As individuals, we learn truths all the time. Think of the image of the Lord
standing at the door and knocking, letting us know that He is always there,
waiting and wanting to be there for us and to be in our lives. This knocking is
His truth in our lives. It is a constant invitation to good living, and without it,
without His truth, all hope of salvation and good living would be lost. And so,
His truth is everywhere.
The best place to find it, of course, is from the Lord Himself, in His
Word. But we can also learn by means of attending church, doctrinal classes,
conversations with priests and fellow believers – even modern philosophies
and yes, we even bump into the Lord’s truth in the electronic media. The Lord
is offering His truths through countless avenues, so that we can be inspired by
them and our hearts might be changed by Him.
Consider what is said in New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 131:
When someone knows the truths of faith and grasps them in his own manner, and
so comes to will and do them, then he develops a conscience.
These truths, these things which we learn from the Word, church and
others, enter into our understanding, and insofar as they are accepted to
some degree, they become a part of us and they help to form what is called a
conscience.
And what is a conscience? I think immediately of Jiminy Cricket, that little
voice saying that this thing is good and this thing is bad. Sometimes instead
of a thought it is a bodily feeling of repulsion – maybe it’s felt in the belly or in
the chest. If the thought or feeling is trying to promote good living, then it is
filled by truth and it is the conscience. In this story, we get to see conscience
in action.
It is useful to see how the conscience functions in the person. There is a
common misconception that we are all born with a conscience and that we
merely need to activate it, or find or uncover it. But we are actually born into
ignorance, and must grow into knowledges – to come into an understanding
of the world around us. The conscience that we get is concerned with those
knowledges and those truths.
So, here we have Balaam – who is motivated by honors and riches, who
is so blinded by that motivation that he does not see the angel on the road,
threatening to kill him. The angel is not Divine vengeance, but it is instead
an objective reality. It is a fatal truth that to live for this world alone is to live
for oneself and not for the Lord, and leads to destruction – spiritual death.
Fortunately, Balaam has some truth in his mind. He knows the Lord, consults
with Him nightly, talks to Him, and learns from Him. Balaam has truth in
his mind, even if his motivation is clouding his judgment. And so when his
conscience, the donkey, sees what is happening, she turns to the side.
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