In the book of Leviticus, God calls on the Israelites to accept thoroughly, and follow willingly, the Divine blueprint for living given to Moses on Mt. Sinai (26:3 – 27:34). The Almighty commands the nation of Israel to embrace this new way of life so that they may glorify Him and testify to His greatness to all the people of the world.

At this point in their history, the Israelites had only recently been liberated after hundreds of years of enslavement to Pharaohs and paganism—a time during which Idolatry, child sacrifice, sexuality without boundaries, and wanton murder had become normalized. God, knowing they are unpracticed and skeptical, encourages them by setting forth the earthly rewards they will receive if they choose a holy way of life: abundant harvests, peace, fertility and healthy children, successful warfare, happiness, and the inner peace and satisfaction in life that come from unconditional obedience to God’s will. Life will be wonderful.

God also spells out the dire consequences of rejecting His guidelines and pursuing their old ways of being: famine, sickness, barrenness, invasion, and dispersion into foreign lands where they will be oppressed by tyrannical rulers, persecuted, and killed. Life will be awful.

These natural vectors of positive and negative energy represent Divine spiritual laws given to the Jews at Mt. Sinai. And because God’s covenant with us remains constant, vital, and enduring, we alone are responsible for their force and direction. This is the secret of life in plain sight, and it applies to the whole human family.

Holiness as moral objectivity in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) was to be humanity’s future and legacy. God’s guarantees for peace, prosperity, and security serve as encouraging evidence to anyone or any nation looking for relief from self-imposed existential agony. These first ten guidelines include all the ways for achieving life-affirming personal, business, and national outcomes.

The books of the Torah from Exodus to Malachi chronicle cycles of holiness and wickedness. They demonstrate an obvious alignment with the spiritual axiom noted above. When citizens and kings choose holiness, nations have peace and prosperity. When they choose wickedness, invasion and the horrors of war result.

Since the biblical period, humanity in general has fallen deeper into evil and chaos. Our current global experience is in some ways the worst it has ever been. Of the many reasons for this tragedy, two stand out: Human nature naturally resists holiness; and a human mind devoid of a holy moral conscience chooses evil unconsciously.

These unfortunate factors explain why despite demonstrative correlations between holiness and human flourishing, and wickedness and human suffering, wickedness all too often wins the day. The best reason for anyone or any nation—including those who reject the bible—to live an objectively moral and holy life is so we don’t end up where we are now.

We are once again experiencing horrific chaos and human suffering as a result of spiritual forces that go unidentified and unaddressed by secular policy makers and confused citizens. In America and around the globe, faux religious movements without moral foundations encourage unbounded sexual activity;  legal abortion in the millions normalizes child sacrifice, and growing acceptance of “medical aid in dying” threatens the vulnerable sick and elderly.  These unholy practices  invite ever intensifying problems that call for action.

The lives lost, the immense tax burden incurred, the corruption and gaslighting and political maneuvering that all too often characterize changes in public policy, drain our individual and national resources. We get temporary improvements at best and, at worst, really bad outcomes.

A secular view that presupposes human conditions can be changed to improve outcomes can generate much human activity, and, depending on what changes are made, bring about either temporary improvement or disaster. However, we know from the biblical record that peace and human flourishing come from restoring a moral contract with the Almighty, that is, changing wickedness to holiness and then forming policy on that foundation. Without this clear understanding, and despite the best efforts of intelligent and caring stakeholders, humanity falls deeper into desperation.

Human flourishing requires that individuals and nations effectuate a return to holiness before they create and implement policy changes. God allows us to create a living hell so that we eventually lose faith in our limited human understanding and abilities. We then acknowledge our need for Him, align our will with His, and look to Him for help, favor, rescue and salvation. Hope for humanity endures because God promises to redeem us no matter our failings or mistakes—if and when our repentance is absolute, intentional, and serious. We can believe this because we know that God exists and that He loves us enough to save us from ourselves. His Presence reveals itself with each miracle of life, healing, and renewal—gifts from which there is no human agent.