The economic woes of our nation and our world, for that matter, are all tied up in the reality of sin. Wealth is a great source of power and the arrogance that comes with that power leads to some very foolish action. That power is often used to expand wealth and with that to expand power and all of that for personal ends. The failure here is to understand that God gives wealth as a stewardship and with that stewardship comes responsibility. Here is how Solomon speaks of the misuse of this wealth and power:
Ecclesiastes 5:8
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
Solomon’s observation is that this stewardship will be often and greatly abused. Certainly we see that in our nation today as the wealthy and the powerful are using our present financial crisis to further their foolish and destructive agendas. This whole thing reminds me of playing Monopoly as a kid. The wealthy are attempting to keep the poor sufficiently “moneyed” so that they (the wealthy) can continue their acquisition of everything on the board. In the game of Monopoly I guess that’s ok but in life the reality is that those who perpetrate this will come into the ultimate and very unhappy judgment of God. I fear that in saying this I will sound like a Berkley socialist, but the fact is that capitalism will always self-destruct without the underpinnings of a sound Christian morality.
And that leads me to this, what we need in America is revival not a stimulus package. It is likely that Christianity has never been more popular than it now is while at the same time it has never been more impotent. This carnal Christianity we see today reminds me of “Cracker Jacks”, neither cracker nor jack!
