God remembers the exploiters. This...
Illustration
God remembers the exploiters. This may sound harsh in our nonjudgmental age, but divine justice cannot have it otherwise and history has shown God's memory to be flawless. Take but one instance from our past. In the late nineteenth century the so-called Robber Barons of American industry lived in opulence unlike any the world has ever seen. Never mind, they said, that their mansions rested on the bodies of children crushed under the weight of unscrupulous labor practices. Never mind that the words "ethics" and "fair commerce" found no place in their working vocabulary. What mattered was the marble on their staircases, the gold on their chandeliers, and the envied position of their family names.
In time, their position utterly changed. For some the change came through strong, and hated, regulation of their deeds. For some it came through devastating loss of fortune. For others still, change overtook them in the sad and total collapse of lives gone hollow from within. Does it sound harsh to say, "God remembered?"
The same may be said of the unscrupulous in Amos' day, of corrupt families in the waning days of the Roman Empire and the High Renaissance, and of legions of others through the ages. Their triumphs were analogous and the ends they met were dismally the same. God does not forget. And the question we in the wealthiest quadrant of the world need to be asking is: "How will God remember us?"
In time, their position utterly changed. For some the change came through strong, and hated, regulation of their deeds. For some it came through devastating loss of fortune. For others still, change overtook them in the sad and total collapse of lives gone hollow from within. Does it sound harsh to say, "God remembered?"
The same may be said of the unscrupulous in Amos' day, of corrupt families in the waning days of the Roman Empire and the High Renaissance, and of legions of others through the ages. Their triumphs were analogous and the ends they met were dismally the same. God does not forget. And the question we in the wealthiest quadrant of the world need to be asking is: "How will God remember us?"
