Among the many different ways we might formulate an answer to the question in the title, there’s one that really matters: keeping morality conscious.
The power of human coercion is emotion. The negative emotions that bind us all tend to run together: fear, anger, shame, shock, etc. It’s all one package in that sense. You might be able to analyze and distinguish different threads within a situation, but during the moment when you experience those overwrought feelings, it’s not so simple.
These days, a primary tool of oppression is the very Western cultural bias for high trust. There is some evidence that this is partly a matter of northern Caucasian DNA. But it surely comes out in our cultural background that the various Germanic tribes all carried a very heavy demand for high trust in the general population. It rests on being able to provoke shame and fear in those who find themselves outside the boundaries of social expectations. The real power here is that the shame can be provoked by shaming expressions. We rely too much on being accepted by the tribe.
But there is no real tribe, only a mythological one ginned up by the ruling elite. We are taught to believe that we have a tribal identity, but it’s one that is imposed on us. It depends on having a very large body of moral expectations, very demanding and legalistic, seldom defined beyond superficial explanations. The concept of looking into those moral expectations for larger patterns is generally discouraged. Even when we start edging over into that direction, a mythology is quickly trotted out to prevent a thorough examination in a wider context.
The whole idea is to make you feel shame to prevent serious consideration of anything else. You aren’t organically growing, or consciously building, a valid trust model; it is imposed a priori. It is presumed without discussion.
The entire concept of Biblical Law is contemplative in the first place. Every part of it is opened to exploration. This is part of my argument that Hebrew language is indicative, not descriptive. The language and culture God designed to reveal Himself is fundamentally a language of signposts, not containers of truth. Truth cannot be packaged in language, but is a living entity of itself separate from the language. Thus, language seeks to encourage exploration of truth, to get to know truth as a Person. The only shame you have to worry about is the disapproval of your own Lord. What everyone else thinks is never more than something advisory.
The Hebrew linguistic and cultural packaging of revelation is part of the revelation itself. It sets the standard for how our minds are designed to operate. Getting your head on straight makes your head ready to hear from the convictions in your heart. The whole business of familiarity with Hebrew language and culture is not being a translator, but of getting the right mindset for obedience to God.
This then makes it easier for us to shift our conscious awareness into the heart, a higher level of awareness than being simply in our heads. This makes it easier to reason out and decide how to implement God’s moral character in daily living. This frees us to sense directly the moral fabric of Creation. We expand our conscious awareness into that higher level, but then bring it all back down where the mind can implement what the heart knows.
We want people to find the full blessings of divine heritage. Their freedom is our freedom. Creation cries out for all the world to join, but we already know by revelation that it will only ever touch a very few people at any given time. We need all we can get. So we put forth the message inherent in the Law of God in hopes that some few will hear. But a major element in our message is the full truth of what it demands. We want folks to count the costs. If that doesn’t scare them off, then we know the Lord is truly drawing them.
The Law is not so demanding in what it requires of us in terms of action, but that it demands so much in terms of being fully conscious of what’s involved. We don’t guide people by provoking emotions like shame, fear, etc. We guide by example and by explanation that puts the full moral awareness on their own hearts. They have to accept the responsibility for themselves; they have to do it out of love and desire. The Law of God is its own reward.
This is why we teach the Law.
