Daily Readings at Southeast

Living with the Consequences Repeated covenant-breaking has serious consequences. The flipside is that covenant-keeping has positive outcomes. Notice in this passage the central importance of Torah (law) and Israel's chronic recurrent problem of slipping back into all forms of idolatry. Modern Western society is permeated to its core with idolatry, with one particular ism extending its grasp beyond any other - materialism. Unchecked materialism has so infiltrated Christianity and other religious systems that it goes virtually unnoticed by the majority. Unless humanity, led by people of faith, can turn a corner quickly, the spiritual, interpersonal and societal consequences in today's interconnected world will hold us captive in ways ancient Israelites could have never conceived.  Following is a quotation from author, educator and environmentalist Bill McKibben's call for communities of faith to return God to the center of life: “Consumption is an issue uniquely suited for f...

  Equitable Distribution of Resources God told Moses that the promised land was to be distributed according to the relative size and needs of the various tribes: 'To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one' (Nu 26:54). In this way, socioeconomic equity was ingrained in the DNA of Israel's agrarian economy. Biblical scholar Craig L. Blomberg observes, 'The ideal contrasts markedly with arrangements in other feudal kingdoms near Canaan in that day, in which by far the more common pattern was the concentration of vast tracts of land among the royal and aristocratic elites, leaving a majority of the people in considerable poverty.' Similarly, when we look to the New Testament, the book of Acts provides an outstanding example of how the equitable distribution of resources became an important characteristic of the early church (see Ac 2:42-47; 4:32-37). Today the same principle should govern our financial decisions. Second Corinthian...