Corruption and greed existed before just like it does now

Sometimes it is tempting to fall into the trap of thinking everything was simpler in Biblical times. It was not! There was as much corruption, political backbiting, and greed as there is today. Of course, it is sad that things have not improved in that regard over the past 2,000+ years. In the book of Micah, we can see an example which resonates strongly with today's world, even though this was written before the birth of Christ:

The faithful have disappeared from the land,
and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and they hunt each other with nets.
Their hands are skilled to do evil;
the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
thus they pervert justice.
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.

Micah 7: 2-4

You can see that this passage speaks of widespread corruption and greed, both in everyday life and in government. This is very relatable to today. We have clearly not improved in that regard. In part, this is because humans were never made to be ruled by other humans.

But this does not mean that there is no hope while we are here on Earth. In fact, the prophet Micah places his hope squarely in the Lord, and that is what we can do too:

But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.

Micah 7: 7

So despite the existence of corruption and greed, we can and should turn to God, to read His word, pray, and to understand how He wants us to act.  

Just because there is corruption around does not mean we need to be part of that. Even if everyone around us is corrupt, we are still able to look to the Lord and act according to His wishes. As an example, as corrupt as the city of Sodom was, God saved Lot and his family when he destroyed the city because these were the only people who listened to and obeyed God. 

Even though we may not know the outcome ahead of time of obeying God, we should obey him for the simple reason that it pleases Him. Pleasing Him should be of more concern to us than pleasing the world. After all, we have Him to answer to in the afterlife - we're not answering to the rest of the world. 

It is true that it is much easier said than done to act to always please God rather than the world. The theory is easy to know but really hard to put into practice. That is true not just of this issue but of any issue in the Bible. It is always hard to actually do it, even though the theory seems easy. But we still must do it, we still must try.

If you found this post interesting, you may also like these related posts on this blog:


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Do Atheists Shout So Loudly When They Believe the Stakes are Lower?

When it comes to religious matters, we Christians believe our very souls are at stake.  Atheists do not believe there is anything so serious at stake.  Anyone would therefore expect that Christians would shout their message the loudest, since they believe there is the most at stake.  However, it seems that both 'shout' similarly loudly.  Why is that?    Both camps genuinely believe that their version is the underlying truth (although of course, both cannot be right).  Therefore, both camps have the truth at stake; they think of themselves as campaigners for the truth.  In addition, Christians believe our souls are at stake.  Why then do atheists shout so loud when they believe there is less at stake?   This is a question which is difficult to answer.  However, we should be aware that Christianity can actually benefit from these loud shoutings of the atheists.  Why is that? It is because the atheists give us spec...
Read more

Do You Expect God to Match Up With YOUR Specifications?

"God isn't real if I don't believe in him" "I can't believe in a God who lets X or Y happen" The above are sentences which are heard frequently.  Curiously, these people seem to think that if God doesn't match up to THEIR specifications, He can't be real.  I think the root of this is the lack of ability we humans have to 'prove' or see the existence of God (or from the opposing viewpoint, to prove a lack of existence). The difficulty with which we can detect spiritual things compared to the ease with which we can detect the physical world makes it very easy for us to think we make the rules and that if God doesn't appear to follow 'our' rules (expectations), He can't be real. Consider a hypothetical creature of spirit visiting Earth for the first time.  This creature has no way of directly measuring anything physical.  Although unable to sense gravity itself, it realizes from reading minds that humans have measured...
Read more

Why did God make Adam and Eve knowing that they would fall?

One of the more difficult theological questions is: Why did God make Adam and Eve knowing that they would fall? Reading the Bible helped me get a little more information on God and on how free will was really important to Him (click here for my earlier post on that topic). But, this is where it got tricky. If God knows everything, then why did he make Adam and Eve, knowing that they would lead themselves into temptation at great cost to them and to the rest of humanity? C.S. Lewis's theological writings offer an excellent perspective on this. He believes that man redeemed through the death of Jesus is somehow intrinsically better than unfallen man . "For God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo. Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity would have been..." - C.S. Lewis, Miracles 1947, in Chapter 14 "The Grand Miracle". This viewpoint falls in line with two Biblical readings: So He told them this parabl...
Read more