(Hosea 10:12) “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers His righteousness on you.”
On Saturday I was looking at another recent video of 60 Minutes concerning China’s growing expansionism into the South Pacific region just north of Australia. What prompted me to look at this was the fact that the premier of Victoria has decided to go ahead with the Belt and Road Imitative with China even though the Federal government has not sanctioned this agreement. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (一带一路) is an ambitious programme, the brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping, to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks along six corridors with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.
According to this recent report on 60 Minutes China’s heavy investment in the South Pacific Island nations just north of Australia includes well known nations such as Fiji and Vanuatu known for their tourist trade. It is very clear that China’s strategy is an economic one initially to get these smaller countries into so much debt that they cannot pay back the debt. To compensate for repayments to all intents and purposes it looks like China is willing to wave the debts if the nations owing them will allow China to build seaports, naval and military bases and other infrastructures in these Pacific Island nations.
Also the Australian Government have allowed China to heavily invest in Australia. China is Australia’s biggest investor. However, at present Chinese investment in Australia has fallen by almost 60 per cent as Beijing shifts its focus towards developing nations that have signed up for its Belt and Road Initiative, yet it has a back door still open in Australia with the proposed Belt and Road Imitative sanctioned and approved by the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has firmly told Premier Daniel Andrews to rip up his controversial Belt and Road deal with China, saying it is not in Australia’s national interests. Whether Daniel Andrews complies with this request remains to be seen. It would seem that the Victorian Premier possibly leans towards a socialist/communist ideology of government?
According to an ABC news report earlier in May this year regarding the Belt and Road Initiative it stated; “The non-legally-binding agreement allows Victorian infrastructure experts to get access to the hundreds of billions of dollars of projects slated for the Belt and Road. It also encourages Chinese infrastructure firms to establish a presence in Victoria and to bid for major infrastructure projects.”
In an interview with Sky News last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “the Belt and Road Initiative comes at a cost to those who sign on. “He also stated that “the Belt and Road agreement with the Andrews Government increased the Chinese communist regime’s ability to do “harm.” The highly controversial scheme has been panned by many Western democracies, including Australia, but Victoria has gone it alone on signing up to the infrastructure initiative.
Today of course in Australia there are many Chinese people living and working happily side by side with Australians and many Chinese are Australian citizens. Also in Australian universities and educational institutions there are Chinese and Australian students studying and living happily together. Having said this, the Chinese Communist Party is something else again. There is no doubt as to its intensions to become a global power and one of the nations more than likely in its long term sights in the South Pacific region is Australia.
Now in China faithful Christians are persecuted, maligned, marginalised and killed for their loyalty to the Lord Jesus before any loyalty to the Communist Party line which is controlled by the spirit of antichrist. If the Chinese Communists ever invaded Australia would they treat Australian Christians any different than they do in China? Things may well come to this in the future for Australia. Only the LORD Himself knows how things will turn out for Australia. Even in His foreknowledge He still holds out the cup of salvation and gives people the freedom to choose spiritual life life or spiritual death. Why? Because; “He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
One thing to be thankful for is that Prime Minister Scott Morrison is a believer in the Lord Jesus and it must be quite hard for him at times to maintain his faith and loyalty to the Lord Jesus as he seeks to work and wend his way through the maze of uncertain politics. His latest contention with Daniel Andrews is an attempt to stop more than necessary Chinese investments in Australia knowing full-well what the Chinese Communist party is up to these days in the South Pacific. Is Daniel Andrew’s willingness to do a deal with President Xi Jinping and the Communist Chinese regime an act that will ultimately impinge on an even destroy the rights and freedoms of Christians and the people of Australia? Does he really realise what a Chinese Communist Government would be like if ever it was established in Australia?
God wants to spiritually revive Australia as there has never been a national revival as we saw in England under John Wesley even though in the past there have been local revivals within Australia. While Australia is isolated as a nation and susceptible to a possible Chinese Communist invasion in the future, there is still time for Auatralians to turn back to the LORD and seek His protection and the salvation He offers in the person of our Lord Jesus. Even in times of persecution God has places of refuge and sanctuary for His people and it may well be that within His divine providence that Australia might possibly become one of these sanctuaries for His persecuted people from other countries if Australia turns back to Him as a nation.
As we see the Chinese Communist party flexing their military and economic muscles throughout the South Pacific region, it is time for the wider Body of the Messiah in Australia to turn back to the LORD with all of their hearts and to seek His face once again, not only for their own spiritual survival, but for the spiritual and economic survival of thje nation once called “the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit.”
Let’s keep praying for the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison that God will give him the wisdom and the ability he needs to govern the nation as God would have it governed. (1Timothy 2:1-3) May the Prime Minister always remember that “righteousness exults a nation but sin is a reproach to any nation!” (Proverbs 14:34) God is speaking today to His saved people in Australia but also to the unsaved as well that they might plough up the soil of their hearts in repentance and by faith in the Lord Jesus to save them and to receive the seed of God’s Word that can save their souls. (James 1:21) (1 Peter 1:23)
God can spiritually revive Australia but first He must spiritually revive those who belong to Him and call on His name that they might be His instruments in seeking and saving the lost. May the plea of Australian believers be that of the Psalmist who cried out to God; “Will you not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6) As the prophet Hosea writes; “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes and showers His righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:12)
May God give His people in Australia the grace to plough up the soil of their hearts to receive afresh the seed of His unchanging Word so that when the showers of the Spirit fall they may be the Lord’s instruments in proclaiming His righteousness. Through the Body of the Messiah He can change Australia for the better and preserve it from an implacable enemy now moving into the South Pacific.
