Rather like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day we return from holiday to find the news in the papers resembles the news the day we left Ireland 18 days ago! Bargaining in Brussels and hamburgers of horse meat in Ireland!
In the latter case Ireland should get some credit for being the first to spot it. Our Food Safety Authority discovered “beefburgers” with substantial amounts of horseflesh but – where was the beef? This is a question that is being asked throughout Europe as one country after another discovers equine traces in place of beef on their plates.
The food chain has just got longer. Tracing the origins of the “beef” product in the burgers has become harder than spotting a winner at Punchestown! It seems that the “product” originated in Poland or France and made its way via various traders to the production lines of meat factories thence to the Supermarket counters of Europe.
As a result the anonymity of the horses is safe! However their flesh may not be. The problem lies in the medication which they may have received before slaughter.
In contrast to the beef industry where there is complete traceability of product from birth to the retailer and where stringent rules are enforced on the use of medicine, horsetrading is largely unregulated.
There is something of a parallel in the financial world as the Anglo-Irish bank debt is swopped this week for long term bonds. These represent the remaining €25 billion bank debt and, as the ECB couldn’t lend directly to a bank, Anglo was got rid of and we, or our children, will be paying for the bonds over the next 40 years.
If that was all we had to worry about we would be in relatively good shape but with our sovereign debt at €160 billion (and rising as our annual expenditure still continues to exceed our income) we will be in hoc to Europe for the foreseeable future!
What has the Bible to say about all this?
It is easy to pick out the greedy people who incurred the multi-million debts. They are being pursued through the courts to try to recover some of their well defended stash.
But what of the rest of us who marvelled at the “good times” and became part of the inflationary spiral.
Our leaders said the fundamentals were sound when they were building on sand. Covetousness was rampant as the 10th commandment – the real fundamental was overlooked – “You shall not covet…” (Exodus chapter 20 verse 17). St Paul recognised just how the commandment brought out the worse in us; `I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead (Romans Chapter 7 verses 7/8). This sin which is brought to life so easily when we hear the words “You shall not” has a divine remedy in Christ our substitute who became a sin offering for repentant sinners who trusts in him; “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit (Romans Chapter 8 verses 3-4).
Don’t put the cart before the horse. Trust Jesus first then you will prove the truth of Scripture.