THE TIME OF RECKONING

Proverbs 5:23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

We are now at the end of this monologue about the evils of the strange woman. Its warnings are clear.

We have one life, only one, and its goal is redemption. We are born lost, and we need to find our way. We are born sinners, and we need to repent. We are born of flesh and we need to be born of the spirit.

A child grows, and the sin of youth eventually disappears behind the learned matured individual. There always comes a time of maturation in life. Even in adulthood, we may experience a time of deception, a time of error under a false teaching, but eventually, a time comes when the light is presented to us; a chance for repentance, for change; an opportunity aided with a motive to return to God’s ways. He is faithful, and He always provides us with such.

I dare submit that that moment is the climatic goal of our life. God brings it to us at His pleasure, but if we willfully miss His opportunity, what chance is there left to us for redemption? We then die without His instruction. We die without ever have fulfilled the main reason for our existence, and there is a place reserved for such who willfully resist the Spirit of God, for those who emulate the attitude so well expressed in the poem ‘Invictus’, My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Many are today satisfied with mid-way decisions. They like to stay on the proverbial ‘fence’. Little do they realize that the devil owns the fence. The fence is the perfect place where we can pretend to make decision against evil, while kidding ourselves and feeling smart that we’ve avoided surrendering to God, avoided His demand for a clear decision.

The Bible predicts a time of polarization, a time when the fence will altogether disappear. We will then have to fall one way or the other. At that time, each of us will be faced with his own deeds, his own decisions or lack of it. Let us now catch the time God has allotted for us to repent, let us now return to His ways, and not be part of those who die without His Instruction, without His Words, without His commandments, without His Torah.