Month 12:16, Week 3:1 (Rishon/Pesach), Year:Day 5936:331 AM
Gregorian Calendar: Thursday 8 March 2012
Escaping Dog
The Folly of Freedom in Sin
"Folly is set in great dignity [by sinners]" (Eccl.10:6, NKJV).
While driving home from town this afternoon in the country a large dog suddenly leapt out of a field and onto the road. It was running on the edge of the tarmac clearly exuberent and full of the joy of being free. It seemed totally oblivious to the danger it was in. A car in front of me had to slow down and finally stop as the dog, who was obviously not familiar with the road at all, and had clearly escaped from its owner's yard, kept running up to fast-moving cars thinking they were something to play with. Had the car in front of me not stopped that dog would almost certainly have been seriously injured or killed. Once it could see the driver wasn't going to come out and play with it, it lost interest and returned to the side of the road while the car drove off. Then the dog took a similar interest in me, forcing me to a crawl and after several honks of the horn likewise lost interest and disappeared back into the large field from which it had come.
I used the opportunity to teach my children an object lesson. That escaped dog is like people, I said, who decide that Yahweh's moral and ethical boundaries are boring and who yearn for the illusion of the freedom of the 'big beyond'. And it is big - very big indeed! That bounding dog genuinely thought it was free, felt it was free, and was totally oblivious to the danger it was in, in the same way that we are when we at first choose to abandon Yahweh's safety hedge of Torah (Law) and make up our own rules for life.
That dog was lucky - most aren't. Our roads here are strewn with dead animals, and as far as pets are concerned, usually cats who are harder to contain, but occasionally dogs too. There are also predators in the forests should they choose to venture there - in Malaysia we lost most of our cats to snakes.
Though we may, in abandoning Yahweh, initially escape harm, it isn't long before statistics catch up with us and we get hurt. And then we learn, to our great cost - if we haven't been totally destroyed already - that the 'freedom' we initially exalted over was a myth, and the 'great beyond', far from being the land of new opportunity, became our downfall.
Yah'shua (Jesus) tells the story of the Prodigal Son who thought like that foolish dog that a better world lay beyond the smaller Garden Paradise of Yahweh. Do not be deceived and do not listen to the temptations of the Adversary through the flattering and lawless words of rebellious, godless people. Don't squander your life in sin by being greedy and wanting more than you actually need. Be safe. Stay Home!
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