Speaking to the Soul of the Market

This post announces that the Lord Jesus Christ is shortly about to speak to the global market. He will do this through the activities of businesses that have grown to become a platform for Him to be seen and heard. (October 2021)

Texts – please read the Bible passages (below the post) as you read the post.

Key Points

• God is the owner of the earth and everything in it, including the markets (Psalm 24). According to Wikipedia, a market is a composition of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations, or infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. Markets facilitate trade and enable the distribution and resource allocation in a society.
• The first market transaction ever was between God and mankind (Genesis 2: 8-9, 15-17). God planted a garden at Eden (with a river to water it) and engaged the services of Adam to dress and keep it. In return, Adam was permitted to eat freely from the fruits produced, except for one. In this market, it was established practice for God to visit regularly (Genesis 3:8) and introduce new market players subject to Adam’s oversight (e.g., animals and later Eve) (Genesis 2:18-19).
• In the first market, God was the owner and regulator while Adam was the manager. This were the system and institutions in place. The procedure was that God provided the ideas, raw material supplies, and new market players, while Adam managed them. Adam had access to God’s knowledge database and His power. By intuition he understood the nature of each animal and named it accordingly. Social relations included evening visits by God and conversations with Adam and Eve. The regulation was that mankind could eat from any tree except the forbidden fruit. The market infrastructure was an orchard of trees watered by a river whose course ran by the garden. We can therefore conclude that the first ever market had its own systems, institutions, procedures, regulations, social relations, and infrastructure. In fact, encoded in the first market was God’s template for how markets should function.
• However, Adam and Eve sinned against God by violating the regulation that governed the first ever market. They ate the fruit of the tree that had been forbidden by God. God in turn shut down that market, causing mankind to lose vital aspects of the template of systems, institutions, procedures, regulations, social interactions, and infrastructure that should govern our markets. It has now been 6,000+ years since this sad event, and many markets have been created by man – global GDP (2020) is estimated at $85 – $88 trillion across 195 countries. While good progress is being made in developing the world’s economies, it is being achieved via incomplete and corrupt market templates. For this reason, the global economy suffers from significant levels of poverty (nearly half of the world’s population live on less than $5.50 a day – World Bank) and inequality (the top 10% of wealthy people in the world control over 80% of global wealth – Credit Suisse).
• The driving force in the development and management of markets is mankind. We are the soul of the global markets. And with such dire statistics on poverty and inequality, we can conclude that the soul of our markets is troubled. Our markets are troubled by a degenerate nature that overrides the noble intentions behind its creation.
• God speaks to mankind through the holy scriptures (the Bible). In a story recorded in both Mark 5:1-17 and Luke 8:26-35, He shares with us the true picture of our markets today. The current state of the market can be likened to the Gadarene demoniac Jesus encountered during His earthly ministry. The Gadarene demoniac was a man inhabited by a legion of demon spirits (roughly 6,500 of them). They had taken over his mind and his voice. He had stripped himself naked and lived among the tombs. He could not be tamed and was strong enough to break off chains that had been used to hold him down. He was also in the habit of cutting himself with stones. This is the picture of the soul of our markets today.
• As earlier stated, at the root of our markets’ degenerate nature is a corruption of God’s original template. In the garden at Eden (first ever market), God raised businesses (trees) that were pleasant to the eyes (good works) and good for food (commercially profitable). The order of these two characteristics is important. When Eve made up her mind to disobey God and eat from the forbidden fruit, she saw a tree that was good for food and pleasant to the eyes. That is, in her lust, she switched the divine order and so we lost the template that makes for peaceful markets devoid of poverty and inequality. We understand that the ‘pleasant to the eye’ characteristic refers to good works because of Matthew 5:16. This scripture says: “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven”. Good works can be seen and they are pleasant to the eyes of men! Good works refers to things such as obedience to God as regards your investments, fairness in business dealings, giving generously to the poor, widows, and vulnerable persons in society, etc. In God’s market template good works take priority over profit making. However, we have switched this order such that our businesses are now driven primarily by money. When we have made our money through both honest and dishonest means, we then proceed to do corporate social responsibility!
• Like the Gadarene demoniac our markets need salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ met with this demon possessed man, spoke with him, and delivered him from his troubles. Similarly, the Lord is now set to save the troubled soul of our markets. He is set to save us from the five (5) issues that characterized the Gadarene demoniac. They are as follows:

• • Being Driven by Demons – this speaks to the lust for money and the materialism that currently drives businesses operating in the markets. The scriptures in Ephesians 2:1-3 identified Satan, the prince of the demon spirits, as the source of the lust for money and materialism in our markets.
  • Nakedness – this represents the absence of the glory of God in market players (Romans 3:23). The glory of God refers to His holy and righteous nature, alongside His wisdom and might. When mankind sinned in the garden of Eden, we lost social relations with God – a key component of the original market template. We became ashamed to stand in His presence and His wisdom and power to achieve great things in the market consequently became unavailable to us. This is why Adam confessed in Genesis 3:8-11: “…I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself”. Many businesses are managed today by leaders who are afraid to approach God for help because of their ungodly lifestyles. They don’t have any social relations with Him. This is nakedness!
  • Being Untamable – this refers to when businesses actively oppose and disregard the natural limitations imposed by good morals/values, and the market regulations put in place by governments. Like the Gadarene demoniac who broke every chain that restrained him, so also do market players today. And this for the sake of more and more money.
  • Hurting Ourselves – this speaks to the widespread market behaviour of loving money and using men, rather than loving men and using money. We hurt ourselves when businesses seek ways to exploit their employees, the customer, and suppliers. We also do so when only a minute fraction of our profits goes into taking care of the vulnerable in society. The passage of scripture in Galatians 5:13-15 says it all.
  • Dwelling among Tombs – this was the home of the Gadarene demoniac. And given the state of his health, he was likely to die soon. Our markets are sadly headed for the same destination. The unsustainable nature of our market behaviours will give rise to economic recessions and later depression. This is just as God told Adam in Genesis 3:19: “in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

• The Lord Jesus Christ will speak to the markets through businesses He is raising today. These businesses will be like the trees in the garden at Eden – trees of righteousness. They will repurpose their wealth and businesses by ensuring that good works once again take priority over profits. They will design and roll out new business models that both benefit the poor and are commercially profitable.
• God expects that every business organisation in the world will in turn follow the example set by these trees of righteousness. By so doing, business organisations will be saved from the degenerate nature of the Gadarene demoniac that controls them. It is the salvation of the market.
• We conclude this post by reminding you that God owns the market. He is now visiting it and speaking to it so He can save it from the certain destruction to which it is headed. God is not looking to take away businesses from their current owners; rather, He wants to save these businesses by repurposing them for good. However, should you choose to neglect the message of salvation to the market, then you can be certain of God’s judgment (Hebrews 2:1-4).

The mercy and grace of God be with us all. Amen.

Texts – please read the Bible passages (below the post) as you read the post.

Psalm 24:1-2 – The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters. (NKJV)

Mark 5:1-17 – Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea. So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region. (NKJV)

Genesis 2: 8-9, 15-17 – The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food…Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (NKJV)

Genesis 2:18-19 – And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. (NKJV)

Genesis 3:8 – And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (NKJV)

Ephesians 2:1-3 – And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. (NKJV)

Genesis 3:8-11 – And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (NKJV)

Romans 3:23 – …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… (NKJV)

Galatians 5:13-15 – It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? (MSG)

Hebrews 2:1-4 – Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (NKJV)