Have you ever seen a leader tell people the truth, even when they don't want to hear it? Have you ever seen a preacher do it? We need to support the people who choose the truth over popularity.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for taking the time to be here today. There have been so many spiritual themes in the news lately. I love it. It's awesome. A lot to choose from, a lot to talk about.

I just want to start here just because I feel like I got to get it off my chest. I don't believe in coincidences. We're reading this great, oh, let me pull it up here. It is a book to read with your kids. It's a Bible book, but it's a hundred years old, and it's just the perfect mix of right to the text, but difficult. It's not kiddy. It's not goofy and cartoony, and I can't find it here. Let me pause the recording and I'll be right back.

All right, I'm back. I forgot about this is a podcast, not live radio. It's called the Children's Story Bible by Catherine F. Voss, V-O-S. 30 bucks on Amazon. It's 800 pages long.

It's perfect, it's perfect. Stories are each perfect length, right to the text, not babyish, all ages. Our kids are, we read it to Johnny, he's five, we have a two year old, but we put him to bed first. So five to nine, they're all tracking, all following.

It's great. We're actually going through it the second time. We went through it a couple of years back. We're going through it again. It's so good. Anyway, Saturday night we read Exodus 1. Sunday morning, our preachers preach in Exodus 1. Come on.

The sermon was entitled, You Can't Have My Child. And it was about protecting our kids from the world. And it was excellent. And I have some themes from that that I'd like to share. We're not gonna do that one day though. We'll do that one later in the week because this is what I got to get off my chest. Tariffs and the week that was

and the week that is to come and tariff news and tariff talk. It's the one thing I'd like to say about this then we'll get to the spiritual point. I was talking to some friends this weekend that are conservative guys by their nature, but they're not like Trump trained. And I think they, well, I don't want to say these guys fell

for a talking point. I think they've come to the conclusion that it was chaos, that these tariffs have been chaos. And I have a video here, not going to waste a minute of your time, but it's a montage that someone made of every Democrat today saying the word chaos. It's chaos. It's chaos. It's chaos.

Oh, it's chaos. Chaos. Chaos. Chaos.

That's the word of the day.

The word of the week. Oh, it's chaos. No, it's not. I think a lot of people looking at last week, I think it was just madness, chaos by flying by the seat of their pants and all the rest was not. First, Trump's been talking about terrorists for 40 years. How many, how many campaign speeches the day did he get? Like six, every one he brought it up.

He talked about it at the first inaugural address in 2016. Second, Trump wrote a book about how he goes about negotiating and he always follows it to a tee. And then third, the chair of his council of economic advisors back in November wrote a 41 page essay called

A User's Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System. So I don't know what more you would need for you to conclude that it indeed actually is a plan. And there's an end goal and that is to turn the entire world against China. Not just have America decouple from China,

but the whole world decouple from China, all the way to Vietnam, their neighbors. I've talked to a couple of experts on this and their relationship, China and Vietnam. And as much, you know, we fought a war there and they fought a war against us, Vietnam.

They hate China even more. They fought many wars for thousands of years. So all those countries in the region, including India, are turning against China now. This is incredible news. This is what, well, this is the end. Well, you listen, you can disagree. You can disagree that it's incredible. There's actually, you can think this is a bad plan, but you can't argue that there's no plan. There indeed is a plan. There's a great clip of Scott Besant, our treasury secretary saying, listen everyone, we don't have to do this. Meaning it'd be a lot easier

if I just pumped trillions of dollars into the economy and the stock market would boom and everyone would say, I'm such a great, Scott Besant, what a great treasury secretary and Trump would be such a great president because the stock markets are,

but this would just keep us going down this road that eventually would collapse. And it'd probably be after I'm gone, so I wouldn't get any of the blame, but we're not gonna do that. We're gonna do what we need to do in order to save this country. Have you ever seen a president that actually does that? That actually does the difficult thing that's not politically easy?

Does the difficult leadership move? I've never seen that. And that's what Trump is doing right now, and it's wonderful to see. Trump even said, we have to take our medicine. That's what we're doing right now.

It's gonna be hard. And it's not just him too. We here in America, we have to do a lot of things too. We can't just sit back and be like, enjoy it like the master at work. And I guess we can for the international thing, but then we have to do our part here at home

and we need to change many different aspects of our culture in order for this to work. Trump's out there changing the world, great, but we in America, we got our work to do here at home. And this is what we talked about a lot on the show. We have way too much welfare dependency.

We have a terrible education system. We have a ton of people who can't read in this country. There's a lot of different measurements for illiteracy, but it's believed that 21% of US adults can't perform at a level one. So they're level one or below. This means the most basic, simple text they can read,

but could not read a news article, could not read a job application. Functionally illiterate. 54% of adults read below a sixth grade level. Newspapers aim to hit at a sixth to eighth grade reading level. So 54% of American adults can't read the newspaper. That's a problem. And we have a terrible work ethic. So these are major cultural changes that we need to lead in our country.

And that's not gonna be fixed with tariffs. We have a lot of work to do. Honestly, I think it needs a mass mobilization effort. Needs like, you know, like when you're fighting a war, there's like this big mass movement about the war. And like, that's what we need.

We need a war against sloth and against dependency and against ignorance in order to match the threats that we're facing. It requires a direct mobilization effort. I don't know if that comes from DC, not gonna wait for them. We got to do it ourselves, but a leader makes a difference.

And for the first time in my life, we have a leader as a president who's willing to tell people not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. And that's my Bible pivot. This is, this needs to be true with your preacher as well. Your preacher should be telling you not necessarily what you want to hear, but what is true, no matter how hard it might be for people in the audience to hear. 2 Timothy 4, preach the word. We can end right there. Just stop. So preach the word. Be ready in season and

out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort all with long suffering and teaching. The word exhort, I looked it up Webster's 1828 original dictionary to incite by words or advice, to animate or urge by arguments to a good deed or to any laudable conduct or course of action. Exhort. Acts 27 22 says, I exhort you to be of good cheer. Paul goes on, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves

teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables, itching ears. Another Greek translation of this is, or translation of the Greek word is a tickle. So it tickles your ears, meaning it feels good. People seek out only what feels good, even if it's untrue, especially if it's not true.

That doesn't matter, truth doesn't matter. It's just what feels good. But even if it's bad for you, even if what they're saying is directly harmful to you and bad for you, people will still go for just what feels good, not what they need to hear. How about this one, Ezekiel 33 30.

So they come to you as people do. They sit before you as my people and they hear your words but they do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and they can play their instrument, play well on an instrument. For they hear your words, but they do not do them.

And when this comes to pass, surely it will come that they will know that a prophet has been among them. And when this comes to pass, surely it will come, then they will know that a prophet has been among them. People don't want to hear the truth, but even if they do hear the truth, they may just like the music of the words or the nice sounding preacher and it's like fun to listen to guy, but does it change their life? Are people acting differently because they're hearing the Word of God? Here's the one I wanted to share. Micah, love this book.

Micah is rebuking Israel and it's ugly. Let's start with the first one. Micah 2, woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil on their beds. So these are people who are just sitting there in bed, coming up with evil, wicked plots.

It's all they think about. And they can't wait to wake up in the morning so they can go out and be evil. Let's do this first though, this is the one I wanted to share. Micah 2.10, if a man should walk in a false spirit and speak a lie saying, "'I will prophesy to you of wine and drink,' even he would be the prattler of this people."

A prattler is an idle talker. But again, the idea here, someone telling you what you want to hear. So Israel is losing their connection to God and when you do that you end up catering, you worship yourself, you cater to your own desires. And then the false prophet comes along, or someone with a false spirit. And they come along to you who's not connected connected to God anymore, and they say, don't worry. Don't worry, everything's great.

I will prophesy to you wine and drink, good things and great times are coming. You got all your material comforts, you got all your sensual pleasures. Everything's wonderful, everything's great. Don't you worry, good times and good times only.

It would be like someone today prophesying, don't worry about America, putting it into political context. Don't worry, stock market will soar. Your housing prices will go up forever. We'll continue to be the reserve currency. America will dominate no matter what.

We'll only get wealthier and nothing bad will ever happen. And everyone says, oh, that's great. Let's change nothing for the better. This is, there's nothing good. It could be changed. Everything's great and wonderful in every way. We don't want to listen to those people, not politically, certainly not spiritually. If a people are corrupt and idolatrous, then the leaders of those people will mirror the decay.

And they'll say, oh yes, you're great. Things are great. Nothing needs to change. Keep going. It'll only get better if you change nothing at all. How many leaders, and then the people are like,

oh, you're amazing. How many leaders choose popularity over integrity? How many preachers choose popularity over integrity? Let's pray that God raises up leaders and preachers to tell the truth. Those people won't be popular when they do it. So we'll need all the more support from us. popular when they do it. So we'll need all the more support from us. MikeSlater.Locals.com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

The Bible wrote about government corruption, from bureaucracy to downright wickedness. There's nothing new under the sun, but what does God command us to do with it?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. On our TV special the other day, it was about lawfare and Western governments, not just America. Talked about the European Union and Le Pen and France and free speech doesn't exist in England.

Police knocking on doors. We played a video of police knocking on someone's door because of a social media post in the middle of the night. You have to take down this social media post. We've played a video of it. It's insane. Do we need to take a minute to talk about lawfare against Trump or against Americans today or corruption in our government. Look what Doge is uncovering every day. And it ranges as a scale from downright wickedness all the way to ineptness.

And I don't know where everything lies on that scale somewhere, but we're going to get rid of all of it. That's the point. We're going to root all of it out. The other day, Doge reported that the irs.gov website, the login button is not in the upper right-hand corner

where it is on every other website. And we naturally go to the upper right-hand corner to log in. For some reason, they put it randomly in the middle of the page. You gotta scroll down and find it in the middle. So the Doge guys are like, that's weird, let's move it. And they went to the IRS engineer and the guy's like, oh, we can't, like the earliest we can get that done

is July 27th. It's like what, 103 days from now? 103 days? How can that be? So the Doge guys got it. How long do you think it took?

How long do you think it took the Doge guys to do it? Took 71 minutes. So that is the ratio of private sector to government. Now that's just an emptiness. There's nothing corrupt there, but I don't think I'd imagine that's just inept.

How many minutes is 103 days? That's the question. So the ratio of private sector to government is 71 to 150,000. 103 days is 150,000 minutes. So 71 minutes it takes the private sector, it takes the government 150,000.

Sounds about right. Let me do a little more math here. One to 2,000, there you go. So one to 2, 2000 ratio of efficiency. Amazing. I'm going to put that in the inept category. But then of course, there's the corruption. We saw that with all the NGOs getting tens of billions of dollars funneling the money

back around to themselves and to the politicians. It's all got to go. It's all got to go. I was asked, challenged by my producer the other day to prepare a segment on biblical examples of corruption, of corrupt rulers and corrupt leaders. And I said, Oh, that's the easiest task I've ever been given in my dire life. Let's do it. The first one that came to mind, uh, I don't know, maybe we go with the King of Judah who sacrificed his child in fire for Moloch.

I don't know, maybe that's not corrupt, maybe that's more on the wicked side. The Bible says King Ahab was the worst. First King 1630 says that he did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. There was never anyone like Ahab

who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols." So we have our massively wicked leaders. The Bible also speaks of bureaucracy and the wickedness and corruption of bureaucracy. Check this out, Ecclesiastes 5.8.

If you see the oppression of the poor and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter. Don't be surprised. Don't be shocked. You see oppression and perversions of justice and righteousness, what are you, are you surprised? Don't be shocked at that. For high official watches over high official and higher officials are over them.

It's bureaucracy because no one's ever accountable for anything. And it leads to oppression and don't be shocked when you see it. That's how common it's always been thousands of years ago. Proverbs 28 to says because of the transgression of a land of the people of a nation because of the transgression away from God many are its princes.

How about that?

That's not good. By the way, that's a curse. It's not good to have so many rulers and princes. That's bureaucracy. That's what they're speaking of. So because of your sin, because you're disobedient, now you have to have a giant bureaucracy. It's a curse.

Bible scholar Bruce Walke, about a hundred years ago, he said, as a result of the land's total break with the Lord, they need a large bureaucracy to keep an eye on one another. An Arabic curse once said, may God make your sheiks many. That's where we are right now. May God make your bureaucracy enormous. I curse you America. That's what Doge is trying to root out. But it goes on Proverbs 28, but by a man of understanding and knowledge, right will be prolonged.

Good, godly, wise leaders can be a blessing to a nation.

They can lead people to be free, but oh, that can be a problem too, because individual people can be corrupt as well. This is what we did focus on on the, on the TV special, uh, second Timothy three. He said, but know this,

that in the last days, perilous times will come.

And he goes on and he talks not about terrible things that will happen. He doesn't talk about famine or disease. He talks about men. He said for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers. How many of these things do you see in our culture today?

Without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away. Lovers of themselves, it's amazing. That's the first one.

And that's where all the other ones come from, lovers of selves. And it's wild that our culture today is all about the self-help book. And the self-help book is all about you're amazing. You need to love yourself more.

And here's Paul saying, um, that like perilous times and like, what, what do you mean, Paul? Well, people would be lovers of themselves, but that's all we're being told to do is love ourselves more. But the rest of this list, lovers of money, blasphemers. I saw a picture the other day somewhere. I don't even know why of Kesha. She have a new album or something. Uh, Kesha, the pop star, she's dressed as a nun and scantily clad and you know, whatever.

Something blasphemous happening. Oh, so edgy. Without self-control. Wow, we can give countless examples of these. But Paul said that these ideas, these sins, they creep into households and they lead people from the truth. He said, men of

corrupt minds resist the truth. I love the end of Paul's message. He says, but you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given it by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction

in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." That's who we need to be. That needs to be our goal to be someone who's thoroughly equipped for every good work. So here's Paul telling Timothy of dangerous times that are to come dangerous times, uncertain times, chaotic times, and how some people

are swept away by them, some people go into hiding, but that's not the right posture, the right posture is to stand strong, knowing that you're standing on the word of God and that he will protect you and you'll have everlasting life. Final thought here. Jesus saw plenty of corruption in his day, spoke against it. Mark 12.

Then he said to them in his teaching, beware of the scribes who desire to go around in long robes. They love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seat in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses." So there they love themselves. That's what that first part's all about. They love themselves. And they devour widows' houses. They take advantage of widows. They take advantage of the most vulnerable people in the community for their money. Jesus hated

that. He condemned them specifically. How about Micah? Check out this condemnation and the why now hear this. You had to the house of Jacob rulers, the house of Israel who abhor justice, who pervert all equity, who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. How about this? Her heads judge for a bribe. Her priests teach for pay and her prophets divine for money. So we have here are leaders being bribed, priests demanding payment in order to teach

people's people, God's law and prophets wanting money for prophecy. It's all super corrupt. What did God say of it? Proverbs 29, four by justice, a King builds up the land, but he who exacts gifts, tears it down. So what do we do?

First note, nothing new under the sun. It's one of the main themes of this podcast is there's nothing new under the sun. It's amazing. When you read the Bible, it's all there. It's all the, everything, everything that goes on today is there in the Bible, it's all there. It's all, everything, everything that goes on today is there in the Bible.

Yesterday's segment was about consumerism. Well, how can consumerism be in the Bible? Where's that? Where's that in the Bible? I don't know, Luke 12, Jesus said, "'For one's life does not consist

"'in the abundance of possession.'" It's like, oh, like right there. It's all there. That's amazing. I love that. Take great peace from that. That's the main point of this podcast is to get peace.

There's nothing new under the sun. Second, no God is in charge. And specifically on this too, Daniel 2 21 says he controls, God controls the course of world events. Oh, like what?

He removes kings and sets up other kings. Oh okay great awesome. We should worship him then. We should get in line with him. Third point is have no part in this corruption. Ephesians 5 11 take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness instead expose them. And number four, follow God. Psalm 37 27, turn from evil and do good. And you will live in the land forever for the Lord loves justice and does not forsake

his saints. They are preserved forever. Corruption, lawfare, weaponized government, nothing new. Don't be surprised. God's in control. Have no part in it. Expose it. Follow God. You'll be blessed forever. MikeSlater.Locals.com. Transcript. No commercials. blessed forever. MikeSlater.Locals.com. Transcript. No commercials. On the website MikeSlater.Locals.com.

What a week it's been in the wonderful world of global trade! Trump has put on a master class for the ages, but there are still ways to go. In the meantime, today's episode is the most important (and least talked about) thing to discuss regarding trade.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here.

We have spent the last week on the radio talking about trade, tariffs and all the rest. It's been a really fun week. I want to present here though something that we haven't done on the radio. I'm not quite ready to have the conversation in full over there. I'm going to ask for your help as well to lead me in the right direction so I can get some better wisdom on this. But there's a very important conversation we need to have about our culture in America. And cultures are good because you can

change them. You can change your culture. You look at things that aren't good in your culture and you change. You look at things that are really good and you lean into those and that's important to know. You're not stuck in a culture. You can change parts of your culture. We still have a ways to go with the negotiations with the rest of the world. Let me give the bottom line with this.

What Trump did this last week was reorganize and reorient the entire world against China. So the whole world was told you're either with us or you're with China economically. If you wanna be underneath our security umbrella, you have to side with us. And if you want to sell your stuff to Americans,

we're the ones who buy all the stuff, we'll get to that. Then you have to play by our rules and you have to choose us and not trade with them, the communists in China. We spent all these last few decades trying to couple with China.

Now it's time to decouple from China, but we need a multilateral approach. We need the whole world to be with us in this endeavor. How do we do that? Well, Trump just did it this last week. It was stunning, unbelievably orchestrated, art of the deal, unlike anything the world's ever seen.

Not done with it yet, but that's the play. Now, that being said, we in America have a problem I believe with consumerism. And I don't quite know how to have this conversation yet in the right way. But we are all addicted to,

first of all we're addicted to cheap crap. But we're also just addicted to buying things. We're a disposable culture, we buy cheap, we throw it away. And people have complained about it, people on the left have complained about this for a long time for environmental reasons. That part doesn't speak to me as I'm a conservative so I don't like wasting things but I don't

think consumerism is going to lead to global warming and an extinction of humanity. That's not it. I'm more concerned about how it affects our soul and how it affects our lives. I still have my grandpa's hammer. Do you have anything like that? That's been handed down for generations?

Something that was well-made, I guarantee you it was made in America. I don't think anyone in America has anything. Ah, yes, that's my grandpa's hammer. He ordered it online from China. Like that's not, there was no online when your grandpa was, but you know what I mean?

The thing your grandpa has that he handed down to you through generations was made in America. But now we're a disposable culture and we just buy junk and we throw it away. Your kid's toys. Oh my goodness. The toys.

I feel like the Grinch toys, toys, toys, toys. It's a all such garbage, such absolute plastic garbage. And you see what it does to our kids. They get this attitude of ungratefulness. They need more, more, more, as opposed to back in the day when you got a toy, that was your toy for three years.

That's your truck. Now we have a million trucks. Is it better? Our GDP went up. Our GDP has gone way up because we have a thousand toy cars. GDP is through the roof, but are we better off? I hope we can get back to the day when made in America means the best. When made in America means I'm gonna own this thing forever and I'm gonna pass this down to my grandchildren.

My grandchildren are gonna play with this toy. We buy toys now for Christmas, we know it's not gonna make it the month. A lot of that's cheap junk from China, but also our consumerist mindset. I just know it's not right. I can't articulate it well, but I just know it's not right.

I can't articulate it well, but I just know it's not. And I mean, I know it's not because it's in the Bible. Jesus spoke against it, Luke 12, 15. And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. It's pretty clear.

Coming up on Easter. Easter is a consumerist holiday. Even if you want to take Easter away from the resurrection of Jesus Christ and turn it into a pagan thing with bunnies and eggs, okay. But then it turned into a consumerist thing on top of that. Massive Easter baskets, right? It's like, geez, what in the world? But I guess that makes sense.

Paganism and consumerism, hand in hand. And again, real quick, before moms get insulted and taking away Easter baskets, there's a difference between buying some stuff and enjoying a thing that you buy for your family. That's gifts, I'm not against gifts,

but just mindless, thoughtless junk. Just because there's a cost to that. Not just a monetary cost, not just a global security cost, but there's a cost to our souls, for you and for the recipient, especially if they're a kid.

Here's stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff. There's a cost to that. Read Isaiah one, read him. Never told you go here. Your homework is go read.

Isaiah.

Isaiah one is brutal. Let me read the first part here. Oh heavens and give ear. Oh earth for the Lord has spoken. is brutal. We read the first part, do not consider. A last sinful nation of people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord." God's saying that the people of Judah are dumber than dumb animals because at least the ox knows its owner. At least the donkey is dumb as it is. At least it knows who

takes care of it. But the people of Judah don't even know who takes care of them. We are worse than dumb animals. When it comes to worshipping God.

There's more.

In Isaiah 1, that's just like verse 4. You should read the whole thing, but let's jump over to chapter 2. This is verse six. For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with Eastern ways. They are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners.

Meaning they're messing around with idolatry and like weird stuff, like soothsayers and spirits and false gods, stuff like that. Check this out. Their land is also full of silver and gold. So listen, it starts off with Eastern ways, soothsayers, no good. And their land is full of silver and gold.

There's no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses. No end to their chariots. We'll get to that in a second. Their land is full of horses, no end to their chariots. We'll get to that in a second. Their land is also full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. People bow down and each man humbles himself. Therefore, do not forgive them. We'll get to

that last part in a second too. But all of this prosperity that in Isaiah God God is describing all this prosperity has led to the idolatry of money. God's not against money. He's not against having money. He's not against being rich. It's where your heart is. It's where your trust is. And God is saying here that, that people worship the work of their hands, things they've made, which is a form of worshiping yourself, your own creation, as opposed to the God who made all of it possible.

And I love this last part, people bow down and humble themselves. You're like, hold on, isn't that good? Does the people down bow and each man humbles himself? Well, good, right? No, they're not worshiping the right thing.

This is just saying that, yes, people will worship something. They will bow down and humble themselves to something. In this case, they're doing it to the wrong thing. So let's jump over to a second Chronicles nine. This section here is all about Solomon's wealth. And it's crazy to read again for the sake of time at second Chronicles nine, if you'd like to read it yourself, but, one verse, the king made silver, Solomon made silver as

common in Jerusalem as stones. Crazy amounts of wealth. Now this was after Solomon said that his main desire was wisdom, so God blessed him with wisdom and wealth and he got it. Worth noting, who was it who gave the great sermon on the vanity of wealth? Of course, Solomon and Ecclesiastes. But check out this last line here. So this whole long description of all of Solomon's wealth, and then it ends with,

and they brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all the lands. And if you read the whole verse four, you're like, okay, like it's just like another thing. Like everyone's always bringing up stuff and his wealth is accumulating, people bringing them gold, all the rest. And then you're like, oh, they brought him horses too. Okay. Sounds okay, whatever.

But Deuteronomy 17, 16, this section is entitled rules for the rulers and leaders. All right. Rules for rulers and leaders. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses.

For the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. That's what Deuteronomy says, do not do this. And that's exactly what Solomon did. Why not? Why would this be a rule? Why would this be a law against the leaders that's articulated in Deuteronomy? The idea is that you should

not put your trust in your military might. Here it's represented by horses, a powerful weapon at the time. Adam Clark, early 1800s Bible scholar, he said, lest the people might depend on a well-appointed cavalry as a means of security and so cease from trusting in the strength and protection of God. Deuteronomy then says, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. Why not? Lest his heart turn away. That's what it says right in the Bible.

Lest his heart turn away. My concern with consumerism. Oh, it increases the GDP. Absolutely. It's great for China too. They love it.

I believe consumerism has turned our heart away from God. That's all I have for now. If you have any other thoughts, shoot me an email at slaterradio at gmail.com. How do you convince a culture addicted to consumerism, addicted to GDP growth Addicted to things addicted to buying addicted to advertising Built on this How do you make the argument that consumerism is killing us. That's stuff

That's the mission

Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript commercial free on the website get my email Slater radio at gals.com transcript commercial free on the website. Again, my email is SlaterRadio at gmail.com, Twitter and Instagram at SlaterRadio. Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript commercial free on the website get my email Slater radio at gals.com transcript commercial free on the website. Again, my email is SlaterRadio at gmail.com, Twitter and Instagram at SlaterRadio. MikeSlater.Locals.com