27 March 2022
Yesterday's post assert firmly that God has an economic policy that stands on the ancient Hebrew culture that He created as the vehicle for revelation. His economic policy is part of the definition of holiness and righteous covenant living.
Can we outline that policy? Of course we can; it's part of the Law Code that Christ taught in His struggle to reassert the ancient Hebrew mysticism of the Covenant of Moses. It was enunciated in His teachings and everyone ignores it. However, let's present it as a reaction to our own modern western notions, starting with general principles.
All Creation belongs to God. That means all physical property. And as it was so clearly portrayed in His Word, human use of any property (material and notional) is by His feudal grant. The air you breathe, the food you eat, the raiment you wear, the land on which you tread, and the software on your computer -- it's all granted by God for you to use for His glory. He grants these things in stewardship; you are obliged to acknowledge His lordship in everything.
Your covenant status has a lot to do with how this works. If you are His child by eternal spiritual birth, you have a lawful claim to whatever you need to obey your convictions. That claim resides inside the Covenant. However, the world at large has been consigned to Satan's dominion in the sense that, while Satan has no claim to the natural world, he does have suzerainty over fallen human nature. Whatever you do in life that deviates from the Covenant obligations comes under the Devil's authority. There is no neutrality anywhere in the universe.
Because we are born mortal, our human existence is under Satan's dominion by default. It requires God's direct intervention to pull us out from under that dominion. The purchase has been made; Satan has been paid off in the case of God's eternal children. The Blood of Christ does not purchase our eternal destiny; Satan never had any hand on that. Rather, the Cross sets us free to live in this world by the Covenant. Now we stand in the place of having to assert that redemption by how we choose to live. Not in our ability to carry out the obligations, but in our conscious choice to claim that redemption. It is the choice of our will -- which is the same as saying that we submit our fleshly nature to our hearts, and we commit to living by our convictions. He provides the guidance and power to execute, but this is the lifelong battle we all fight against our own fleshly nature.
Satan is still granted mastery over the portion of the human race that has not made such a claim on redemption. It has been granted the Devil to steer human behavior so long as the people do not embrace the Covenant. Our Covenant cultural identity becomes that of the ancient Hebrew people during the Exodus. Outside that particular cultural identity, every human creation -- civilization and culture -- is under Satan's control. And thus, all that humanity does at large and in private is controlled by Satan. We have to win back from Satan those few things God has redeemed and placed in our Covenant lives. We are in no position to defy Satan's authority over the rest of the world, only the feudal domain God has granted to each of us under the Covenant.
Only the Covenant covering grants liberty to turn things around to serve God's glory. Under the Covenant, all property is just a tool for His glory. Our hold over property is contingent upon the Covenant boundaries. Don't get lost here -- there is an experiential lag because of time and space constraints on our conscious awareness. A command issued in the Spirit Realm doesn't always have an immediate effect in our human experience. The interplay between eternity and time-space constraints can trip you up, since you are stuck in the latter. Only your heart is capable of understanding eternity. Your intellect cannot grasp such things; it only dimly recognizes the moral imperatives of the heart. The common expression in Hebrew culture is that eternity bears fruit in our fallen reality, and that fruit must ripen in God's time. Nothing eternal can be scheduled from the human side of things.
The feudal nature of all this is infused in Creation itself. The dominion you exercise in stewardship will never be absolute. It's always contingent, and sometimes contingent on things you cannot perceive by the flesh. The burden is upon you to stay sensitive moment by moment in your heart.
You will always be under some higher authority; everyone serves someone else. All property is technically owned by that higher authority, but may be entrusted to you provisionally. The issue of feudal dominion in stewardship is a living thing. It is not static. Particularly in a covenant community, there is an interplay between the dominion granted to everyone involved that must include consideration of who has dominion over each other in what areas of life.
But broadly: All dominion is a personal grant. Everything is personal. There can be no property ownership outside of personal involvement. God does not honor the notion of corporate persons; it's an abomination. He also does not approve of impersonal investments. If you are not directly involved in the day-to-day operation of some business, you are not permitted to have a passive investment of resources. You can appoint a proxy to personally represent your interests, but the proxy must be your feudal servant. The notion of stockholder is an abomination; you are not permitted to make business decisions that affect others unless you exercise direct dominion in that business, so that you know what's going on.
There is only one justification for profitable activity: to benefit your tribe. Your tribe is your real treasure. Material wealth exists only to bless them. Thus, if you run a business, profit is not the objective. Rather, the welfare of the participants is the only valid objective. You should hire as many of your tribe as you can, as they will inherit the estate. You can hire outsiders, but they have no real interest beyond their own personal profit. Still, you treat them as provisional members of your household. You consciously assert a shepherd's care over them. Your decisions are aimed at blessing people, not at producing profit. Gaining profit is side-effect of good shepherding.
Of course you'll do what you can to grow the company, but only to the point you can still exercise dominion. If you can't run it, get out of it. You can sell the real property, but you cannot sell the "company" to anyone else. The people will always be yours until you pass them to a valid heir. Everything is based on roles and the assumption of roles. With our without blood kinship of the staff, there is a presumed covenant relationship on the small scale of the business operation.
Covenant trumps DNA. Your duty to the Covenant outweighs your presumed obligations to blood kinship. Anything not based on blood or covenant is just wishful thinking. Thus, if you cannot pin something to Covenant obligations, it's vapor. Be very, very careful what promises you make to those outside the Covenant, because God does not back anything that doesn't glorify Him. Don't pin His reputation on your bad choices; always pray and follow your convictions. Your obligations to those under Satan's dominion is only what God says they are. You are bound by the Covenant, so demands made by human authority are not always binding, but we are commanded to do our best to obey human laws.
But, as long as the world rejects Covenant Law, it's all just wishful thinking. Nothing outside of it can be sacred and binding. You may still suffer human consequences, but your duty is to God's Covenant first, regardless of the costs in human terms. Satan retains a significant measure of dominion over this world; you are still mortal. You are still bound by Covenant obligations, regardless of your lack of control over the outcomes.
This document is public domain; spread the message.