Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds!
Micah 2:1
These people are intentionally pursuing the wrong path. Their plan is to make money by taking advantage of vulnerable people: ‘They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (2:2).
In farming communities, the land is everything. If you lose your land, you lose your means of income. That’s why the Old Testament law made special provisions for protecting the land.
If you had to sell your land, it was leased to the buyer, and after a period of time, it would be returned to you or your children. These “land laws” put the brakes on the process by which the rich become richer, while the poor become poorer. Unfortunately, these laws were ignored.
God is very interested in how you make your money. He is less interested in the amount of money you make than in how you make your money. And God is angered by the business schemes of those who make money by exploiting the weaknesses of other people.
In Micah’s day, businesspeople made loans, and then foreclosed on them, displacing people, and seizing their property at a fraction of its value. And this is still happening today. This same spirit has led to the multiplication of lawsuits, lotteries, and gambling in our culture.
If your only question is “How can I make money here?” you will soon find yourself in some scheme that takes advantage of vulnerable people.
How do you think God would evaluate your pursuit of money?
