Deliver Me From Greed

How grave a sin is greed. And yet the most damaging reality about greed is that no one actually sees the greed in themselves. It's always the other person who has that problem. With greed, it can be an inward desire for something that is not necessary or belongs to another. The object of our greed doesn't even have to be touched or in our possession. It's just a longing inside. Adultery requires some sort of action with another, murder as well, but greed can hide in the heart far more successfully than almost any other sin. Greed can be renamed. It can be ambition, we call him a go-getter (more appropriate), or she could even be very shrewd as a connoisseur. Greed is hard to see in me.

Thus Jesus warned in Luke 12 to a man who did NOT have the money his brother was keeping:

Luke 12:15 (ESV) “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Micah pulls no punches in his condemnation of greed in his generation. The wealthy landowners knew the more land they held, the more power they held over others. So they stole land from the middle class to accumulate more for themselves. 

Micah 2:1–2 (ESV) Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

Isaiah had the same word of "woe" to those who profited from seizing the property of others. 

Isaiah 5:8 (ESV) Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.

Land ownership is the Bible's oldest financial freedom. Adam and the woman were given land to tend and care for. The people of Israel were brought out of slavery to own land. By the way, the nation of Egypt took slaves by buying people's lands for food during the famine (See Genesis 47). Land provides the family with a sense of dignity, honor, and opportunity. They work the land and enjoy its increase. This is why socialism never works. Communal ownership of property robs individuals of their God-given responsibility. The lazy bask in the efforts of others, and poverty is the inevitable result. 

Micah says these landowners devised schemes to get a hold of other people's lands. My mind goes back to Ahab's desire for Naboth's vineyard and Jezebel's wicked schemes to have him killed so that the king might seize it for himself. 

God firmly warns them:

Micah 2:2–3 (ESV) They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. 3 Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.

The wealthy were taking up others' homes. In our country, corporations are seeking to do the same, and the inflationary response of the market has locked the next generation out of one of God's best gifts - real estate. 

What is the response of greed to truth? DON'T PREACH!

Micah 2:6 (ESV) “Do not preach”—thus they preach— “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.”

Later, God tells them what sort of preacher they would like:

Micah 2:11 (ESV) If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!

Wealth can have such a hold on people's hearts that they ask the preacher to stop preaching or change directions. Believe it or not, I had an email saying the same come to my inbox today. 

Greed is hard to see in a nation. Yet it was for the sin of greed in Israel that Micah prophesied that the very thing they coveted - more land - would be totally lost in their exile. 

YET amazingly, and as is often the case in Micah, the prophetic announcement of judgment is followed by the glorious message of grace and restoration. 

Micah 2:13 (ESV) He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the LORD at their head.

The Lord went through the gate and led his people out. Jesus, on the way to the cross, passed through the gate of Jerusalem and paved the way for our deliverance from a covetous heart. So now in Christ we can worship him in contentment and gratitude. For He will supply all our needs and bless us in every good thing.