In The Old Testament, economic ruin often meant judgement from God. This is clearly illustrated in the Book of Joel: “Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips. A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.” (Joel 1:5-7) The prophetic guidance from Joel was to call for mourning. He encouraged believers to lament and fast (Joel 1:13-14). This pastoral advice was given to properly deal with economic loss and allowed people to come to terms with their sinfulness. The hope was that God would relent on the outpouring of suffering and bring back former prosperity and permit the ground to bear fruit and the land to grow grain again. With the almost total shutdown of Western Economies, is this what God is trying to tell us in Spring 2020?
Economic Ruin=Judgement
