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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Nahum 3:16
“You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.”
He that has ears let him hear.
If ever there was a Scripture accurately describing what is going on today, it is this. It is happening all over the world too. It’s called Global Investment. People of one nation investing in (called by the locals ‘buying up’) another nation’s land and industry. It takes place in different guises. Let me use New Zealand for an example.
Scenario 1: The Japanese find that to play golf in their own country is very expensive. It is cheaper for them to fly to New Zealand and play, so they do. “But it would make more economic sense if ‘we bought’ the Golf Club or land and built a new one. We will transport Japanese people to play so we will need to employ Japanese staff as groundsmen, and professionals. The money we make in New Zealand, we will be able to re-invest in Japan.”
Scenario 2: New Zealand has a transport network. One unique part of it is a tram in Wellington. It was made and operated by a Scottish company. ‘They’ then decided to invest by ‘taking over’ more and more of the transport system as local councils divested themselves of these ‘burdens’. So they now own the bus operations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and…
Scenario 3: The Government-owned Post Office sold off the Telecommunications Department to the highest bidder who happened to be an ‘overseas investor’ – owned mainly by Americans. Their profits shot up and once they had secured a monopoly, they only allowed competition to ‘come into the market’ from their position of strength so they were able to screw down the ‘opposition’s’ ability to gain a foot-hold, all the while enjoying the profits from N.Z.
Scenario 4: Asian tourists make up a major percentage of all New Zealand tourists. Asian tourists like Asian Souvenir shop attendants, hotel operators, tour organisers and restaurant owners. So the Asians ‘invest’ in them and staff them. Just like the Golf Courses.
Where do most of the profits go? Overseas, of course. They don’t go into the local economy. They don’t create local employment or much local investment. Then what happens when New Zealand is no longer attractive to, say Japan, or these other nations? They sell up and leave. Then what is left? Among other things, a lot of empty houses, which were constructed particularly for the wealthy Asian market, which are too expensive for and also unattractive to the locals.
We haven’t learnt much from history, have we? We haven’t even learnt the lesson of Nineveh. If Nahum were alive today, he’d probably say, ‘Didn’t you read my book?”
The ‘Good News’ is that Nineveh did crumble – and so will the ‘dollar god’.
Don’t invest in the ‘gods’ – or the gold of this world, they are far too volatile.
Instead, make sure you trust the Living God and that you are ready for His return.
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