On March 14, 2007, Angel Linares was stabbed to death (allegedly) by Ricardo Juarez during a gang brawl in downtown Santa Barbara. Linares was 15 years old; Juarez is 14. The prosecutor has filed to try Juarez as an adult. As of today, Juarez’s fate is still undecided.
Events such as this murder have an uncanny ability to demonstrate the soundness of biblical teaching. In Proverbs 1:8-19, a concerned father offers his son a warning against joining a gang.
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
They will be a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.
The Book of Proverbs knows something about parents that children often forget. Parents have seen more of life than their children have. If they’ve listened carefully and looked closely, they’ve learned how the world works. They’ve gained wisdom, the skill of living well. That’s why children (especially young children) should listen to their parents. Doing so will give them a head start on life’s joys, and a detour around life’s heartaches.
One of the things parents know is that children are susceptible to peer pressure. Consequently, children need to be instructed to steer clear of people who are up to no good.
My son, if sinners entice you,
do not give in to them.
If they say, “Come along with us;
let’s lie in wait for someone’s blood,
let’s waylay some harmless soul;
let’s swallow them alive, like the grave,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
we will get all sorts of valuable things
and fill our houses with plunder;
throw in your lot with us,
and we will share a common purse” —
There are two kinds of temptations at work here. The first is the obvious kind: the temptation to kill and steal. The second is less obvious, but no less insidious: the temptation to go along with the crowd. “Come along with us” and “throw in your lot with us” are music to a teenager’s ears. Few can resist the seduction of that siren song, let’s. One wonders how many sins children commit not because they want to do wrong, but because they don’t want to be left out.
Parents have learned what children have not. Bad things happen to those who associate with bad people:
my son, do not go along with them,
do not set foot on their paths;
for their feet rush into sin,
they are swift to shed blood.
How useless to spread a net
in full view of all the birds!
These men lie in wait for their own blood;
they waylay only themselves!
Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain;
it takes away the lives of those who get it.
“They waylay only themselves.” If Ricardo Juarez is convicted of murdering Angel Linares, he will spend a good junk of his life in jail. I doubt he thought of that when he acted. Make sure your children do. And do so yourself.
GeorgePWood.com 