What is a horrible economic scenario? (28:15)
Like a roaring lion and a rushing bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people.
A lion’s roar or a charging bear terrorrizes the heart.
Imagine being attacked all at once, by both of these vidcious beasts.
Carnage! Who could survive?
Consider the millions of Ukranians slaughtered by Stalin, the six million Jews butchered in the Nazi Holocaust, or the forty-million Chinese exterminted in Mao Tse-Tung’s “Great Leap Forward.” For all our vanity about human progress, the 20th centruy was one mass grave. The 21st century may not be much better. The poor and powerless are easy prey for a wicked ruler. Poor nations are more vulnerable than prosperous ones. They need kind and strong rulers.
Government Control
Governments control their citizens through taxation, restrictions on private property, and media control. If the people in a country are impoverished, they are more vulnerable to mistreatment by the government. One way a state intimidates its citizens is by keeping them “living hand-to-mouth,” like the “bread lines” at state grocery stores in the Soviet Union. Big Government milks its citizens dry. Many rulers deliberately impoverish the people, because they cherish their own power more than the general prosperity of the country.
Terrorists in Power
Being ruled by a wicked tyrant is as bad as landing defenseless in a jungle of savage beasts. So praying for our public authorities is important. Christians are instructed: “First of all, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Certainly a tranquil and quiet life is much to be preferred to the terror of living under an insatiable tyrant.
USSR—A Bear
Ironically, the symbol of the former Soviet Union was a bear. In 1932, its truly inhuman dictator, Joseph Stalin, forced the collectivization of Ukraine’s highly productive, privately-owned farms into state-owned plantations. In the process, to fund his Five Year Plan for industrialization, he stole virtually all of Ukraine’s legendary wheat harvests, starving millions. Then when the starving peasants gathered at the crossroads, desperate for food, they were machine-gunned by Red Army soldiers.
Engineered Famine
The cost of this “Worker’s Paradise” was papered-over by the Western media, wined and dined by Stalin and seduced by his progressive “modernization” plans. So this mass-starvation, the Holodomor is nowhere near as well well-known as the Nazi’s Jewish Holocaust during World War II, but may have been larger. The number of dead, starving in the winter snow, is estimated from 4-to-10 million—including my wife’s grandmother. This rushing bear was a Russian bear! But, I prefer the ESV translation, a charging bear.
A Champion of the Weak
It is interesting to note that the youthful shepherd, David, killed both a lion and a bear when these two predators attacked his flock of sheep. Most shepherds would not have risked their lives and safety for the sake of a single sheep. David foreshadowed a greater Shepherd.
- Memorize the text in your favourite Bible translation and think about it often.
- Give the poor opportunities to work for their welfare. Pay a fair wage—not too much or too little. Giving them too much or too little does them a disservice.
- Understand that aggression and intimidation make some people rich—but don’t copy it!
- Pray for the leadership of a nation. Ask God to put wise, benevolent, and strong people into positions of power.
Which of these steps, if any, does Jesus want you to take first? Ask Him.
A lion’s roar or a charging bear terrorrizes the heart.
Imagine being attacked all at once, by both of these vidcious beasts.
Carnage! Who could survive?
Consider the millions of Ukranians slaughtered by Stalin, the six million Jews butchered in the Nazi Holocaust, or the forty-million Chinese exterminted in Mao Tse-Tung’s “Great Leap Forward.” For all our vanity about human progress, the 20th centruy was one mass grave. The 21st century may not be much better. The poor and powerless are easy prey for a wicked ruler. Poor nations are more vulnerable than prosperous ones. They need kind and strong rulers.
Government Control
Governments control their citizens through taxation, restrictions on private property, and media control. If the people in a country are impoverished, they are more vulnerable to mistreatment by the government. One way a state intimidates its citizens is by keeping them “living hand-to-mouth,” like the “bread lines” at state grocery stores in the Soviet Union. Big Government milks its citizens dry. Many rulers deliberately impoverish the people, because they cherish their own power more than the general prosperity of the country.
Terrorists in Power
Being ruled by a wicked tyrant is as bad as landing defenseless in a jungle of savage beasts. So praying for our public authorities is important. Christians are instructed: “First of all, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Certainly a tranquil and quiet life is much to be preferred to the terror of living under an insatiable tyrant.
USSR—A Bear
Ironically, the symbol of the former Soviet Union was a bear. In 1932, its truly inhuman dictator, Joseph Stalin, forced the collectivization of Ukraine’s highly productive, privately-owned farms into state-owned plantations. In the process, to fund his Five Year Plan for industrialization, he stole virtually all of Ukraine’s legendary wheat harvests, starving millions. Then when the starving peasants gathered at the crossroads, desperate for food, they were machine-gunned by Red Army soldiers.
Engineered Famine
The cost of this “Worker’s Paradise” was papered-over by the Western media, wined and dined by Stalin and seduced by his progressive “modernization” plans. So this mass-starvation, the Holodomor is nowhere near as well well-known as the Nazi’s Jewish Holocaust during World War II, but may have been larger. The number of dead, starving in the winter snow, is estimated from 4-to-10 million—including my wife’s grandmother. This rushing bear was a Russian bear! But, I prefer the ESV translation, a charging bear.
A Champion of the Weak
It is interesting to note that the youthful shepherd, David, killed both a lion and a bear when these two predators attacked his flock of sheep. Most shepherds would not have risked their lives and safety for the sake of a single sheep. David foreshadowed a greater Shepherd.