People don't like change. The Israelites begging to go back to slavery under Pharaoh is the perfect example. It shows how much people will choose what they know, even if they know it's bad for them.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. The kids are running around in the hallway here, but they're having fun. So I don't really want to tell them to quiet down. So you may hear kids yelling, having fun in the background. I'm talking about tariffs all week on my Sirius XM show. That sounds like fun, doesn't it? That's fun.
Okay. You got to judge it. Like, is that fun or screaming in tariff? I don't know. I think it's fun. That's fun.
Okay. I think they're having, um, we're talking about tariffs all week and it's more than a news cycle. We need to get more, it's stopping more than one news cycle, more than two days. A lot of topics, they'll be big on Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday I'm like, you know what, we should maybe move on. This, the reordering of the entire global economy deserves more than a day or two of coverage.
So we're gonna stay on this for quite a long time. And something that came up today on the radio is how much, like we voted for this, the American people voted for this. We knew exactly what was coming. This isn't a surprise. Trump's been talking about it for, I don't know, 40 years. So we want change and not Obama's empty, you know, vapid hope and change. Like real, like genuine change.
And we knew what it was. We knew the change we wanted. It was a real defined change. But now that it's happening, people are like, oh, but I don't really want change. I want to change, but not change. I don't want to change. I don't want to go through a change
in order to get to the change. I just want to change, but not really change, just change. It's like, well, what are we doing here, people? Do we want something to change or not? Now, here's how we get past this. Two things need to happen. First, we need to clearly identify the problem
with where we were and where we were headed on this path. And then we need a clear vision of where we're going. So we need to clearly identify the problem. Otherwise it's like, well, why change? And we need to clearly articulate where we're going. Otherwise people will say, well, it's not worth it.
I don't really know where I'm going and this isn't worth the cost of it. So where, let's go through those quickly. Where were we? I think the state of the economy was deceitful. Per capita GDP, very high, very high. Stock market going up, But that's not everything.
And this is my main thesis. The main point I'm making on the radio is the stock market is not a complete indicator of economic wellbeing or social wellbeing. And you know who knew that? The guy who invented the GDP measurement.
GDP is one of those things we think has been around forever. GDP was only invented in 1934, and we only started using it as a nation in 1942. Simon Kuznets was the economist who won the Nobel Prize for it. He created the GDP, a gross domestic product.
And okay, that's fine, I'm not throwing it out entirely, but it's not complete. And he knew it! He! Let me emphasize the it out entirely, but it's not complete and he knew it he let me emphasize the rubber He knew it Simon knew it. He said he knew it wasn't complete. He said the welfare of a nation can Scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined above the welfare of a nation. This is what we're assessing We're assessing the welfare of our nation and people people look to the one measurement, the GDP,
and they say, well, the welfare is great. But the guy who invented the GDP says, no, that's not enough. That can scarcely be inferred through just this one metric. He later, about 30 years later, said, he said that to Congress, by the way, that was in a speech to Congress presenting GDP
as an economic tool. He said, here's a hammer, but don't go thinking you can use it as a screwdriver. It's not a screwdriver, it's a hammer. It's good for hammering, but that's it. A couple of years later, 30 years later, he said, distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth,
between costs and returns, and between the short and long run. Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what. My goodness that's amazing. The person who invented the measurement said, listen guys let's not go overboard with this. Let's not let this be the end-all be-all of our economic or social well-being. Amazing. We'll do more of this on SiriusXM.
Oh, one thing we did play this morning was a clip of our Treasury Secretary, Scott Besant, who said he visited some local food banks, which is pretty amazing, how many Treasury Secretaries have ever visited food banks. But he said the record number of people going to food banks.
And I just imagine going into a food bank and saying, what are you guys doing here? Meta stock is through the roof. Don't you guys know that meta stock, that Nvidia stock is sky high? What are you all doing?
Oh, well, it turns out the richest 10% of Americans own 88% of stocks. Amazing. Okay, so then the question is, where are we and this is the well, you know, I don't want change Because change involves change and we want change. We don't really want you We don't have to change it
We don't want to change anything to get to the change that we don't really want but we voted for it Like what are you talking about? Change is hard. It's an old expression, but sometimes it's very necessary, which is why we need to know where we're going. I want to share here the story that's the easy one. It's the low hanging fruit story to share, but I think it's so spot on. I just have to do it. The Israelites in Egypt, they were living in slavery in Egypt and Pharaoh made their life worse and worse and worse and they finally were let free and they escaped the attacking
Egyptian army through incredible miracles. And then they were promised the promised land filled with milk and honey. Milk and honey is mentioned many times. Exodus 3, 8. So I've come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land to a land flowing with milk and honey.
We'll get back to that in a second. Oliviacus 20, 24. Hence, I've said to you, you are to possess their land and I myself will give it to you to possess it. A land flowing with milk and honey. Numbers 14 8, if the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us a land which flows with milk and honey. It's a beautiful description, milk and honey. Milk requires stability and land and
peace. By the way, you hear kids screaming now. This is funny. They went downstairs. I don't know if you can hear the wife, said you guys are driving me nuts, go upstairs. She said no, you guys are driving me crazy, go upstairs. So, don't blame her. Milk requires a lot of land and stability and peace.
And honey requires lots of plants and trees. So this is a safe and abundant and thriving land. And God said it's, it's good and spacious. The good here, that Hebrew word means pleasant, excellent, rich, bountiful, prosperous, cheerful, at ease, which is an interesting word in there too. It's the same Hebrew word that's used in the creation in Genesis and God saw that the light was good, right? And everything that
God created was good. It's the same word here. But that was the promise, right? But what did the Israelites want? They wanted to go back to Egypt.
This story, it's crazy.
And they said to one another, let us choose a leader to go back to Egypt. Numbers 14, four. Oh, let's start at the beginning. 14, one. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night
and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole congregation. Oh, there's so much grumbling today. And the congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or that we would have died in the wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones would become a prey.
Would it not have been better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, let us choose a leader to go back to Egypt. They want to change, but not really. Not if the change required change and which change, they're like, well, it's just not change. Let's go back. Can we just go back?
Go back to slavery. My goodness. Why do they have this reaction? Canaan and they came back and they said the place is a land of milk and honey,
but the people there are huge. There's numbers three, verse 17, Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan
and said to them, go up into the Negev and go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they're few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether the trees are in it or not. There are trees in it or not.
Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Verse 23, and they came to the valley of Eshkol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes and they carried it on a pole between the two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. So the spies came back and they told them, we came to the land, 40 days later,
we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. However, the people who do, and this is the fear mongering, the people who dwell in fear mongering today. This is just their lack of trust in God. However, the people who dwell on the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large.
And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there, the giants. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "'Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are able to overcome it. Then the men who had gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people they are stronger than we are. So they doubted the other nine. How did God react? Amazing. And the Lord said to Moses how
long will this people despise me and how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs I've done among them. I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." And then Moses comes to their defense and the penalty is they can't go into the promised land except for Caleb. You know the rest of the story. The doubt, the fear, the wanting of change, but not really doing what it takes to get it. Listen, I don't know if the tariffs will work. I don't know if the tariffs will lead us to an economic and societal promised land.
Can't guarantee anything of course. But I know the trajectory we were on and the place we were was not good. And I believe there is a better end. What I really want to emphasize here, and my only point of this episode today is to speak to human nature.
And that is that people don't like change. The depth of that reality is that the Israelites would rather go back to Pharaoh and rather go back to live as slaves under Pharaoh because at least they knew what slavery was like and that is better than the unknown. That's how deep people's desire to not change is. So we need to overcome that and anything that we want to move people, right?
Anyway, we want to move people from some place that even though it's bad, at least it's known. You got to move people by not only making sure they recognize how bad their current situation is, but how good it can be providing that hope for what can be so we can work together to get to that better place. It's the same with explaining the gospel to someone too, right?
No one's gonna be saved if they don't think they need saving, if they think they're pretty good, or good enough, or better than that guy. So you need to help someone understand their full actual depravity.
And then once you're saved, what eternity in heaven looks like. Oh yeah, that's worth it. And there's a cost. You have to count the cost. And there's a cost to it. But it's worth it. But it's worth it.
Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Now the kids are quiet.
