Herbert W Armstrong

   Well, as I said, we have been in Columbus, Ohio for 8 months. We like it very much. Don't tell Mr. Tkach that. Mr. and Mrs. Bob Dick were there for 10 years before that and he did a very fine job in organizing and teaching God's church in that area, laying a good solid foundation.

   My wife Delie and I are here for the 3rd refresher session, and it is very good to be on campus once again. We left in the early 60s. It's always nice to return to headquarters to Ambassador College campus to see old friends that you went to school with. I especially enjoy this one. Mr. Richard Pinelli and his wife Mary are here. We were classmates and roommates together. We used to talk into the wee hours of the morning about what the future held for us. If we would get married, because that was prior to '72, '75 in prophecy, who we would marry. Where we would be, what we would be doing, moan and groan and cry and weep with each other about what the future held. Didn't have very much faith, but we had a lot of words. So it is good to be here with him again and others that I've gotten acquainted with from other areas of the world.

   Been in the work for 15 years, and I honestly don't know if I've ever even heard of their names. I'd never met them until we came here and it is really nice to get acquainted with them and to share time with them and to realize here are longtime members of the church and the work sharing in God's work in other areas of the world, and you don't even know who they are. So in that sense it's more refreshing, the refreshers are than even the conferences were years ago.

   Um, we left our two sons, Michael and David, in Columbus. They're 19 and almost 21 years of age. They've been missing mother's cooking for a week and a half, and they're both losing weight. You know, even though it's nice to be here, it's nice to leave and go back home because that is our home and to be with our sons, spend time with them.

   I told both of them when they graduated from high school that they didn't have to leave home to prove that they were a man, that they were masculine. They didn't have to get out and pay $300 to $400 a month for rent, buy a car and insurance and all those things, have to buy their own food and prepare it to do all of that, just to leave dad and mom's bailiwick to establish one of their own and to declare their independence and to be a man.

   Well, I think once I explained all of the logistics and the economics of it, they saw that very quickly. And they've been content to stay at home and save their money, which they have very wisely in order to go to college to establish a career for themselves. Because in the jobs they have, they see young people their age or a little bit older who have gotten married unwisely, who have a low paying job, who have borrowed, who are living on credit, who are up to the limit on their credit cards, who may be having their car or cars repossessed, and those kids are not mine, but the other kids are just barely making it in life.

   Because of the lack of training. The plight of the common man and many, many young people today borders on the desperate. Because of unemployment, because of living on credit. Because of the spiraling increase in just life itself. Many of them are enslaved to this system, this economic system, and they don't even know it. They're living actually in slavery. And they don't even realize it. They think they have declared their freedom and yet really they are enslaved.

   When God chose ancient Israel, they were slaves in the land of Egypt. Yet when he chose them, he promised to them and told them that they would be the leaders of the world. That may sound a little incongruous, but it's true. He chose them out of slavery and intended that they be the leaders of the world.

   Now one of the first laws that God gave to Israel after, of course, the 10 Commandments. One of the first laws that he gave to his people assured the common man. The lowest one on the economic totem pole, the common man of reasonable success in life. You know, a nation is no stronger than the common man, the vast majority of the common people. If the vast majority of the common people are in debt, divorced and remarried, married, broken homes. Low paying jobs, discourage, discouragement and discontent, then it's not a strong nation.

   And that law that God gave to His people ensured that the lowest one on the economic ladder still could have a reasonably stable and enjoyable life. I'd like to analyze that law with you this afternoon and explain to you some of the principles that that law taught, which are very, very applicable to young people today.

   Let's read that in Exodus 21 beginning in verse 6. Exodus 21, the first six verses. Now maybe you've read over this. And didn't even know what it was talking about. I read these verses for many years and didn't understand it and had a bad attitude toward God because I thought God was the author of slavery, which of course from the history in the United States of America is a dirty word. Because it starts talking about slavery.

   Exodus 21:1, "These are the judgments or alternately rendered statutes, the civil laws that regulated the nation. These are the statutes which you shall set before them. If you buy a Hebrew servant or a Hebrew slave," now probably if you're white, you probably read that if you buy a black slave, but it didn't say that. It said a Hebrew slave. It talks about white owning white, brother owning brother or whatever color you happen to be if you bought your brother. That would be far to our ears. Owning our own brother.

   "If you buy a Hebrew slave, 6 years," that is 6 years was the most, "he shall serve you, and in the 7th year he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife should go with him. Now if his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and the children shall be the masters. And yet he will go out free by himself."

   Now on the surface that sounds cruel and ungodly. How could God be the author of such a principle?

   "If the servant says plainly," and you know if you were in that situation, what else could you say? "I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I'm not going to go free." Then the master would bring him to the judges. He would bring him to the door or the doorpost. His master would bore his ear through with an awl, and he would be a servant forever. Now later coupling that with the Leviticus 20:5, I believe it shows until the jubilee, which of course would be most of his life anyway, there wouldn't be that much left after all.

   This is not dealing with slavery per se. It is not talking about God giving you license to buy and sell bodies to make a profit off of your brother by buying and trading in human beings. This law of God rescued the common man from disaster in two major very basic areas of life. Money. And marriage.

   Over the many years I've been in the ministry, many people have come to me and they shuffle their feet and clear their throat and they, you know, they're embarrassed to say what they are compelled to say. They say, uh, "Well, um, Mr. Hargrove, I, I have a problem that I need to discuss with you, you know, it's, it's embarrassing. I hate to discuss it." So I look at him with a naive glint in the eye and a shy smile on the face, and I say, "Well, which is it, sex or marriage, sex or money," I should say. And they say both. Those two very major areas of life.

   Why did God allow slavery? I like to deal with that first, because if you don't understand why he allowed this, you do not understand what it taught. Now Paul said that God's law is holy, just and good. And David said he knew more by living by the laws of God than the people around him who didn't. We can be wiser than the people around us by living by the laws of God. So this is not some inconsequential law that allowed slavery. But there was a basic reason for it, and as I said, I'd like to analyze this law to show you why.

   Why slavery? In Leviticus 25, beginning in verse 35, we'll see this. As to why a man would end up as a slave to his own brother. Leviticus 25 beginning in verse 35 (Leviticus 25:35), "If your brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with you, then you shall relieve him," that is helping. One who had money would be compelled to help. Now not live his life for him and give him everything, but it just says relieve him, to strengthen him or help him out. And it said, "you shall take no usury." In verse 38, "I am the Eternal your God who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan." So he was to help him up to a point.

   But beginning in verse 39, it says, "If your brother that dwells by you be waxen poor and be sold unto you." You can help a man only up to a certain point. After that, if he's not willing to listen and learn, you cannot really help him. And he has to pay the consequences of his way of life. So God told Israel that they were to help their brothers up to a point. After that, if he still didn't learn his lesson, then he was actually to be sold to his brother. For a period of time.

   Now he was not to be a bond servant in the sense of a slave, it wasn't just buying and selling bodies, but as a hired servant. So this shows that it is not ungodly to make a certain profit off your brother's efforts if he has no other way of making a living. And he said he would serve you to the year of Jubilee. Well, if he was 30 or 40 years old when this finally happened, you take 30, 40 or 50 more years out of his life and there isn't much left in his life anyway, so you might as well say that he served you forever. Because most of his life was gone. And then in verse 41 after that he was to depart from you, both he and his children with him, and to return to his family and his possession.

   So why was it that a man became a slave? Financial irresponsibility. Let's look at this in II Kings chapter 4 verse 1. This hits home to the ministry. Because we're not immune to negligence, human weakness, lust. And there have been those of us in the ministry who have made mistakes in handling the dollar and paid very dearly for it.

   II Kings 4:1, the story of a widow lady and Elisha the prophet. "There cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying," So here was a widow of a minister. "Your servant, my husband is dead." Ministerial widow now. "You know that your servant did fear the Lord," but apparently he didn't handle his pocketbook. As they say, he had the Lord in his heart, but he didn't have anything in his pocket. I don't mean to slam that, but you know, sometimes we feel it's a spiritual work and we pay not as much attention to the physical as we ought. Yet you cannot really separate the physical from the spiritual. The spiritual laws show us how to live a physical life.

   So she said, "you know, your servant did serve the Eternal, and now the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen." What if we as ministers didn't pay any attention to how we handled our pocketbooks? We died, our wife had nothing to fall back on, and our children had to be sold to pay for our debts. That would be awful. But apparently it happened.

   Well, Elisha told her what to do in order to relieve the situation, God did bless and honor her. But it showed that her husband was irresponsible unless there are extenuating circumstances, irresponsible in handling his money. And so if God had not intervened, his sons would have been bondmen.

   Now you say, "Well, that's just in the Old Testament. We live by the New Testament." All right, let us turn then to Matthew 18. In the New Testament, an example given by Jesus himself, no less, and let's see what he said. Of course this is talking about repentance and being forgiven.

   Matthew 18 beginning in verse 23 (Matthew 18:23). Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king who would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents." And the margin of my Bible says that talent is 750 ounces of silver. So if you multiply 10,000 talents by 750 ounces, you come up with 7 1/2 million ounces. And I don't know exactly the price of silver today, but let's say as a round figure to help explain it clearly, $6 an ounce. That's if I figured it accurately. I didn't have my calculator, but I used my old mechanical mind. $45 million. Now that's a pretty big debt. $45 million he owed.

   "Well, for as much as he had nothing to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold." Not declare bankruptcy. And leaving the master holding the bag. That's what we do today. It's in the news that UPI is going bankrupt and they're just going to let everybody else take their losses. But it says he was sold and his wife and his children and all that he had in payment to be made.

   Well, that struck fear into the man's heart, and I think it would us too. What if we realized our wife, our children, and everything we had would be sold to pay off for our irresponsibility? "The servant fell down and worshiped him, saying, 'Have patience. I'll repay you everything.'" And so in this case likening him to God the Father and to Jesus Christ, who made it possible, the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion. Loosed him from the debt and forgave him. But the point is it was financial irresponsibility that caused him to become a slave.

   Now one other and then we'll get to the point in Exodus 22:2. Why it was that God allowed slavery. Exodus 22. Beginning in verse 2. "If a thief be found or caught breaking up and be smitten that he die, no blood be shed for him. If the sun be risen," that is, if it was in the broad daylight, "there shall be no bloodshed, for he should make full restitution." Now today they don't, but God required that they make full restitution. And further, he said, "if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft." That certainly would decrease the amount of thievery today if the thieves knew they were going to be sold into slavery and their whole life would be devoted to working to paying back what they had stolen. Rather than going to jail and we have to take care of them by paying taxes to rehabilitate them.

   "If the thief be certainly found in his theft be found in his hand alive, whether it's an ox or ass, he shall restore double." Well, you know, usually they can't even pay back the first one, much less two-fold or three-fold or four-fold, so he was to be sold.

   The point being, brethren, why did God allow slavery? Because of the inability to handle money. Because of spiraling debt. Because of fiscal irresponsibility. He did not know how to handle his finances, and he made an absolute mess of it. That's the reason. So rather than dealing in bodies and buying and selling slaves, it rescued the common man from absolute disaster. That's what it taught. Because God's law is a loving and a wonderful law. So it forced the man to have a proper view of making and handling money. It forced the individual to have a proper view of making and handling money. Some men can make money, but they can't handle it.

   What is money after all? It's just a piece of paper. You've heard Mr. Herbert Armstrong say in his younger years that he didn't, he wasn't after money as such, but what money could bring him, the finer things of life. Money is an exchange for life. Let's notice that in Ecclesiastes 10:19.

   Ecclesiastes 10. And in verse 19 only. "A feast is made for laughter." That's why the Feast of Tabernacles is a wonderful time. You see people you haven't seen in a long time. You enjoy a few days with them, worshiping God our Father. It's a very wonderful time. "A feast is made for laughter. And wine makes merry." So it isn't wrong to drink and to have a good time, all within the seriousness of God's way of life, food, alcoholic beverage, unless of course you've already ruined your life by becoming an alcoholic and denying yourselves of one of the pleasures God has given to mankind. But it says "money makes it all possible." Or money answers all things. It isn't the only thing in life, but it makes those things possible.

   In 1973, the first year we held a feast in Tucson, Arizona, I was pastor of Phoenix at that time, and I drove down early to help set up some things for the auditorium, and Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Eckert were living in Tucson at the time. Many of you old timers remember Mr. and Mrs. Eckert here in Pasadena for many years, Deacon and Deaconess. Well, because of his health, he had moved to Tucson. And so I went over one evening to have the evening meal with them, and I stopped by a wine store to purchase a bottle of wine to add to the evening meal, and I was looking along the shelves and I noticed a bottle of Rothschild Lafitte. $60 a bottle. Well, I just kept looking along the shelf. No matter how much I loved Mr. Eckert, I wasn't going to spend $60 for that bottle of wine. So I probably chose the Gallo Hearty Burgundy or something like that. The reason being, I didn't have the money to spend $60. It says money makes it all possible. It would have been nice to have had that bottle of wine, but I didn't have it because the money in my pocket wasn't going to go that far.

   So money is an exchange for life. Young people, young men want a new car, a nice car, maybe you want a BMW. What is it, the 318i, the little sports model. I've forgotten the number on it. You go down, look at it, you like it, you'd really like to have it. But it costs 17 to $19,000. At least back in Ohio, I don't know what it costs here, but probably the same, and you think, "Well, I don't have the 17, 18 or $19,000" so you cannot have the BMW. It's only a dream. You don't have the money to make that possible.

   You'd like to have a nice home. 50, back in Ohio, you can still get a reasonably decent home for $50,000. I don't know if you could get an outhouse for $50,000 out here. Mr. Yabins was telling me the price of homes a few days ago going out to his home, and I couldn't believe the price. While I was looking in the Los Angeles Times, I began to believe the prices. $150,000 maybe $180,000 to $325,000 you would have to spend to get a nice home. You say, "Well, I don't have that much." Then that home is only a dream. It cannot be made possible because you do not have the money.

   You'd like to have nice furniture. Maybe it would cost $5000 to $10,000 a room to outfit your home, to furnish your home. You say, "I don't have that much money," then it's only a dream. It is not a possibility.

   You'd like to have new clothes. Not unless you go down to Al Weiss's and buy it cheaply. If you go to other places and you buy the finest of clothes or tailor-made clothes, you'd like to have a suit like President Reagan wears. What is it? $1200? I don't know. I'm sure it's more than a couple of $100 but you say "I can't afford it." Then it's only a dream.

   You'd like to go out to one of the nicest restaurants and have one of the nicest meals they serve. You do. They present you the bill and you faint. I know my wife and sons used to get embarrassed. We'd go to a nice restaurant at the Feast of Tabernacles and have a nice meal. They'd present me the bill, and I'd go, "Ah!" This hick from the sticks, hasn't you ever seen a bill like that? Well, just to see what the reaction was. I didn't have to wash dishes that evening. But unless you had the money, it would be very embarrassing or if you have a piece of plastic, but the difficulty about that plastic is 30 days later comes the reality.

   So, money makes it all possible. Some who don't have it or who have not learned how to use it borrow. That is, they spend money before they actually have made it. We call that credit. Now friendly Bob Adams is very friendly until you default on the payment. And when you default on the payment, he is not friendly at all. You get these nasty little letters. There's something in the Bible about that in Proverbs 22:7. That talks about that way of life. Living on margin. Living on borrowed money. And notice how it puts it.

   Proverbs 22:7. "The rich rules over the poor." I think we all understand that as we jokingly said a few years ago, they, the super wealthy live by the golden rule. Since they have the gold, they make the rule, and everybody else has to live by it. "The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant," or shall we say a slave "to the lender."

   If you live on borrowed money all the time, then you're actually in slavery and don't even realize it because actually you're cheating yourself. You are giving up 10, 20, 30% of your money to someone else for the privilege of having their money and spending it before you actually make it. And if you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, there's a used car dealership over there, and one of the salesmen is called the Lone Ranger. If you'd like a good used car, then you go to that Lone Ranger and he'll make sure you have it. Even if you don't have any money, he'll make sure you can get that car of your dreams, and he wears a mask. So you can't see the glint in his eye.

   I have some clippings I'd like to read to you about living on borrowed money and how much you have to pay for it. Out of the Columbus, Ohio paper, it has a picture of Colonel Potter, that is Harry Morgan, who plays Colonel Potter on the television series MASH. He says "for only, for only $94.35 a month you can have $3000 today." Don't have to wait for it.

   Well, I figured it out. They have a list here of the amounts of money you can borrow from city loan and savings. $2500 for 36 months is also $95.34. You think, "Well, I can afford $95 a month. So and I'd like to have $2500 right now. So I'll go in and borrow $2500 from Colonel Potter and it'll only cost me $95 a month."

   Well, if you figure out $95.34 times 36, you come up with $3,432. Now he only gave you $2500. That means you paid back an extra $932. Or $26 a month for three long years, went up in smoke, which amounted to 37%. Now you're living on 37% less. By going to the Lone Ranger. By going to friendly Bob Adams, by being taken in by Colonel Potter's lines.

   $3000 you paid back in 48 months at also $94.35 a month, multiply $94.35 by 48 and you come out with $4,528. Now he only gave you 3000. So you're paying back an extra $1,528 which amounts to $32 a month. For 4 long years, you're paying that back for the privilege of living on borrowed money which amounted to almost 51%. You have reduced your style of life by living on borrowed money. It's very difficult to see that when you want it right now.

   You'd like to buy a car, so you buy a used car and buy it on time from the Import Store in Columbus, Ohio. They have a list of cars on sale. You want a 1983 Volkswagen GTI. It's on sale for $7300. You pay $730 down payment. For 51 months. Your monthly payment is $171. Multiply the payment by the number of months and you'll come up with $8740 plus the $730 down payment is $9,468. Not only cost you $7295 or $7300, you're paying an extra $2,173 or almost 30% more for that car by living on borrowed money.

   Now to be sure, most of the time you may not have it, and it's the only way you can go, but it still shows we're reducing our lifestyle, our ability to live. We're reducing ourselves in that medium of making it possible by living on someone else's money and paying them interest.

   Let's take the case of a home. Someone asked you, "How much did you pay for your home?" You say, "I'd have paid $50,000." No, you didn't, not if you bought it on 30 years at 12% interest.

   In 1973, I bought a home in Phoenix and I borrowed $25,000 at, oh, I wish I could find it again. 7.75% interest. 30 years payment. The principal and interest amounted to $181. 30 years were 360 payments that amounted to $64,998 or shall we say $65,000 I would have paid back had I paid it all back. I only borrowed $25,200 so I would be paying back almost $40,000 extra dollars. Or 158% interest.

   Now, obviously I didn't have the $25,000 or I wouldn't have done that, but I figured it out more. The $40,000 divided by the 360 payments amounted to about $110 a month interest. For 30 years I would have been paying $110 a month interest, and you know how much I would be paying each month for the payment? $70. I only borrowed $25,000. I'd have to pay back $65,000. $157,000. Now I shudder to think it would be today if I borrowed $25,000 at 12% interest. I figured it out. It was 270% interest. Over 30 years, that's why God says He's against that biting type of interest that devastates a man. You cannot ever really get ahead.

   In the evening news yesterday, Tom Brokaw on the Evening News said that 10% of the farmers in Iowa now are on the verge of bankruptcy because they're living on borrowed money, and it showed several of the farmers who said if they don't make a good crop this year, they're on dangerous ground, and if they don't make a good crop next year they'll just walk away from it. And leave it. Because they are living on hundreds of thousands of dollars of borrowed money. And if it doesn't rain or if it rains too much or they can't make a good crop, then it's over for them because they have overextended themselves and they're living on friendly Bob Adams' borrowed money. And Friendly Bob's not so friendly when you can't pay it back. They'll have to give up the farm they have.

   So this law forced an individual to face the issue of making and handling money. It was not a harsh law because it showed mercy. It showed mercy. But it did force him to face the issue.

   In Exodus 21:2, let's just notice that. It was not harsh. It was severe, yes, but it was a very loving law. Exodus 21:2 said, "6 years he shall serve you, and then the 7th he shall go out free." So he had 6 years to learn his lesson. Now how did that help him to learn his lesson? It forced the man to be attached to a successful man who knew how to handle his money. And he lived under the guidance and the direction and the instruction of a successful man who knew how.

   Mr. Armstrong said when he was a young advertising man, he interviewed the millionaires and multimillionaires of Chicago and Detroit and other places, and he learned many of the principles of success other than divine guidance that he's put into the booklet The Seven Laws of Success, and he learned success from those men. As a young man. So that's one of the laws of success. If you don't know how yourself, ask someone who does. But many times in money we're too embarrassed or too vain to ask.

   So it forced a man to be under the direction of another man who knew how, and he had 6 years in which to learn. So it was a merciful law. He was taught as and he learned his lesson, as he also learned how not to make that mistake again. Now if he was dumb enough and foolish enough and stupid enough to go back out and do it again, that was his problem. It was kind of like an apprenticeship in which he learned the trade.

   Did you know that money is put as a direct type of spiritual character in qualifying for the kingdom of God? I'm sure you do. In Luke 19, beginning in verse 11, you see this. The longer I deal with money, the more I believe it.

   Luke 19:11. "Because he was near to Jerusalem, and they thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear," he said, and he gave the example of the nobleman who went to a far country. "He called his 10 servants, delivered them 10 pounds, and said, 'Occupy till I come.'" Now, occupied doesn't mean like an occupied country that the conquering hero is sitting on it. He didn't mean here's the money, now sit on it. He meant busy yourself with this, trade with it, use it, produce something with it.

   And you know the story that when he came back he wanted to know in verse 15 how much every man had gained by trading or busying himself with it, how much he had produced. And do you know the story also one had 10, the other had 5, and one had said nothing. In verse 11, he said, "I feared you. You're austere, you're unjust, you're unfair." 22, he said, "out of your own mouth, I'll judge you. You knew this?" Well, he said in verse 23, "why then didn't you give my money into the bank that at my coming I might have required my own with a little extra." So it isn't wrong of itself, the use of usury, but this biting, devouring, destructive usury.

   So it showed that if he didn't know how to produce with it himself, why didn't he go to someone else who did know how, ask that person, and learn from them?

   I've had a book on financial management for over 20 years that I got. It's a little small leaflet or brochure called in those days Your Budget. I bought it for a quarter from Household Finance Corporation or HFC, one of the financial institutions in this land. Today I think it's called Managing Your Money, something about financial management, and it shows how to set up a budget. Starting from being in debt. And you could use that to handle a multibillion dollar corporation if you follow those principles because all it is is, a matter of principles.

   Mr. Kelly wrote a very fine article recently on budgeting. I've taught my sons for many years the subject of budgeting, and we use the envelope system. This envelope is for 1st tithe. This envelope is for 2nd tithe. This envelope is for 3rd tithe, and they both paid 3rd tithe and have been blessed because of it. And this envelope is for 4th tithe. 4th tithe? Yes, savings. And this envelope is for personal desires, you know, these expensive Adidas tennis shoes.

   They came and said, "Dad, we'd like a pair of Adidas superstars." And I said, "What?" Well, I've never had a pair of tennis shoes that expensive in my whole life. Not the best example of how to do it, but that's the way I did it. I said, "All right, I don't mind your having them. But I'll only pay half, you pay the rest." So they did, and they've purchased many items in their life because of that 4th envelope. That they always filled. And they've learned in the subject of handling money.

   Money is an exchange for life. This law forced the man to have a proper view of making and especially of handling money. Managing the money so as to provide for him, his wife, and his children the things of life that they need. Now if you don't do it in an active way, if you just slide along and neglect it, you're still going to suffer the consequences.

   [Tape Flipped]

   Was a proper view of woman. And a proper view of marriage. Which is one thing that is missing in a lot of men. A proper view of a woman, a female, the other half of humanity. Why she's a human being and how he should deal with her and how they should mold together in a union called marriage. If he should get married, when he should get married, whether or not to wait to get married. So it forced him to have a proper view of marriage and of the woman he married, rather than just being an object. A human being for whom he was responsible of a certain part of happiness in her life.

   In Exodus 21:3, let's look at it again. What the law of God said. Exodus 21:3. "If he came in by himself, he goes out by himself. If he were married, then his wife goes out with him. Now if his master gave him a wife, she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he goes out by himself."

   What a situation. What a decision to make. What if you had to make that decision? Why should any man have to make that decision? Well, he would not have been ignorant of that law. He would have known in advance. Why is it we as ministers, many people come to us and they have heartrending stories about marriage and children, 1, 2, 3 or 4 marriages, many children, financial difficulties, and you think, how did they get into this situation? Somewhere back up the line years and years ago, someone made a wrong decision. And he had to pay the consequences of that decision.

   You've read the law that says the children suffer for the missings of the mark of the parents. This is an example. The man would have known in advance. He went ahead and did it anyway. He didn't wait. All he had to wait was 6 years, but he couldn't wait to get married. So he married. Then he had one of those choices that no man ought ever to have to make. It was like the judge who had to decide on this Teddy Kennedy Chappaquiddick decision. He said, "I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't." There was no way he could make the right decision, so this man, if he left, he had his freedom, but his wife and children didn't. If he stayed because he loved his wife and children, then he gave up his freedom, which of course I don't think he'd want to do.

   So it would force a man to face certain major questions about marriage. Should I marry now? Should I marry later? Should I marry not at all? Why did he have to make that decision of freedom or wife and children? Because somewhere back up the line, he made a wrong choice, a wrong turn. And it's just like that ram, you know, the male goat. He was up on the mountain, came dashing down the mountainside, he slipped on a stone and he fell and broke his neck and killed himself just like that. And you think, "Well, how could that happen? A mountain goat, he's sure-footed." You know why? He didn't see the U-turn. He made a wrong turn. And he had to pay the consequences.

   That illustrates that in life. Once we have made certain decisions, we have to live with the consequences. And sooner or later we have to pay those consequences. A man who would marry a woman knowing that in 6 years he would have to leave her if he wanted his freedom, would not have loved the woman. He didn't marry for love, he married for convenience. He couldn't wait. And frankly speaking, any woman who would marry a man knowing that he would either leave her or give up his freedom and if he did that, he probably wouldn't love her and would hold it against her for the rest of their life. That woman should never have married either, but they would have known in advance. They would have done it anyway. So it forced the individuals to get a right view of marriage and especially it would force the man to have a right view of marriage and to think about preparing for marriage rather than just falling into it.

   Mr. Herbert Armstrong used to tell us, fellows, all the time when I was at Ambassador College, "Fellows, keep your mind on why you're here at Ambassador College." Well, why were we here at Ambassador? Date all the pretty girls and have a good time, right? So we kept our mind on why we were here, right? We probably didn't really grasp the significance of why we were here at Ambassador College, but he kept hammering away, "Fellas, keep your mind on why you're here at Ambassador College. Don't get married early. Wait till, you know, the 2nd semester of your senior year, and then think about getting married." Most say, "Well, that's too late. They're all gone by then."

   Well, I don't know if I planned it that way, but it worked out that way. Actually, it was the 2nd semester of my 5th year because the 4th year I was a ministerial assistant or trainee in Chicago, so I had to go 5 years, but I met a girl that I had known for a year or so before that, never paid any attention and I paid attention. She chased me till I caught her. And when we married after the feast in '62, Mr. Armstrong said it's a feast in Squaw Valley and announcing it. "Well, Vernon finally decided to quit being disobedient to God. God said it's not good that a man should be alone. Finally decided to obey God."

   But I had prepared to wait. When I graduated, I didn't marry. I moved to Phoenix and was an unordained assistant pastoring two churches. And I intended to wait a year or two or however long it took because I owed the college debt. And it was a beast of the debt. $666.67. And I wanted that paid off. So I was going to wait.

   And September '62, I was getting prepared one day to go visit out to Wickenburg, Arizona, and the phone rang. "Hello." And like one sermonette that said, you know, "this is God calling." Well, "this is Rod Meredith calling. How are you doing, Vernon?" "Fine." "Um, how's it going in Phoenix?" "Fine." "When are you getting married?" "Well, I thought we'd wait a year, maybe two. I don't know why." Well, he said, "if you want to get married early, nobody's going to say anything about it." Did I hear correctly? And I thanked him for it. We chatted for probably 45 minutes. What I didn't know, he and Mr. Hill, whom I was working with in Arizona, were on the phone together, conference hook up. So the bottom line was he said, "if you want to get married early, then nobody's going to say anything."

   So I thanked him and hung up the phone and went out to visit that day and the farther I drove, the more I thought, the more I thought, the more I said to myself, "You idiot, he's telling you to get married." Now if he's telling you to get married, why are you waiting? So I drove home in a blinding rainstorm and phoned Pasadena and asked my wife to be to leave if she would marry me after the feast. She said, "Well, I need time to think it over. Yes, I will."

   So I didn't wait any longer, but I was prepared to. Because I knew I wasn't yet ready, and I was almost 26 years old, and I'm really glad I didn't marry at 18, 19, or 20. It would have been a disaster.

   In I Thessalonians 4, the apostle Paul said this to Christians about marriage. You've read it. He said, "we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us, how you ought to live, how you ought to please God, so you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. This is God's will. You're being set apart."

   We are to be different from this world. And one of the buzzwords of today is mobilist, that is concerning marriage, endlessly grouping and regrouping, marrying, divorcing, marrying and divorcing. They're postponing marriage, but they're not postponing intimacy. And one said it's not grouping and regrouping, it's groping and regrouping. Which it really is because they're not willing to wait in the right way.

   We are to be different. We're set apart "that you should abstain from fornication. You should know how to possess your vessel." I don't think the ladies appreciate that being called that very much that we possess you as our vessel, but it's put that way in a right and proper way. How to take unto yourself a wife at the right time and in the right way and for the right reason. "And sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence as the other nations do, those who don't know God, that no person go beyond and defraud his brother." It is climbing over the back of your brother, you know, "I'm gonna get him while the getting is good," you know, "I'm not gonna let you take him. I'm gonna take him or I'm gonna take her. You can't have her."

   Well, it taught that we should wait for the right time and the right purpose. He said in verse 8, "he that despises or rejects, he doesn't despise man, but God." And it shows that what you reap, you're going to sow. And of course that's what happened to the individual in Exodus. He was in slavery. His marriage was slavery because he made a wrong turn. He made a wrong choice. He would not wait.

   You know, Samson said to his parents, "I saw this girl. I want her, get her for me now." They did. It didn't work. It wasn't love, it was lust.

   One of the things that Jacob did that was right. He did many things that were wrong. And you know his name itself means heel catcher, that is deceitful, sneaky, and that's one of the things that we Israelites have to work on all of our life, the deceitful aspect, the sneaky heel catching aspect, and we have to overcome and become like Israel, which means one who prevailed. But one of the things that he did even in his unconverted days that was right, you'll find in Genesis 27, beginning in verse 46. Concerning marriage.

   Genesis 27:46, a conversation between his father and mother. "Rebecca said to Isaac, 'I'm weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth.'" Now one of the most wonderful things you can do for your parents is to have a good marriage. That's a thing of honor, to have a wretched marriage, a divorce, and a remarriage. It's hard on your parents. "If Jacob takes the wife of the daughters of Heth such as these who are of the daughters of the land, what good is my life to me?" Just ruined her life.

   So you find in chapter 28, verse 1 (Genesis 28:1), "Isaac called to Jacob, blessed him and charged him," gave him some strong advice "and said, 'do not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan and go to Padan Aram to the house of Bethuel, your father's, your mother's father. And take a wife from there and God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be a multitude of people and give you the blessing of Abraham to you and to your children with you so that you may inherit the land.'"

   Marriage had somewhat to do with the proper selection and the goodness of the future and maybe to even inheriting the promises, who knows. Because sometimes a bad marriage can ruin your life so much that you're so discouraged, you don't even want to go on. And there are always reasons for it.

   So chapter 29 verse 1 (Genesis 29:1), you know the story, "Jacob went on his way. He came to Padan Aram and there were 3 flocks of sheep. They were watering the flocks. A great stone was on the well's mouth. When the flocks gathered, they rolled a stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep and put the stone again."

   Jacob said in modern parlance, "Where are you all from? Let's meet you." And they said "from Haran," you know, that's what we always say, "where are you from?" and you know such and such. He said, "do you know Laban?" They said, "Sure, we do." He said, "how is he?" "Fine." That's always the response. So some people they got to where they don't even wait for that, you say hello and they say, "fine." Cut out all the non-essentials.

   They said "he's well, well, look, here's Rachel, his daughter. She comes with the sheep." He said, "Well, there's still a lot of time in the day. How come they're doing this?" They said, "we can't water the flocks till they're all gathered. Then they rolled the stone away and then they water the sheep."

   Well, while they were talking, Rachel came. "And when Jacob saw Rachel, Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth." Now can't you envision that? I know he wasn't 16, but still he probably acted like a teenager. No doubt he had on a black t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up over the muscles. He may have even had a pack of cigarettes rolled up on the other sleeve, you know, that masculine. I'm sure he strained mightily so that the shoulder muscles stood out and the lats stood out under the t-shirt and he pushed and heaved and rolled that stone away and right in front of Rachel so she could see it. Very impressive.

   Verse 11, "Jacob kissed Rachel, lifted up his voice and wept." She really had an influence on him. She really did something. Now I read in Mr. Herbert Armstrong's Autobiography that when he met Loma Dillon, something happened to his heart too. She was one of these wonderful young ladies, I think if I remember the details correctly, her brothers had nicknamed her something like Cyclone. She was a bundle of energy, a lovely lady, quite a lady, and a feminine thing, and something happened to Mr. Armstrong's heart when he met her. Hadn't been that way. Something like that happened to me too, you know. I was known for this staid, dignified, middle of the road conservative approach. I kind of hit the ditch a few times.

   Well, "Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative," and she ran and told her father. "When Laban heard this, he ran to meet Jacob, embraced him, kissed him, brought him to the house, and then he told Laban everything. Laban said, 'Well, you're bone of my bones,' Stay around, you know, as they say, spend the night. He abode with him the space of a month, Laban said to Jacob. 'You're my brother. Shouldn't you serve me? Should you serve me for nothing? Tell me your wages and I'll pay it.'"

   Well, "Laban had two daughters, Leah, the elder, Rachel, the younger, and it says, speaking of the more outstanding qualities or characteristics, Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel, that was something else."

   Now I asked the Spokesman's Club, I think in New Orleans one time, maybe in Phoenix, I asked the Spokesman's Club, "if you had a choice. You can only have one but not the other. If you're going to marry a lady. Which would you prefer, a woman with a beautiful body and an ugly face? Or one with a beautiful face and an ugly body?" Now you can't have both. If she has a beautiful face, there's an ugly body. And if she has a beautiful body, she's an ugly face. And which would you choose? I won't tell you what they said, but I came home and told my wife Delie, and she said, "Well, what did they say?" Well, I think if you ask your husband, he'll tell you what they said.

   So Rachel was something else. She was well favored and you know all the modern terms that described that today. "Jacob loved Rachel. He said, 'I'll serve you 7 years if you'll give me Rachel, your daughter.'" In verse 20, "Jacob served 7 years, and they seemed like just a few days because he really did love her."

   How long are you willing to wait to be married? 1 year, 2 years, 5, 7. If you're a 21 year old who has no one on the hook or the string, are you a failure? Is life over? If you're a 30 year old and you're still not married, is life a failure? Of course not.

   I've always encouraged the teenagers in the areas I've pastored. Don't go chasing off here and there trying to find someone. Make yourself into something that attracts. The same. You want a decent husband, make yourself into a decent lady that would attract such. You want a decent wife, make yourself into a decent man that would attract such. You won't have to go chasing off somewhere and you just stand there and here they come. That's what I did, you know.

   I realized it was my decision. I had to make that choice. Maybe I didn't do it the right way, but we were told to counsel. I went in and counseled with Mr. Albert Portune and I asked him what he thought about marrying Delie Hands. Well, he wasn't against it, but he wasn't for it. So, like you do when you go to a doctor and he prescribes certain something and you don't maybe think it's necessary at that time, you ask for a second opinion. I said, "Do you mind if I counsel with someone else?" I didn't say I'm going to do it. I said, "Do you mind?" He said, "No, I don't." So I went to talk with Mr. Roderick Meredith. Well, he wasn't against it, but he wasn't totally for it either.

   After we were married, and I've already told you about the phone call, I asked Mr. John Hill one day in Arizona, we were tooling along in the car and I said, "well, do you think I made a wrong choice?" He said, "well, I used to, but I don't anymore."

   The fruits showed that I was willing to wait. I fasted 3 days to make sure I made the right choice, and afterward I found out my wife-to be had done the same thing. I knew I had to live with that woman the rest of my life. I didn't want it to be hell on earth. And I didn't want it to be hell on earth for her either. And we've had 22 1/2 years of wonderful marriage, and I count myself as one of the most blessed men on the face of the earth, and I honor God because of that, and I thank Mr. Armstrong for establishing Ambassador College because had he not done it, I wouldn't have attracted her. And for his teachings on the subject because I didn't know that until I came here.

   So it forced the man to face marriage in a proper way. And to decide whether to get married, when to get married, to whom to get married. It's a very, very serious subject. Those who disobey those principles quite often find themselves in slavery. Enslaved in marriage, which is pitiful because God intends that marriage be the arena for development of personality in a way that in some ways you cannot by yourself. The arena of the most wonderful blessings that God has ever offered.

   There is a 3rd thing to cover briefly that this forced the man to face, as I said, he had to choose whether freedom or his family. The third one was if or whether to have children. Which is important. You can’t decide whether to have children? That just happens, doesn't it? Well, you know, it's a very serious thing, and now in China, they are very seriously instructing the Chinese to have only one child. And there are penalties if they don't. Because it is such a serious matter in their country that they're going to populate themselves out of space.

   It said if he had children or they had children, then he had to decide whether or not to have his freedom or his children. Now, as I said, we've been here a week and a half and I'm ready to go home. I miss our sons. So you know, sometimes it's a relief to be away from them. That's obvious, the noise level is a little lower, the activity is a little less, but I miss them. I want to be with them. If I had to make that choice, I couldn't make it. But I thank God that I don't have to make that choice. He said if I made the right choices, I never would have to make that choice.

   In Proverbs 29:18, it said, this Proverbs 29. Verse 18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." The margin said is made naked, or that is reduced to embarrassing circumstances. No vision, no ability to look ahead and to see in advance what probably is going to happen if you make this choice.

   You know, in I Timothy 5:8, God said, "if a man cannot provide for his own, then he is worse than an infidel." Not just as bad as but worse than. So for us to have children and not be able to give them life is a crime. We are the first God they know. We form or warp their lives by what we do or even whether or not to bring them into this life.

   I'm the 8th of 9 children and they, my parents should not have had 9 children, but I'm glad they did because if they hadn't, I wouldn't be here. But I was born shortly after the Depression, and there wasn't really enough to go around, but that's the way it was. I'm thankful for my life, but I find deficiencies in life sometimes because my parents missed the mark because they didn't think it through that far.

   In Exodus 20:5, it says the children suffer for the sins of the parents. Now that doesn't mean that God hates children, but it means that children have to take the consequences of parental decisions, and I think we all know that whether the Bible said that or not, we know it's true. So it forced the parents to decide if or whether to have children.

   In Ezekiel 20:5, you'll find this that God said about his law. Which includes the one that we've been analyzing today. Ezekiel chapter 20. Verse 5 says "In the day when I chose Israel, the house of Jacob made myself known to them." Verse 7, "I said, cast away the abominations of your eyes. Don't defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I'm the Eternal, your God." Verse 10 says, "I caused them to go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes," that is, civil laws, and we've been analyzing one of those statutes or civil laws, the very first one God gave that would guarantee the nation to be stable, strong, prosperous. Stable in the family. "I showed them my judgments which if a man do, he shall even live in them" or paraphrased, if a man is willing to live by them, he will find true life. They tell you what life is all about.

   The more I live by God's laws, the more I come to understand what true life is all about. First, you think it's a religion. Then as you live by it, you realize it's true what Mr. Armstrong said. God's truth is a way of living. It isn't just a religion, it's a way of living. And so if you live by these laws, you find out what true life is all about.

   The law taught the common man. It taught him financial responsibility. It taught him an occupation under a successful manner, a career. It taught him principles about marriage, if or whether to marry, when to marry, to whom to marry. It taught him about planning a family, whether or not to have children. It taught him the principles of success. These laws ensured that teenagers or the common person will have a happy and a successful life if you will live by them.

   The motive or reason for the law is that it prevented the rich from demoralizing and depressing the poor. It didn't keep the rich from getting richer, but it prevented them from demoralizing and oppressing the poor. It stopped rampant debt from ruining the poor. It guaranteed continuity and stability in the family.

   Today's financial system is contrary to God's financial system. We can't do much about it, but we're told to come out of it. And we can learn from these laws, we can apply the principles today in our lives, and once we've learned it and become convinced of it, we learn to love God's law, then we'll be allowed to teach these principles in the world tomorrow.