THE JEWS and HISTORY

How can you move from the closure of Cadbury’s (last week’s column) to Jewish history (this week’s)? That might suggest a very random sort of weekly column where any issue goes. That is not the case, however. Let me explain.
The weekly column is intended as a feature which comments on the substance of the articles on the website (link at the top of this page if you need it). The majority of those articles have a clear orientation; they all come out of a study of the Old Testament prophets. And this study of the Old Testament prophets is centred on one theme or question – what have they to say to us in our generation? The articles are there because I believe the prophets have very critical lessons for our generation.
The predominant theme of the prophets is one of judgement, judgement on Israel and on its contemporary neighbours. That is a critical theme indeed to apply to our generation and has a predominance on the website. Greed brings judgement, hence the depiction of economic greed surrounding Cadbury
But the prophets are not all judgement. They are actually messengers of hope and restoration. The supreme hope they offer is in the person of Jesus, the Messiah (wonderfully portrayed and foretold), and through him a restoration of the nations, and in particular of the Jewish nation. Exploration of this hope and restoration is not neglected on the website. Hence talk of the Jews.
The Jews have a fascinating history, one that increases in fascination when put alongside the very considerable prophetic statements about them that occur in the prophets. Those statements have to be grappled with, and so does Jewish history. It is in our times that they have come back to their Promised Land, a critical fact in the light of what the prophets had to say. That may well be a major sign of the times.
I focus on the Jews because I have just added to the website three articles on this whole issue of the significance of Jewish history. These three articles attempt to find a divine hand in the historical processes of 19th and 20thC Jewish history, looking at the broad historical trends that brought them to Palestine and established them in the State of Israel. They form a sequence to two articles already published on the Jewish Dispersion.
Finding God in history could be thought of as a somewhat dangerous journey, so this week an introductory article will appear reflecting on the whole issue of finding God in history – a subject with which I have been wrestling.

Bob

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CADBURY – HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW!

Why go back to the Cadbury take-over by Kraft! Stale news isn’t it? At least three weeks old! Sadly that’s how an insatiable media world makes us think, when really we’ve hardly begun to digest the Cadbury lesson. What lesson is that? Well, a simple one – a lesson about greed; its huge destructive power, its institutionalized grip on the nation and its disastrous outcome. It massively underlines the Amos message (article 1 website)
When it cast its covetous eyes on Cadbury, Kraft was already “stuffed full of such big names as Maxwell House coffee, Toblerone, Ritz crackers etc. etc” which it had gobbled up. But much wants more. Cadbury had an international brand and distribution channels where profits were high. Acquiring it would take Kraft’s revenue growth from 4% to 5%. It was an ideal target to make Kraft the world’s largest sweet maker with sales of $50 billion. Pressure from its equally greedy competitors compelled action. Pure greed!
What about the Cadbury end of the deal? The decision to sell came when the short term profit seekers and hedge funds saw time was ripe for a fat profit on their shares; when the Kraft price (deliberately driven up) was right! The senior Cadbury management had nothing to loose, indeed the CEO could make about £12 million on the deal. Other interested parties, banks, lawyers, accountants etc, very accurately likened to wheeling vultures, saw they could rip the carcass for about £250 million in fees. Raw greed!
What about the fall-out? Kraft borrowed a massive $7 billion to fund its bid for Cadbury (a real bonanza for financiers!). It will have to be paid back. How? Sales alone will not pay for it. It means asset stripping and rationalization, which on the ground means unemployment and economic shrinkage. Recent history demonstrates conclusively the inevitability of that scenario. Thus, in Amos words, “the rich sell the poor for a pair of shoes”. When Cadbury people are eventually laid off it will have been to give investors an extra 50p on their share value - much less than a pair of shoes. There is absolutely no recognition of this outcome in the deal. Economic growth, stability and the welfare of workers simply did not figure in any calculation.
The government watched in supine manner; Lord Mandelson washed his hands of it and said it was up to the shareholders, and Gordon Brown said he would make strong representations for the workforce, knowing he was utterly powerless. There was complete weakness in the face of corporate greed.
Of course we have not seen the end of economic downturn! Greed has brought it about and will deepen it. That process itself constitutes a judgement, but will undoubtedly spark something far worse.

Bob

P.S. **Ten hours after this column was published Kraft announced the closure of Cadbury's Keynsham factory with some 400 job losses.

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SITTING WITH JOB

I received a question about last week’s “Column”: “Are all natural disasters judgements? If not, how do we know which ones are?” To answer this we need to move from “Sitting with Jeremiah” to “Sitting with Job”.
Job sits, like Jeremiah, in the midst of catastrophe. He sits covered in the most painful boils, and he has lost his children, buried under the ruins of a house which collapsed in a freak storm. All his flocks have been driven away by marauding bands, his servants killed. He is ruined and in great pain. His affliction appears to have all the hallmarks of judgement.
Four men are also sitting with Job to comfort him. For a whole week they can say nothing, so great is Job’s distress. Eventually Job speaks and curses the day he was born. Job’s bitterness provokes them to respond. The gist of their replies is clear: God prospers the righteous and judges those who sin. Job, therefore, is under judgement. Job, however, protests to God the fundamental uprightness of his life. He has no idolatry to confess, no adultery, no robbing of the poor, no neglect of God. The more he protests, the more his comforters accuse and condemn him for what they see as sinful rebellion; his catastrophe must be a judgement.
Finally God breaks in and rebukes the comforters; “You have not spoken of me what is right, as Job has”. Their insistence on sin and judgement is inappropriate in Job’s situation. God tells Job that he is involved in something way beyond Job’s understanding, something for which God could not be reproached. The opening chapters give us some account of what that was: Job was caught up in a conflict that was taking place in heavenly realms. He was being attacked by Satan, attacked because he was righteous, not because he had done wrong. Job’s integrity through the trial and eventual restoration would be to the glory of God. Job would be chastened and enlightened.
The lesson from this is that we cannot automatically connect catastrophe with judgement. Sitting with Job was radically different from sitting with Jeremiah, though on the surface they were both looking at catastrophe. It was the context that was different – an upright man (Job) contrasts with a godless city (Jerusalem). It is the context that is always critical for true discernment and appropriate response. Neither can we get away from the more subjective fact that there is always a spiritual and revelationary element in discerning an act of judgement. It’s the latter element that characterizes the prophets.

Bob

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