As I write this, the president of the United States is in the city where I live telling those in his audience to write their congressmen to urge them to pass a jobs bill to put millions of construction workers and teachers back to work. "It's all paid for!" he exclaims.

But his speech is remarkably short on specifics, and no wonder. The $447 billion package—a mixture of specialized tax breaks and new spending—would create an estimated 1.9 million jobs. Do the math. $447 billion divided by 1.9 million jobs equals $235,263 per job.

The bill is clearly designed to try to lower the nation's stubbornly high unemployment rate before next year's presidential elections, with the tax increases kicking in later so politicians won't be accused of raising taxes between now and election day.

And people wonder what's wrong with the country!

Last year the U.S. government added $1.5 trillion to finance its budget deficit. Few realize that it also added 3½ times that amount, $5.3 trillion, in new obligations for Social Security and Medicare. The total amount of financial promises not paid for is now more than $61 trillion—approximately $534,000 for every U.S. household.

In less than a generation, the United States has gone from the world's greatest lending nation to the biggest debtor nation in history. And the proposed solution for our financial turmoil is to spend more!

As Americans begin to see what their leaders apparently can't, confidence in government has plunged in alarming proportions. A new Gallup poll has shown that 82 percent of Americans, an all-time high, disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job.

Almost 60 percent have little or no confidence in the federal government's ability to solve problems. Just under half now believe that the federal government is a threat to their rights and freedoms.

The nation is distrustful, worried, lost and adrift.

Sadly, this should really come as no surprise. America is simply proving once again a great truth written almost 2,000 years ago—that we ultimately reap what we have sown (Galatians 6:7).

Almost 3,500 years ago God told the ancient Israelites, newly freed from slavery in Egypt and about to be established as a nation, that they should be careful to live by the laws He had given them, including economic laws. If they obeyed, He promised that He would shower them with every good thing for their obedience.

He went on to detail great national blessings of material wealth, military power, health, agricultural productivity, excellent weather and so much abundance that they would "lend to many nations" and "not borrow"—all if they would just "heed the commandments of the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 28:1-13). They would sow well and reap abundant blessings.

And if they wouldn't obey and forgot their Creator? Then they would also reap what they sowed—problems that read remarkably like today's headlines, including curses on crops and herds, plagues of sickness, confusion, drought, military defeat, exploding debt and much more.

Few realize how these prophetic words apply equally well today. Few see how the world is shaping up for the fulfillment of major prophecies about the time before the return of the King of Kings. Read this issue to understand how our world is being transformed as foretold in the pages of your Bible many centuries ago!