The spoilers

Jeremiah 12:12 "The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace."

Trying hard to stay out of politics on this post (not too hard as the 'bail out' seems to be opposed or supported across party lines).  This verse jumped out at me during my morning reading, which I cut short due to concern as to the financial situation world wide (not a good thing but am back into the Word).  

And note this truth... 'world wide'.  If anyone thinks that the American economy can go 'into the tank' and the rest of the world can slide through scott-free, are I believe, deceiving themselves.

All that aside; biblical financing is clearly laid out in scripture: 2 Book of Kings 4:7 "Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest."  

First: God provides, live within His providence.

Romans 13:8 "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."

Proverbs 22:7 "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."

Though I do not believe that the Lord is commanding us never to borrow money, we are just to be wise in our use of same.  The borrower is the servant (slave) to the lender until the debt is paid.  Only borrow with wisdom, a well thought out plan based on ability to pay and need to borrow (ie: mortgage, car if required etc, most of our debts are probably unneeded!).  

Second: Pay your debts first!  And if you cannot, go to your debtor and work out a solution, bankruptcy is I believe, without every other effort first, reneging on your obligations.  

I think of a secular saying I first heard as a young teen and was a favorite of my father, 'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"("Tanstaafl").  Very popular now with many interpretations but the bottom line is everything has a cost, if not directly to you to someone and always to you in the sense that you will lose the satisfaction of supplying (with God's grace) for your and your families needs.  

Third: work for what you need.  God gives you the ability... use it at whatever He provides for you to do.

Even the fact that salvation is free only denotes that it is free to all, but God's Son paid the price for our freedom!

My thoughts is that there were a lot of shenanigans going on in the stock and brokerage markets and the cows have come home to roost.  Hope no innocents suffer, but many foolish will lose their shirts.  js