Proverbs 1:8-9 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

I am looking at the chains about the neck. Do you look at the grace on your head as being instructions of the father? Do you look at the law of the mother as being the chains about the neck? It is easy to see that isn’t it?

The law can be a decorative chain or it can be a prisoner’s chain. Wear it like a Pharisees and it is ceremonial attire. Wear it like a condemned prisoner and it is a heavy burden. Which way do you see the law?

Did we so easily forget that the man and the woman, father and mother are one flesh and speak in unity? Instruction and law are not two separate issues. Neither is ornament of grace and the adornment upon you neck.

Law without grace is punishment.

Law with grace is corrective.

Law without grace creates resentment.

Law with grace restores relationship.

Matthew 23:13, 23 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Being set free did you also discard your adornment of grace?

Exodus 4:8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

The onus is on us to deliver the word of reconciliation, we cannot make them accept it. It is our hearts that they will believe our witness, our words, but to hearken is not within our ability to exact.

Life will happen and events will draw His chosen into the fold. What they do not understand in passing up our initial invitation is all the pain of life that will occur between the offer and the acceptance. That pain will wear on their conscience long after their salvation is secured. The fact of those pains do not just disappear because we are saved.

Forgiven yet not forgotten, that pain is now a part of my witness of the old man who needed to come to salvation. I did and it is a warning worth heeding, but will they?

I see this opening verse in my own story, my witness. I heard the offer and I ignored it. I saw the first sign and I did not understand it, because I did not heed the invitation. Then life and pain resulted in a very painful confession of condition. Yes I responded to that latter sign and I am saved but the pain was not mine alone, I inflicted pain of the innocent lives of people who will no longer listen to me, my witness, nor my ministry of reconciliation. That is harm I cannot undo. Only God can undo those moments.

Will you heed this warning and avoid the pain that sin inflicts? It will not only ease your conscience, it will be a blessing to all you avoid wounding.