Sunday, November  2, 2008

A mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence the Great City Babylon Will Be Thrown Down, And It Will Not Be Found Anymore. The sound of harpists, musicians, flute players, and turmpeters will not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft will be found in you anymore. The sound of a millstone will not be heard in you anymore. Rev. 18:21, 22.

As we have seen, economic exploitation and negligence are a major part of Babylon's pattern of sin. As the world's largest economy, the United States of America can largely dictate trade politics in its own interests. While many of the problems in developing countries are self-inflicted, that is no excuse for taking selfish advantage.

Today more than 1 billion people live on the equivalent of less than $1 a day. The richest 20 percent of the world's people use 86 percent of the resources, while the poorest 20 percent employ only 1.4 percent. Eight hundred million people are malnourished or facing starvation. A quarter of a million children die every week from malnutrition and easily preventable diseases. Eighty percent of brain development occurs by age 2, yet 150 million children in the world lack the protein intake necessary for adequate brain growth, leading to permanent retardation.

The average annual income in the U.S. is about $20,000, while in Bagaladesh it is less than $400. So one would think that the U.S. could afford to provide much help to less fortunate countires. After all, one's location at birth is not because of merit. Yet in assisting develping countires, Norway ranks the highest (1.12 percent of gross national product) and the U.S. is next to last (0.25 percent) among the wealthier nations. In any given year the U.S. budgets 20 times as much for defense as for foreign assistance, and even two thirds of the latter is for military aid. On top of that, protectionist trade practices cost develping nations twice as much as the total value of aid they receive. One day we will have to give an account.

Advertising makes us think that we must have more things and makes us forget the needs of others. How tragic! We find much more satisfaction in relationships than in accumulating possessions. While possessions are not evil in themselves, their value is minimal compared with the needs of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Revelation 18 reminds us that God does not look the other way in the face of economic injustice. He will bring down every empire in time. When we squander money on things we do not need, will we somehow escape Babylon's judgment? 

Lord, I am sobered as I contemplate the personal implications of Babylon's fall. Open my eyes to how You view my stewardship of the resources You have given me.

Through the gospel, souls that are degraded and enslaved by Satan are to be redeemed to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God. God's purpose is not merely to deliver from the suffering that is the inevitable result of sin, but to save from sin itself. The soul, corrupted and deformed, is to be purified, transformed, that it may be clothed in "the beauty of the Lord our God," "conformed to the image of His Son." "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Psalm 90:17; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 2:9. Eternity alone can reveal the glorious destiny to which man, restored to God's image, may attain(TFMB 61).