Pakistan, where the San Bernadino terrorists had ties; Syria, where Muslim tribes fight for supremacy and other nations seek to annihilate them; Turkey, who may or may not be aiding the transportation and refinement of oil from ISIS; and Israel, who stands against both Iran and Syrian-based Hezbollah —of all this, what can be said? The one to solve the problem of world evil and the evil inclination needs the proverbial wisdom of Solomon.
None of the leaders on the world stage has that wisdom, and if they say they do, we must question the source. The Babylonian system based on lust, the beast system based on war, and the new world order based on false peace each stems from the corruptive forces of evil. The answer will never be man nor the image of man but only the glorification of Christ and complete allegiance to Him.
He is the only one who continually sustains creation, and therefore the only one who can transform it, for all things were made by Him and for Him. He is the one true King, the wisdom and manifest glory of God.
Every knee bow to Him! Christ has overcome the world —the great news for the well-being of His followers. He alone has overcome death and raises us up. He inspires confidence to listen to His voice and do what He says in a world tilting off its axis.
The world is the field where God uses tribulation and troubles to facilitate redemptive change. The truth is that Jesus leads us with something far greater than the wisdom of Solomon, and wealth is not the goal. Though God added riches to Solomon (and he did not seek it by the way), not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like the flowers of the field. How much more will the heavenly Father clothe those who seek Him first and His righteousness. The discernment Christ gives exposes evil inclinations, so we can abandon and overcome them to get about the business of transforming the kingdoms and economies of the world.
The connection between the problems in the world today and life under the reign of the sovereign King of kings is the security and provision that the people of God experienced while Solomon ruled. David’s enemies had been put under foot, and that victory made the way for the construction of the House of God under Solomon. Now that Christ, through His shed blood, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection, has forever defeated the enemy of our soul, we, too, are being built up as living stones into a holy temple in Christ.
Transformation accompanies victory. Now that Christ Himself is ruling on the throne of David, God tabernacles over us in our service to Him with the wisdom of Christ day and night in His temple.
This wisdom, which Revelation 20 calls the power to judge, is what God gave Solomon to administer justice in his kingdom. Remember how king Solomon decided to cut a baby in half? The response of the biological mother revealed her true identity and exposed and condemned the liar. The ability to judge appears in connection with God declaring victory on behalf of the saints and the ultimate defeat of the enemy with his being thrown and locked in the abyss, no longer able to deceive. Those who overcome the evil one experience firsthand how the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah.
While reigning with Christ does mean dwelling in the House of God in repentance (as Ninevah turned in the face of judgment) and listening (as the Queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon), it doesn’t mean complete freedom from troubles. Even after Jacob freed himself from Laban (a type of antichrist), reconciled with Esau, and met God at Bethel, he still faced difficulties, even the apparent loss of all he hoped for.
All Jacob’s problems, however, would lead to fulfillment and fruitfulness for the remaining years of his life. Likewise, Christ has ordained all the craziness we see around us, all our present difficulties and past mistakes, all the wrong turns and poor choices, to prepare our hearts to be led by Him.
Jesus said it is His will that we experience life in superabundance and bear fruit for the glory of God, and He teaches how this is to happen. Though Jesus taught about holy prayer and charitable giving, the heart of His message in Matthew 6 is coming to God (teshuvah). Doing so overcomes the evil inclination to be noticed by others. Look how many times Jesus in Matthew 6 exhorted us to take action in secret, whether charitable deeds or prayer or giving.
In the secret place, where we find our sole source of life connecting back to God our Creator, everything that has come to define us from our past, from what we should never have experienced to all the consequences of what we should never have done —all somehow becomes God’s perfect will as communion with Him transforms our soul.
What merits the role of leader in the new economy is teshuvah. Return to God. It is the place of change. That’s the only way for our souls to be transformed, and the only way for us, the leaders of the new economy, to transform the soul of the earth.
