Monday, April 1, 2019

Snake in the Grass

Tuesday, April 2, 2019
“When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other.  When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee.  The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee.  The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price.  After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests.  Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other.  I am the Lord your God.  “If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations.  Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it.  Leviticus 25:14-19
You can legislate against evil intent, but how can you stop or change intent without a grip on the heart?  Especially when no heart exists, as in the case of sociopaths?  Among the characteristics of sociopathic behavior is a lack of shame.  
If the person is a true sociopath, then he or she will feel no remorse about hurting others, lying, manipulating people, or just generally acting in an unacceptable way.[2]
God’s instructions to Israel about the way they were to treat each other is just the opposite – there is to be genuine care for each other, particularly in business dealings.  It was explicit in the Levitical mandates, written as the law of Jubilee, where fair prices were to be central in transferring property.  As such, there could be no lying, no truthful hyperbole to promote one Hebrew over another.  But some people will find a loophole in any law.  That is why “the law” is something God designed for the heart, as opposed to the courts.
Someone who breaks the law of compassion, withholding fairness and restraint of personal gain, is being sociopathic, taking every advantage over his neighbor, rather than loving his neighbor, and thus, not loving, (let alone fearing) God. 
That being said, sociopaths need to be loved also.  In fact, a key diagnostic in recognizing a sociopath identifies lack of love as a factor of abusive parents in the early stages of a sociopath’s early years.[iii]
This law of love is something tied to the quality of life we lead, whether you consider an individual or the entirety of humanity.  In Leviticus God describes the impact that integrity and fairness will have on a culture in terms of whether we will have enough to eat.  Loving your neighbor means everyone has enough; taking advantage of anyone is what a snake in the grass does, and it makes sure some will go hungry.
For You Today
In every aspect of living there are opportunities to exert power over others; Godly people do not slither!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com
[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

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