Description
The Dangers of Greed
Join us in today’s meditation as we explore Isaiah 5:8, a verse that calls out the perils of greed… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Today’s meditation verse is fantastic and something that we really need to dwell on and take down deep. It’s Isaiah Chapter five, verse eight. Woe to those who join house to house, who add fields to field until there is no more room and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
This is a graphic portrayal, isn’t it, of the greedy, acquisitive person who just gets more and more and more until there’s no way to share anything with anyone and that person’s left alone. Everybody else has been driven away.
And in context, this is something Isaiah’s saying to Israel: don’t be doing that. God has created the year of Jubilee where property is returned to the original owners. God clearly believes in and mandates this fair treatment of one another, of avoiding using power against those who are weaker, and to avoid greed, which is always at the expense of someone else.
It did Israel no good, and it does us no good. Do we need bigger houses, more expensive cars, more clothes in our wardrobe, better food on our tables? Do we really need to get more and more? Because I’ve got terrible news for us if that’s the way we’re operating: at the end of this life, we’ll have none of this. We’ll lose it all as we go to the next life to face judgment.
So this isn’t necessarily a stark warning, but it’s something for us to think about, isn’t it? Is that true of me? Have I thought about the impact of what I’m doing on all those around me, including in relation to houses and land and belongings? Isaiah says, woe to you if that’s what you’re doing.
So, Lord God, I ask that you help us to be faithful stewards of what you’ve put in our hands. Recognising always that we are stewards, not owners. You give us things for safekeeping to see what we will do with what you have given to us. But ultimately the earth and everything in it is yours God. Amen.
