2 December

Today's the day when in 1995 futures trader Nick Leeson was jailed for six-and-a-half years for his part in the collapse of Britain's oldest merchant bank. The 28-year-old admitted to a judge in Singapore two charges of fraud connected with the ruin of the 233 year-old Barings Bank's. Judge Richard Magnus said Leeson had "spun a web of deceit" and created "a superficial reality designed to beguile" both Barings and the Singapore futures exchange. If you didn't hear the story at the time you maybe saw it in the film Rogue Trader, with Ewan MacGregor playing the part of Nick Leeson.

Deceit is always a dangerous game with disaster never far away. Through Isaiah God gives us this warning:

This is what the Holy One of Israel says:

"Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,
this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found..."

If there's anything you are doing that is built on deceit, today's the day to stop building before it collapses on top of you.