In Reply to: Re: Prophesies of Doom: Consider the Poor posted by Mr. Don on August 31, 2005 at 17:49:24:
Ok, Bro. I'll take a shot at a Bible study & personal reflection on this.
Jer. 22:13-17 (Prophesy against Jehoiakim, the despot)--Doom for the man who founds his palance on anything but integrity, his upstairs rooms on anything but honesty, who makes his fellow man work for nothing, without paying him his wages, who says, 'I will build myself an imposing palace with spacious rooms upstairs...Your father ate and drank, like you, but he practiced honesty and integrity, so all went well for him. He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? --it is Yahweh who speaks. You, on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interest, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.
Commentary on main idea: It's OK to be rich and powerful if you consider the needs of the poor and manage your estates with honesty and integrity, but there is a price to be paid for greed, the shedding of innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.
I concede that abortion involves the shedding innocent blood. Can you concede that the killing of thousands of Iraqi children by bombings during the Clinton AND Bush administrations also constitute the shedding of innocent blood? I'm not arguing whether the bloodshed is justifiable. There are as many justifications for abortion as there are for warfare. I am simply observing that innocent blood is being shed every day.
Amos 5:8-9 -- It is he who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns the dusk to dawn and day to darkest night. He summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the land. Yahweh is his name. He blazes out ruin on the stronghold and brings destruction to the fortress.
Commentary on main idea: It's not a good idea to screw around with the natural order or piss off the Author of creation.
Amos 5:7-13: Trouble for those who turn justice into wormwood, throwing integrity to the ground; who hate the man dispensing justice at the city gate and detest those who speak with honesty...For I know that your crimes are many, and your sins enormous: persecutors of the virtuous, blackmailers, turning away the needy at the city gate. No wonder the prudent man keeps silent, the times are so evil.
Commentary on the main idea: The corruption of a nation's governmental system is really bad karma.
Speaking of politics, would you count yourself among the "prudent men (who) keep silent, because the times are so evil"--?
Speaking of blackmailers: I live in a state where the financial corruption of public servants spans from the governor's office to the legislature to the heads of cabinet bureaus. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been ripped off to fund political ambitions all the way to Washington. I got an email two weeks ago from the Governor apologizing for ethics violations for which he was fined $4,000 in a court of law. For what? A bunch of frickin' golf games with the guy who imbezzeled millions of dollars in state Worker Compensation funds by investing in rare coins that have gotten "lost".
I have nothing against playing golf. I belong to a health club and swim. But I also live in a state where these corrupt pay-to-play legislators who run the show decided we can't pay for health care services for medically fragile children. One or two vacations for the political candidates at the rare coin dealer's Florida resort would pay for Johnny's kidney dialysis.
It makes not one whit of difference to me whether these politicians are conservatives or liberals. That whole made-up-in-the-head distinction is so totally irrelevant to the issue and honesty and integrity in government.
So I'm sitting here Tuesday night watching the talking heads report on the disaster in New Orleans when a local FEMA communications alert starts beeping across my TV screen: "Flood warning for your county, turn to Channel 16 for safety advisory."
Too eerie, I think. I'm thousands of miles away from the Big Easy, but I sitting in a major wetlands/aquifer of the Mississippi River valley and my basement is flooding...And I happen to know something about the environmental degredation of wetlands, global warming, and why there's all this flooding going on. I listen to Bill Nye, the NPR science guy, and read National Geographic.
Progress and prosperity are good things. Greed and exploitation are not. I believe that Biblical prophesy is based on a very simple principle: We reap what we sow.