KFLCC Kingdom Economics

C HAPTER 4

4 P ARABOLIC P RINCIPLES OF F INANCIAL G ROWTH AND B LESSING

hen we in the 21st century quote scriptural promises from the New Testament, some often think the words are ancient and the promises outdated because we live in a different culture with a different lifestyle. However, consider the basic New Testament methods of earning income, and notice the parallels to our own contemporary society. W The beautiful and famed Mediterranean Sea runs along the western coastline of Israel. In Christ’s time, it was a source of shipping and trade, with major ports in Joppa and Caesarea handling imports and exports of goods and agricultural products from Israel. Another body of water—actually a large lake—is the Sea of Galilee, which was the site of the fishing industry. Dotted around the lake were numerous cities and villages where the young men often followed in their family’s tradition of working in the fishing industry. A New Testament example is Zebedee and his sons, James and John, who were mending nets when Christ called them into the ministry (Matt. 4:21-22). The central region of Israel was the site for farming and agriculture. Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of the nation, was noted for natural olive trees. When the olives from the Mount of Olives were crushed, the first pressing was used for lighting the Menorah in the Temple. In Bethlehem the fields were known for both barley and wheat, two of the primary grains grown in Israel. The rugged land in and around Hebron was the center of the grape and wine industry, as the best grapes in the nation were grown in the hills of Hebron. In the time of Moses, when the twelve men returned from spying out the land, they carried poles with huge vines of grapes to demonstrate

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