Natural seasons are indicators of spiritual trends. A recession is usually the result of human acts or inactions. It speaks of a disconnection of man’s plans from God’s programmes. Consequently, no recession begins without a long-term cause. There is always a reason for every season of lack. There is usually a foundation for every degradation in a nation.
Many nations are currently under an economic siege orchestrated by skewed financial policies, corruption, greed and avarice. Business activities have been paralysed by Babylonian forces that seek to capture the resources of the nations. Nigeria, for instance, was declared the largest economy in Africa only in 2014. The World Economic Forum held for the first time in Africa in Abuja between May 2014. The Cable Network, CNN, declared Nigeria the third fastest growing economy in the World. Two years later in 2016, Nigeria was overtaken by South Africa as the largest economy in Africa. The nation did not even rank amongst the 16th fastest growing economies in Africa.
The currency that exchanged for 215 naira to a dollar in 2014, by 2016 exchanged for as much as 490 naira to the dollar. Investors suddenly took to their heels out of the nation. Companies retrenched workers in their droves. The sound of poverty, hunger and lamentation could be heard in the land. What happened? Why did a fast growing economy suddenly enter a recession that threatens to progress into a depression?
Famine seasons are times of confusion. The vicissitude of the times compel people to act in unusual ways. They sometimes go where they ought not to and make deals with people that compound their economic travails.
There was a famine in the land of Gerar. This was apart from the famine that hit the land of Canaan in Abraham’s days. Isaac decided to go down to Egypt like his father, but without divine direction. He chose to go to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. But God came to Isaac with the words “Do not go down to Egypt, live in the land which I shall tell you” (Genesis 26:1-2). Be careful where you dwell in time of famine. Don’t go to Egypt when you should dwell in Gerar. Don’t go to Abimelech when you should be waiting for Hanamel.
The natural response to every famine is to get out of the environment. Many by so doing have become economic migrants in Europe and America. The political and economic instabilities of Africa and the Middle East are pushing men to take their entire families across dangerous deserts and rivers often at great cost. The treacherous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe has led to the death of countless people. Sometimes, entire families have been drowned. The sea has become a burial ground for the helpless and hopeless. The body of a three-year-old Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi was washed ashore on a beach in Turkey. The gory sight it provoked did not stop the flow of migrants.
The Sahara desert has swallowed many people from Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria and many nations. When the harsh environment does not do damage to those crossing it, criminal gangs capture the migrants and harvest their body parts for sale.
In 2016, a total number of 206,754 migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Spain between January 1 and May 29, 2016. Of this number, 2,443 lost their lives before arriving at their destination.
Don’t just respond to the terrible conditions of a famine. Listen carefully to God for instructions. The first famine in Canaan compelled Abraham to move to Egypt for help. He, however, did so by divine direction. “Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land” (Genesis 12:10). Going to Egypt was God’s solution for overcoming the harshness of the famine. No wonder, “Abram was rich in livestock, in silver and in gold”, by the time he “went up from Egypt.”
Abram “went down to Egypt to dwell…” because of the famine; but “went up from Egypt… rich in livestock… silver and gold”, by the time he was leaving. You may go down economically at the onset of a famine season, but God’s will is that you “go up” afterward. But whether you “go down” or “up” during a famine will be the function of the information available to you and the choices you make.
