No man or nation is an island, and we need to do life together. However, those with whom we forge relationships can help us or hinder us. If we seek them as a substitute for trusting God with our lives, we head for trouble.
The cry of the Three Musketeers resonates in a desire to stand together. However we are all inclined to look after number one first, and when we do, truth and justice fall by the wayside. Truth built on consistent integrity, and justice for the poor and disenfranchised; are consistently presented in scripture as being crucial foundations for a society that will please God. In a society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, this is a huge challenge.
We all have bills to pay, but when the economy is in the hands of the unscrupulous who manipulate it for their own ends, God is not pleased. Making an honest living, even in a foreign land, is good for us individually and nationally. The fake weights of history have become the small print and smart marketing misrepresentation of today.
God has a take on the way we live our lives, both individually and as a nation. From time to time he tells us so, and sets out some principles which we ignore at our peril.
People like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were given messages to the Jewish nation which are as relevant today as they have ever been, and are intended to hugely impact the way we ‘do life’.
Back in the early days of the nation, God warned that pick and mix religion would inevitably lead into bad ways, and it did. God’s people had picked up all sorts of religious practices and beliefs and thought they could enjoy the best of all worlds, and those supposedly speaking on God’s behalf were making it up as they went along. They were worshiping who they had become. They were wrong then just as the mish-mash of beliefs and trust in our own wealth are wrong in our society today.