Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them. – 2 Kings 3:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 3, 2016): 2 Kings 3

We haven’t heard a lot about debt in the current election cycle, a phenomenon that astounds me. I am convinced that debt is the root problem for a lot of what ails Western Society. We have seen the problems recently in Greece, and in August 2016 Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute made the incredible claim that the debt load of The United States is the second worst in the world. Maken asserts that, according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in July, the Federal Debt of the United States now stood at 100 percent of the gross domestic product. Maken says that that “makes it similar to debt levels reached during the aftermath of the second world war when the US was still dealing with its massive war debt.” The reality is that the current issues over the exploding cost of Obamacare or the need for more spending in the realm of education, possibly even making post-secondary education free as Bernie Sanders pushed for during his run for the Democratic Nomination, and an idea that has been picked up by Hillary Clinton in her run for the Presidency, would not be issues if so much of tax-payer money was not needed to service the record high debt of the nation.

And the United States does not stand alone. In fact, it is distressing to see that the list of First World countries is essentially a list of countries that are currently being strangled by debt. Solve the debt crisis on every level and we will have the money to pay for the things that we think we need or want. Ignore the debt crisis and our problems are only going to grow. We have to solve the root problem to have a chance to address the rest of our societal ills.

Joram, son of Ahab, becomes king over Israel. Quite possibly because of his relationship and ties to Jehoshaphat of Judah, Joram makes some moves to reform Israel back toward a model that God had always intended her to follow. He removes the sacred stone of Ba’al that his father had made. But according to the author of Kings, he just does not go far enough. The problem with the Northern Kingdom of Israel went back to the changes of Jeroboam son of Nebat at the original division of the nation. Jeroboam had made the decision to set up two Golden Calves in the Northern Kingdom. And he told the people that these calves were the God of Israel who had brought them out of Egypt. It was this declaration that provided the root cause of the Northern problem with idolatry. But while Joram was willing to deal with the symptoms of the cause, the root evil he left in place. History might have been very different if Joram could have found the courage to carry the Reformation to its completion and restored the worship of the real God in Israel. But that he just could not bring himself to do.

The reality is that, in all areas of life, we can deal with root causes, or we can deal with symptoms. But only dealing with the root causes will bring us any lasting peace.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 4