Please do not reply to this email address.
Any questions or comments, please email us at [email protected].
To unsubscribe to this newsletter, send an email to [email protected] and put the word 'unsubscribe' on the subject line.
Thank you
Lu Su
Toy Wonders, Inc.
www.toywonders.com
201-229-1700
God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
A Serious Slip of Judgement...... and Syria (part 2 of 2)
By Lu Su
This is the part where you are suppose to learn something and try to find a way to apply it to your life. Last week's intro, gave you the story of two relatively good king: Asa and Jehoshaphat. Written history shows that these two kings of Judah were more good than evil. If you make two groupings: "more good than evil" and "more evil than good", I think most of the readership would put themselves in the former group where God would probably put us all in the later.
To the best of my knowledge, none of you gained your current position of leadership by murdering the entire former administration. I'm also guessing that none of you have pulled the people under your leadership away from their faith and introduced to them a type of cult that involves human blood and bodily fluids during "worship". So hopefully on our tomb stone, we can all at least claim: pretty good person....definately more good than evil. Okay, it's time to get into Asa's and Jehoshaphat's serious slip of judgment. If you are unable to spot their error, then you are bound to follow in their footsteps.
Asa's mistake came even before he emptied the treasuries of the LORD's temple and his own palace. Now I understand why Asa did this, he needed to raise money so he could give another nation an "incentive" to do something he desired. So basically the leader of Judah took his citizens' money and uses it as a bribe. Though God was probably a tad annoyed that money given to LORD's temple was now being used in a non-traditional way, the Biblical view is that God owns everything. This makes sense to me; God made it, so he's the owner. So in the grand scheme of things when you compare it to the vast resources the entire universe has, the incentive money was minuscule. I also think that whether God's money is sitting in a bank account in Jerusalem or in Damascus, It's probably not a big issue with God. But both leaders Asa and Jehoshaphat made a mistake that really irked God.
We all make mistakes. "To err is human." But do you know what the difference between a mistake and a stupid mistake is? A stupid mistake is one that you don't learn from. It's the worst kind of mistake, because given a similar scenario, it'll repeat itself.
Both Asa and Jehoshaphat were so clueless to their mistake that God sends a seer to both of them. In the Old Testament part of the scriptures, sometimes the words "seer" and "prophet" are often used interchangeably; but from what most Biblical scholars have surmised is that a seer (like a prophet) was able to know the lousy private stuff in your life and could foresee future events; he or she could do this by specifically "seeing" a vision that came from God. Quite a handy guy to have hanging around your palace when you need to rule on disputes, find a missing sock, or when you need to win at black jack. Let's read what these two seers had to say.
At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war. ” -2 Chronicles 16: 7 -9
What a shame. Apparently it was God's original desire and design that Judah rule over Aram (Syria). But because Asa didn't ally with God, that didn't happen. Realize this slip in judgment made 3000 years ago, probably would have averted the problems we have now going on in Syria today.
When Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem, Jehu the seer, the son of Hanani, went out to meet him and said to the king, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is on you. There is, however, some good in you, for you have rid the land of the Asherah poles and have set your heart on seeking God. ” -2 Chronicles 19: 1 -3
Asa's and Jehoshaphat's mistake was who they picked for their ally. Asa chose the king of Aram (Syria). Jehoshaphat chose the king of Israel. When something menacing (Syria) loomed on the horizon, neither of these men turned towards God, but turned to their own wisdom. So the king of Syria (Aram) and the king of Israel is a better ally than God? Apparently, God didn't think so. History shows that disaster of the worst kind befell their entire nation.
Now I'm not a rocket scientists. I just try to sell toys. But when you have to pay money to your "ally" for their assistance on something, that is a strong signal to me that this ally is unreliable. But don't take my word for it. Hear the advice from a very experienced secular advisor to monarchs.
Machiavelli in his book The Prince said, "A prince must always pay close attention to military affairs if he wants to remain in power."
Machiavelli then goes into four different types of military forces a leader could employ. Since no leader likes to hear about high casualty rates of their own citizens (It's bad for their ratings), maybe it's better to let hired foreign soldiers inherit those numbers? Machiavelli breaks it down into four different military forces a leader can implement. The first military force he talks about are hired foreign soldiers.
And this is his advice, "Mercenaries or hired soldiers are dangerous and unreliable."
Since 911, the U.S. has already given Pakistan over 20 billion dollars in aid. Since 1979, we've paid out an average of $2 billion dollars in annual aid to Egypt. Not including interest, but that translates to over 66 billion dollars. But the list of "allies" we have in the Middle East is quite extensive. If memory serves me correctly, we also gave a large sums of money to the former Shah of Iran and even Osama Bin Laden (during the period where they took our money and did want we wanted). The amount of money we've taken from our treasuries to pay foreign leaders to "encourage" them to do something (or not to do something) is the exact same thing king Asa did with the former king of Syria 3000 years ago. History shows that in the end, it didn't work out very well.
Realize that most of the money that our leaders used to pay foreign countries (usually coined as "economic aid") gets spent on beefing up their military and keeping those in power in power. If you investigate how much money the US, Europe, and Arab countries have given to the leadership in Palestinians (billions), you'll be disappointed to learn what percentage of that money was actually spent to benefit their people; you'll also be extra disappointed to learn that how many new schools, roads, and hospitals were built during the Yasser Arafat's administration.
One clue to reveal that you have a questionable ally is if you need to give them money in order for them to do something (or not to do something). Another clue that you probably have a questionable ally is if your "ally's" population likes you. I believe the quality of the alliances we have going on in the Middle East today is a kin to quality of the alliances Israel and Judah had going on 3000 years ago.
Now before you start writing your Congressman or complaining to President Obama that the money we send over can be better spent here on our own people, understand the root cause of why our leaders do this. Since I'm going to rule out altruism, I'm going to say the root cause is fear. It's the fear of something. We fear something and suddenly now we have a national interest in something to happen (or not to happen).
The mistake Asa and Jehoshaphat made many centuries ago was caused by fear. They feared Syria. Understand that there is nothing wrong about being fearful. It's actually probably healthy to have a fear of Syria. But their slip in judgment came when they didn't pick God to be their ally to combat their fear.
God has also put you in some position of leadership. You should view Syria as a foreboding presence looming on your door step. For some it might be this fear of bankruptcy or shame of not being able to take care of your family. For others it might be the fear of being unhealthy, looking old, failure in something, or some phobia that plague people with fear today.
With some type of Syria looming within eye sight, who have you selected as your ally? Why isn't God #1? What's the problem here? Is God's arm too short for you? Some person or institution has a better reach than God? Perhaps your ally now has more experience than God? Or perhaps your current ally has more money or can forecast better than God?
The Scriptures show over and over again that when the people of a nation turn their eyes and hearts away from God, bad consequences follow. It appears that God permits you to choose or not to choose Him as your ally. Now it is very important that you understand that I am not preaching that if you pick God to be your ally, He's going to make you healthy, wealthy, wise and beautiful. But what will gradually happen is when you make God your ally, those fears of Syria will dissipate. What will also gradually happen is that your desires as a leader will come closer in alignment to where God wants to take you.
In conclusion we see that Asa and Jehoshaphat, two leaders that were more good than evil, chose the wrong ally. Stop history from repeating itself. Don't make the same slip of judgment. Choose wisely.
sources:
Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah c. 1020 - 587 BCE.
John, and Philip R. Davies. The Old Testament World. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1982
It's All Your Money: U.S. Aid to Pakistan, by William LaJeunesse: May 16, 2011
US paying massive amounts of aid to Egypt for peace with Israel, Press TV, Feb 5, 2011
Voices of Palestine: Yasser Arafat, Part 1, by Frontpagemag.com, Nov. 23, 2011
Back to the top
