How can I practice Promised Land Economics?

Some people spend great effort trying to improve economic systems by making ethical enhancements such as fairer term sheets, interest rates, equity stakes and exit takes. But good improvements to bad systems seldom make the systems good, just less bad. We cannot perfume the economic system of Egypt and think it will smell like the Rose of Sharon. Old systems will not work for those who should be living in the Promised Land... but I am getting ahead of myself.

When the nation of Israel was extracted from Egypt this was more than an emergence of a family that had, over a 400-year period, become a nation. With clear instructions from God the leaders laid out foundational principles for the new country and it wasn’t just a set of religious do’s and don’ts. Moses pointed out that the economic models would be fundamentally different as well.

10 The land that you are going into is not like the land of Egypt, where you lived before. There, when you planted seeds, you had to take water to them. It was like a garden where you grow vegetables. 11 But now you are going across the Jordan River into a different kind of land. It has hills and valleys. Rain falls from the sky and makes the ground wet. 12 The Lord your God takes care of the land there. He watches over it every day, through the whole year.

13 So listen carefully to the commands that I am giving to you today. Love the Lord your God and serve him in everything that you think and in everything that you do. 14 If you do that, he makes this promise to you: ‘I will send rain on your land at the right time each year. There will be rain in autumn and rain in spring. Then your crops will give you food. You will also have grapes to make wine and olives to make oil. 15 I will make grass grow in your fields for your animals to eat. You will have as much food as you want to eat.’ Deuteronomy 11:10-15

This passage gives a very high-level glimpse of two different systems: Egypt and the Promised Land. In the Kingdom Economics course, we explore in more detail the differences between three different economies: Egypt (Babylon), The Desert, and the Promised Land.

Caution: trying to live Promised Land principles in Egypt or the Desert does not work because in Egypt the source is self, and in the Desert there is no capital stewardship. There is no sense in learning Promised Land principles without the parallel life of commitment to living the Kingdom of God. (If you’re not interested in being in God’s business then stick with the system you know.) Yet we live in an era of the Spiritualization of Capital so it is incumbent upon us to figure this question out: How can I practice Promised Land economics?

Interested in finding out more? Follow this link:

1. Kingdom Economics