When I ask if we (the US) are a “Hezekiah nation” I wish I was
thinking of the good things Hezekiah did. Overall, Hezekiah was a very good
king. In some ways, he was the best King of Judah (1 Kings 18:5). He loved God,
led people to worship God, and worked hard to remove idols from the land. But Hezekiah,
like other great men of God, was flawed. There are several ways in which
Hezekiah stumbled, but I want to focus here on one particular thing he said in
response to Isaiah’s warning:
Isaiah 39:6 'Look, the
days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have
stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,'
says the LORD.
7 'Some of your descendants-- who come from
you, whom you father-- will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon.'"
8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word
of the LORD that you have spoken is good," for he thought: There will be
peace and security during my lifetime.
Do you see anything wrong with Hezekiah’s response?
How could he be so callous as to not care that his descendants
would see all that their forefathers had worked for plundered by an enemy army
and, worse than that, they themselves would be taken as defeated captives and
turned into eunuchs to serve a pagan king? Shouldn’t Hezekiah have mourned and
wept and sought God’s mercy for his descendants? His “as long as I’m ok, I don’t
care” attitude is not at all godly or Christlike. This is even more true when
we consider that his sin was part of the reason for the disaster that was
coming!
I believe the people of the United States are acting like
Hezekiah. I’m talking about the way we are putting our heads in the sand when
it comes to the ever-growing mountainous national debt. If you’re not familiar
with this problem, here are two resources to check out:
How do we know the national debt will create a disaster in the future
if nothing changes?
There are two reasons I believe that we are headed for an economic
disaster unless we drastically change course. I don’t claim to know how severe
the disaster will be or when it will strike, but I believe it is near certain
to hit based on how things are now going. Here are the two reasons:
1. We have seen what happens in other nations. The results are
predictable. Perhaps I am more sensitive to this than most Americans. We moved
to Indonesia in 1996. When we arrived, Indonesia was a poor nation, but its
economy had been and still was growing quickly. But then the east Asian economic
crisis hit. Most Americans have never seen economic suffering anything like
what we saw our Indonesian neighbors go through. I’m not saying that our
suffering will be equally severe. But it will likely be a worse economic
situation than Americans have faced at least since the great depression. It’s
foolish to think that it won’t happen to us.
2. Math. When you keep adding debt faster than the economy is
growing one result is that the interest we pay on that debt keeps increasing.
It is a mathematical certainty that this cannot continue indefinitely. If we
don’t change course, the most likely result is hyperinflation. Hyperinflation
fixes the interest problem from a pure math point of view, but at the cost of
crushing people economically and severely devaluing their savings and their
wages. The lower class will suffer most, but there will be plenty of suffering
for the middle class and the rich will lose piles and piles of money.
Because of the size of the American economy and the
interdependence of the world economy, it is likely that a severe American
economic crisis will also trigger economic suffering around the world. Because
we are relatively rich, it may be that our poorer neighbors in other nations
will suffer more than we will even if it is our out of control debt that
triggers the crisis. If you don’t care about that, I hope you will get down on
your knees and pray for God to fix your hard heart. God loves those people!
In some ways we are more foolish than Hezekiah. At least he knew
the crisis wouldn’t come in his lifetime. An economic crisis caused in part by
our huge debt will likely will come in our lifetime. Nevertheless, it is likely
that our children and grandchildren will suffer the most. Should we be like
Hezekiah and say, “As long as they don’t cut my benefits, let the weight and
consequences of my selfish, greedy lifestyle crush my kids and grandkids. As
long as I’m dead first, why should I care?” While few people explicitly state
it like that, their actions and attitudes show the kind of thinking that is in
their hearts.
What’s the Solution?
I want to share two levels of solution. The surface level directly
addresses the problem of debt. I’m not at all an expert at this level, so I
will only offer some broad ideas. The deeper level of problem is selfishness and
greed in human hearts. I know the only solution for that.
Fixing the surface problem:
We need to make balancing the budget a much, much higher priority.
This will involve some pain now in order to avoid a lot more pain (pain with
interest, literally!) in the future for ourselves and our children and
grandchildren. I personally believe that the main jobs government should do
are: maintain justice through police and courts, defend us by keeping a strong
military, and develop and maintain infrastructure like roads. I believe that
pretty much everything else needs deep cuts. I’m not saying we need to totally
eliminate everything else, but we need to cut back a lot. And that has to
include cuts in entitlement programs. I say this even though some of those cuts
will hurt me personally. As far as taxes go, there is a complex issue where higher
taxes can curb economic growth. Still, there may need to be some type of tax
increases. I would prefer something like a 10 to 1 or 5 to 1 ratio of spending cuts
to tax increases, with way more spending cuts than tax increases. But when it
comes to the details, I admit I don’t have the knowledge to give exact answers.
Fixing the deep problem:
The deep problem is greed and selfishness in human hearts. Our
politicians are a reflection of the people who elect them. It does not appear
that congress is anywhere near having the political willpower necessary for the
needed changes. That will only change if the people who elect them change. How
can human hearts change? Only by the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we believe
in Jesus and are born again, He begins to transform our hearts to become more
and more like Him. What we need is a widespread, Holy Spirit empowered, deep,
revival that leads to a lot more people trusting and obeying Jesus a lot more!
In fact, this deeper issue is so important, that God may even
allow us to experience a severe economic crisis (and other problems – some of
which could be even worse), if that is what it takes to get people to turn to
Him. I hope and pray it won’t take that. But I trust God, whatever happens.
What can you do practically:
1. Vote for politicians who are more likely to care about the
national debt. Don’t vote for those who are promising huge new programs that
will quickly add even more piles and piles of debt (don’t vote for Democrats).
2. Pray for revival. Pray in your prayer closet. Attend prayer
meetings. Start new prayer meetings.
3. Go to church. Get involved in Christian ministry. Use your God
given gifts and resources together with other Christians to spread His love and
truth. If you don’t think the local church is important, you’re wrong! Most of
the books in the New Testament were written to and/or about local churches. God’s
solution for problems in local churches was never to abandon them, but to work
to fix them. If you’re not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
4. Work hard for Jesus. Shine the light. Meditate on God’s Word.
Don’t give in and don’t give up.
Remember, even if a severe economic crisis comes, that’s not the
end of the story. Darker times may come, but in the end Jesus will return and all
who have trusted and loved Him will live with Him forever in His glorious
eternal Kingdom where there will be no more debts except the beautiful debt to
love Him and joyfully worship our Savior.
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
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