Re: Solomon, A Type of What?
Amen brother, I hear what you are saying... and thank you for clarifying. We do indeed have consequences for our sins, and I don't mean to suggest that consequences are not our fault but could be sloughed off on God.
...That said, I don't imagine an Industrial Israel one thousand years ago would have been any more blessed than the Industrial world is today. Industry, which has been defined as "Energetic devotion to a task or an endeavor", has become a kind of universal slavery in our modern world. I have freedom physically, but I am financially enslaved, in a literal way - and governments and corporations seek to keep it that way - so that they can profit off of our labour. We have to pay taxes, insurances, fuel, heat, food, water, electricity, basic living, child care, education, etc. etc. All this working and spending becomes a distraction, and that distraction is one of the enemys most potent tools. God wants a relationship with us, which He accomplishes through Christ and His counterpart, His bride, the Church which He wishes to marry. Our industry doesn't get Him any closer to accomplishing that goal; in fact, I think it's the reason our society is in the deplorable spiritual state it is in.
I met a brother once from Africa, who came to our door selling books from his church. We invited him in for fellowship, and he said "I don't understand the people in this country. I try to talk to them about God but they don't want to hear anything about Him. They say they don't need it."
I said, "People in North America, they're rich - they have so many other things, that they really do believe they don't need Him. They think they've got it all."
"They should come to my country." he replied, "We know we need God."
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven, brother.
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