On economic recovery - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Ruth 1:6,

"When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his
people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law
prepared to return home from there."

Naomi and her family lived during the time of the judges. We read of
that time in Israel's history in the seventh book of the Old
Testament, aptly named "The Book of Judges." In that book we read of a
number of famines, and the story of Naomi takes place during such an
event. The book of Ruth begins with the observation, "In the days when
the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from
Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live
for a while in the country of Moab." Ruth 1:1.

These famines were caused by the Lord to bring Israel back from their
wandering from him. They chased after the idols of their neighbors.
Israel would stray, God would bring pain upon them through famine,
enemy occupation, and so forth. He did this to bring Israel to her
knees, confess their great need of him and turn back to him.
Unfortunately, Israel would stray again once the nation experienced
the Lord's blessings of peace and affluence following an earlier
national repentance.

I note in the above verse, that it states it was the Lord who had come
to the aid of his people. Israel found relief in the Lord once again
as he ended the present famine. It wasn't Keynesian economics, it
wasn't Laffer's curve, it wasn't trickle down. It was the Lord.

Israel was and is God's chosen people, a chosen nation, chosen for his
purposes on planet earth. The reason this people was chosen was
because of Abraham's faith. As God observed Abraham and his faith, he
told him he would make a special people of him and we see that he has
carried out his agenda to redeem mankind through this nation.
Consequently, the history of the nation of Israel is important to us
all. God's involvement and interaction with the people of Israel is
instructive for us. Paul's observation on this is found in 1
Corinthians 10:11, "These things happened to them as examples and were
written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages
has come."

The very short observation of Judges, is that if a nation wants to
experience recovery - God's blessings, it will need to repent of its
evil and turn to the Lord. Not a popular thought today. It is my
observation that many people today would rather cling to their sin
rather than turn to God, rather than to embrace Jesus Christ in faith.
Unfortunately for us, it is these very people that are the loudest
among us as a nation. A noisy throng that ridicules anyone who might
suggest or offer that we as a nation ought to turn to the Lord. Anyone
who dares to take such a stand in our pop culture is dismissed as an
odd-ball.

As in Israel's day, when the judges ruled, the same holds true today.
Any people who would wish for the peace and prosperity God provides,
will have to turn to him, embrace him, acknowledge him. It will only
be when a people rise up in the face of the pop culture's tiny little
fist waving and mocking will they have any hope of national blessing
that only the Lord can provide.

It is in the Lord's hands that any nation experiences his judgment or
his blessings. Listen to what the Lord says, "If at any time I
announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and
destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I
will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if
at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up
and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me,
then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." Jeremiah
18:7-10. A word to the wise.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

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Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com