Category Devotionals

The Destiny of the Wealth of Nations

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Here in the United States, the year 1776 is celebrated as the political beginning of the nation, because the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4 of that year.  Also in 1776, The Wealth of Nations by economist and philosopher Adam Smith was published and is foundational to our nation’s economy.  Its full title of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations shows its purpose was to explore what makes some nations more well-off than others, with Smith concluding that capitalism, especially the elements of free trade and competition, was the best system.  I won’t argue here for capitalism or about where wealth comes from, but about where wealth is destined to end up.

Interestingly, the phrase “wealth of the nations” appears in the Bible 3 times, all in Isaiah 60 and 61, and the phrase “wealth of all the surrounding nations” appears once, in Zechariah 14.[1]  All of these references describe the future reign of the Messiah when all nations and peoples will acknowledge Him as Lord and dedicate their wealth in tribute to Him.

Isaiah 60:4-5 is the first mention of the phrase, and it says:

“Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
            they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
            and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
            your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
            the wealth of the nations shall come to you.”

The next few verses read like an inventory of goods (camels, gold, flocks, ships, lumber) and places (Midian, Sheba, Kedar, Tarshish, Lebanon), showing that no thing and no place is excluded from the tribute to God.  Wealth from every source belongs to Him.

In the same chapter, verse 11 declares about the eternal city of God:

“Your gates shall be open continually;
            day and night they shall not be shut,
that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations,
            with their kings led in procession.”

When we inquire into future of wealth, rather than its past and its sources, we find that the wealth of the nations is all His.  We own nothing.  We are only stewards and caretakers, regardless of what economic system we live in or believe in.

“The earth is the LORD’S and the fullness thereof,
                        the world and those who dwell therein” – Psalm 24:1

Soli Deo Gloria

[1] It may be where Smith got his title idea, or it may just be coincidence.

Don’t Leave Love Letters Unopened

Todd R 3 Comments
Photo by John Jennings on Unsplash

An old friend used to encourage me to read the Bible every day, and his reasoning was: “The Bible is 66 love letters from God.  If you got a love letter from any other person, would you put off reading it?”  It took many years before I really took this to heart, but I always remembered it. 

Dear fellow travelers,

I pass along that story, but I’ll also add more to it.  The best times are not when we just read these letters.  Devotions aren’t just lessons, memorization exercises, a disciplinary action, or a time to pay your dues so you can get on with your day.  They are time spent with Someone who loves you more than anything, and who wants you to love and trust Him more than anything.  Treat Him as you would treat an honored guest, because He is really there with you.

Think of it this way – How often do you get to spend time with someone who fulfills 1 Cor 13:4-7 perfectly?

Someone who is patient and kind; who does not envy or boast; is not arrogant or rude. Who does not insist on His own way; is not irritable or resentful; does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [1]

Nobody else we see today will be nearly as good to us.

We all miss days, even weeks or longer, but He is patient and kind.  We can try again tomorrow or later today, and He will be there.

[1] This paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 was suggested in a devotional I read last year: “August 30.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).  It was also the basis of a prior post, Jesus is Patient and Kind Even When I am Not

He Humbles and Exalts Nations

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In a parable about humility, Jesus said in Luke 14:11: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  While the parable is about individual people, elsewhere God also makes clear that he can humble or exalt entire nations.  While Luke 14:11 may contradict much of what we see in our world today, at the final judgment the truth of the verse will be made manifest, and God promises it will be so.

As an example, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah spoke of God’s power over the nations.  Around 605 B.C., Babylon invaded Judah and carried them into captivity, and about 70 years later, Judah was allowed to return home by Cyrus the Mede, who had defeated Babylon.  Over a century before Babylon’s invasion, Isaiah prophesied their entire rise and fall around 700 B.C., when Babylon was not yet even a world power.  Isaiah described the final destinies of both Babylon and of God’s people in startling images.

As recorded in Isaiah 47:1-3, God’s vengeance on Babylon was described, probably before they even considered capturing Jerusalem:

“Come down and sit in the dust,
            O virgin daughter of Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne,
            O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
            tender and delicate.
Take the millstones and grind flour,
            put off your veil,
strip off your robe, uncover your legs,
            pass through the rivers.
Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
            and your disgrace shall be seen.
I will take vengeance,
            and I will spare no one.
Our Redeemer—the LORD of hosts is his name—
            is the Holy One of Israel.”

This is contrasted to the future of God’s people in Isaiah 52:1-2:

“Awake, awake,
            put on your strength, O Zion;
put on your beautiful garments,
            O Jerusalem, the holy city;
for there shall no more come into you
            the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake yourself from the dust and arise;
            be seated, O Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck,
            O captive daughter of Zion.”

Did you notice the parallels?  In Isaiah 47, Babylon is disgraced, cast down from the throne and made to do menial labor.  Babylon is stripped of their beautiful clothes and publicly shamed, sitting in the dust.

Contrast to Isaiah 52, which describes the daughter of Zion as rising up from the dust of disgrace under Babylon, from whom she has been freed.  She dwells in peace, awakening and dressing herself in beautiful clothes.  What a beautiful future!

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

However, note that God removes Babylon’s temporary throne but does not put His people on a throne.  That honor belongs only to Him, and Babylon’s presumption in taking that place is the reason they need to be humbled.  By humbling themselves before God’s throne, His people follow the example Jesus gave at the wedding feast in verse 10 of the Luke 14 parable: “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.”  God will honor the humble.

By demonstrating power over entire nations in history, He has proven He has power over nations now and in the future.  And if He has power over nations, He has power over whatever frustrations we have with the state of the world.  He alone is on His throne.

So, if you are frustrated with the powerful and influential who puff themselves up in defiance of God, or if you wonder whether being humble is really a better alternative, remember:

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

For people as well as nations.

On Spiritual Mood Swings

Todd R 3 Comments
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Life is often a battle with inconsistency.  We go from feeling good about our situations and God’s favor, to feeling like we are in a spiritual desert, and back again like a pendulum.  Knowing this, God provides verses like Psalm 126:4-6, which says:

“Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
            like streams in the Negeb!
Those who sow in tears
            shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
            bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
            bringing his sheaves with him.”

The metaphor is a comparison to the south of Israel, which has a very dry climate, yet experiences flooding in a rainstorm.  The Negeb also is mentioned in the story of Caleb and his daughter Achsah.  Her inherited land was in the infertile Negeb, and she asks him also for springs of water, which he gives her.[1]

Like Achsah’s father Caleb, our Father God also provides for us in our seasons of trouble.  Here, the Psalmist compares tears to seeds, reminding us that in the dry times as well as the times of overflowing blessing, God is with us, using those circumstances.  Our current loss is future gain, and our current time of suffering is bound and measured by God’s will, like the Babylonian exile was measured at 70 years[2] and the year of Jubilee came after every 49 years[3].  After our time, we will enter His rest and rejoice eternally.

In this life we may experience spiritual and emotional extremes, like drought and flood in the desert.  Don’t overreact to the pendulum swing but count your tears as seeds.  Pray that He will restore your fortunes and thank Him that our seasons are in His hands.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” – Matthew 5:4

[1] Joshua 15:18-19
[2] Daniel 9:2, 9:24
[3] Leviticus 25:8

A Constant Need for Righteousness

Todd R Leave a comment

Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount begins with a series of Beatitudes, a series of statements that begin with “Blessed are…”  These may be seen as a random collection of sayings, but I think they are in an intentional sequence.  Not a sequence where we need to master the first Beatitude before learning the second, but like gears in a machine that all need to work together for the machine to function, and weakness in one place affects the entire machine.  Jesus was explaining specific parts of becoming more like Him.

The first three Beatitudes tell us that we are blessed if we are “poor in spirit” because we know to depend on God to know right and wrong, that we are blessed for being “those who mourn” because we feel the pain caused by sin in the world (both our own sin, and sin collectively), and know God will comfort us, and that we are blessed for being “meek”[1] when we submit willingly to God’s direction, knowing it is better than following our own spirit and better than adding to the negative impact of sin on this world.

Then we get to the fourth Beatitude in Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  How does this follow from the first three?  The idea of “hunger and thirst” provides the answer.

No matter how much we eat or drink, hunger and thirst return after time.  Therefore, no amount is ever enough, and true righteousness is like that.  After one, or even several, instances of meekness, or submission to Christ’s righteousness, we can’t stop and then go about our own way.  It isn’t enough to satisfy God’s righteousness standard.  We need to have an ongoing appetite for it that is never fully satisfied.  It needs to be part of our very nature to desire ongoing spiritual nourishment from following Christ.  If we “taste and see that the LORD is good”[2] we should want more!

We naturally know that if we do not eat, our bodies decay – but first we feel hunger and thirst – driving us to eat and drink.  But it is less obvious that if we do not come to God regularly for sustenance, our souls decay.  If we do not indulge our appetite for righteousness, we revert to thinking our spirit is strong, that sin has no negative consequences, and that God’s authority can be disregarded.  We will not find the kingdom of God, be comforted, or inherit the earth, as the first three Beatitudes promise.  However, every time we come to God we are reminded of the splendor of His kingdom, the comfort of His salvation, and the inheritance we have in Paradise, which surpasses anything this world has to offer.  Walking with the Spirit is like food and water to our soul, bringing us “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”[3]

The sons of Korah wrote at the beginning of Psalm 42:

“As a deer pants for flowing streams,
            so pants my soul for you, O God.”

Yearning like this for righteousness does not come naturally to any of us, but God promises if we follow our spiritual appetite, we learn that:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

[1] Matthew 5:3-5
[2] Psalm 34:8
[3] From Galatians 5:22-23