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###### Earthly Trading and Affairs Are Blasted

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Cause for Lamentation, Repentance, and Labor

The Sad and Dangerous Effects of the Decay of Heavenly Trade

Earthly Trading and Affairs Are Blasted}

Neglect of trading for Heaven will blast all other trading and breed a moth to consume even your temporal substance.322 When Israel began to let down their heavenly trade and mind their own concerns and houses above God’s, God soon blasted their temporal interests. He made holes in their money bags and blew away their increase. All of their hard efforts in the world (with neglect of God and His worship) came to nothing. They sowed much and brought in little. They looked for much, but it came to little. They worked hard, earned great wages, and saved up money. But it vanished through some secret hole in their money bags that divine jealousy opened in order to consume their substance. God did this to let them know that people can make more haste than good speed and that those who reckon without God must reckon twice.

And, could this be one of the things that is harming this nation’s earthly affairs today: we have forsaken God, neglected His service, and lost the power of godliness? Certainly, outward prosperity is no evidence of God’s favor and there is no promise to God’s people in the Gospel of outward prosperity. Yet, when the Lord does fight against people by successive rebukes and sends in secret mildew, wasting, and consumption on their affairs, and this becomes general and national, it shows God’s displeasure. This should be laid to heart, and failure to do so adds to such people’s sin. “Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart” (Isaiah 42:24–25 ESV). They were not walking in the way of God, neglected obedience and practical holiness, and let down the heavenly trade; this brought those ruining judgments on Israel and destruction to their assets. They were robbed and plundered and their houses were burned down. Now, in this miserable case, there was a yet greater judgment on them: a strange stupidity and insensitivity of spirit; they did not see God’s anger in it. They looked at the Babylonians323 and their enemies, but it was God who did it and they did not take it to heart. They were not rightly moved in heart with all this desolation and their soon approaching ruin. And is this not our case? God has warned us by His Word for many years, threatened us by prodigious signs in Heaven and earth, begun to execute them already by plague, sword, and fire.324 There have been dreadful wastes in the great city,325 and many other places to the undoing of many families. He has destroyed the commerce of the nation, causing nationwide impoverishment. And yet we are as insensible as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were.326 It is as if the Lord has sent a spirit of slumber on us. We are impoverished, yet do not feel it.327 This should be a matter of lamentation.

322As the book of Job teaches us, we must not judge others’ spiritual condition by their circumstances. But we ourselves should use every adversity to examine our hearts for sin; God may be trying to get our attention.

323When Isaiah was prophesying, the Babylonians were not yet a threat, and no specific enemy is named in this passage. But both Israel and Judah had enemies and war was frequent. It is also possible to take this passage as a prophetic warning to take heed lest a worse enemy (Babylon) come upon them.

324This may be a reference to the Great Fire of London in 1666. (The present edition was published in 1688.)

325great city: London.

326See Exodus chapters 5–14.

327Here is just one example from America: Many people struggle financially and wonder why they are not doing better. Although poor financial management is often a problem, the effects of a culture of indebtedness, monetary inflation, and hidden taxation have a major impact also. These last two are thought necessary by politicians whose constituents demand ever more government “services” at the expense of taxpayers. Voter greed thus impoverishes us all and few understand this. Notice the word greed. God said, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15 NASB). Notice there is no exception for voters or politicians. To obtain “benefits” for oneself without fairly rendering goods or services in return, such as selling computer equipment to city hall or employment as a police officer, is just plain stealing from taxpayers. This sin includes welfare, government schools, burdensome regulations that favor the largest corporations, and much more. And politicians bribe voters with promised benefits, but “You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous” (Deuteronomy 16:19 NASB). Our collective sin impoverishes us and we do not know it.

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