Daily Encouragement: Year 2, Day 63

From Handbook to God’s Promises

GOD’S INCARNATION

God’s Economy vs. the New Economy
Read Micah 5:2 

Among other things, the mid-to-late 1990s will be remembered as the time when business paradigms changed forever. The mega-fortunes of America’s first class of wealth-builders—Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and others—have been dwarfed by the wealth generated by a new class of business entrepreneurs.

New and big are the watchwords of the new economy. And as with many things in our world, those watchwords stand in stark contrast to God’s economy. In the kingdom of God—at least with God’s incarnation into the human realm—ancient and small have far more meaning.

God’s values are nowhere more plainly seen than in the incarnation of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Through Micah the prophet, God said that Israel’s ruler would be one whose “origins are from old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2). God also promised that this ruler would be born in one of the smallest of the villages in Judah. It is obvious that God is not enamored with the things of this world. He didn’t send a trendy, newly minted Messiah to Jerusalem, the trendiest city in the region. He sent his eternal Son from the ancient regions of heaven through the most humble portal imaginable: a stable in a tiny village in the Judean hills.

God doesn’t say new and big are bad. But before setting our own value systems in concrete, we need to make sure we consider the benefits of the “ancient” (proven) and “small” (discovered by those who are seeking) in our own lives. There is always a reason why God chooses as He does; we could do worse than to follow His example.

God’s Promise: His Son is the embodiment of His value system and stands as a reliable guide for your walk of faith.