Well-being and calamity
There are few people who will not be aware of the effects of the current economic climate. For those working in corporate business there is fear of redundancy, reduced workload and salaries. There are those running small-medium enterprises for whom a cancelled project or a bad debt can create commercial and personal insecurity and fear.
We are reminded in these words from God to Cyrus of the overwhelming sovereignty of God. As whole-life disciples in business, we seek to engage with God in his creative and redemptive purposes, and we find that the economic structures and systems over which we appear to have so little individual control can bring the 'calamity' he speaks of as well as the 'well-being' of the good times.
Yet Isaiah also helps us to understand the nature of this calamity: '... people will throw away... their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship' (2:20). God reminds us that he is warrior and king, creator and lover of his people. He will shift the paradigms of his creation to call us back to himself in grace and love. John Stott reminds us that Jesus understood the suffering that lay before him, before he could be restored to the glory he had voluntarily renounced for our sake:
'We still regard security as our birthright and 'safety first' as a prudent motto... Insistence on security is incompatible with the way of the cross ... Jesus had no security except in his Father. So to follow Jesus is always to accept at least a measure of uncertainty, danger and rejection for his sake' (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, IVP 1986, p. 333).
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