There's a lot of blame to go around about our poor economy.
There is a lot of concern about the economy. Right now the focal point is the thousands of people occupying Wall Street. Before that, it was the thousands of Tea Party rallies springing up all over the country. There is tremendous anger. Everyone's frustration and anxiety is boiling over. Home prices are dropping sharply. Unemployment remains high. State and Federal deficits are soaring. Economies around the world, like Greece's, are collapsing. Doomsayers are out there predicting the worst. It's a lot to sort through!
Have you noticed that there is also an abundance of blame to go around? It's the Republicans. It's the Democrats. It's Bush's fault. No, it's Obama's fault. It's big government. No, it's evil corporations and banks. It's the influx of illegal immigrants. No, it's the unions driving manufacturing jobs overseas. It's the corrupt politicians. No, no, it's the corruption on Wall Street. No, it's those Chinese who are manipulating their currency. No, it's those Arabs driving up the cost of oil, that's what's killing us. It's the rich not paying their fair share. It's all the entitlements, causing us to be overextended. It's healthcare. It's the insurance companies. It's our failing education system-- we just aren't competitive anymore. It's all the wars. It's the natural disasters. It's global warming. It's environmental sins.
Everyone has an opinion about the economy. But have you noticed? No one is taking responsibility for the economy! The problem was caused by someone "out there", and therefore the solution also lies out there, external to any of us. We're the victims! We're powerless.
Why do we blame others for the state of the economy?
It's a funny thing that whenever there is a crisis we tend to look out the window to apportion blame on others, while refusing to look in the mirror at ourselves. Perhaps that's human nature. We also tend to look for simple, technical answers.
There were many times in the Old Testament when the nation of Israel found itself in economic ruin far beyond anything we'll ever experience. One such occasion is chronicled in the Old Testament book of
Malachi.
Malachi is an easy book to find because it's the very last book of the Old Testament.
The book of
Malachi begins with the Lord making a startling declaration.
Malachi 1:2-3 (NIV) says,
" 'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' the LORD says. 'Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."
These verses are declaring God's loving favor, bestowed upon Jacob, from whom the Israelite nation descended. But notice that these verses are declaring God's hatred toward Esau, from whom the Edomite nation descended.
You are probably not comfortable hearing these words. They are spoken without much explanation. Why did God love one brother, but not the other? Why did God love one nation, but hate the other? Does God hate? Did God always hate the Edomites? Did Esau, did the Edomites, at some point induce God's wrath? There is a whole history behind this passage that goes all the way back to Genesis 27.
If we don't possess the Lord's favor, our most valiant efforts will fail.
Here is author's point.
Malachi 1:4-5 (NIV) says,
"Edom may say, 'Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.' But this is what the Lord Almighty says, 'They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. You will see it with your own eyes and say, 'Great is the Lord'-- even beyond the borders of Israel!' "
It doesn't matter how hard we work to create businesses, buildings, or jobs. If we don't possess the Lord's favor, our most valiant efforts will ultimately be frustrated. Any rescue from financial ruin necessarily begins in our relationship with God.
The very next thing God says to the nation of Israel is in Malachi 1:6 (NIV). " 'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?' says the Lord Almighty. 'It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.' "
Have we relegated God to a position of inferiority in our lives?
The first question we ought to be asking ourselves in the midst of economic calamity is what our attitude is toward God. Is he Father? Is he our master? Is he the Lord almighty? Or have we relegated God to a position of inferiority in our lives? Has God become altogether worthless, and undeserving of our respect?
In
Malachi 1:8 (NIV) God faults the Israelites for placing defiled food on his altar.
" 'When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?' Says the Lord Almighty."
In Malachi 1:13 (NIV) God calls them out. The nation of Israel saw it as a burden to honor God! That same spiritual attitude exists today. "Give God my best? Are you insane? Honor God with my firstfruits, with a tithe?"
The Israelites had turned away from their teaching.
There is more. In Malachi 2 God confronts them for abandoning the way of Levi. Malachi 2:6 (NIV) says of Levi, "True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin." But look what the Israelites were doing! Malachi 2:8-9 (NIV) says, " 'But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi', says the Lord Almighty. 'So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.' "
Could it be that our personal financial ruin isn't so much an economic problem as it is a moral problem? Do you think God is going to pour out his blessing on an attitude that dishonors God? Is God going to bless someone who sees sacrifice to God as burdensome? Do you think God is going to pour out his blessing when you walk a path opposite the one he has shown you? Israel was loved by God. They were the chosen nation. But guess what God says to them? In Malachi 2:2 (NIV) he says, "If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name,' says the LORD Almighty, 'I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me.' "
I have to ask you. Do we have an economic problem or do we have a worship problem? Do we have an attitude problem? God's blessings aren't unconditional.
God correlates economic calamity with broken marriage covenants.
I wish there wasn't more to be said in
Malachi, but there is. You have to understand that God is impartial. He speaks the total truth about the economic calamity. I am praying that you will not harden your hearts to what God says next. He correlates this personal and economic calamity with their having broken their marriage covenants.
Malachi 2:10-11 (NIV) says,
"Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another? Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughters of a foreign god."
Malachi 2:13-16 (NIV) says,
" 'Another thing you do: You flood the Lord's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, 'Why?' It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. 'I hate divorce,' says the Lord God of Israel, 'and I hate man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment', says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith."
God doesn't bless godless marriages. God doesn't bless adulterous marriages. God doesn't bless sexual immorality. God doesn't bless fornication, trial marriages, living together in sin, or cohabitation. God doesn't bless relationships filled with divorce and domestic violence. Now don't misunderstand. God can redeem the adulterer God can redeem the divorcer. God can redeem a violent spouse. God can redeem the fornicator and the sexually immoral.
God always intends to rescue us, not destroy us.
But here is the issue.
Malachi 3:7 (NIV) says,
" 'Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty." Friends, that is a promise of rescue, not a threat of destruction.
In
Malachi 3:5 God even asks the Israelites not to fear him, though he comes in judgment. Why? Because God's intent is always redemptive. It's to love, not to hate!
I bought this book a few weeks ago called, Politics According to the Bible. It's written by Wayne Grudem, a highly respected theologian. He has a whole chapter on the politics of marriage, and why governments should honor marriage. Here are a few things he highlights in his book.
Children who live with their own two married parents are much more likely to enjoy a better economic standard in their adult lives. They are much less likely to end up in poverty, less likely to commit crimes, and less likely to engage in alcohol or substance abuse.
Children who live with their own two married parents have significantly higher educational achievement, physical health, and emotional health.
Let me pause here. Think what monetary fortune is destroyed every day by drug use, alcoholism, costs of a criminal defense lawyers, counseling for emotional trauma, family trauma, and child support. Consider just healthcare costs alone for physical illnesses related to stress, violence, addiction, and abuse.
The strongest correlation exists between economic ruin and the breakdown of the institution of marriage. The institution of marriage contributes more to the economic prosperity of a nation than does any other institution. How much of your ruin is because of failed, Christ-less relationships? How much blessing is attributed to godliness?
Marriage leads to a higher economic standard and diminished likelihood of ending up in poverty for both men and women.
Marriage provides women with protection against domestic violence and abandonment far better than any other human relationship or institution.
Marriage is the basic building block of any stable society, and it is essential to the continuation of a healthy, stable society.
Okay! You get the point. We need to honor the institution of marriage. We need to honor the way of God. We cannot go back and change the past. But going forward, we can honor God. We can commit our ways to him. Our hope of economic recovery doesn't rest in Washington. It begins with repentance.
When we turn back to God, we must begin by committing our finances to God's work.
Malachi 3:6-18 (NIV) explains that to turn back to God, we must first begin with our finances.
" 'I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,' says the LORD Almighty. 'But you ask, 'How are we to return?' Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse- the whole nation of you- because you are robbing me.' "
" 'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this', says the LORD Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,' says the LORD Almighty. 'Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,' says the LORD Almighty."
" ''You have said harsh things against me,' says the LORD. 'Yet you ask, 'What have we said against you?' You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty.' But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.' "
"Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. 'They will be mine,' says the LORD Almighty, 'in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.' "