblical record are time-tested, stable, and civically sound. They can secure true human development. They can enable us to rebuild our societies and nations on a foundation of sound values and ethics. We need spiritual bedrock as the anchor for our character so that, when the storms of life shake us, and the quakes of current events wrench against our convictions, we will remain strong and steadfast.
What are some basic truths about Yah that many people have forgotten? How can these truths become the bedrock for the development of our character? Let’s explore some answers to these questions.
We need spiritual bedrock as the anchor for our character.
We Are the Image and Likeness of Our Creator
We read in the first book of Moses,
Then Yah said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So Yah created man in his own image, in the image of Yah he created him; male and female he created them.3
The above passage was the Creator’s first public statement about human beings. He essentially said, referring to Himself, “Let Us create a being called ‘man’ and give him Our character—Our nature and characteristics.” In this case, the word “man” is a plural noun; it refers to the species called man— both men and women.
In the Hebrew—the original language in which this passage was written— the word for “image” is selem, or tselem. This term indicates “‘statue; image; copy.’...The word...means ‘image’ in the sense of essential nature....Human nature in its internal and external characteristics....”4 The word also signifies “a representative figure.”5 Humanity’s nature was designed to be an image of the Creator’s own nature, or character. Yah breathed His own life into man: “The Lord Yah...breathed into [the man’s] nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”6 Thus, the Creator gave human beings something of His own Spirit. All human beings are meant to be representatives of Yah.
The word “likeness” in the passage is translated from the Hebrew word demut. It has the sense of “the original after which a thing is patterned.”7 We were patterned after our Creator to manifest His character as we live and work on this earth.
Character Is the Creator’s Intrinsic Nature
What “pattern” are we cut from? How are we to represent the nature of the Creator through our character? Let’s look at several of Yah’s character qualities as illustrations.
Always Consistent
The Creator stated, “I the Lord do not change.”8 He is consistent; He is always the same. Yah changes things and circumstances. He also works in people so they can be transformed and become more like Him. But He Himself never changes. Accordingly, once a leader has established his life on solid, time-tested principles, he should continue to grow in knowledge, in experience, and in maturity, but he should never alter his good character. This means that even though you are progressing in life and growing in the exercise of your gifts, your fundamental nature should remain the same.
For example, it shouldn’t matter whether you have only ten dollars to your name or a net worth of ten million dollars—your values and moral standards shouldn’t deteriorate just because you have wealth (or power, or status, and so forth). You should be able to say something like the following in regard to your own experience: “I didn’t steal so-and-so’s twenty dollars when he dropped his wallet next to my car, and I’m not going to embezzle twenty million dollars now that I have access to my company’s pension funds. I won’t compromise my integrity.”
There are people who have known me in public life for more than thirty years, and the greatest compliment some of them have given me goes something like this: “What I like about you is that you’re still the same person. You have the same foundational beliefs, and you’re saying the same things.” I’d rather hear that said about me than anything else. Of course, I have grown personally, and I have developed professionally. But what these people are really telling me is that I have character. They are saying that I have been consistent; that, over the years, I haven’t changed the essence of who I am. That means a lot to me.
Change is, of course, an inevitable part of our lives. In fact, I wrote a book on the topic of change several years ago because I believe we must learn how to respond positively to it and use it to our benefit as we fulfill our purpose in life. Yet, I emphasized that, amid all the changes in our lives, the Creator is our one constant. There are certain things that cannot be changed—the character of Yah and the principles He established for us to live by. Therefore, we can—and we must—grow. But we should not change our character.
Amid all the changes in our lives, the Creator is our one constant.
Always Predictable
Because the Creator’s nature does not change, He is not one thing one day and another thing the next. He is predictable—in the best sense of the word. You know you can rely on Him. James, a first-century biblical writer, provided a fitting analogy for Yah’s constancy when he wrote, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”9
In contrast, someone who is unpredictable about fulfilling his responsibilities is like “shifting shadows.” He will confuse and inconvenience people—and he will often let them down in significant ways. To illustrate, suppose you had arranged with a family member to pick up your seven-year- old daughter from the school bus stop each day at 3:30 p.m. and stay with her at your house until you arrived home from work at 5:45 p.m. If your relative were unpredictable, she might decide on a whim one afternoon that she would skip picking up your daughter so she could go shopping, instead— without making alternate arrangements. She would cause your daughter to panic when no one came for her. You would become frantic about your child’s safety when you arrived home and discovered that your daughter wasn’t there, and that your family member—whom you reached on her cell phone at the mall—had no idea where she was. Your daughter might have wandered off and become lost or hurt—or worse. There also might be legal ramifications of child endangerment. Consistency—on many levels—is an essential character quality for meeting our responsibilities and maintaining good relationships with others, and it is an attribute that we are to model after our Creator.
Always Trustworthy
Yah’s consistency and predictability make Him trustworthy. If you’re not sure what someone is going to do, especially in regard to his conduct toward you, it’s difficult to trust him. But when someone has consistently demonstrated his good character in the past, it is easy to trust him.
In the Bible, when Yah interacted with a person, He would often bring up His faithful relationships with those who had lived in previous generations, or His past acts of power on behalf of His people, in order to assure the individual of His present power and trustworthiness. For example, He made statements such as these: “I am the Yah of your father, the Yah of Abraham, the Yah of Isaac and the Yah of Jacob”10; “I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself”11; “I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your Yah....”12 With this evidence, He would attest to His absolute dependability.
We are to pattern our own behavior after the Creator’s trustworthiness. When an employer asks a prospective employee for references, what he is really asking for are the names of reputable individuals who can provide a record of the applicant’s competence and trustworthiness. He wants specific examples of how the applicant has demonstrated those qualities in his previous jobs or other life experiences.
Therefore, from time to time, we should ask ourselves, “How good are my ‘references’ regarding my trustworthiness? Would I receive good recommendations from my family, my friends, my neighbors, my coworkers, the members of my local community, the financial institution that holds the mortgage on my home, and so forth? In what areas of my life do I need to work on trustworthiness?”
Always Just
The Scriptures say, “The Lord is known by his justice.”13 Are you known for the same? Do you treat other people with impartiality, regardless of how they may treat you? Do you seek justice for those in your community? Let’s look at a few of the instructions the Creator has given us in regard to justice— instructions that apply to both everyday interactions and legal matters:
Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit. If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it. Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.14
To be “just” means to regard everyone in an impartial way, not showing favoritism—whether you are dealing with friend or foe. May we be known for our justice, just as the Creator is.
Always Loving and Compassionate
“Yah is love.”15 The qualities of love and compassion are also foundational to the Creator’s character: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness.”16
Many people like to alleviate the suffering of people in their own nation or other nations who have experienced a great tragedy. For example, if a charitable organization makes an appeal for finances to help the victims of an earthquake or another natural disaster, the response rate is often very high. Yet it is sometimes easier for us to help people we don’t know than to show continual kindness and compassion to those we do know personally, especially after they have disappointed or failed us.
Consistency in overlooking the faults and forgiving the wrongs of our family members, friends, and associates is a challenge. We should be grateful that the Creator has an endless supply of compassion for us every day, and we should seek to emulate His qualities in our relationships with others.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should assist someone else to hurt himself or others by enabling his destructive behavior or addiction. Nor does it mean we should pretend everything is fine when serious issues exist in a relationship. However, whatever circumstances we are in, and whatever issues need to be resolved, we can approach others with the same principle of love with which the Creator approaches us—a love that values their creation in His image and seeks what is best for them physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
The nature of Yah is the epitome of character. He manifests all of the positive qualities associated with virtue, all of the time. He is therefore our ultimate model of character. And because He is perfect in character, we can count on Him to always be consistent, predictable, trustworthy, just, loving, and compassionate toward us.
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