In the days of Joseph's famine the people had given their gold, their animals, their land and themselves in exchange for provisions so that they would not die. So, what did they use for money in everyday business transactions? They used a small stone or clay scarab given out by the City Treasury. The priests of Egypt did not go under this ruling power but administered this financial system, living through the famine on a stipends from the Pharaoh. They grew wealthy while others toiled. They had vast stores of grain which they also used as money offing loaning seed out at usury.
In their temples, "granaries... priests became bankers through the loan of seed grain. In many societies the main temple and dependent structures were the most important buildings, although many smaller, often isolated, temples existed as well."1 Their temples were the center of business and commerce as well as the depository of records and contracts.
"Give me control over a nation's currency and I care not who makes its laws"2
The High Priests knew the arts of the temple, which was the central bank. They had control of the flow of currency. It was the greed and envy of Joseph's brothers that had brought all of Israel under the power of Pharaoh and at the mercy of the priests of Egypt. They were to be the Altar of God but instead they became the bricks and stones of the empires of men.
Pr 16:18 Pride before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
God had chosen his people from the seed of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and led them out of Egypt. He would be their God and Ruler but they did not have the faith of their forefathers nor of Moses. They feared for their lives and sought strength in their own numbers and bound themselves together by sacrificing the dowers of their wives and the inheritance of their sons to the golden calf.
Exodus 32:2, 4 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which [are] in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring [them] unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which [were] in their ears, and brought [them] unto Aaron. And he received [them] at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These [be] thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
What possessed them to make the golden calf out of the riches of their own family? It was not mere superstition that motivated them but a practicality stimulated by fear and a lack of faith. The people literally deposited their gold, as well as other goods and sacrificed their right to it and took in turn some sort of exchangeable token.
The gold was deposited into a large statue for all to see. The wealth of the community was melded together into a common purse. No one person could leave in the face of an enemy or trouble without leaving behind the golden idol. His scarabs or tokens were worthless except in his community. The priests of the temple kept track of all the complexities of this monetary system and of course the profits from interest and usury.
Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! said I, still thou art a bitter draught.3
Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These [be] thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
The people took pride in their scheme, though it was not a new one, but God found their way corrupt. He wanted them bound together in love and faith and charity.
We estimate men as great not by their wealth but by their virtue.4
2 Kings 17:15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that [were] round about them, [concerning] whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
History continues to be filled with stories and examples of men turning from the ways of God to the ways of men. Men bind themselves in many ways. In all sorts of secular religions, city states, kingdoms, democracies, monetary systems and corporate entities. Through all sorts of contracts, compacts, constitutions and covenants men seek comfort and illusion rather than truth and the ways of God the Father.
Warnings of the prophets and the sayings of the wise fill volumes of books often unread in today's modern society where "Coke is the real thing," "Ford has a better idea," and "Anacin gives fast relief." But our gold, wealth and the inheritance of our children has been entrusted to others, our lands we no longer own, our labor is in the service of men who exercise authority. People all profit and gain from usury, and we apply, beseech and pray to the City State to supply our needs and security and "we pray to the court"5 for justice instead of God the Father, LORD of lords.
Habakkuk 2:9, 13 Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned [against] thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! Behold, [is it] not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
People are looking everywhere but to God. The richest companies and the most autocratic governments in the world are the ones that offer insecure, faithless people security at a vain price.
Jeremiah 18:15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways [from] the ancient paths, to walk in paths, [in] a way not cast up;
Over and over it is vanity, pride and arrogance that turns men from the path of the LORD.
Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
2
- Baron M.A. Rothschild (1744 - 1812) 3
Laurence Sterne - Sentimental Journey. The Passport. The Hotel Paris 4
Magnos homines virtute metimur non fortune -Nepos. 5
Quoted from a civil action case a neighbor asked me to read.
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