Understanding the Economic Times – Becoming like the Men of Issachar

How does one understand the times? It seems to be a prerequisite for knowing what to do. Not that God can’t still guide the ignorant and uniformed but those who fall in that category tend to miss what God is saying or filter it out because it doesn’t fit with their expectations. The sons of Issachar believed what Genesis says that the “lights in the firmament of the heaven” were “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years”. According to the Targum, they also “excelled in the words of the law, were endued with wisdom, and were obedient to their command”. They were masters of signs and of Scripture.

We begin to understand the times by understanding like the Issacharians that everything including the planets goes through cycles and seasons, times of change. In the rainforest, it is known as creative destruction. It is an
expected phenomenon where the new is constantly working to replace the old. Something new is born, it grows, then matures but finally enters the phase where it unravels and falls into crisis before being replaced by the emerging generation. That last of the four seasons is the one we have entered into I believe. The unraveling always leads to a crisis, out of which a new version of the old emerges, but not without a lot of pain. Watch Fred Thompson’s take on the situation here......Fred Thompson video via youtube

We can also understand the times by understanding our history and learning that history repeats itself over and
over again. Read the book of Kings. It’s like a broken record how Israel repeated the cycle of turning to God,
gaining prosperity, growing complacent, falling into decadence, being severely thrashed, then turning back to God
again. For America, the thrashing is only beginning. I am not prophesying here. I am a student of the Bible and of
history and of nature.

It can go no other way, unless their be a wholesale repentance by those who are called by His name. Who us?
Repent? It’s those heathens. It’s those sinners. It’s those bankers. It those politicians. NO! God puts it in our court. We are the ones called by His name and it is up to us to humble ourselves, seek His face and turn from OUR wicked ways. If we can’t admit OUR sins and turn from wickedness how can we expect the heathen to repent who have neither His name nor His power to do so?

If you want to know what to do, begin with understanding the times and that begins by gaining a broader perspective. Start with Scripture and look for patterns. Look at history and see the cycles. Look at nature and understand how it works. Look in the heavens and know there are signs put there by God to help us navigate through life. (I am not speaking of astrology) But most of all look to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of your faith to give you the Holy Spirit and to lead you into all truth.

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." Matthew 10:16