God’s Interviewing Skills
I wrote this as a introduction to an interviewing article awhile back. It’s humorous and I thought it would be interesting reading for folks that read this blog. Please don’t think of this as blasphemous. It is certainly not my intention. It’s just another way of looking at the study of interviewing skills.
God’s Interviewing Skills
Prior to this discussion of interviewing by the police, a review of history is necessary. This review will show that prior to the organization of modern police departments in the United States, there was no effective interviewing by police. One reason for that was that prior to 1829, there were no organized police departments, anywhere in the world. Law enforcement prior to Sir Robert Peele’s organization of the London Police Department, in 1829 was relegated to whoever held the power of the country at the time. In short, the ruler of the day was the sole form of law enforcement prior to Peele’s police. In that scheme of law, the military of the ruler of the land was also the enforcer of the law of the land. The problem with that kind of law enforcement is that no interview is necessary, the violated is brought to the ruler: The ruler makes the decision of the moment, and the enforcement is carried out by the military.
As will be shown in the following chapters, the rules or laws were very restrictive, and also very detailed. The 10 Commandments were the very first known written laws. The Code of Hammurabi was possibly the next form of written law.
The Code of Christianity was a form of unwritten law on the treatment of people, though not adhered to by the Romans, rulers of that timeframe. But Christianity is important history as this began a way of looking at attackers differently, as well interviewing of anyone by a higher power prior to any action. This timeframe was also the time period of the most infamous interview of all time; this was the interview of Christ before crucifixion.
The point of these chapters of history is to show how far interviewing by police has come since the time of zero interviewing, to modern times. A mere 170 years has brought interviewing by uniform police in America to astounding heights and outstanding performance in technique. In this present timeframe in history, even with the weight of considerable precedent of the past 200 years of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, police in this country have more interviewing power than our soldiers fighting a war in Iraq.
Let’s proceed onto our history lesson to begin this research.
I. Who interviewed Cain?
Prior to getting to this very first actual known crime, murder,
Let’s return to the actual first disobedience which was when Eve, then Adam ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. This was a sin against God’s order though not a crime as nothing was actually gained from the deed. However, a bit later in the day, after the deed was done God was walking through the garden. As all good observers do, God noticed something different about the two. He noticed they had knitted fig leaves because after the eating, they noticed they were naked. God decided to do something about that. This observance is a trait of all quality interviewers; that they observe all, rather than simply see the world around.
So God noticed this change; that Adam and Eve were now dressed, so to speak, in a fig leaf covering. And God interviewed both of them. According to Genesis Chapter 3, God said, “[8] And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
[9] And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
[10] And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
[11] And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
[12] And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
[13] And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” (KJV, Genesis 3)
So God, after the interview, made an instant decision of punishment toward both Adam & Eve, and also the serpent that got them into this mess in the first place. And that was actually the first interview by a ruling person.
The next part of this chapter is Cain murdering his brother Abel. The first crime. Essentially the reason for the killing is because God accepted the offering of Abel, but not Cain. Cain was angry about this, and murdered Abel out of jealousy. Again, God knew something was amiss and interviewed Cain about the deed. According to Genesis chapter 4, God said to Cain, “[9] And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
[10] And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” (KJV-Gen.4). Now God, being the Supreme Being, already knew about Abel’s death at Cain’s hands. But, again like a good interviewer, God asked Cain questions to see if he would either admit the crime, or have something to say about it. As can be read, not only did Cain not admit the deed, but he lied about it completely! So God put Cain outside of his family entirely in another place where he would be exiled forever. Not the death penalty, but away from his mother and father forever. Surely a terrible punishment in a time of few people.
This is the mark of a quality interviewer seeking the truth. The interviewers either see a deed occur or investigate a deed. Sometimes action has to be immediately taken, sometimes not. Either way, interviews always take place to get what actually occurred in the target’s mind which precipitated the incident. This then gets passed on to the next higher authority and a proper decision on punishment, can be better meted out.
This quality is shown in God, the Supreme Ruler of Earth at the time. Frequently, in modern studies, the Old Testament is shown as the punitive part of the Bible. Shallowly speaking, it is. But a more thorough study of the Old Testament, and God’s actions find him to be a rather benevolent being who only punishes when it appears that nothing else will do to cure problems of sin.
God uses the men of the day to forward the message of God that people should be good. Then, if the messages are ignored, God does punish, sometimes the world, sometimes a city, sometimes simply a few. One example of this is the flood, as seen in Genesis ch 6, after a couple thousand years had passed, God said to Noah, “[13] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
[14] Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
[15] And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
[16] A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
[17] And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
[18] But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
[19] And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
[20] Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
[21] And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
[22] Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
________________________________________
Gen.7
[1] And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
[2] Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
[3] Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
[4] For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” (KJV-Gensis 6 & 7).
There is no indication prior to this dissertation to Noah that God had done any interviewing of any of the people on Earth that were aggravating him so much. Approximately 80 years elapsed between God’s original commands to Noah and when the Ark was completed and all the animals were gathered and entered into the Ark. There is no further mention of any talk, even to Noah. Noah gets everything together, and the Ark built, the world is destroyed, and only Noah and his immediate family, son’s and their families are left to begin anew.
The next instance of interviewing is in the destruction of the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God came to Abram, later known as Abraham, and told Abram that these two cities had surpassed what God thought was wickedness and God had decided to destroy both cities and kill everyone there. (KJV, Gen.19). However, Abram had a good friend in the city named Lot. Lot had his family in Sodom as well. Abram actually negotiated with God not to destroy the city of Sodom if Abram could find some good people in the city. The conversation between Abram and God was that God told Abram if he could find 50 good people in the city, he would not destroy it. Abram evidently knew he was going to lose this endeavor and negotiated with God not to destroy the city if Abram only found 10 good people. God agreed with that. Unfortunately for the cities, Abram could only find Lot and his wife and a couple others, so God destroyed the city and everyone in it save Lot and his immediate family. Even then, Lot’s wife looked back at the city when they were leaving and God turned her into a pillar of salt. (KJV, Gen.19 vs.26). Still, God did listen to Abraham prior to the destruction, then made his decision after Abraham attempted to find a mere 10 good people in the city but couldn’t.
There are many examples of God interviewing the family of Abraham following the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. These examples include God interviewing women as well who are members of Abraham’s family and descendants. (Gen. Ch.20-39). This is commented on because some would say that the Old Testament of the Bible is male only oriented. Not true. But, the Bible has to be read in order to know this.
The next major person used by God was Moses, who figures greatly in a lot of action, some miracles by God, and also by God through Moses. Some of this action was following interviews by God to Moses, some not. The story of Moses can be found in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus (meaning “departure” or “out-going”). (Wikipedia) Moses, the reader may remember, was placed in water while an infant by his biological mother and floated down to the Pharaoh’s daughter who was bathing in this same body of water at the time. The Pharaoh’s daughter took Moses in and raised him as virtually the Pharaoh’s own grandson.
However, Moses one day rescues a Hebrew slave from a beating and in doing so, kills his Egyptian master. Moses has to flee from the Pharaoh for his own safety and does so, to Midian where he marries one of Jethro’s daughters while he hides out from the Pharaoh, in Jethro’s home. Jethro being a priest in the area.
In Exodus 3, God burns a bush that isn’t consumed by the fire while Moses is in the neighborhood tending sheep. Moses stops to look and God interviews Moses, basically for the job of removing the Israelites from slavery to the Pharaoh. Now Moses is a natural for this job because being raised in the Pharaoh’s home, Moses knows the in’s and out’s of both the royalty, as well as the slaves in Egypt. No one else has this knowledge of both royalty and slaves, so no one else could have done the job. One could say this is simply being in the right place at the right time coincidence. One could also debate that Moses was born, and bred for the job. This would make an interesting argument in either case.
There is an interesting interview between Moses to God. Moses actually interviews God when God wants him to go to the Israelites to free them. Moses is quite worried that no one will believe him to be a messenger from God and so wants to know how he is going to prove he really is this messenger and deliverer. After a lengthy interview, God endows Moses with some ability to perform miracles. God turns Moses shepherd’s rod into a serpent and back to a rod again in Exodus ch,4 vs 2-4. A verse later, God has Moses put his hand inside his clothes to his chest and turns his hand into an obvious leprosy, disease covered hand. The next verse, God heals this same hand. Another verse later, God tells Moses when he arrives and Israelites still don’t believe, Moses should remove water from the Nile and pour it on the ground and the water will turn to blood. God told Moses that should do the job on the disbelieving issues with the Israelites.
Moses did that and the Israelites believed, but when Moses went and spoke to the Pharaoh about letting the Israelites go, the Pharaoh resisted and set about making things more difficult for the Israelites. Moses returned to God and God advised Moses to warn the Pharaoh that if he did not allow the Israelites to leave Egypt, God would bring the 7 plagues to Egypt. Moses returned to the Pharaoh and told him this story. The Pharaoh disbelieved and the plagues came to Egypt.
Still, the Pharaoh resisted the release of the Israelites. So God advised Moses to tell the Israelites to kill a lamb and spread the lamb’s blood on the front door stoop. Then God, in a night of terrible destruction “passed-over” the protected doors of the Israelites but killed every other first born son of every Egyptian parent, including the Pharaoh’s first born son. ( [7] And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it….it is the LORD’s Passover.
[12] For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
[13] And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
[14] And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.) (Exodus 12: vs 7-14). To present, Passover is a Jewish holiday.
If the reader read the book of Exodus, nowhere in the book is there an interview by God of the Pharaoh personally. Nowhere, does God come to the Pharaoh and make these demands face-to-face. No, God uses Moses to act as go-between to attempt to get the Pharaoh to simply let the Israelites leave Egypt without further ado. The Pharaoh is apparently not one to believe that which he cannot see personally and disbelieves Moses. But, following the Passover, the Pharaoh is overcome with grief and allows the Israelites to leave Egypt. This technique used by God in interviewing Moses, shows yet another technique used by quality interviewers; that of getting other people to do the footwork, then making a decision in the background on the outcome when the REAL problem does not do the right thing. This is demonstrated by the Pharaoh in not doing the right thing which results in maximum destruction to Egypt’s sons by God’s hand. This is a technique used by police in interviews to set up sting operations. The police talk to all the participants except the suspect and set up an available decoy. The suspect does what is expected of him/her and attacks the decoy, and then is arrested. God is just a bit more effective, and efficient than humans are about this technique.
Last, in one more spectacular act, God annihilates the Pharaoh and his army while protecting the Israelites after they crossed the Red Sea. Exodus ch.14 says that God told Moses the following instructions: (19] And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
[20] And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.
[21] And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
[22] And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
[23] And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
[24] And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,
[25] And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
[26] And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
[27] And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
[28] And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.
[29] But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
[30] Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.)
II. The First Law – The 10 Commandments.
[3] Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
[4] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
[7] Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
[8] Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
[12] Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
[13] Thou shalt not kill.
[14] Thou shalt not commit adultery.
[15] Thou shalt not steal.
[16] Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
[17] Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
(Exodus 20, vs 3-17)
It is interesting to note that as far as crime goes, which is essentially the subject matter of this research, that the Commandments only address a few crimes. Simply put, only cursing, killing, adultery, and stealing are commented on in the 10 Commandments. The rest are attitudes which, taken in a literal religious way, might tend to lead one into the commission of the crimes forbidden. For example, adultery could lead to murder, as could coveting another’s possessions. Many homicides have been committed over jealousy.
The 10 Commandments came from God, using Moses yet again as his emissary of good deeds. God, in hearing the whining of the Israelites, and seeing them begin to worship other images than God, used Moses once more to try and convince the Israelites to do the right thing by giving them a set of rules to follow. Moses went to Mt. Sinai at God’s request and God gave Moses the tablets where the 10 Commandments were written.
The 10 Commandments were the first known to be documented written rules for people to follow. They were written for the Israelites to follow, but in generations of other races, and religions, countless others have followed the rules of the 10 Commandments for ages as simply easy rules to follow in life.
Notice the detail in the rules when reading them. Notice also, the absolute of the rules. It is not in the author to attempt analyze God’s intent. However, God, as a Supreme Being, must have realized that the Israelites were not the brightest light bulb in the package, so to speak. That is an easy analogy. If they had been, ANY of the miracles used by God to free them, Especially the Passover and the dividing of the Red Sea miracles, would’ve been enough to assure even a VERY stupid person that God is truly all powerful to make people do anything his Being thought best! But again, God is being benevolent in using Moses to bring rules to the Israelites, rather than simply killing a bunch and telling them what to do. Perhaps God’s thinking was that he brought them from slavery and does the killing absolutes would be simply another form of slavery.
The absolute of the rules leaves no analogy. These rules are meant to be certain things that are simply not done so as to further the good lives of the people adhering to these rules. But still, in not being an angry God and arbitrarily killing off a few Israelites, God is allowing them to make their own decisions. This was the original intent of God in the creation of humans; that they rule the Earth and have their own will power. [26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1, vs 26). “[22] And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:” (Gen3, vs22).
The 10 Commandments do not relate to interviewing except in a backwards manner. Moses was interviewed by God and then given the Commandments. However, due to the absolute manner of the Commandments themselves, considerable freedom could be taken by corrupt dictatorial rulers as to punishment of the violators, or alleged violators of the Commandments. Throughout history, both ancient, and modern, those who have viewed the Commandments as their only value system have managed to cause the killing of millions through their twisted use of the Commandments. According to those, no interviewing need be done; a simple accusation of a violation is all that is necessary. Frequently, torture was used to extract a confession through the pain of the torture, then a lengthy execution process was done to assure all that the right thing was done.
Citation Guide
Bandstra, B. 1999. Wadsworth Publishing Company. Retrieved 2/19/06.
http://www.hope.edu/bandstra/RTOT/CH1/CH1_1A2B.HTM
King James Version of The Bible. 1999 reprint. University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative. Retrieved 2/19/06.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/kjv/browse.html
Wikipedia Foundation. 2003. Retrieved 2/10/06.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus
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