Divine revelation is just another term for a living Creation, the person of reality. If you defy revelation, you defy reality itself, and it’s a personal failure. Reality will take it as a personal insult from you, but it affects more than just you.
Divine revelation says God works most closely with those who think in terms of the tribe, not the individual. There is a place for the individual, but that place is not the foundation of all logic. Divine revelation aims at building up the tribe and it’s grip on shalom, and shalom’s grip on it. Nothing else will work; you cannot isolate good moral action away from tribal shalom.
Among the ideas of modern Western society, the closest you can come to that is nationalism. Any kind of cosmopolitan or international orientation is wrong by definition. Nationalism is not even really the truth, but it’s as close as your average American can get to divine revelation. Either way, it’s not at all a matter of the individual as the core and measure of all things.
Nor is it a question of simple actions; you must get your head in the right place or it won’t make that much difference what you do. A proper biblical mindset is both tribal and multi-generational. Both of those are in defiance of the individuality at the core of Western intellectual traditions. It doesn’t matter what you do. The specific actions are not the point. Reality knows what you are thinking, and if your thinking isn’t consistent with divine revelation, reality will not cooperate.
But you will not understand the scale of reality’s response time if you think first in terms of the individual. Thus, most individuals never understand the consequences of their choices and expectations; the individual doesn’t live long enough or think in terms long enough to recognize the pattern of reality’s response. To the individualist mind, it looks like the world is inanimate and nobody cares what you think.
You cannot discuss things with reality unless your focus of consciousness is in your heart. If the intellect and reason are on the throne, you’ll never get it. Reality does not address itself to the mind, but only to the heart. Christ speaks only through your convictions. Your convictions are attuned to multi-generational tribal considerations. Your actions will touch many, and you must take responsibility for their consequences in those terms.
So shalom takes your whole lifetime just to start. You’ll see it, but only if your intentions are to create a very long time span influence. You will have to live with the sins of your forefathers, but God forgives quickly and mercy restores much of what you might have lost. It requires your commitment to a change across many generations of your descendants. You cannot make decisions for your children’s faith, but you can encourage them and anyone else who sees your faith.
God’s Creation stands waiting, ready to be your ally in pursuing shalom for the sake of those around you and those who follow you.
“the individual doesn’t live long enough or think in terms long enough to recognize the pattern of reality’s response.”
It’s like that one analogy I heard a few decades back, that sticks to me to this day: A man picks a flower out of the ground and notices that it doesn’t die, therefore he assume flowers don’t need soil to actually survive.